Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter 33 Review

In Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter 33, Superman struggles to fight off the effects of Kryptonite poisoning. Meanwhile, Batman’s exposing of Superman’s murderous rampage is about to hit the world.

Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter 33

Written By Brian Buccellato

Illustrated by Tom Derenick

Cover by David Yardin

Published by DC Comics

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Once again Brian Buccellato has written an excellent chapter in Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five Chapter 33. Although no real action took place, there were significant developments made which may turn tides in the favor of the Insurgence over the Regime.

Artist Tom Derenick (The Hypernaturals, Trinity, Shadowpact) curated amazing visuals to go along with an excellent story. One of the biggest complaints of Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five is that there were too many filler chapters, but it seems now that Buccellato uses these filler arcs to his advantage to make readers more invested in year five than they originally were.

The chapter starts off with the aftermath of Superman fighting Hawkman. Hawkman was defeated by the Man of Steel, but it did not come without sacrifice. Hawkman had a mace covered in Kryptonite which led to Superman suffering from Kryptonite poisoning.  Meanwhile, the Insurgency has taken Cyborg for reasons unknown.

Although Superman is still feeling the effects of the Kryptonite, he knows that he must retrieve Cyborg at all costs. While the Insurgency knows that Cyborg holds files/data on Superman that could ultimately ruin his reign as ruler of the world.

What many writers struggle with, that Buccellato doesn’t, is writing multiple characters at the same time—and writing them well. In one part of the issue, Buccellato writes Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Batwoman, Batgirl, The Flash, Shazam, and Hawkgirl all extremely well.

Not only does he write these characters with accurate depictions, but he makes them matter in the overall scheme of things. He also made Cyborg the premiere matter of this chapter, and the character has absolutely no dialogue.

Derenick adds impressive artwork. His focus on objects that are not in the main viewpoint of the reader is fantastic. Denereick uses every inch of the page, a trait that is great appreciated in this day in age when it comes to modern era comic books.

The second part of the chapter kicks off with Superman and Wonder Woman at the Hall of Justice. In the midst of his Kryptonite poisoning, Superman knows the reason why the Insurgency stole Cyborg and that he must get him back at all costs.

Superman pleads with Wonder Woman in his weakened state that if the Insurgency gets a hold of what Cyborg has in his system, all of their hard work will disappear in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, in the ruins of Metropolis, Lex Luthor is gearing up to help heal Superman when The Flash interrupts him. The Scarlet Speedster tries to reason with Luther that Superman has been up to something lethal and Cyborg knows about. Luthor ponders Flash’s accusations on his way to assist Superman.

The Insurgency is running on borrowed time, Cyborg’s systems restart in six minutes, which gives Batgirl five minutes to infiltrate his data. She does it in one minute and the team witnesses the Man of Steel killing an entire league of Joker followers in Gotham City, which happened earlier in Year Five.

The Insurgency knows that this new evidence will change the whole world and make others realize that Superman is no different than any other murdering psychopath found in this series.

The chapter ends with Batwoman interrupting all television screens around the world with an announcement.

It finally looks like Superman’s sins are about to catch up with him. What he did to those poor Joker followers in Gotham was downright brutal, and now it seems like the fatalities are finally here to claim him.

The Bottom Line: For the entirety of this year, it appeared as if Superman and the Regime always had the upper hand on Batman and the Insurgency. But if the Insurgency successfully releases the footage of Superman killing those Joker followers, this may be what the Insurgency needed for the world to turn on the Man of Steel.

A Few of Superman’s allies have been questioning his leadership (mainly The Flash), and much of the public does not agree with his style of leadership.

Brian Buccellato has done a masterful job with Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five and despite using multiple illustrators, he has continuously delivered an amazing story. Nick Derenick provides excellent illustrations for a chapter that was very character driven and lacked physical confrontation.

Readers should look forward to the eventual showdown between Batman and Superman and how the world turns on the Kryptonian once they see how he killed thousands of people with a single laser beam from his eyes.