Justice League Red #6 review

It’s the conclusion to what’s been an enjoyable mini-series so far, but does the creative team stick the landing?

Justice League Red has seen Red Tornado trick Power Girl, Cyborg, Deadman and Green Lantern Simon Baz into joining a secret sub-team, supposedly to stop an ultimate threat. Along the way they’ve picked up young heroine Red Canary, annoyed Black Adam and at the end of last issue they found Reddy subsumed within a massive AI entity calling itself the Crimson Cloud.

It’s not friendly, first attacking physically, then tapping into the heroes’ psyches.

Red Canary, though, using her new ability to tap into the Red, the power that connects all life in the universe, manages to temporarily take Crimson Cloud out of commission where everyone else failed.

Of course, there’s going to be a Round Two…

And that’s what we get before writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Clayton Henry close their story. There’s more action, more character moments, some nice lines. And best of all we get Red Tornado back in corporeal form after a couple of years of his being Justice League Unlimited’s electronic butler.

And will the Justice League Red team continue? Apparently so, though Red Canary is going to have to depend upon her native skills, her connection to the Red having been severed.

Which is a tad weak sauce – unpowered heroine inexplicably manifests very handy powers which vanish when they’re no longer needed. I mean, for five minutes Red Canary was interesting, with the mystery of her connection to The Red. Now she’s going to have to work hard to justify her place in the DC Universe, which isn’t short of sassy female teenage martial artists. I wouldn’t mind at all were the riddle of The Red to come up again.

Deadman also says goodbye with a mystery hanging in the air; last issue we learnt he’s now corporeal when holding a chess pawn given to him by Red Tornado, supposedly Boston Brand’s lucky mascot in his aerialist days. But how does that work? Where did Reddy get it? What does Deadman’s boss, the goddess Rama Kushna, think of this?

Even if the team doesn’t continue we can be sure to see plenty of Cyborg, courtesy of the Titans series and the current DC KO. Ditto Power Girl, who’s been rescued from her recent sappiness in this series; Ahmed deserves our thanks.

As for Simon Baz, he’ll likely fall back onto Green Lantern limbo. His creator Geoff Johns found him fascinating, but not many readers seem to.

And Reddy? I’m still not sure I understand what his convoluted plan was all about, was Crimson Cloud manipulating him? Isn’t Crimson Cloud the same being? And haven’t we seen this sort of thing previously with the Tornado Tyrant, in the JLA’s Satellite era?

Then again, there’s nothing new under the sun in superhero comics, it seems, with ‘villain plugs into heroes’ self-doubt’ a bit of a trope. And yet it’s so well done by Ahmed that I’m not complaining. And who’s to say the hanging plotlines aren’t there to make a sequel series more likely?

The artwork of Clayton Henry has been a massive plus throughout this short run, his elegant compositions, varied angles and believable facial expressions telling the story with style. Heroes look classically powerful without venturing into Uncanny Valley. And while Crimson Cloud is a little wonky, it’s a very clever design.

Best of all, though, is seeing Red Tornado restored to his full android magnificence, having so far this series been depicted as an AI creation, then an android basket case.

Marvellously, Arif Prianto somehow manages to swathe the pages in red without landing on the precise tone for monotony, while Lucas Gattoni smartly matches fonts to character and mood.

The cover illustration by Henry and Prianto is a real corker, featuring everyone but Red Tornado but focusing on Power Girl, the standout character.

So did Ahmed, Henry and co stick the landing? I’d say they did.