Justice League Odyssey No. 8 review: Darkseid reveals his plan

The Justice League Odyssey have captured Darkseid, forcing him to come clean about the reasons why the team and himself are in the Ghost Sector to begin with.

Justice League Odyssey, through its short life span so far, has had its ups and downs, mainly ranging from behind the scenes drama that has really affected the quality of this book. That’s not to say this series is bad or anything, but it definitely hasn’t lived up to its potential thus far. With this issue answering the biggest question that readers have had since the beginning of the series, it really seems like Justice League Odyssey is about to begin moving forward full steam ahead.

The elephant of the room in this series has consistently been Darkseid and his plan for the Ghost Sector, especially now that New Genesis and Apokolips have been destroyed. That question, though, is answered in this issue in a slightly unsatisfactory way. It makes sense given where the story seems to be progressing and it’s a nice change of pace for the character of Darkseid, but the actual answer just seems a bit conventional, which is disappointing. But now that the question’s answered, the story can move on to what seems to be its endgame now and actually have a focus to move toward.

Image by DC Comics/Art by Daniel Sampere

The second biggest elephant in the room, the fact that Cyborg, Starfire, and Azrael are considered gods in the Ghost Sector, is also answered in this issue. This answer deals with a lot of comic book shenanigans, but for some reason, it works so well. Normally the explanation given in this issue, which feels very Grant Morrison-esque, would be really bothersome, but this is a story about an entire portion of space being released after being in captivity for centuries if not millennia. So it’s crazy enough to work. Plus, it opens up some great opportunities for the characters.

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All that said, because there’s so much going on, there are a lot of philosophical ideas that take a backseat in this issue. They’re presented and barely touched upon in this issue given the need to give exposition and not dive much deeper than that. Honestly, the issue would’ve been better if it had simply been exposition rather than even presenting anything deeper than what the story of this issue calls for.

As for the art in this issue, it’s good, not great. It does what it needs to do throughout the issue and doesn’t really do much more, especially in the way of facial expressions. Really though, it’s extremely difficult to make exposition heavy issues look much better than this issue does. As mentioned though, if the facial expressions had been more emotive and less flat, other than Darkseid and Jessica, than there may have been a bit more of an emotional impact than what reads on the page as is.

7.0/10 

Justice League Odyssey finally gives some answers, one satisfactory and the other, not so much, and finally sets up its endgame.