Saturday, April 18, 2009

Justice Society of America #25

Here's the review, once again in bullet point format(if anybody wants, drop me a comment and let me know if you prefer the bullet point format or my other more wordy reviews).

-Mary Marvel forces Billy Batson to take some of Black Adam's power, which winds up corrupting Billy, as it did to Mary.

-Black Adam and Isis continue to battle the JSA, this time in Kahndaq, Black Adam's country.

-Jay Garrick and Billy's dead father, Mr. Batson, wind up reaching the Rock of Finality and find a statue of the wizard Shazam.

-Isis begins to go crazy and kills a bunch of citizens of Kahndaq, stating that they didn't deserve to live, before turning her attention to Atom Smasher. Adam tries to stop her, but she refuses to halt her attacks.

-After the other JSA members put some distance between Black Adam and the other members of the Black Adam family, Atom Smasher shows Adam that his power was corrupting the people it touched, citing Billy, Mary and even Isis as examples.

-Adam realizes Atom Smasher was right and gives his power over to the statue of the wizard Shazam, which was brought to him by Jay and Mr. Batson. Adam's power brings the wizard back to life and he takes Adam's power from Isis, Billy and Mary, leaving them powerless. Then as punishment, Shazam turns Adam and Isis into statues so Adam wouldn't be able to enjoy a happy ending. Ouch, harsh...

-Shazam also decides that Billy was no longer worthy of his powers and leaves Billy powerless. The issue ends with a new(?)Black Adam appearing near the statues of Adam and Isis.

What to say... I really didn't enjoy this issue very much. I'm shocked as well! This entire Black Adam storyline just isn't doing anything for me. I was expecting a little bit better from Geoff Johns as he nears the end of his spectacular run as writer of this comic book series. For me, this whole storyline has been a tremendous letdown, especially in light of how great the Gog storyline was. It's weird, because this storyline should have been one of my all-time favorites... It had the JSA, Black Adam, and it was written by Geoff Johns... What went wrong?

Also, I get that Geoff was trying to show that Billy and Mary were just kids, but their dialogue was more annoying than childish. Plus, I really do I hate Mary Marvel! I can't stand her or her whining! I think I read somewhere that Geoff will be writing a new "Captain Marvel/Shazam" series down the road, but if it is anything like this comic was, I wouldn't be interested in reading it. For a score, I'll give this comic a 6 out of 10. I think there are only 2 more Geoff John's written issues of this series left before he departs, and I for one hope Geoff manages to bring back that old magic he had with this series one last time before he goes.

2 comments:

  1. Actually I think Gerry Ordway will be doing the Captain Marvel series... And since Power of Shazam was great I imagine this one should turn out well...

    (But you know that Billy had to be depowered and free of that 'Billy is the Wizard now' nonsense started by Winnick.

    Plus stoning Black Adam and Isis may be John's way of preserving the characters for his use later on...

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  2. You could be right about Gerry Ordway, I'm pretty bad at remembering who is supposed to be writing which comic book. I usually know who is writing what by looking at the name on the front cover.

    Yeah and looking back, I think you probably hit the nail right on the head concerning Black Adam and Isis. Geoff probably has something set up down the road with those two, maybe as soon as the next issue.

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