Justice League Unlimited #6 Review: The Tragedy Behind We Are Yesterday

[[{“value”:”

As I noted when I reviewed Justice League Unlimited #5, there were two major mysteries in the early issues of Justice League Unlimited. The major one was “Who was Inferno?” the mysterious super-terrorist organization that was definitely NOT the Legion of Doom due to various members of that group being accounted for in the present day. That turned out to be a misdirection, as it WAS the Legion of Doom, but it was just the Legion of Doom from the PAST, as a very clever way to tie in with Mark Waid’s OTHER major DC comic book series, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, which is set in the past.

In the first part of this crossover, we saw Batman and Superman (and the Flash and a ring-less Green Lantern) take on Gorilla Grodd in the past, and defeat him in what was a fairly typical (albeit very fun) adventure, but at the end of the story, Grodd was contacted by his own future self, and that led to the creation of Inferno. However, HOW this all went down was revealed in this issue, and it included the OTHER big mystery of the early issues of Justice League Unlimited, which is namely, “Why is Air Wave betraying the Justice League?”

How did Gorilla Grodd get so powerful?

In the early issues of Justice League Unlimited, one of the major subplots has been Martian Manhunter dealing with the fact that when the superpowers were returned to the heroes at the end of Absolute Power (a crossover event where Amanda Waller took control of the world by stealing superheroes’ superpowers), the powers were returned to the superheroes, but they weren’t all returned the SAME. Some of them got mixed up. In a lot of the cases, this was just a minor inconvenience, but in some of the cases, it was a major change, like Aquaman gaining Mera’s ability to control water, which has become a major plot point in the current Aquaman series.

Well, as it turns out, his telepathic powers were accidentally transferred to Gorilla Grodd, who is already a very powerful being, so with the addition of Martian Manhunter’s powers, he is now EXTREMELY powerful. So powerful that he is able to come up with the plan to form a super-group using his old friends in the Legion of Doom, but their younger selves (as Grodd, like everyone else, quickly susses out that the present day versions of his friends are not much help to him now). And to get to the past, he needs the help of Air Wave, who was recently sent through time in the miniseries, Stargirl And The Lost Children. The presumption was that Geoff Johns had SOME plan for him, but Johns obviously is busy doing his cool Ghost Machine line of books at Image, so Air Wave is free for Waid to use in this story. This, then, leads to the great tragedy of the issue.

What is the great tragedy of the story?

When Air Wave arrives in the present day, he is obviously cut off from so much information, and, as a result, he is susceptible to Gorilla Grodd lying to him about the Justice League, and so Grodd convinces him that the Justice League are actually evil, and that Air Wave needs to be his agent to help take down the League. Amusingly enough, Grodd IS from a secret Gorilla City, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t be exactly someone that Air Wave could look up on the internet.

By the end of the issue, of course, Air Wave learns the truth, but by that point, it is too late, and he is seemingly murdered by Gorilla Grodd. Of course, this is comics, and there were people who thought that the Joker was killed in the first issue of “Hush 2,” so, well, you know how these things go. The Justice League are then blasted by Gorilla Grodd, and I’m sure that’s where the time travel fun will kick in. Air Wave’s tragic realization is handled so well by Waid, as you really feel how much pain he’s going through, having his whole life basically turned upside down on him like this by a manipulative telepathic gorilla. Everyone has been there, Air Wave!

Tradd Moore fills in for Dan Mora in this issue, and wow, while no one can quite replicate the Dan Mora experience, Tradd Moore really does come to capturing that same kinetic energy as Mora, and Tamra Bonvillain pairs just as well with him as she did with Mora. By the way, I forgot to mention that Christopher Cantwell, an excellent writer, is plotting this crossover event with Waid. I’m glad to see Waid dealing with an interesting writer like Cantwell. Waid has always done a great job working with other writers, as seen most famously in the classic series, 52.

So this series managed to get in a whole lot of exposition while also being heartrending, and that’s quite a remarkable achievement for Waid and Cantwell. This has already been an unusual crossover in that the first TWO parts are not really parts of a crossover in the traditional sense, but so far, they have both been really interesting, and I think that bodes well for the rest of the crossover, as this might be a crossover unlike your standard “Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.” crossovers, which, for an event that takes place in two different timelines, amkes a lot of sense.

Source: DC

“}]] In a CBR review of Justice League Unlimited #6, we learn the tragic origins of the “We Are Yesterday” crossover event  Read More