Comics Reviews: Justice League International 13, Infinity Inc. 50, Young All-Stars 12

Justice League International #13 – “Collision Course” – J.M. DeMatteis/Keith Giffen/Al Gordon

This one starts with a look at Nemesis, who’s still in a Russian prison after being captured in Suicide Squad 7. The Russians plan to execute him for espionage and make a public statement about that, which gets attention back in the States. Rick Flag is ready to take the Squad in to rescue Nemesis, but Amanda Waller figures it’s a trap to grab more Western superheroes and make the Americans look bad. Flag knows it’s probably a trap, but assembles a team and heads for Russia without authorization. Meanwhile, Batman is contemplating doing the same thing, even though his Justice League teammates are against the idea. But when Waller hears about Flag’s unauthorized jaunt, she convinces the President to send the JLI after the Suicide Squad to bring them back. Batman thinks that’ll be a great opportunity to rescue Nemesis, but J’onn warns him not to go rogue. The League lets the Russians know they’re coming (since their mission is authorized), but a Russian liaison (Razumihin) is tired of American superheroes coming into their country for missions and decides to send in the Rocket Red Brigade to stop the Suicide Squad. Back in New York, Amanda Waller talks to Max Lord (and they seem to have history) about what’s going on; Waller wants everything kept quiet, but Max wants the JLI’s exploits splashed across the front page, as usual. In Moscow, Red Star is informed of the situation and decides he and the People’s Heroes should get involved. In Siberia, the Leaguers get in to see Nemesis and it’s obvious he’s had the shit kicked out of him. Batman’s ready to bust him out right there, but J’onn gives him a lecture and threatens to toss him off the team and since J’onn is the leader, Batman calms down. Before they can figure out what to do next, the Suicide Squad shows up.

Infinity Inc. #50 – “It’s a Grimmworld After All” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Vince Argondezzi, Michael Bair/Tony DeZuniga

This one starts with Jade and Brainwave dropping Skyman off at home. He’s been acting weird lately because he’s having hallucinations of fairy tale characters begging him for help. He has another vision and stumbles into his apartment to find Power Girl waiting for him. Jonni Thunder shows up too and Skyman wonders what’s up, but he soon finds out when the rest of the team (except Nuklon and Fury) arrive to celebrate his birthday. (Because of time-travel bullshit Skyman is actually 61 years old, although he’s physically in his twenties.) Back East, Fury and Nuklon reveal to Fury’s parents that the Sandman who’s been sneaking into her room the last few nights is Hector Hall, her estranged boyfriend and baby-daddy. Hector tells them how his soul was cast adrift when the Silver Scarab took over his body. He ended up being pulled out of Limbo and turned into the new Sandman, inheriting the mantle from Garrett Sanford. Naturally, he decided to look in on Fury and found out she was pregnant, but didn’t want to tell her about his new identity since he can only spend one hour out of every twenty-four in the real world. Fury says she doesn’t care and wants to make their relationship work … talk about long-distance. In Los Angeles, a news report goes out about some goblins that popped up in the Fairyland theme park (which I assume is the non-actionable version of Disneyland) and grabbed some kids, taking them into the Matterhorn … er, I mean Bald Mountain ride. Infinity Inc shows up to help, stopping the SWAT team from going in with guns blazing. As soon as they get inside the mountain, the Infinitors are attacked by goblins, but they manage to get the kids out safely. The goblins flee outside, heading through a doorway that opens in the sky. The Infinitors follow, but soon realize their powers (except for Jade and Obsidian) and weapons don’t work in this place. As the goblins swarm over them, they’re confronted by a sorceress named Lorelei and her companion Rumpelstiltskin. Lorelei’s magic captures Jade and Obsidian and the Infinitors find out she has another partner … the Wizard, who Hourman thought he killed in Calgary in issue 36. Wizard tells them their capture is the prelude to an invasion of the “real world” and reveals that Lorelei has tried that before. We get a long summary of a couple of old comics stories from early All-Star and JLA comics. There’s a retcon is the story though, with Miss America taking Wonder Woman’s place. Wizard reveals how he survived the fight with Hourman, but had a heart attack and that made him start looking for the Fountain of Youth. He assembled artifacts scattered by the JSA in the original story and resurrected Lorelei. She retook her kingdom (now called Grimmworld) where Wizard found the Fountain and made himself younger. The hallucinations Skyman was having were sent by Lorelei to lure him and his friends to Grimmworld. Now they want to invade the real world and rule both, which begins with eliminating the Infinitors. In Virginia, Hector and the others see the report about the Infinitors vanishing and Hector realizes what’s going on. He and Nuklon take a shortcut through the Dream Dimension to Grimworld, busting in just in time to see their teammates have been transformed, their body parts swapped haphazardly. Sandman realizes that scientific powers don’t work in Grimmworld, which explains why most of the Infinitors’ powers were cancelled out. (Jade and Obsidian’s powers come from their father, Green Lantern, whose ring is magic-based.) They fight the goblins and other monsters, with Sandman leading the way. Wildcat has one of Jade’s arms and Jade talks her through activating her power pulse to pound a giant. Sandman uses a whistle to open the portal to the real world. The Infinitors go through, slamming the portal behind them, and Sandman assures them that Wizard and Lorelei won’t have enough power to open it again for a long time. Sandman heads back to Virginia and asks Fury to marry him. She says yes and since his hour in the mortal world is up, he takes her into the Dream Dimension for some make-up sex.

