Justice League of America #13

"It's All Behind You"

Matt Kindt Writer
Eddy Barrows and Tom Derenick Pencils
Eber Ferreira, Marc Deering and Allen Martinez Inks
Hi-Fi Colors
Rob Leigh Letterer
Rickey Purdin Associate Editor
Eddie Berganza Group Editor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster by special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

The cover is by Barrows and Ferreira with Gabe Eltaeb. It's not a bad cover by any means — it shows a major scene that happens within the issue, and everybody looks pretty good. Even the Flash is there, although it's pretty tough to see him behind the logos and titles.

Our story begins in Los Angeles, with Stargirl surveying the ruins of her house. She then realizes that she's not actually looking at anything, but seeing things a half-second after she thinks about them. And this can only mean she's caught in one of Despero's illusions. She fights with Despero for a bit, then manages to get away and find Firestorm. Since she still has some of Martian Manhunter's powers, Stargirl is able to enter Firestorm's mind and convince Jason and Ronnie to stop fighting. She then uses her telepathy to contact the Justice League and guide them out of their psychic prisons.

The Justice League helps Stargirl fight Despero, but then she notices a doorway to another prison, and realizes that she and J'onn never left the prison in the first place. But Martian Manhunter tells her he has managed to contact the outside world, and he's working on a plan to free them with Wonder Woman's lasso of truth.

The Good:

Nice plot twist/explanation. Sometimes it gets annoying when stories do the whole "everything was just a dream" bit, but in this case, I quite welcome it. The past few issues of Justice League of America have been rather strange, with a lot of things happening all too easily. To find out most of this was happening in Stargirl's head is both plausible and relieving. There were a handful of things bugging me, but now they've been resolved thanks to this issue. Everything is as it should be, with the Justice League still safely locked away, waiting for the conclusion of Forever Evil to free them. Now if only that final issue would stop being delayed ...

The Bad:

The art was what you'd expect from having two pencillers, three inkers and team of colorists. But I wouldn't call it bad by any means. All in all, I enjoyed this issue, and really have nothing to complain about. Yeah, I don't know exactly how or why Despero showed up, but that's completely on me, since I skipped from issue #10 to #13. And if I was really concerned by that, then I know where I'd be able to find that information.

Final score: 6 out of 10

Next time: I know I said I wouldn't be doing anymore Rogues Rebellion issues, but Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion #6 has the Flash statue on the cover, so I'll review the final issue of Brian Buccellato's mini-series.