Justice League Odyssey No. 6 review: Darkness begins to fall

The Justice League Odyssey travel to Tamaran in search of Darkseid. Little do they know that he is long gone from the planet and the only thing they will meet is Starfire’s furious sister. Spoilers for Justice League Odyssey no. 6 follow.

Speaking from the perspective of just looking at the creative team, Justice League Odyssey has been on a wild ride in just six issues. It was delayed because of continuity changes, there have already been three different artists on the series, and now, a new writer has taken over with Dan Abnett taking the reins from Joshua Williamson. All that said, Justice League Odyssey is somehow still surprisingly good and it’s constantly unpredictable with where it’s headed.

Dan Abnett is a solid choice to take over Justice League Odyssey from Williamson for several reasons. First, Abnett’s Aquaman run was really solid and it showed that he can play in alien worlds adeptly. Second, they have relatively similar writing styles, so it’s not completely jarring from how the book was written previously. Honestly, most people wouldn’t even notice. Third, he’s consistently been a good writer. Pretty simple. With this issue he already displays that he’s the right person to take over the series. He relies a bit too much on just standing around and talking in this issue, but that can be worked out when he’s settled into the series.

Certain things happen in this issue that spin directly out of the mainline Justice League title in this issue and Abnett handles the events well. Because about half of this issue focuses on Darkseid, there’s an immediacy to New Genesis and Apokolips being wiped from existence which was a smart thing to do. It also makes Darkseid’s mission in The Ghost Sector all the more serious. Really though, this issue makes you root for Darkseid, which should never happen, and yet you do in this issue. It’s unclear how much of this was Williamson’s outline or whether these were all Abnett’s decisions, but they work really well regardless.

Image by DC Comics/Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico

The actual team here though gets put on the backburner for much of the issue though with the only real development going Jessica. This was smart though because of the revelation that Jessica hasn’t been able to charge her ring and is at a forty percent charge. Anyone who knows anything about Green Lantern lore knows that’s a bad sign and makes the situation for the team all the more dire, especially going up against Tamaranian warriors.

The art in this issue is very solid as well. It’s not Carmine di Giandomenico best work ever, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not good. On the contrary, everything he does is good, just some is better than others, which is the case here.

A lot of the issue is just standing around and talking which is very hard to make interesting from an artist’s standpoint, but he’s at least able to make it look good, especially when he focuses on Jessica. As for his action sequences, those are the standout during Darkseid’s portion of the issues. They’re surprisingly brutal and very kinetic which creates a very fun read.

7.25/10 

Because of the creative team inconsistencies, this issue falters slightly in execution, but Justice League Odyssey looks to have a promising future.