And this is what we call firing on all cylinders! Last issue the new super-Justice League foiled a plot by leftover Darkseid parademons but learned there’s another threat to Earth – a mystery organisation going by Inferno. This time, we join the heroes a week later, as they tackle a threat to Earth’s very ecosystem. The entire Amazon jungle is aflame, sparked by pillars bearing the insignia of, appropriately enough, Inferno. As they’re magical, the initial strike squad…
… is supplemented by specialists.
Also in Justice League Unlimited #3, The Question, Renee Montoya, has questions for Air Wave.
Atoms Ray and Ryan help Plastic Man track down a friend.
And Batman has a solo job.
He’s trying to find J’onn J’onzz, who went missing after the Parademons operation. It’s a shame Batman’s not on the Watchtower, because had he been with Renee when she found Air Wave his Bat-Intuition might have started to unravel his lies – he’s spying on the League for someone.
Is it Inferno? Possibly, but meanwhile he’s acting like a faithful Leaguer, going on to help with comms in the Amazon Rainforest.
I wasn’t expecting Linnya Wazzo to come up in this comic, I assumed she’d faded into comics limbo after The Terrifics was cancelled.
There really is a lot going on here, having laid down the parameters of the series Mark Waid is really having fun with character combinations, for example, teaming DC’s most famous mystical character, Zatanna, with the first, Dr Occult, and the latest, Spirit World’s Xanthe Zhou.
He also gives us, for the first time in print, I think, Air Wave’s tweaked name – in the Bronze Age he was Hal Jordan II, cousin of Green Lantern Hal Jordan; now he’s Harold Jordan Levey, probably no relation. I suppose it’s fair enough, fellow writer Geoff Johns, for some reason, having rewritten him as a lost sidekick from the Golden Age in the Stargirl and the Lost Children mini-series. The scene culminates in Renee being nice to Air Wave – I can’t recall the last time she was seen as anything other than a tetchy (understatement) type. And unless I’m wrong, in the final scene Waid expands what Air Wave can do with his radio signal powers.
The business with Plas and the Atoms is so good that I wish the Atom Project was being restricted to this series; ah well, maybe the current mini-series will get better.
After numerous nice plot moments and bits of character interaction, the comic ends with a hero destroyed…but it’s one of those heroes with a built-in resurrection button, so I’m not worried. I suppose Waid needed a splashy moment on which to close the chapter.
I do have a couple of queries – who’s this dog, Blue? I’m sure I know all DC dugs. Maybe it’s the DCU version of Australian cartoon critter Bluey.
And who are the clipboard pair in the Watchtower kitchen?
Artist Dan Mora’s work matches the quality of Waid’s script, with super storytelling and character work – the man can draw anybody and make them his own while keeping them on model. My favourite artistic sequence is the search for Linnya Wazzo, things get very intense, but every page is a delight. Mora’s work on Air Wave is especially fine, Harold looks exactly like a boy on the cusp of manhood. And his Aquaman is wonderfully regal.
Tamra Bonvillain’s eye for colour balance is rather marvellous, Ariana Maher makes pitch perfect font choices… I honestly can’t find anything about this comic that’s less than excellent.
And that includes Mora’s cover, which I could see covering the first collection of this series. It is stupendous! Issue four of Justice League Unlimited can’t come soon enough for me.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
I totally forgot that Air Wave was one of the forgotten children. He was always a weird choice to be included as he was never a Golden Age character, but I’m glad to see he’s found a home with the Justice League. Gotta admit I’m curious where his story is going. I feel like there’s gotta be more to it than a simple traitor/spy story.
All the high fives to the creative team for including subplots! Along with thought balloons, subplots are something that haven’t really been in favour for way too long. In this book we’ve got whatever is going on with Air Wave, we’ve got the J’onn J’onzz mystery… and then we touch base on all the things the Question and the Atoms are doing (which aren’t really subplots so much as pointing to events occurring in other books, but if you aren’t reading those books, these checkins certainly act as subplots).
I didn’t figure we’d see 21st century Phantom girl ever again, but boom. Here she is. And then, shuffled off the stage superquick. I can’t help but wonder what the point of the power switches is going to be if they’re dealt with in a panel with little exploration of how the various characters feel about it. Not that I’m looking for deep exploration because I feel like the power switch was kind of a silly thing to begin with. But… if you’re going to introduce that story element, you might as well explore it.
I have no idea who the two folks with clipboards are. Maybe Zan and Jayna are trying out a different look?
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Thanks for the comments Murray, and yep, Air Wave was a real surprise, there’s no way Geoff Johns didn’t know he was Bronze Age. I mean, he was prominent in Firestorm as Maser for a while. So it’s a real headscratcher.
I wonder if Martian Manhunter will end up being the J’onn J’onzz of the Absolute Universe. He looks a wacky fella.
Fingers crossed we’ll see the 31st century Phantom Girl again… let’s not talk about her last LSH appearance.
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I’ve never been keen on the power switches. It’s kind of “Silver Age” science and really makes no sense upon scrutiny – that a given hero’s powers can be taken away and then when they are “released” they go to the wrong person. And while I love me some Silver Age, the power switch concept in general just doesn’t excite me/entice me to keep coming back to see how it all wraps up.
But at the same time given Waid’s skill at taking the old and polishing it up and making it new, I wouldn’t be shocked if the swaps were his idea. I’d really like to know the backstory there.
I too am very pleased with the subplots, but a little worried about who takes them in for a landing. Will we see the wrap up to the power switches in “Justice League Unlimited” or in the Atoms mini-series or some other non-Waid book? Same with the whole “death of Darkseid” fallout. I just can’t shake the feeling that Waid is shepherding these storylines along but they may not be his to end, which would be unfortunate because of DC’s stable right now he’s the only one I’d trust to do so (maybe Al Ewing, too…)
I was very hesitant about this book because of the tie-ins to the “All In Special” and “Absolute Power,” neither of which I loved, and my hesitancy about the “everyone’s a member!!!!” approach to the League. But after 3 issues I have to say Waid has won me over and I’m in for the long-haul, particularly since there’s the tie-in with his “World’s Finest” series coming up in the spring.
-Brian
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I’m with you, Brian, even in a superhero universe the mechanics of powers passing between people doesn’t make a lick of sense. And it’s giving us another Fire & Ice mini-series, so it is objectively bad.
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The latest Titans showed that team unhappy to be treated as employees and lack of agency in priorities. I’m hoping to see that crop up here too because that would be a much more interesting conflict than a mystery villain group. ‘Course, knowing Waid Inferno could drop the hoods and turn out to be a modernized Superman Revenge Squad, thus mucho interasante.
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Yes indeed, I think I mentioned that I’m a fan of the Titans standing up for the sleeves. I mean, one minute the JL says they’re their replacements, now they’re being ordered around.
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They are the League of Substitute Super JLA Heroes. 😀
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