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Mild Mannered Reviews - Justice League Adventures

Justice League Adventures #27

Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 7, 2004

Cover date: March 2004

Writer: Josh Siegal
Penciller: Chris Jones
Inker: Dan Davis

"Just Us"

Michael (George) O'Connor Reviewed by: Michael O'Connor

Hawkgirl is stuck leading a lecture to a group of teenaged kids with developing super powers. The rest of the League is apparently fighting sun demons in a fire dimension, leaving Hawkgirl alone with the inquisitive kids until Green Lantern shows up.

Lantern has detected an energy signature nearby and apparently needs Hawkgirl's assistance in investigating it. However, his arrival prompts the overzealous kids to storm the stage with questions.

All of a sudden, time stops around GL, Hawkgirl, and some of the kids. One of the teens, Mr. Pandora, has constructed a box around them just in time to save them from the time-stopping phenomena that has crippled the rest of the world.

Deciding to bring the kids along with them, GL and Hawkgirl look into the disturbance, only to find that a group of aliens are stealing the minds of innocent civilians. The two Leaguers and the kids attack but are quickly thwarted by overwhelming forces. When the kids' ineptitude leads to GL's injury, Hawkgirl finds an apartment for them to hide out while they recover.

Hawkgirl goes off on a solo mission to learn what the aliens want, only to learn that these aliens are the idiots of their race, who have come to Earth to steal Earth minds in order to make them smarter. Even now, they're attacking the super-powered kids that had been frozen in the lecture auditorium.

Rushing off to the rescue, the two Leaguers and the kids set up a trap utilizing each of the kids' powers and then successfully capture the invaders in one of Mr. Pandora's boxes. Then, finding the weapon the aliens have used to stop time, they destroy it, bringing everything back to normal.

Story - 2: Another weak effort on the part of this month's writer. In fact, Siegal has managed to piece together the two most predominant (and agonizing) types of stories that run through this comic: the smarmy tale of youth looking up to the League and the invading aliens storyline which, as discussed in prior reviews, has been blatantly overused. Unfortunately, there is nothing particularly clever about this entire story and further, the character development is so one-dimensional that GL and Hawkgirl are interchangeable with any other members of the League. Siegal strikes out completely on the interaction between the two, especially given the way that their relationship has been developing over the course of the television season.

Art - 3: A mediocre effort. Some pages are nice and some are sloppy. The pages where time has frozen are probably the best. Most everything else is a mixed lot.

Cover Art - 1: Terrible cover. Not only are the characters rendered poorly, but the image is bland and typical. And where's Green Lantern? Looking at this cover made me dread the book's contents.