Young All-Stars #12 – “M is for Monster” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Howard Simpson/Malcoln Jones III

This one starts with Iron Munro debuting his new costume. The other Young All-Stars aren’t too impressed (except Dyna-Mite, who worships Munro) and I kinda agree with them … the costume is a bit goofy-looking, but I guess it’s supposed to be reminiscent of Superman’s since Munro is basically a replacement for him in post-Crisis canon. Munro accidentally insults Fury and feels like an asshole. Tigress hits on him, but he ignores her to go find Fury and apologize. He finds her in the main assembly room, but she’s completely out of it. Amazing Man, Robotman, and Mekanique tell Munro that Fury bumped into Mekanique and just went blank. Munro snaps her out of it and Fury mentions the dream she had of a giant Mekanique wasting All-Stars (back in issue 1). Robotman gets defensive about his robotic girlfriend, but Mekanique says she doesn’t want to cause any trouble. When she touches Fury, she has the same vision and starts turning into the Blood Avenger until Munro talks her down, like he did in issue 6. The commotion brings the other Young All-Stars and they’re forced to tell their older teammates about Fury becoming the Blood Avenger in times of stress. (Fury still doesn’t know about it, since her teammates never told her and she’s unconscious right now.) Robotman tells them about a top secret project (Project M for Monster) and says they might be able to figure out if the Blood Avenger is part of Fury or a separate entity that takes her over. They head over to Bedloe’s Island (which is what Liberty Island was called until 1956) and go through a secret door into a huge underground complex. The nominal head of the project (Dr. Mazursky) isn’t happy to see strangers there, but Robotman’s old pal Chuck Grayson works there and vouches for them. As they head inside the complex, we see Mazursky’s assistant is Per Degaton and he’s just as much of a schemer as always. Grayson mentions the Creature Commandos as a successful project and shows them some of the other stuff they’re working on. We get a glimpse of G.I. Robot, one of Rossum’s Universal Robots, and the body of King Kong (who’s not referred to by that name since it was copyrighted, but it’s definitely him). There’s also a living Tyrannosaurus Rex that was captured on Dinosaur Island. They also see a comatose Miss America, who was supposed to have died at Pearl Harbor (according to her story in Secret Origins), but obviously survived somehow. Munro fills Grayson in on Fury’s past and Grayson hooks her to some electrodes, hoping to shock the Blood Avenger out of her system (although he can’t guarantee she’ll still be able to become Fury). Meanwhile, we see Per Degaton has dug a secret tunnel into the facility and lets in Deathbolt, who has Ultra-Humanite’s brain with him. Apparently, Ultra teleported his brain to a storage jar just before Cyclotron blew up his body in All-Star Squadron Annual 2. Now Ultra wants to put his brain in King Kong’s body, but Flying Fox senses the intruders and jumps Deathbolt before he can get Ultra’s brain close to the giant ape. Flying Fox uses his illusions to trick Deathbolt and kick his ass, but during the fight Ultra’s brain rolls away and ends up in the other room, where it takes over the T-Rex. Dino-Ultra smashes into the main lab, but the Young All-Stars hesitate to flee, since they’d have to leave Fury behind.