Justice League Odyssey No. 5 review: The Ghost Sector revealed

The Justice League Odyssey continue to fight for their lives in the arena with a seeming new ally in Rapture, all while Cyborg is being confronted by his apparent godhood.

Justice League Odyssey has been an odd duck of a book. It’s been consistently good, but it’s now on its third artist in five issues which is absolutely crazy for a monthly book to do. This probably stems entirely from two early issues of the series being scrapped entirely, but alas, if any artist is going to be brought onto a cosmic book, it really feels that Carmine Di Giandomenico is the perfect choice to join this book and hopefully he stays on for a while.

Art issues aside, this series is absolutely bonkers and this issue gives every single reason as to why it is the way it is, Darkseid the manipulator. Pretty much the entirety of comics fandom exploded when it was announced that Darkseid was going to be a part of Justice League Odyssey and as this issue shows, the fret was for naught, Darkseid is still evil god that he’s always been.

Thankfully the charade that Darkseid being on the side of the angels didn’t go on too long because it was really starting to feel like a “planet-of-the-month” style of book, but with Darkseid’s plans being revealed, there are now inevitable, horrific stakes involved. Plus, the execution of the explanation in this issue is extremely well done and entertaining while also thankfully giving our heroes the knowledge that the audience now knows.

Image by DC Comics/Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico

Structurally though, this issue is all over the place. Three different stories, eventually combined into one, are being told and everything feels jumbled up, like there’s no rhyme or reason to cut back and forth. There’s no flow. Because of this lack of flow, the issue often times feels very manic and out of control. There’s a lot going on in this issue so sometimes that helps to propel the story forward, but toward the end of the issue, it feels like a detriment.

As mentioned above, Carmine Di Giandomenico, of The Flash fame, takes over art duties on this issue and is able to do what Phillipe Briones wasn’t quite able to do, match the tone and style of Stjepan Sejic. Their styles definitely aren’t the same, but there’s a way that everything is structured and how everyone moves that is very similar to the way that Sejic draws.

Giandomenico is his own artist though and that’s very apparent. In every book that he’s worked on since he began his work on The Flash, he’s demonstrated that he knows movement, speed, and power and that’s on full display in this issue. His figures are kinetic and quick, but the scope also feels very grand when he uses a wide shot. As good as the art is though, this is part of the reason why the issue feels so frantic as mentioned above.

7.5/10 

Justice League Odyssey finishes its first arc with a lot of revelations, but couldn’t fully come together as an issue.