“The Second Coming: The Blood-Dimmed Tide”

Plot: Amazo keeps trying to take Reddy’s body. And get revenge on Vixen for stopping him last time. Zatanna doesn’t like his attitude. Neither does Dinah. Batman seems like he doesn’t care at all, but c’mon, you know Batman. He’s just waiting to deliver the killing blow. Or die trying.

Comments: Things are still a bit out of control on this title. Three inkers, and a guest penciller, for a major story denouement? A cover (however beautiful, by Ed Benes) that seems completely unrelated to the story inside? This is the flagship team title, folks. Time to get it in gear by year two, no? JSA is far more consistent, and it’s not because Geoff Johns is a better writer than McDuffie. It’s a question of focus, and this title got slippery on the quality control some months ago.

That said, Allan Goldman does a creditable job filling in, doing a pretty good version of the Benes-Turner-DC house style super team shenanigans. His newfangled gel-errific Amazo is very creepy, and it is a JLA-size story when the whole team takes him on in the Hall of Justice, doing collateral damage all around, and pushing their powers and brains to the limit to stop their foe.

The coordination and concern between members is a beauty to behold. For those who read the last The Boys issue (where a similar team acted like cretins in a crisis), this is your antidote. It’s great fun to see everyone let loose, and McDuffie is a master of coordinating multiple characters in a fight story (which is most of the issue). Everyone gets a chance to shine and the references to popular movies and past stories regarding their powers only adds to the excitement. They seem like teammates who know and care about each other.

But let’s face it, most of what McDuffie is doing here is cleaning up Meltzer’s mess, still. The Amazo battle feels like a retread, because we did it so recently. But the first one was less satisfying, so this one feels like, oh, the way The Search for Spock "fixed” all that went wrong in The Wrath of Khan.

On that tip, the other thing to fix is Mari’s powers, and that’s where the cover comes in at last. There’s a sinister presence manipulating the animal-based power set, and on the cover he looks a lot like Marvel’s Shadow King. Apparently he’s more spidery than that, as we’ll find out next issue. Fall-out from 52 and a large cast beating the odds, that’s what we want from JLA. Get a regular penciller and keep a stable crew for a while, will ya? Now that it’s going good, don’t screw it up!

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