It’s the final battle between the forces of magic on Epoch and the ruling science caste.  Tim Hunter and Zatanna lead an army of dragons, fairies and other mystical beings against Vikar and his armored science troopers.  But the unleashing of all this “wild magic” disrupts the planet’s energy and a huge mystical lightening storm threatens to destroy a local settlement.  Tim’s father, Jack Hunter arrives hoping to save the stranded heroes before it’s too late.

As usual, this artwork is the prettiest on stands.  So clean, lush and gorgeous.  The energy bolts just pop out at the reader and there’s so much intricate detail work.  Check out the science soldier when Frankenstein clocks him.  His uniform is insanely detailed!  Month after month, Mikel Janin’s work takes my breath away and it bewilders me that I don’t hear more buzz about him!

The story is well written, as usual.  The dialogue is strong but unspectacular.  But the issue felt incredibly rushed after such a long build up.  Things just happened bam-bam-bam.  Vikar has a scene where he and Zatanna work together, but then he never appears again.  There’s no resolution and he was the big opponent in this storyline.  That’s not right.

So while this is a gorgeous book, the pacing was way off.  It was entirely too rushed.  The characters are fascinating and the dialogue is solid.  The story itself was a lot of fun, up until this point.  I’m not sure why the ending was so crammed, but it left me really unsatisfied.

 

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #18
Written by Ray Fawkes and Jeff Lemire
Art and Cover by Mikel Janin