There's a lovely moment in this issue where The Ray is outlining a plan to transport his fellows to the JLA satellite by becoming a teleport carrier wave, and the Tattooed Man questions the sanity of the plan, to which Ray replies "Seriously. I thought you were a super-hero, like the rest of us." The Tattooed Man is taken aback, to have been considered by this young hero to be "one of them." It's a nice continuation of the sentiment that Mark Richards' wife expresses at the end of yesterday's comic, though, unfortunately, my research into Richards' subsequent appearances shows that he was used simply as a low-level villain after this, with one or two attacks of conscience for good measure.
I don't have much more to say about this issue, though. It's a bridge, really, between the world that was and the world that becomes. The fall of Dan Turpin is absolutely heart-breaking, as he realizes that trying to fight Darkseid's influence is, as he notes, like trying to stop the ocean, and, in the end, all he can do is give in. I think this gives us a good, if distant, impression of the effect of anti-life: all you can do is give in. There is no choice, no hope. Only submission. Turpin's first-person narrative of his journey toward a choice that is not a choice is beautifully told. The heroes manage to communicate, briefly, Green Lantern Alan Scott offering a rallying cry to the anti-life survivors at the worldwide watchtowers, but the end of the issue, the incarnation of Darkseid, lets us know that the brief, green flame of hope that is offered is not going to be nearly enough. With Wonder Woman corrupted, Batman missing, and Superman absent as well, the DCU heroes are without their own gods.
To be continued...?
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