Justice League United #7 - The Infinitus Saga Part 3 of 5

Released November 12, 2014
DC Comics, Color
25 Pages

The Infinitus Saga Part 2 of 5

Jeff Lemire - Writer
Neil Edwards -  Artist
Jay Listen with Keith Champagne - Inker
Jeromy Cox - Colorist
Travis Lanham - Letterer
Amedeo Turturro - Assistant Editor
Brian Cunningham - Group Editor

Synopsis

The evil shapeshifter Byth urges the alien Ultra to continue interfacing with a mysterious anomaly while the JLU team on Ryngor fights for survival. That is, until the Legion of Super Heroes (Legion Lost II edition) shows up! Then we get a whole roll call:

JLU: Martian Manhunter, Equinox, Ultra the Multi-Alien, Adam Strange, Alanna Strange, Green Arrow, Supergirl, Animal Man, Stargirl

LSH: Mon-El, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Girl, Tyroc, Wildfire, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Gates

The battle is joined, and the JLU is confused, but are glad for the help from the mysterious future team. Tyroc helps Green Arrow, while Equinox tries to snap Ultra out of his communion with the anomaly. She starts to succeed before Byth tries to subdue her. He, in turn, is hit by Dawnstar (who was not on the roll call...). Byth orders Black Mass to teleport Ultra to a spaceship in the rift. Byth tosses Dawnstar to the ground and rejoins Black Mass and Ultra. The trio teleports away along with an unconscious Hawkman. The JLU and Legion on Rygnor is surrounded by the energy beings until they are teleported to Rann by Sardath and Brainiac 5 via the Zeta beam.

Martian Manhunter tries to telepathically connect with Ultra across light years. He begins a conversation, until Byth somehow interferes and barges into the telepathic conversation. A telepathic tug of war begins,which Byth ultimately wins, and J'Onn is back on Rann with the rest of the combined team. Green Arrow brings up the subject of what is to be done if they can't get Ultra back, hinting at death, but no one wants to do that to Ultra. The teams strategize on the next course of action against Byth and his Wraiths, which continue to pour from the anomaly. Wildfire wants to move immediately to get Ultra back. 

Saturn Girl has a bunch of extra Legion flight rings that she hands out to JLU members who can't survive in space. Mon-El welcomes them to the Legion of Super Heroes and they head out into space. Wildfire, Mon-El and Supergirl head out to meet the enemy wraiths with Kara leading the charge. The team quickly finds the ship with Ultra, and Brainy urges the team to take it down. Black Mass teleports away and the ship suddenly explodes, with an armed and armored Hawkman facing down the team.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Commentary

Well, we now know what this story is a nod to from an overall DC continuity angle: The Andrew Robinson cover centers on a character that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Infinite Man from  the 70s and 80s Legion. It's remarkable that this character never really made much of an appearance at all since the v3 Time Trapper story, given the number of alternate realities we've seen since. 

The Edwards/Listen/Champagne artwork continues to be very solid here, and we get a couple of excellent splash pages.  The problem though, is that in one of the splash pages with the entire team, we see Dream Girl, Lightning Lass, Sun Boy and Ultra Boy in the background, none of whom we've seen yet.  Cmon, is ANYONE editing this thing? But the visual action does move really well, even considering that.  I'm not sure if this was a thing at the time (New 52) but this version of Supergirl looks to be more Power Girl than Kara, just minus the boob window. I actually DO like the look, even if its a bit unconventional.

But on to the story.  This was a solid action-based page turner of an issue that absolutely did what it needed to do - keep the action going in the middle of the story arc. There were some other good beats here as well - Dawnstar coming to the rescue of Equinox is a great one, as was Wildfire being super-gang ho. Lemire definitely likes to have his team books to have an air of levity, which I do appreciate, although it's a bit ham-handed, such as when Animal Man and Timber Wolf sniff each other out. Still, it earned a chuckle from me.

Lots of little questions, though.  Byth keeps on coming up with new surprise powers.  Now I'm not a scholar on this character by any means, but I don't like the "sudden power to move the plot forward" card.  There were a couple other things that didn't ring exactly true here - I understand that the teams were in action mode, but there was no moment when the Legion from the future met the Legion Lost-ers. One would think there would be massive relief and/or acrimony in such a situation - "Thank god you're all ok" or "Why the hell couldn't you find us before they put us in that awful series?" (Which I think will be my next speed-run, btw). I guess it's also good to see that Legion Flight Rings are super cheap to make in this continuity?

But overall, I really enjoyed the read - it went surprisingly fast, and I'm stoked to keep going.  Always a good sign.

Grade: B.  Solid middle story, and I want to know what happens next, but we're still saddled with the typical bad editing.