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Mild Mannered Reviews - Justice League Adventures

Justice League Adventures #11

Scheduled to arrive in stores: September 4, 2002

Cover date: November 2002

Writer: Dan Slott
Penciller: Min S. Ku
Inker: Dan Davis

"The Moment"

Reviewed by: George O'Connor (mo442@nyu.edu)

First, a quick disclaimer: Time-traveling stories never fail to completely and utterly confuse me. That having been said, I'll try my best to summarize the events of this story as accurately as possible. I apologize in advance for any errors made and any confusion on the part of the readers upon perusing this synopsis.

In a jail cell, David Clinton, AKA supervillain Chronos, awaits his hearing for early release from the penitentiary. Superman, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl escort him to the hearing, where he is soon met by an older version of himself with proof that David Clinton will never break the law again due to a terrible fire tragedy that claimed the life of his brother a year ago (assumedly right after his capture by the Justice League in issue #6). His proof? A recorded image of an older Superman affirming Clinton's future. When the now-Superman hears the future-Superman speak Kryptonian and a secret that only Kal-El could know, the Man of Steel and the rest of the League accept the proof.

Editor's Note: The Kryptonian message from the future Superman translates to "You are the son of Jor-El" (with a slight typo)...

Elsewhere, in the 64th century, the Flash wraps up the villain Abra Kadabra for the authorities and, with his friend, the Atom, begin a return to the 21st century on a homemade time machine (complete with flux capacitor). On the way, however, a "quantum disruption" throws the two heroes off balance. All around them, the universe begins to shatter, due to some unforeseen anomaly that is tearing Time apart. That unforeseen anomaly reveals itself, however, a moment later when the duo spot the two Chronoses dashing ahead of them. Before they know it, they crash into the Chronoses, sending them all to a grave site in the present day. The gravesite clues in the Atom on what the Chronoses are up to. He soon realizes that the two David Clintons are taking a quick break to view their brother's grave before going back in time in an attempt to save their brother from dying.

Understanding the consequences of such an action, the Atom grabs the Flash and flees after the two Chronoses as they disappear again into the time stream. The Flash and Atom watch their former selves crashing into the Chronoses and then race past them, following hundreds of Chronoses that have suddenly appeared.

(What Chronos is doing is sending himself back into Time multiple times until he can save his brother. Each try so far has still resulted in his brother's death.) The Flash, barely aware of what's going on (he's not alone), follows the Atom's lead when Palmer tells him that Chronos will unwittingly destroy the universe if he keeps trying to save his brother (as shown by the future that he and the Flash just escaped from). Apparently, if you keep visiting the same moment enough times, you begin to deteriorate that moment in time, to the point that eventually, everything freezes.

So, anyway, Chronos keeps failing at saving his brother and that's when Flash and Atom show up, attacking the multiple Chronoses in the attempt to stop Clinton from going back into time again. The Flash realizes that people are in danger (in the fire) and tries to go help, but the Atom stops him, claiming that what has happened has already happened and there's nothing that can or should be done about it.

Despite nagging feelings, The Flash follows Atom's lead and attacks the original Chronos, but before he can get to him, time begins to stop. Quickly, Flash heads over to his time machine, where he speeds into the past before Time can swallow him whole. Then, grabbing an earlier version of Clinton's brother (years before the fire), the Flash and Atom return to just prior to all of Time stopping.

Clinton's brother is able to convince Clinton to stop trying to save him. Eventually, Clinton relents, promising that he won't ever turn out like his future self. Having said so, his future self disappears, and thus, none of this ever happened. All that remains is for Flash and Atom to return Clinton's brother to his time and return to the moment before he would have originally had his hearing.

Now that his older self isn't there to get him out of jail, the Flash and Atom bring him hope in the form of his daughter from the future, who assures Clinton that Time, as confusing and damning as it has been throughout this entire story, heals all wounds.

Story - 4: Phew! I feel like I just finished a Physics paper! Regardless, though, the story is a good one and very clever to boot. As far as I can tell, there aren't any outstanding incongruities or giant plot holes that usually accompany any time traveling story. Don't (for instance) get me started on the finale to Superman: The Movie. Slott manages to keep everything making some sort of sense and not delving so deep into the time traveling lore as to completely lose his readers. It will take a more careful read than would normally be necessary for a Justice League Adventures issue, but that's okay, because in the end, it's a rewarding effort.

Art - 5: Min S. Ku explodes in these pages with the best and coolest art I've seen from him yet. His progression and evolution as an artist and storyteller has been a pretty quick one and, along with some very nice inks by Dan Davis, he keeps the story visually interesting and helps to keep all the facts and going-ons straight.

Cover Art - 5: My only complaint? The American flag is barely discernable; (of course, the Justice League isn't the Justice League OF AMERICA anymore, is it? And even the JLA in the regular continuity isn't really all-American: I mean, their headquarters are in space and most of the members are aliens from other planets - and they save the world, not just America.) Anyway, that's way off track, but this cover is right on target. Very cool.

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