Justice League #39 Review: The Amazo Virus Finishes Strong

Even though I’ve stuck with Justice League since it led the way during the New 52 semi-relaunch, it’s done a fair bit of drifting over the past year or two. Too many issues with the team members relegated to guest star status in their own book, and too much time spent getting caught up in line-wide events. It’s a title that should be a flagship for DC, but it’s felt somewhat rudderless at times.

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Fortunately, “The Amazo Virus” arc has helped the series get its focus back, and Justice League #39 finishes it off in fine fashion. There’s plenty of action, playing to artist Jason Fabok’s strengths and setting up grand, heroic sequences for Wonder Woman and Captain Cold. Yet there’s also a fair amount of character work, with Geoff Johns doing much better giving a number of characters their own time in the spotlight.

The end of the end should make fans happy as well, giving us the New 52 introduction of one prominent villain plus the return of someone who’s been missing from this title for far too long (though for good reasons, story-wise). Johns even sets up a plot thread that other writers can run with, reminding me just a tad of a development from the DC Universe Online video game — or maybe the Bloodlines DC event from the early 90s, though hopefully not.

It’s hard to say enough good things about Fabok, who jumped right in during this arc and made this book his own. That’s impressive considering the talent that’s been rotated through Justice League since it started, but he shows here that he belongs. His style kind of reminds me of a mash-up of George Perez (in terms of classic, normal proportions to his characters) and Jim Lee (with his bold, powerful poses), in all the best possible ways. Fabok also uses close-ups of characters’ faces effectively in a number of panels.

You can do a lot worse than great art and an entertaining blend of action and plot, so it makes me happy to say that Justice League #39 marks not just the end of an arc, but the confirmation of a return to form. With Darkseid right around the corner, it couldn’t come at a better time.

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

Superman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor are all that stand against Patient Zero and an army of infected people that includes the rest of the Justice League. The Amazo Virus is now in full control of them, even creepily using them to speak to the remaining heroes.

Diana convinces Lex and Clark that they have to work together to have any chance to halt the virus’ spread, volunteering to hold off the League by herself. It’s as impressive as it sounds, aided in part by the fact that the virus isn’t quite as good at utilizing its pawns’ powers as they would be with clear heads.

The numbers start to wear Wonder Woman down, but she’s bailed out by the arrival of Captain Cold, Steve Trevor and some of his men. Meanwhile, Lex says he can whip up an enzyme that will destroy the virus, thanks to elements from Superman’s alien blood. The trouble is, it’ll take days to make enough to cure everyone.

Fortunately, Diana and Snart have discovered that the Amazo Virus doesn’t like the cold, and Supes’ freezing breath and Cold’s gun are able to combine to stop Patient Zero. The immediate threat is over.

In the aftermath, we learn that three percent of the infected are going to retain their superhuman abilities, making the virus something of an incubator for a new batch of metahumans (thus, the shades of DCUO). Patient Zero is being kept chilled to kep him under control, but he is now completely the new version of Amazo.

And a brief epilogue gives us two potentially important moments: the cancer-stricken villain Neutron offers to reveal who hired him to kill Luthor if Lex does him a favor, and Flash makes a call to someone who can help Power Ring control her ring. Yep, Green Lantern is back, anxious to see the look on Batman’s face.

Favorite moment: The sequence with Wonder Woman smashing Aquaman and then kicking Cyborg into Shazam is pretty great. A close runner-up is Captain Cold’s realization that there must be something not right with Flash since he hit him head on with his cold gun, right before he has a bonding moment with Diana.

Final thought: In the grand tradition of covers not totally representing the contents of comics, we still haven’t seen the League officially accept Luthor and Cold as members. Or maybe Luthor is in, I can’t remember. In any case, that’s either still down the road or not really happening, but as long as subsequent issues are as good as this one, it’s not a huge deal.

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