OMAC

Gardner has a heart. Who’d a thunk?

Green Lantern Guy Gardner

Don’t go looking for trouble, Finny.

Previously: The Justice League International were formed by the UN as a superhero team that would be accountable to politicians and officials, unlike the better known yet remote Justice League. Led by Booster Gold, the JLI barely scraped through their first adventure against an alien miner. Their inaugural press conference was bombed by a group of superhuman terrorists called the Burners. Rocket Red and the League’s civilian liaisons were killed. The UN then severed ties with the JLI as they could not stomach the collateral damage caused by the terrorists’ relentless campaign. The Team were eventually victorious. One of the terrorists called Lightweaver was fatally wounded in the battle and asked his brother, Malik, to avenge his death.

Booster, Godvia, Guy Gardner, OMAC, the August General, and Batwing have arrived at the Tikhvin Cemetery in Northern Russia. The JLI avoided Rocket Red’s official funeral for fear to creating a distraction and they have now come to lay flowers at his memorial. Batman is already there, but keeps to the shadows as he suspects that something is about to occur. Guy creates a hologram communications screen so Vixen and Ice, who are still in hospital, can pay their respects. Talk of laying Rocket Red to rest naturally turns towards the future of the JLI itself. The UN may have reascended their authorisation, but the August General pointedly reminds Booster that “Gavril Ivanovich died carrying this team’s banner. You will not quit. We will not quit.”

The JLI are resolute in their continuation, but they are then confronted by an American man called Malik. He identifies himself as the brother of Lightweaver, a radical superhuman terrorist who was killed by the US army whilst he and his allies were fighting the JLI. The team are caught off guard as they did not expect to be attacked in the Cemetery. Malik stuns OMAC, Godvia, and Guy before creating a hologram of Lightweaver that takes down the General, Batwing, and Booster. Batman then reveals his presence and allows Malik to chase him around the Cemetery as he pours out the pain of having the bury his twin brother in an unofficial grave.

Batman doesn’t attack when Malik pauses and instead engages him in conversation. Malik knew that his brother had turned bad, but still thought that the JLI were worse because they had killed him. Batman recognises that he’s an ex-soldier and reaches out to Malik, making him realise his mistake. The JLI are in no mood to perpetuate the fight and the August General, himself a leader of soldiers, speaks eloquently to Malik about moving on. It’s Guy Gardner who suggest that they give Malik a pass and tells him to “beat it”. A suggestion the he readily accepts.

The issue turns back to the JLI’s future. Batman says that financial arrangements have already been made to secure the group’s independence and that a new headquarters is already being built. Batman then says that the group is now Booster’s job as he’ll be dedicating his time to the original Justice League and to finding a cure to OMAC problems. Batwing also leaves saying he is needed elsewhere. The remaining Justice League International are Booster Gold, Godvia, the August General, OMAC, and Guy Gardner.

The remaining JLI (JLI #12; art: Aaron Lopresti)

• Queen Industries has given the JLI a new shuttle/plane.
• Batman met Booster Gold a couple of years ago.
• Ice, Vixen, and Fire remain in hospital. Fire is doing better and may soon be brought out of her medically induced coma.
• The JLI’s funding is secure thanks to Batman and the Hall of Justice has been rebuilt.

International Exchange

In “Justice League International #12: The End of the Road” Russ Burlingame talks to the JLI writer Dan Jurgens for the last time about developments in this book.

It almost seems like a weird kind of mirror of the end of Generation Lost, for Aaron to have to set up the end/beginning again.

I hadn’t quite thought of that, but you’re right.

I was just trying to do something fitting. The cancellation was something of a last minute decision so we didn’t have a lot of room or time to do things differently.

Additional details:

• Batman’s first adventure with Booster Gold: “there was a particular story we had in mind that was actually going to be our issue zero. Sadly, we didn’t get there.”
• Malik as a potential JLI member: “I’ll just say we had plans to use Malik further and leave it at that.”

The Cancellation.

