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Mild Mannered Reviews - DC Universe

DC Universe Online Legends #20

DC Universe Online Legends #20

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 28, 2011

Cover date: Late February 2012

"Turnabout"

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Howard Porter
Inker: Livesay

Jeffrey Taylor Reviewed by: Jeffrey Taylor

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The newly super powered Daily Planet staff, including Jimmy Olsen/Turtle Man, Perry White/Frost and Samuel Robertson/Bloodhound with a unique tracking ability, continue to track down Luthor, but are met with the entire team of baddies set up from last issue. The bad guys win and Luthor stops them from killing, but when Jimmy Olsen contacts the Justice League, a portal opens and someone offers to save them.

Luthor, Black Adam, Circe, Deathstroke and Giganta are all rescued by the future Batman and brought to Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Since the present day Batman needs to be stopped before he murders all of the aliens from Brainiac's bottles, this Batman needs their help to kill him. Otherwise, Brainiac will somehow have the power to destroy the entire Universe.

Luthor and the future Batman manage to abduct Robertson, a.k.a. Bloodhound to use his tracking ability to hunt down this timeline's Batman.

Meanwhile the League attempts to hunt the present day Batman, but fall into all of his traps. Perry White finally finds Luthor, but the future Batman dissuades him from taking Lex out. At the same time, present day Batman has reached the perimeter of the bubble encasing Brainiac's aliens, sets the poisoned gas inside, and prepares to release it.

To be continued...

2Story - 2: We still don't have a valid reason for these previously imprisoned aliens to fight on Brainiac's side, which is simply annoying and continues to tread all over the few positive moments of the plot.

The big upside is that we finally have some acknowledgement of the multiple timelines. I've been pointing out for at least 10 issues now that this story doesn't take place in the same universe as the one in which the game itself plays out. It seemed obvious to me, but several readers questioned my reasons in the comments. In the game, future Luthor went back in time, told Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman about the future as it would have played out, then released the powered exobytes to give abilities to the game character heroes. None of that has happened in this story's timeline.

Even though Superman still hasn't returned for several issues, we have some interesting interactions with Perry White and Jimmy Olsen. On the positive side, I love the moment when Perry tells Jimmy to stop calling him be his hero name - Frost, because it makes him "sound like a damn snowman." It would have been interesting if his hero name was "Chief." But then we end up with a wishy washy Perry. Here's a man who always stands his ground and holds true to his convictions, but then he makes a statement about how he's against capital punishment and tries to justify executing Luthor once they have him. I don't care which side of the aisle Perry's on. I'm just saying that he never plays both sides in that way.

Finally, I'm still not sold on Batman's need to commit what is essentially genocide several times over, especially when there's still hope that these released aliens could turn around and help Earth against Brainiac. The initial reason for the aliens fighting against the humans is already weak, but simple communication should be Batman's first priority, and killing the last, if ever at all.

2Art - 2: Same problems as I've had with this art team from two issues ago in the rotating roster. My biggest problem is going to continue to be the character faces. However there are some decently intricate backgrounds on certain pages. It's just too bad that the foregrounds are unimpressive and sometimes hideous.

3Cover Art - 3: I like this cover for what it is. The two Batmen are matched well in appearance and the older one on the left looks pretty epic. I have the same problem with the look of Wonder Woman's face in the background as I do with most of the faces in the interior art, so no surprises there. Cyborg looks great though. This scene doesn't actually happen in the issue, but I'm guess it will next time out.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2012

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

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