"The End" Week: Justice League Odyssey #25!

We saw an issue of this some time back, although without looking I couldn't have told you what crossover this series sprung from, or into what crossover it returned. Ashes to ashes, funk to funky...wait, that's not right. From 2020, Justice League Odyssey #25, "Last Stand" Written by Dan Abnett, art by Will Conrad.

Anyway, I think I liked the idea of this and the lineup maybe more than the actual execution, but part of that is probably just the nature of the crossover mill, and that probably at least three of these characters were needed elsewhere. This issue finds the space-based JL team of Starfire, Azrael, Cyborg, and Green Lantern Jessica Cruz; with series regular Dex-Starr and Orion, and Starfire's sister Blackfire, and doomed timeline versions of Cyborg and Jessica; all in a final battle to keep Darkseid from rewriting the timeline. If that seems a little esoteric or out of character for him, it probably was, but he wasn't at the top of his game...until afterwards. His plan gets stopped, doomed Cyborg and Jessica sacrifice themselves, and the team separates to warn the universe of Darkseid's new rise. Oddly, although he mentions it later, we don't see Azrael return to earth in the end: he joins Dex-Starr and Orion, to prepare for war...starting on Thanagar? Orion says it's a planet of warriors, but didn't he shoot the hell out of the planet in Cosmic Odyssey?

I'll look later, but I think I have the next appearance for Jessica, where she gets traded to the Yellow Lanterns, presumably for a draft pick in the next round. Cyborg and Starfire return to earth, and get immediately redesigned, for Death Metal. Fun... Read more!

Who among us hasn't gone into space and found a weird cult based on them?

There's maybe two or three here, but that number could be going down; in a book I had wanted to try for a bit: from 2019, Justice League Odyssey #5, "Ghost Sector, part 5" Written by Joshua Williamson, art by Carmine di Giandomenico, colors by Ivan Plascencia.

This little League was Starfire, Cyborg, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, and Azrael; having space adventures in the so-called "Ghost Sector," a bunch of worlds that had been recently re-enlarged after being shrunk and kept on Colu. (Think Brainiac!) Today, on the Machine Worlds, the Programmer was trying to convince Cyborg to use their homemade Mother Box to help everyone "ascend" to a higher level, of Cyborg-ism, whether they wanted to or not. Azrael had encountered an apparent disciple to him, Rapture; who turns out to maybe be a little much, as Rapture had killed a bunch of Tamaraneans that had been following Starfire.

Meanwhile, on Tamaran, a surprisingly hands-on Darkseid is wrapping up his fetch-quest with Blackfire, who's cut a deal to keep Darkseid off her world. He won't need it anymore; as Cyborg uses the homemade Box is discover Darkseid's plan: the Coluans may have shrunk all those worlds for a reason, other than scientific observation and dickery. The pieces of Darkseid's plan were spread across the worlds of the Ghost Sector, but he now had the "Other Box" to find them. And Rapture appears to be a Coluan, and presumably so is his Order of Azrael, now on a quest to kill the Old Gods...

Jessica appears to be the only one so far not have a cult or followers; at least not so far. Maybe they were agoraphobic too and couldn't make it? The "Other Box" is kind of a groaner, but it would be kind of neat if this stuck and Blackfire got the W: the Tamereans hail their queen for saving them, even as Starfire testily points out she sold the rest of the sector down the river. Read more!

"Cyber Monday" is nonsense, but I'm still taking the day off.

I had vacation days I had to use, so this worked out all right. I also did not have a huge amount of Christmas shopping this year--my sons and nephews are the age where they're probably just getting GameStop gift cards--but I did get a couple of things over the weekend.

For starters, I got the Wal-Mart exclusive Batman and Cyborg figures...from a Ross store. For about six bucks each. I probably could've bought another, walked it to the nearby Wal-Mart, and exchanged it for, say, that new Harley Quinn figure, but that seems like a dick move. On the other hand, that Wal-Mart still has Bats and Cyborg on the shelf at full price...That same Wal-Mart, I had a copy of Justice League on DVD in my hand, but even for four bucks it didn't feel worth buying. These figures, just barely more so.

