Comics Reviews: Justice League International 22, Young All-Stars 21

Justice League International #22 – “Little Murders” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire/Joe Rubinstein

This is another Invasion crossover and it starts with Oberon and Max Lord discussing the alien Invasion of Earth. Most of the team have gone to the South Pacific in response to a summons from Black Canary and Wonder Woman. Max is pretty worried about the threat to Earth, which makes Oberon worry too. He goes to see Booster Gold, who’s pissed off about being on monitor duty and missing all the alien-bashing fun. In Australia (where the aliens have taken over and established a “beachhead”), Khunds, Okaarans, and Psions examine the teleport device that Tasmanian Devil tried to use before he was captured. The aliens ave kept the settings the same and prepare to send a bunch of Imskians through the teleporter. At the Embassy, the Imskians come through the teleporter and surprise Booster, knocking him out. Oberon is forced to deal with them alone (since Max is completely oblivious) and manages to lead them to Blue Beetle’s room, where he uses Beetle’s flash-gun to knock the tiny aliens out. Booster feels stupid for getting his as kicked, but Oberon tries to cheer him up by showing him how he caged the Imskians … in Roach Motels. In Fiji, the rest of the team has met Wonder Woman (and all the men except J’onn are drooling over her) and she asks them for help in rescuing her friend Etta Candy. Etta is being held on a nearby island and Wonder Woman is ready to go in and rescue her (which we’ll see in Wonder Woman 25), but she needs the League to delay the alien fleet coming to destroy the island. Guy and Rocket Red go with Wonder Woman, while the rest of the team waits for the Khunds. J’onn infiltrates a ship and takes it over, allowing Mr. Miracle and Blue Beetle to board and rig up a bomb. Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Ice take out more Khund ships, giving J’onn time to signal a surrender and guide the booby-trapped ship into the middle of the fleet. It explodes, taking out the entire fleet and the Leaguers escape. Wonder Woman’s mission is successful and she and J’onn talk about their guilt in killing the aliens (and the pleasure some of their allies take in it).

Young All-Stars #21 – “The Americans” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Ron Harris/Bob Downs

This one starts with Japanese fighter planes attacking Midway. Flying Fox helps take them down and finds out many of the planes don’t have pilots, they’re flown robotically. The fighter attack is a diversion to let a Japanese submarine slip past, but Neptune Perkins and Tsunami are waiting and manage to take the sub out and capture some secret papers. They take the intelligence to Admiral Nimitz and it mentions a second sub taking an agent to Mexico to meet up with some Nazis. They’re hoping to disrupt an Allied operation code-named Tube Alloys (which had to do with the Manhattan Project, specifically the element plutonium). Speaking of which, the other Young All-Stars (Iron Munro, Dyna-Mite, Fury, and Tigress) show up in Washington just in time to stop Nazi agents from killing a very important Hungarian physicist (who I’m assuming is Leo Szilard, though he’s never named). The Nazis that attack him are all identical (clones maybe?) and are strapped with explosives, willing to blow themselves up to kill Szilard. The All-Stars stop them and Fury tails the car that brought the assassins to the airport, where she hitches a ride (in her civilian identity of Helena Kosmatos) on a flight that takes them to New York. Fury trails the Nazis to Grand Central Terminal, where they meet an incoming train and try to grab one of the passengers. Fury kicks their asses and is astonished to find the guy she’s just saved is Albert Einstein. Meanwhile, the Japanese sub reaches Mexico and its passenger turns out to be Sumo … and the Nazi agent he’s meeting with is Baron Blitzkrieg.