The last trade ended with the league disbanding after being spooked by the potential long-term ramifications of their actions. Naturally, the first issue in this collection has the heroes putting the team back together again.
Obviously, the break up wasn't going to be permanent, and I'm guessing there was a time skip, but it's still pretty jarring and dumb the way this played out. At least have a few issues that show how the league is greater than the sum of its parts and that having them together is for the greater good. Maybe have them realize that them breaking up puts the world in greater danger, but you don't get any of that. Instead, everybody just changes their mind.
They do take the opportunity to "restructure" the team, adding new heroes to the mix. Not only do they increase the roster size, but they also try to diversify the team's skill sets so that they are best prepared for the "cataclysm" to come.
As a result, the first issue follows a format that other runs have used, where some of the JLA stalwarts sit down and debate who should be added. This seems like a fun thing for the writers. Getting to pick out who they want to put on their team and figure out what role they are going to fill is an interesting creative exercise.
You'd think that Batman would be in full "prep time" mode, sitting in the batcave pumping out contingencies, but this little palaver is about as close as we get to that. It's really the only follow up to the previous story, which is a little weird.
This trade collection has not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 little mini-arcs in it. I guess it adds another layer to the collection title. I'm more partial to the trades that have just one story, but putting all of these together into one volume probably was the better way to go.
The first arc is probably the most memorable. It has a new villain named Prometheus attack the watchtower during a press conference. Despite just being a person, he is able to take out the heavy hitters of the league in pretty quick and brutal fashions.
How did he do this? You guessed it, prep time.
He hacked the JLA's computer files and was able to come up with plans and strategies to take them down. Foreshadowing? Hard to say, but the story makes it abundantly clear that he had time to prepare. You'd almost think that Morrison was parodying the idea, with the number of times that Prometheus brings up the fact that he came prepared, but the arc is played pretty straight, so it's a bit harder to suss out any possible satire.
The second arc has a random guy figure out a way to manipulate probability. Not surprisingly, this triggers various chain reactions with severe ramifications, forcing the league to put a stop to it.
The third has the team taken hostage by Adam Strange, a fellow hero who seems to be veering off the straight and narrow path as a result of some apparent sanity slippage.
I'm not that well versed in this branch of the DC Universe, but I did know that he was one of the good guys, so I knew that something was up.
This arc did have a nice highlight moment, as Wonder Woman manages to calm down Orion when he is on the cusp of slipping into a beserker rage as a result of their imprisonment. As a warrior herself, she knows how to frame the concept so that it is more palatable to him. Even he himself is impressed with it.
The resolution is OK, but you'd think that the team fending off an invasion wouldn't have been so abrupt. Given the caliber of heroes, I guess it's not that much of a surprise that they were outmatched, but still.
The final story has the team facing off against Starro, who is making another play for Earth. Starro is a somewhat silly villain, but when done right he can be quite unsettling. This arc, short as it is, manages to capture that unsettling nature quite well.
We don't really see it do the whole "face hugger" thing that is the usual MO. Instead, Starro is putting people to sleep and controlling their dreams.
This draws the attention of the endless. Alas, it isn't Morpheus himself that appears. Having Sandman appear would have been a treat, but we have to settle for a being that is similar to him instead. He is referenced, though, so at least we get that much.
As a follow up to "Rock of Ages", this collection is a bit of a letdown. It has its moments, but none of the arcs really have the room they need to hit a stride. The fact that there's so little follow up is also a little weird. It didn't even have to be anything big, just have a quick scene showing us that things are moving forward on that front. Maybe the next trade will bring it back to focus. I'll just have to wait and find out.
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