Justice League Unlimited #3
Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 22, 2025
Cover date: March 2025
“Justice League Unlimited”
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Cover: Simone Di Meo, Nathan Szerdy, and Riccardo Federici
1:25 Variant Cover: Tyler Kirkham & Arif Prianto
1:50 Variant Cover: Derek Kirk Kim
Raised UV Foil Variant Cover: Guillem March
Reviewed by: JP Rocha
Our story starts with The Question, who is searching for someone. She finds Air Wave hiding in the walls of the Watchtower. Renee believes that Air Wave has no family to go home to as one of The Lost Children, unlike most of the forgotten sidekicks.
Red Tornado informs Elongated Man and Mr. Terrific that the perimeter of the Amazon is on fire, putting the entirety of the rainforest in danger. Red Tornado responds by deploying Superman, Star Sapphire, Wonder Woman, Flash, The Captain, Stargirl, and S.T.R.I.P.E with communication support from Air Wave.
Upon arrival, Superman quickly finds hundreds of pillars as the source of the fires. He finds out even quicker that the source of the pillar’s powers is magical. In response, Red Tornado deploys Zatanna, Xanthe Zhou, and Dr. Occult. He also deploys three of the higher-temperature burning Metal Men: Gold, Iron, and Platinum.
The team finds the source of the pillar is Inferno, the “super terrorist organization” from the first issue. Zatanna uses her magic to compel the pillars to show themselves and reveal their masters. A cloaked figure appears, claiming they are “Agents of Vengeance,” they seek domination of Earth and want the JSU to witness this “Doom”.
Cutting to Gateway City, the Atoms, Ray Palmer and Ryan Cho, along with Plastic Man, are searching for Phantom Girl. Plastic Man and Phantom Girl are another couple that have had their powers switched due to Absolute Power. The Atoms will try to use their “gizmo” to reverse them. After successfully returning their powers, the Atoms invite Plastic Man to help them with the Atom Project, a more significant and permanent attempt to restore everyone’s powers.
Switching back to the Amazon Rain Forest, the cloaked figure refuses to answer, “Vengeance for what?” Still having many questions, Dr. Occult follows the closing magical portal. Mr. Terrific is angry that Dr. Occult would be so reckless, but they still have the fires to deal with. He then remembers the Green and its guardian. Mr. Terrific deploys Air Wave to take Aquaman to the current guardian of the Green, the Swamp Thing (Levi Kamei). (Side note: the editor’s note states that Waid’s next World’s Finest arc will be with Aquaman and Swamp Thing (Alec Holland)).
Air Wave and Aquaman arrive just in time to witness Swamp Thing burst into flames.
Story – 4: Another good issue. Justice League Unlimited is cementing itself as THE flagship book for DC. The book uses many storylines to really build out the universe while also utilizing many DC characters in each issue. Mark Waid truly is a master of the DC universe. There is no better writer for this book.
While this issue has an unresolved plot, the main story is building the Inferno threat. There are four plots. Plot “A,” which is left unresolved. Plot “A.1” leaves us on a cliffhanger. Plot “B” is the ongoing story with Air Wave. Plot “C” is the ongoing plot that leads into the three-issue mini-series, “The Atom Project”. The “D” plot picks up from the last issue, letting us know that Batman is searching for Martian Manhunter since he ran out on the team in the last issue.
Art – 5: Almost every panel in this book could be used for an art print, but that is not at the sacrifice of storytelling. Dan Mora is a master panel-to-panel storyteller. Mora also has a great handle on facial expression. A great example is four consecutive panels at the beginning of this issue showing a range of emotions from Air Wave, surprise, fear, sadness, and embarrassment, as The Question caught him hiding in the walls of the satellite.Cover Art – 4: Dan Mora’s cover features Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Swamp Thing, the Atoms Ray Palmer and Ryan Cho, and Plastic Man with the Atom’s “Gizmo” behind him. In the background, the Earth is half on fire, half normal. Dan Mora’s covers generally feature great art but are more character-feature layouts lacking dynamics. This is one of the simpler layouts.
There are variant covers by Simone Di Meo, Nathan Szerdy, and Riccardo Federici. The Simone Di Meo cover is great if you like his style. If you like hyper realistic, then you will want the Riccardo Federici variant. The best of the three is the Nathan Szerdy variant that features Wonder Woman, Star Sapphire, and The Question.
There are two Incentive Covers by Tyler Kirkham (1:25) and Derek Kirk Kim (1:50). The Kirkham variant, while good, seems wonky as the perspective on Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash seems off. The Kim cover is very cartoony but may still attract some fans.
The physical Raised UV Foil Variant by Guillem March is going to look so cool in person. It features a leaping Batman with Swamp Thing in flames behind him.
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