The regular edition Batman for Justice League, with the Steppenwolf Collect-n-Connect piece, has some slight paint differences, but also has a Batman head with goggles. The exclusive is a more traditional Bat-Fleck head, but man, those should've just been included as swappable heads. Ditto Cyborg: the exclusive is a fully masked head, which feels too small for an actual skull to fit in. It's not the first time Mattel's tried to double-dip on Cyborg, either: way back in the DCUC days, Cyborg had an exclusive with an alternate sonic-cannon hand, that also should've just been included.

Batman's cape is some kind of synthetic, instead of plastic, and while it curls a bit on the sides, it's not bad. He may work a little better with a vehicle, if you have one for him. Oh, and these two didn't come with any accessories or Steppenwolf parts: instead, if you buy both, you can build three Mother Boxes. Not the traditional Kirby ping-ping-ping ones, but the death-MacGuffin ones from the movie. I'm sure I'll end up using them in the background somewhere.

I ended up unimpressed with Cyborg, but I had a spare Ultron head from the recent Marvel retro-carded Vision. (I kinda wish that one had a cape like this Batman, actually; Vish already has much greater range of motion.)

Doc Ock was picked up a bit ago, but the GameStop exclusive Gamerverse Spider-Man is new. Fwoosh has a very good review, that points out this is a thicker, more super-heroey build than the leaner "pizza Spidey," so subject to taste. It mentioned not being able to do anything with the attached weblines, but play around with those a bit: I do also wish he came with the open, "splayed" hands some others have got. That, and their review of the Disney Toybox Spider-Mobile...man, that one is tempting.

Oh, and Mr. Mxyzptlk! Also from GameStop, although I got mine without the Kalibak Collect-n-Connect pieces. Which is fine: all these years, I think I would've had two mismatched pieces from the original version. If fans complained about the lack of articulation for Spider-Ham, they really should've pitched a fit for Mxy here, except I seem to recall he was an overpriced, specialty release. Really needed a stand or something.

(I don't think Kilg%re is really an imp, but Calamity Jon suggested anyone good at their job might have one!)
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Flashpoint, completely spoiled:

It's a rule for any alternate timeline stories, from "Yesterday's Enterprise" to Age of Apocalypse: no matter how crapsack the crapsack world, there's always someone who's better off there, than in the normal continuity. For Flashpoint, while the Thomas Wayne Batman may be perfectly happy with restoring normalcy and ceasing to exist, and Aquaman and Wonder Woman may be glad to hear they aren't usually genocidal murderers; it's going to be harder for guys like Cyborg and Captain Cold who are going to be downgraded again.

I'm being a little harsh on Flashpoint, and don't take that to be a blanket condemnation. Alternate timeline stories can be a lot of fun...although they usually don't cost $250 or so. That's my big complaint, there: I didn't read large chunks of Age of Apocalypse since I didn't care about Gambit and the X-Ternals, for example. The last comics alt-timeline thing I can remember being excited for, to the point of spending money on it, might've been Amalgam. And that was a lot less issues, even both times around.

I love Bleeding Cool, which is probably where I got most of my Flashpoint references; although Dale beat me to a Flashpoint-strip with a character I'd love to see return there. And Marvel, don't think you're off the hook: I have an even lower opinion of Fear Itself coming up...

Next Wednesday's post, though...will be on Tuesday. For some reason.



Duhr! I messed up a word, and painted Batman's oval red...then lost it. Fixed!
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To be fair, I think any support group would be jealous of Hal.

We'll talk more about this later, but in the meantime, from the Doom Patrol blog; Save the Doom Patrol! Sign up today, and pick up the book!
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"Shooting Schedule."

I was actually ahead of schedule for the Wednesday strips, but an upcoming one references an old issue of Thor on a point I'm still confused about, which I haven't got around to looking for...then I was shooting Bastards of the Universe strips this last weekend, so I'm not sure what I'm doing here.

Cyborg's new, from DC Direct and eBay. I'm pretty sure he came in a Teen Titans box set, and a guy had like ten of them for sale, for cheap. Weird. Also, admittedly I'm not a big fan of the Titans comic, but I think I remember maybe one issue of Flash with Cyborg rocking the gold finish. I think he was more high-tech than usual at the time, as well.

I got Superboy on clearance at Wal-Mart last week--the Wal-Mart that never has DCUC had him and Mary Marvel, who I probably should've also grabbed. Through that happenstance I'm so fond of, I almost have all the Collect-and-Connect pieces for Trigon; a character I don't think I've ever seen in a comic. Like I said, not a big Titans fan.
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