What Happened: This issue opens with Congorilla and the blue Starman asking Animal Man, Donna Troy and Starfire for aid against Prometheus. From there we head up to the JLA satellite where Hal, Ollie and their band of JLAers ask Dinah and her JLAers for help in dealing with Prometheus, which leads to Ollie and Dinah getting into a heated argument. Captain Marvel, Hal and Hawkman quell the argument, and the team begins to discuss what Prometheus was up to. While they're talking, Batwoman contacts the team and tells them about a confrontation she had with a villain named Endless Winter. After defeating EW, Batwoman pressed her for information as to what she was doing in Gotham. EW begins to rat out Prometheus, and winds up suddenly dying as a result. The team decides to send somebody to Gotham to retrieve the body so Atom can examine the body, and the scene shifts to Keystone City, where Jay Garrick is meeting with his one time rogue, the awesome Shade. Shade warns Jay that after talking to several villains, he has discovered that Prometheus is up to something extremely bad. Jay decides that the JLA should hear about this, and so he decides to take the Shade up to the JLA satellite. After examining EW, Atom discovers she had an implant in her head that would explode if she failed/disobeyed her mission, which explains why she suddenly died. Before the heroes can discuss that matter, Guardian arrives from Metropolis along with a strange device that he nabbed from the Plunderer. The JLAers study the device and send its specifications out to various geniuses around the DCU. The geniuses tell the JLAers that the device is a massive teleporter, and that it could be used to teleport an entire city anywhere in time or space. While the heroes are talking to the geniuses, Supergirl notices that Captain Marvel is missing, so she goes off to see where he got off to. Red Arrow also leaves the room, explaining that he has to call his daughter to wish her a good night. The JLAers decide they should split into groups and try to hunt down the villains Prometheus has employed. Before the JLA members leave, they are met by the recently arrived Animal Man, Donna Troy, Starfire, Starman and Congorilla, who explain that they are also after Prometheus. Congorilla immediately picks up a hostile scent, and rushes out of the room. He bumps into Supergirl in the hallway and the two spot a trail of blood. Upon following it, they come across Red Arrow, who is missing an arm and has half his face seemingly burnt off(Grrrr......). Congorilla tells Supergirl to cauterize Roy's arm with her heat vision before telling SG that they should go after whoever did that to Roy. Moments later Congorilla is hit by something, and his scream alerts the rest of the JLA, who rush over and discover Roy's bloody body laying in the hallway. Ollie freaks out, but he is eventually convinced that he should calm down so he can get whoever did that to Roy. This issue ends with Captain Marvel and Supergirl brawling in one of the rooms on the satellite while the bloody bodies of the Flash and Congorilla lay at their feet.
What I Thought: I've got to admit that this issue left me with one overriding feeling, that of pure, unadulterated rage! Suffice to say, if I were living in the DCU right now I'd most definitely be a Red Lantern after finishing this issue. To say that I'm pissed off about what happened to Roy, one of my favorite DC characters, is the understatement of the decade! I was actually enjoying this comic up until the scene with Roy, but after that, there was nothing good I could take out of this comic... Nothing. Damn, I'm still so pissed off that it's hard for me to even decide what I want to type here. I like James Robinson's writing alot, but this issue really angered me. I'll stick with this mini through its conclusion, mainly because of how much I like the rest of James' work, but I'm telling you, this comic left a very, VERY bad taste in my mouth...
Score: 4 out of 10.
Why did this happen to Roy?!? Why couldn't it have happened to... Well, anybody else in this damn scene!
Man I feel bad for Roy. We Just discussed him, and how's he gonna be a one armed ladies man? He's already Manky in bed! Man...I'm so disappointed.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you just used the word manky in a sentence totally made my night!
ReplyDeleteWell, on the plus side things can only get better for Roy from here... Right? Right!?!
I couldn't let the word Manky slide by when I had the perfect opportunity to use it.
ReplyDeleteWell actually things are gonna be all LEFT for Roy!! Har har har! Thats my bad joke for the night. But yeah atleast this has to mean more face time for Roy.
Heh heh, "manky"...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah, I guess at least Roy will be doing something, but I still don't get why the powers that be in the DCU decided that Roy needed to get(ANOTHER)revamp. It wasn't all that long ago he went from Arsenal to Red Arrow. I liked Roy as Red Arrow, it made the most sense character wise. Oh well, I guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Why oh why couldn't that have happened to Connor Hawke, someone I didn't care about. But if it keeps Roy from falling into limbo like Wally I guess it helps. Just hope he doesn't go all Jason Todd and become a pissed off villain.
ReplyDeleteTime for Roy to get a cybernetic gun grafted to his arm. Or a cybernetic bow, to fight his character even more.
ReplyDeleteOf course if they give him a hook hand, he grows a beard, and starts living in Atlantis, there is more of a chance I will buy whatever he appears in....DC, are you listening?
Please, no cybernetic gun arm! You know though, if Roy did start living in Atlantis I'd have to pick up that comic out of morbid curiousity. THAT would be an tough to explain!
ReplyDeleteWould that automatically make Lian destined to become the little mermaid?
ReplyDeleteSigh... Sadly I guess it would... Poor Roy...
ReplyDeleteSo do you defend James Robinson for making Roy Armless since you loved Starman or are you disappointed?
ReplyDeleteHmm, good question. I'm willing to give James some leeway on the whole Roy/arm thing because of his Starman work, BUT, that doesn't mean I like what happened.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, if this mini was written by a writer who I respected less, I probably would have dropped this mini after this issue and just read the spoilers/other reviews. Since I do like most of James' work though, I'll keep reading even though I'm pretty pissed.
Hm...you were honest so I definitely respect that. I'd probably do the same thing if it was someone who I liked, Like Kevin Smith. But man that's gotta suck to be known as the writer who took away Roy's Arm, but also known as the guy who wrote the amazing Starman series.
ReplyDeleteWell, fingers crossed, maybe this will all lead to good things for Roy down the road. I mean, at least he's going to get a mini out of this... That's something... I guess...
ReplyDeleteYeah, at least we have that too look forward to. A nice GA and Roy year hopefully, a Kid Flash series, the end of Blackest Night and the eventual return of Bruce Wayne, things are looking good for 2010.
ReplyDeleteHey, you know, when you put it that way, things are looking pretty good in the DCU, especially that new Kid Flash series!
ReplyDeleteMan I can't wait for the Kid Flash series, thats probably what I'm looking forward to the most besides the return of Bruce, this is my first time following a Bart Allen series thanks to you good sir.
ReplyDeleteHa, if you think YOU can't wait for that Kid Flash series, imagine how I feel! I'm actually looking forward to that series more then Bruce's return!
ReplyDeleteYeah Bart is friggin awesome, So when's your next Comic Book order? I have some things I need to discuss after ya read em lol.
ReplyDeleteOh man, my next CB order is prob like 2 weeks off at least! It sounds like I'm missing out on something pretty awesome...
ReplyDeleteYou'll find out soon enough my friend but yeah, eagerly awaiting that conversation. Bwahahaha
ReplyDeleteOoo the suspense is killing me!
ReplyDelete