Book: Justice League International volume #2: Breakdown (issues #7-12) written by Dan Jurgens with illustrations by Aaron Lopresti and colors by Brian Miller (Hi-Fi)
Annual #1 written by Geoff Johns and Dan Didio with illustrations by Jason Fabok and colors by Jeromy Cox
Rating: 1 star
Review:
I read the single issues instead of the trade. This was really bad and I had hoped it would be better than the first volume which was plagued with problems. It's hard to believe that this one had even more.
This starts right where issue six ended with a bomb going off during the U.N.'s JLI press conference. The blast injured and killed numerous people including taking out of commission with fatal injuries Vixen, Fire and Ice and to make it not seem blatantly obvious that they wanted to get rid of most of the female characters they also killed off Rocket Red. So that leaves the team down to four members: Booster Gold, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Godiva and August General in Irons as well as continuous assistance from Batman. And to add to the team, Batwing (David Zavimbe) and O.M.A.C. were added by the 8th and 9th issues.
The story in issues #7-11, had the team going after those responsible for the bombing. The bombers or The Burners, turned out to be a group of meta-humans: Lightweaver, Intersek, and Crosscut who were lead by Breakdown. They have decided to take action against all the governments of the world by trying to destroy the system to give the people back their freedom.
Unfortunately there wasn't much of a story here. It was inconsistent and too overly focused on the fighting and action which felt more like a way of distracting the reader from seeing that there wasn't actually a story. There was a issue with inconsistency that I had, for instance, at the end of issue #10 the JLI (including Batman) were captured by The Burners. However, in the next issue, the whole team minus Batman were on display for a public execution by The Burners. So my question is, what happened to Batman? Did he escape? If so, why didn't he help the team? If not, then where was he? Perhaps, I wasn't supposed to notice that.
However, Batman (with no explanation as to where he was or how he got away) does show up at the cemetery in the 12th issue as the remaining members of the team took to honor Rocket Red. Ice and Vixen were able to view the proceeding from the hospital due to Green Lantern projecting it to them with his ring. As they were honoring their teammate, the team was attacked. After that was easily resolved they decided to figure out what their next step should be for the team. Batman decided not to continue on with the team as well as Batwing (even though he shows up in the next issue). This issue was actually one of the better issues.
Now in the annual #1, the story doesn't get much better. They continue to lose two more team members but they also gain two more. This has turned into a revolving door of team members. The story starts with the JLI minus Booster Gold trying to deal with a hostage situation. With that taken care of and Batwing deciding not to join the team as they head back to their new headquarters (under the impression that the Justice League will be showing up). As soon as they get there, Booster is introducing them to their new team mates: Blue Beetle and The Olympian.
Not liking the new direction the team is heading in, Green Lantern decides to quit the team. As Booster was taking the members to the meeting room, August General in Iron went to go check on O.M.A.C., however something has gone wrong with O.M.A.C.. It seems that his computer infused infrastructure was starting to take control as it phased out his human DNA. He started to attack August General in Iron and the rest of the team. The team couldn't seem to hold their own against him and Blue Beetle had been transported away (read Blue Beetle vol #2 to find out where). While most of the team was nearly taken out, the last two standing were Booster Gold and Godiva. With Godiva off to check on members of the team, Booster was able to finally deal with O.M.A.C.
As soon as O.M.A.C. was down, a time traveling Booster Gold from the future showed up. However, before the future Booster could tell his entire message to Booster, he disappeared leaving the image of Superman and Wonder Woman kissing on the screen. To make matters worse, Booster also disappeared moments later. This series was supposed to continue on with Justice League.
I can really understand why this series was cancelled. It was horrible. The writing was flat and unemotional. There was no reason to care about what happened to these characters because they didn't bother trying to show the reader who they were and there was also no character development at all. After a while it just felt like a way for them to promote other series with all the rotating members (from other series).
Lastly, the artwork continues to be the best things about issues #7-12 and annual #1, sad to say it couldn't save a poorly written series. I really feel like I wasted time reading this.
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