Justice Society of America #22 (DC – Johns / Ross / Eaglesham / Massengill)
Concluding the sequel to KINGDOM COME and featuring several pages of painted interiors by Alex Ross! The Justice Society have had their greatest wishes granted, but at what deadly price? As war breaks out among the Justice Society, the cost of Gog’s watchful eye comes to light. But removing Gog from Earth will cost more than they could ever imagine. This finale will leave the Justice Society torn apart…and see a new team rise out of the ashes!
While Geoff Johns is an excellent story-teller and it’s always a pleasure to see Alex Ross interiors (you know, not just on the cover to sell books), the conclusion of the Gog arc was a long time coming, and possibly a few issues too long.
Not only did it take too long for roughly half of the JSA to figure out that Gog was nothing more than a uber-powered tyrant, but then they beat him lickity-split. Gog verbalizes that those who won’t worship him shall not get his blessing and then the whole JSA turn on him and in a matter of frames… knock him over, unplant him, decapitate him (hey younger fanboys, they knew this would not kill him) and put his head on the great Cosmic Barrier. And then Kingdom Come Superman gets to go home. They might have done this a few issues ago and saved the reader about $9. For Kingdom fans, you do get a conclusion to the story. Not that we couldn’t really guess it would all work out, but still it’s a capstone.
What this arc’s real purpose was, was to allow Johns (who will be leaving the book after the Black Adam story line) to cut in half the roster for Jerry Ordway. Which is good, so we can get some character development on some of the lesser known members. While I thought “Gog” ran long, this book is still worth picking up.
Issue Grade: B