This is the last issue of Justice League International. At the time of its cancellation JLI was selling 18k units a month, significantly down on its launch, but still above a slew of DC titles which continued on until at least the next round of New 52 culls. So why was the series cancelled? In the quote above Dan Jurgens says the cancellation was “something of a last minute decision” which is made all the stranger when you consider that there is a JLI Annual which wraps things up properly. The annual is written by Geoff Johns and Dan Didio so DC are certainly putting heavy resources into it.

DC Co-Publisher Dan Didio commented on the cancellation on his Facebook Page say that,

It was selling okay, but we had greater expectations for that line. There’s a lot of those characters that I feel we’ve told a lot of stories with, so at this particular moment we’ll give the title a rest, and maybe give some of those characters a rest.

I think the key phrase there is “greater expectations”. JLI was a good book, but the Justice League franchise as a whole would probably be better served with a higher profile title that is more closely integrated into the main universe’s storyline. The JLI’s replacement is then Justice League of America, the ARGUS team put together by Steve Trevor and tied into Geoff Johns Trinity story-arc.

Sales

My Thoughts

Surveying the Internets

A Comic Book Blog:

After witnessing the end of this title it is quite remarkable to think that DC told fans of the JLI that the reason the book was finishing was story driven. There is nothing in Dan Jurgens script to make it seem like a definitive end for the team. In fact this issue is just the denouement to the recent story arc.

Nicole D’Andria (Player Affinity):

After twelve issues, I have seen how boring the team is and how boring the stories have been. But with a new creative team there are a slew of possibilities, and I have liked the bonds forming between some characters, not including the spontaneous relationship but the one between Godiva and Booster, but the friendship between August General and Godiva and the grudging friendship between Booster and Guy, even if I felt it wasn’t as funny as it should have been. This issue has done nothing to raise my morale, which is what I think the writers were trying to create.

Matthew Peterson (Major Spoilers):

The New 52 being an ongoing project, I’m sure that there is a method to the madness behind cancellations and changes, but I’m a little bit confused as to why THIS book got the axe while lower-selling titles are still an active concern. (I’m looking at YOU, Grifter.)

Boosterrrific:

This issue is indicative of everything that has been wrong with this series: things seem to be happening just because something has to happen, with no rhyme, reason, or resolution.

The Verdicts

Page 1. The Tikhvin Cemetery is real and is where many notable Russians are buried, including the composer Tchaikovsky. I note that some wag has added Rocket Red to the list of the dead in the cemetery’s wikipedia page.

Page 2-3. The man attacking Batman is called Malik, no surname revealed. He is the brother of the villain Lightweaver who was part of Breakdown’s Burners, a group of radical anti-government superhuman terrorists who bombed the United Nations in Justice League International (vol. 3) #7 (May 2012) killing the JLI’s civilian support staff and Rocket Red (Gavril Ivanovich, one of their founding members). It is Rocket Red’s statue that stands between Malik and Batman. Lightweaver was killed when the US army intervened in a battle between the JLI and the Burners. Guy Gardner’s attack on Lightweaver negated his shields just as a tank fired at him. He managed to crawl away from the battle and died in Malik’s arms.

Page 6. The first Queen Industries plane was shown in Justice League International (vol. 3) #1 (Nov 2011) and was destroyed while defeating Peraxxus in Justice League International (vol. 3) #5 (March 2012). OMAC never met Rocket Red as he first met the team in Justice League International (vol. 3) #8 (June 2012), two issues after Red’s death.

Page 7. Batman recognises Booster’s potential, but their history has not been revealed. We at least learn here that Batman first met him a couple of years ago and was convinced of his potential by their shared adventure. Dan Jurgens told Russ Burlingame (see above) that the adventure would have been the series #0 issue if it had continued.

Fire (“Bea”) is said to be close to being brought out of her induced coma, she’s been comatose since the UN bombing in Justice League International (vol. 3) #7 (May 2012).

Page 17. Batwing tenders his resignation and walks away with Batman. However, it’s not clear how certain that cut off is. Batwing #12 (Oct 2012) shows Batwing calling in the JLI and he’s assisting them in #1 (Oct 2012).