With the news of an Injustice sequel recently coming out one has to wonder if it will carry the stories in the digital comics forward. If they do, that makes the printed edition all the more valuable. We check in on the 12th issue of the series to ask the question, is it good?
Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Five #12 (DC Comics)
So what’s it about? The official DC synopsis reads:
Batman has opposed Superman’s Regime since the beginning, while Damian (now Nightwing) threw his support behind the Man of Steel. Father and son, on opposite sides. So what act perpetrated by Victor Zsasz could be so heinous as to make these two join forces again to track him down? Don’t miss the shocking answer.
Why does this book matter?
Superman’s the villain, the Justice League kind of fear him, and Batman is out to stop the god-villain from enacting a military world. Sounds like an elseworlds tale worth diving into, especially with Batman vs. the entire Justice League.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
Um, guys this isn’t a very healthy behavior to be supporting.
Well this issue has a major surprise for readers! Writer Brian Buccellato opens this issue reminding us Superman isn’t the nicest of heroes. He wants order and control and he’s willing to do it by whatever means necessary. We then cut to Batman attempting to guess Alfred’s birthday by throwing him a party (apparently he does this every year on a different day attempting to guess his birthday). It’s a sweet moment that perfectly sets up what’s to come. Avoiding spoilers here, but something very terrible happens to a Batman character and it puts him into rage mode. It’s a smart plan–and a totally devious one at that–and it plays out in violent fashion.
Aside from this shocker of a moment and Batman’s subsequent reaction, Buccellato checks in on Batman-centric characters and the Justice League. Both do well to express how not everyone is digging this Superman-run world. There’s a clear shift going on and Superman may not be ready for it.
The art by Marco Santucci is good even if it was originally drawn to fill a tablet screen. They do well to make the pages look as if they were drawn to fit together, but if you’re looking for it, it’s pretty obvious each page is split horizontally between top and bottom. This slows the story down a bit since there’s only so much you can do on half a page. Santucci’s strength is the costumes of the characters. They have nice textures and a thickness that makes them look they would exist in the real world. Spandex is not a part of this universe!
It can’t be perfect can it?
Maybe I’m crazy but the first page seems to have a talk bubble going off the page when it should be going up to Superman. If I’m right that’s a pretty big mistake.
The script and story are competent, but the pace is quite slow given the half page format it was originally created for, which doesn’t help the already slow plot of this issue. Much of this issue could be broken down into four scenes, two of which are cutting away to events to check in more than anything. Not a lot happens and it seems to draw out two sequences longer than they need to be.
Happy birthday ya big lug!
Is It Good?
A major shocking moment occurs that may just rejigger the entire universe. That said, you’ll finish this book wanting more.
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