Burn. Burn away.
Buccellato closes the penultimate chapter of Year Three with
an interesting temporary status quo and mostly succeeds with some good
character moments and action.
Not to forget, Redondo and Millar are back full-time on this
title and gives us some of the best artwork in recent times.
SPOILERS FOLLOW…………
Dick takes over Poison Ivy’s body and brings her to the
battle as a counter for Swamp Thing. Then he takes over Shazam (yes, poor Billy
gets taken over a second time by Deadman) and manages to save Bruce from
Diana’s grasp.
I’m not sure as to how Dick manages to overwhelm Billy given
his more experienced predecessor was quickly taken out thanks to Billy’s unique
situation, so that’s a confusing situation.
In Billy’s body, Dick apologizes for all the quarrels
they’ve had and that Bruce should be proud of him and by extension, try to
forgive and bring back Damian.
Huntress and Batwoman attempt to attack a weakened Superman
but Wonder Woman’s intervention leads to a fatal scenario where Helena’s neck gets
snapped through Diana’s misjudgement using her lasso.
Trigon’s enraged mood light the area on fire, leading to
everyone setting up a temporary truce. Hal manages to reach the House of
Mystery but the battle going on outside affects all of them. Both Hal and
Sinestro are cut off from their power sources, Superman weakens and the human
heroes are getting displaced from reality.
John decides to release the only person capable of bringing
the heroes on the outside into the protective auras of the Houses. But he’s too
late to save one – Swamp Thing, who is displaced to Hell.
The Resistance remains in the House of Mystery while the
Superman Army is in the House of Secrets as reality gets torn apart on the
outside.
Helena’s
death came a little abruptly but I thought it was treated well with Kate’s rage
induced attack on Diana. Now, even Diana has innocent blood on her hands – and
although as a warrior she’s had her kill count, we can got back to Klarion’s
death at Sinestro’s hands to see she still has a moral compass.
Onto Swamp Thing. I felt the short-lived battle with Pamela
Isley aka Poison Ivy was half-baked at best and filler at worst. Though the
Hell-Heaven thing brings me to where all the souls lost in previous Years are
(Green Arrow, Captain Atom, Joker…..). Really creates a problem if you think
about status quo, but I don’t think we’ll have any issues here.
The Dick Grayson thing was a farewell scene in the making
since he came back as Deadman, but now he’s starting to feel extraneous to the
story.
This join-together-to-battle-the-big-bad was something I
wasn’t expecting. This story is still trying it’s best to keep Superman and his
team as misunderstood anti-heroes rather than all-out villains and I think it’s
succeeding.
SPOILERS END……………….
Despite being the penultimate chapter of Year Three, this
issue feels anything but. There is a slower tempo here that shouldn’t be the
pace of a title with one issue left.
There are great moments though, but most fail to excite as
much as they could have.
The artwork though is stellar.
So, I give it 6.5 out of 10.
+The artwork is fantastic
+Some heartfelt moments
-One particular character’s entry feels extraneous
-A lackluster tempo that goes against this issue’s
importance
-The ending doesn’t have the required impact
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