Broken Frontier

Gog stands revealed but is he friend or foe and can the JSA even figure it out?

Justice Society of America continues to wend its way to the ultimate destination writer Geoff Johns has planned. Johns is well known for building his plots slowly and deliberately but this one may be wearing out its welcome.

This issue the giant, Gog, makes contact with the JSA. He claims to be a god from another world – a world lost to war. He claims to come in peace and, seemingly out of a good and generous spirit, he heals and cleanses an entire village poisoned by a volcanic eruption. Can the JSA afford to trust this being? Can they afford not to? And all that aside, can they even do anything against Gog’s power if they wanted to?

Not a lot happens this issue. There is a lot of the JSA attempting to get their minds wrapped around what is happening and quite a bit of Gog explaining his history. Oh, yeah, and elsewhere, Black Adam comes back… but that’s obviously a story for a different time. Despite the general lack of action there are some nice character moments. Mr. Terrific, usually the smartest guy in the room, gets a gentle lesson on the difference between smarts and wisdom from Amazing-Man and Damage just may find that 2 x 4 sized chip on his shoulder gets a little smaller.

If there is one complaint it is that Johns is taking perhaps a bit too long to reach his point. This story has been building since nearly the title relaunch and the end is still nowhere in sight. All of the character moments and all of the character building in the world will not stop boredom from moving in as readers may start to wonder if this story will actually come to some conclusion. The arc has already taken so long to reach this point that all of the tension feels leached out and it is hard to feel excited anymore.

Regular fill-in artist Fernando Pasarin continues to improve. His figures are a little stiff but, then again, the script does not ask for them to do much. Pasarin does an excellent job with facial expressions, though, and I like the idea of this title having a regular fill-in artist – it allows for a more coherent feel to things. Pasarin gets a little help as well in the form of a double page splash provided by the amazing painted artwork of Alex Ross. It is a nice little Easter egg.

Geoff Johns is a writer who is a master of intricate, tightly woven plots with a long, slow fuse but here the fuse feels like it has gone on a little too long. If it takes too long for the dynamite to go off people stop caring if it blows up or not.