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Mild Mannered Reviews - "Injustice: Gods Among Us" Comics

Injustice: Year Two - Chapter #9

Released Digitally: May 13, 2014

"Road to War"

Writer: Tom Taylor
Penciller: Bruno Redondo
Inker: Julian Hugonnard-Bert
Cover: Jheremy Raapack

Reviewed by: T.A. Ewart (aka liheibao)

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Hal Jordan has been incarcerated on Oa for refusing to go along with the Guardians of the Universe's directives against Regime Superman. However, he's liberated by John Stewart, and the two head off to Earth to see what can be done. Regime Superman pulls Billy Batson from his high school class, as he needs his help with the battle to come. Billy transforms, and goes with Regime to see the incoming Green Lanterns descending on Earth. Killowog asks for Regime Superman to stand down, but Regime has planned ahead, and contacts Cyborg to assault the Green Lanterns from the Watchtower, unleashing an energy blast that smothers the Lanterns and cracks the Earth.

Story - 2: A battle between Regime Superman and the Green Lantern corps should be a thing that stokes all sorts of anticipation. In truth, Regime could handle most if not all of them alone, and with little problem. His speed and strength, added with his willingness to kill and get the job done, makes Regime very formidable and far from an underdog. So why is this pending match-up so unpalatable? It's foolish and unnecessary from start to finish. The Guardians of the Universe have deemed Regime Superman so much of a threat, that they're going to get the Lanterns involved, where they have ignored so much else that's transpired? There is a planet filled with undead creatures and the Guardians care not. Krypton could explode and the Guardians care not. Regime Superman comes in to play and now they have a fire under their collective bottoms? It's no surprise that Injustice will feature match-ups and send-ups like this, it's just that they are performed so very, very poorly.

For instance, the Guardians are powerful enough to transport Superman to Oa with no resistance, yet they send the Lanterns instead. Why? So we can have a dust-up donnybrook, but here's the thing: you can have a dust-up donnybrook and still have it make sense. Change the story and you have something that is much more plausible and just as entertaining, which this installment wasn't. There are two simple ways to do this:

1)�Since the Guardians are clairvoyant, they could easily see a future where Regime Superman takes over not just the Earth, but replaces them as the protectors of the universe. Under Regime Superman's eternal rule, the Lanterns are a stormtrooper squad that protect the people and the people like it - or else. Devote four issues to that problematic future and the Guardians have an impetus to take him down and it's believable. Throw in that the Guardians need to keep their distance, as the future has shown that Regime Superman need only defeat one of them to be successful, and you have a rationale for sending the corp instead of having the Guardians do what would be simple and easy. That's one way to do it.

2) Regime Superman kills a Green Lantern (Kyle, John, Guy) and takes the ring. This throws the Guardians into a tizzy, as Regime was powerful enough, but now shows he has the power to assert his will over a ring. The consequences of allowing him to go unchecked would be nothing less than catastrophic, and the Guardians want the ring back. They also want Regime punished for killing one of the corps and perverting the purpose of the ring.

Neither is a perfect scenario, but either would allow some breadth and depth to the upcoming brawl, a brawl that is happening because everyone in this series is so uncompromisingly daft, dense, and dumb. Fortunately, the story should be all about fighting and releasing Sinestro for the next couple of issues, and lost in that action there might just be some entertainment value that has escaped the book for the last two months. The premise of the book has failed, an examination of what would take place if Superman became a despot, so the fights need to be top to allow readers some enjoyment aside of a probing tale.

The last few issues have been slow and plodding. I'm positive that Taylor has a gem just waiting to read, and here's to hoping that it comes down the pike as soon as possible.

In other news, if you're a fan of Injustice for the iOS, they've just set-up 2.0 and multiplayer is available.

Art - 3: Another serviceable issue.