Justice League Odyssey No. 4 review: The planet of the machines

The Justice League Odyssey head to another world in the vastness of the Ghost Sector searching for any possible answers as to their purpose. Only more questions follow once they arrive on the Machine World though.

Justice League Odyssey, since being announced, has seemed like an incredibly interesting book. Just from the first cover it presented so many questions as to why this team consists of the characters that it does and what exactly the story will be. The thing is though, the actual book hasn’t given any real concrete answers so far. There’s typically an adage that goes along the lines of “creates more questions than it answers,” which this book seems to have taken to heart because so far, it has answered nothing and keeps presenting more and more questions. However, despite all logic saying that this should hurt the series, it makes everything all the more intriguing.

Joshua Williamson has always had a knack for crafting stories that answer almost nothing immediately. It’s something he did in Nailbiter and he’s also doing in The Flash right now, but with Justice League Odyssey, it feels like a magnum opus of not answering anything. This creates for a compelling mystery, to a point, and so he hasn’t crossed past the point of being frustrating in the way that the story is being told. There are so many more questions presented in this issue, but a lot of the answers for the questions that Williamson is giving to readers feel like they are right around the corner. It’s a tough line to walk, not frustrating readers by not answering anything while also telling a compelling mystery, but Williamson has been doing a fine job of it so far.

Image by DC Comics/Art by Philippe Briones

There are just so many concepts in this book that are so interesting though, with the main one being the god-like status of Starfire, Cyborg, and Azrael. There’s really a deep dive into the Cyborg worshippers in this issue which gives Victor some really solid character moments that he hasn’t had since “Forever Heroes” all the way back in 2014. There’re also a couple little fun moments with Azrael too that fit the character perfectly.

The main thing that is really an improvement over the previous issue is Philippe Briones’ art. Much of his art in the past has been in the realistic-style that much of the DC catalog has and this includes his art in the last issue. Now that style is still present here in parts, but there’s much more of lean toward a Stjepan Sejic style in this issue with his linework and facial expressions. Sejic set a great style with the first two issues of the series so switching over to Briones’ style in the third was a bit jarring. Here though, it’s a good mix that keeps in line with the visual style set forth, while also being its own thing.

8.4/10 

While the many questions are on the verge of being frustrating, the mystery and potential of Justice League Odyssey is hard to ignore four issues in.