DC COMICS
WRITER: Geoff Johns, Alex Ross
ARTISTS: Dale Eaglesham, Ruy Jose
COVER: Alex Ross/ Dale Eaglesham, Ruy Jose

The expanding membership of the Justice Society finally face Gog in direct combat.

This issue finally has the JSA confronting both the villain and the problem they created when they added a bunch of members wholesale. The scene with all the members crowded around the JSA table brilliantly illustrates how the society has become overstuffed. The team soon finds that having so many members does not provide safety in numbers but just gives Gog more targets to shoot at. Still, a few of the neophytes do get brief moments to shine before Gog puts their lights out.

The art does capture the sense of how overcrowded the JSA has become. Then again, Eaglesham has always had overcrowded panels, sometimes with the strangest layouts. One panel is devoted almost entirely to a tree being blasted to pieces. Was the artist in a tree-smashing mood that day? His attention to detail and the sense of power in his art is remarkable although he will also put his characters in the most awkward poses. It is true that Jack Kirby would often do the same thing but the realism of Eaglesham and Jose just emphasizes how awkward some of these poses are.

This storyline has been moving pretty slowly in previous months but apparently, it is starting to build up momentum. This story-arch does look promising, so it gets three and a half stars out of five.