Godvia

Brilliant! I’m in a rock. In space. About to attack aliens. Bloody Hell!

Previously: The Justice League International’s first mission has been less than auspicious. The group was formed by the United Nations as a open, transparent, and controllable of version of the Justice League. However, the group was thrown together and launched on their first mission with no training and little knowledge of each other’s abilities. They were sent to investigate the sudden appearance of four giant statues called the Signal Men. They were captured by Peraxxus, the alien miner/pirate controlling the Signal Men, and then thrown aside as he began a count down that will end with the destruction of the Earth.

Columns of energy blast upwards from each of the Signal Men and throw large chunks of the Earth into space. The streams of debris converges upon Peraxxus ship where they are atomised and stored for sale on the interstellar commodities markets. The Justice League (the real one) is missing and all missiles fired at Peraxxus’s ship are vaporised. The JLI, who had been left behind by Peraxxus, survived the Signal Man’s ignition inside Booster Gold’s force field bubble. They reach the surface thanks to propulsion from Guy Gardner and then make contact with Biggs at the UN. He tells them that military strikes on the giants have failed and that the JLI are Earth’s last hope.

The August-General-in-Iron and Batman agree that they must take the fight to Peraxxus, but Godvia begins freaking out — the entire adventure and now space travel is far beyond her usual experience. Guy gives her a hard time, but it does change what they have to do. Rocket Red has an idea on how to get past Peraxxus’s defences. Biggs and Emerson are monitoring the team from the UN and get flack from the Chinese ambassador about their performance. They then watch the JLI’s shuttle (augmented by a Green Lantern engine) briefly fly into space before it is shot down by Peraxxus’s ship. However, unknown to anybody else, the JLI are actually hidden inside a hollow chuck of debris and are hitching a free ride thanks to the Signal Men’s matter stream. At the last moment Fire creates a jet of flame like a rocket motor and the JLI safely dodge the rock crusher near Peraxxus’s ship. With Rocket Red’s help she manoeuvres their rocky capsule into an open shuttle bay.

Once aboard Peraxxus’s ship Booster orders them to split into two teams – Batman, Rocket Red and Ice have to get control of the ship, while the rest of them will keep Peraxxus busy. They quickly find him, but Peraxxus’s axe is able to reflect Booster and Guy Gardner’s attacks back at them. He boasts that they are not the first super-defenders to face him and scatters them – only the terrified Godvia hangs back. She finally makes a move and manages to snatch Peraxxus’s miraculous axe from his hands. Without it he’s weak enough for Guy Gardner to shackle with a ring construct. A warning klaxon sounds and the ship lurches towards the Earth as Rocket Red takes control of the ship’s computers.

The ship is on a nose dive towards the closest of the Signal Men. Peraxxus recognises what’s happening and suddenly breaks free. He grabs his axe back and flees before the ship impacts. Guy manages to control the ship’s descent and the heroes escape before the impact. The destruction of the ship destroys one of the Signal Men and shuts down the rest of them, saving the planet. A messy victory by anybody’s measure, and even Biggs’ is critical, but a victory never the less. As the JLI watch the UN crews crawling over the remains of Peraxxus space ship they themselves are watched from afar by another mastermind who is at that every moment planning their downfall.

International Exchange

The International Exchange is a monthly interview column this discusses writer Dan Jurgens work on Booster Gold/JLI. This month’s responses include:

The black-haired woman on the far-left of the cover:

It’s a mistake. A screw up. She shouldn’t be there as she wasn’t yet due to appear in the book. Given the amount of people who look at these things, I have no idea how it ever made it all the way through to print.

On the location of the other Justice League:

That’s an age old question in comics, whether it applies to the Titans, Justice League, Fantastic Four, Avengers or any other super team. That pat answer was always, “They were off in space.” I don’t want to resort to that so let’s just say… they were busy.

Sales

My Thoughts

Surveying the Internets

Ray Tate (Comics Bulletin):

The finale doesn’t exhibit any grand cleverness that would excuse the waste of trees or reader time. The finale doesn’t really offer any stronger characterization than previously seen. In fact some of the “acting” summarizes what has gone before, only through clumsy dialogue.

Poet Mase (IGN):

In a vacuum, this series – and this issue – is a nice read. It’s wholesome, dimple-cheeked fun of a Captain Planet sort that casual comic book readers of all ages can enjoy. The problem comes in that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the larger context of DC’s relaunch or modern comic book zeitgeist.

A Comic Book Blog:

A character [Godvia] that acts with bravado, but is actually terrified of getting involved with cosmic level threats is a great hook. But Dan Jurgens is too busy telling his version of the Galactus story.

Nicole D’Andria (Player Affinity):

Is this issue good enough to keep people reading? No – this issue, barely disregarding the last issue, is the weakest so far in the series. But does the rest of the series have the potential to be good? Definitely – Jurgens can clearly create come interesting personalities, and has great character interactions.

The Verdicts

Nothing to annotate.