The unholy trinity has been split up. Artemis has been reunited with her warrior sister Akila, the defender of their hidden home of Bana Mighdall. Red Hood is held captive by Qurac dictator General Heinle, where the spirit of his formal self is being beaten to death by the Joker. And Bizarro is doing what his Kryptonian counterpart usually does: protecting the defenseless.

But all is not as it seems. Sure, Robin and the Joker are mere figments of Jason Todd’s imagination. But can anything anyone says – Akila, the Joker, Heinle – be taken at face value? Ooohh, intrigue.

Not much advancement in this chapter, no much action. Just a few questions raised, a few more answered (maybe) as we advanced toward next issue. The artwork is more impressive than usual, but perhaps that’s because it goes beyond the usual super-hero fare. Instead of cities at night and mad scientists, we see vistas of ancient cities, and the basements of prisons.

And what really adds to it all is Veronica Gandini’s colors. They enhance the artwork, adding layers of depth and dimension without taking away from Dexter Soy’s rendering. She does what colorists should do, rather than merely indicate, “This is red, that is blue.”

Let me add that in the months that I’ve been reviewing DC’s Rebirth titles, I’ve been a wee bit frustrated by the digital advance copies DC provides. Pages are presented individually in PDF form, but often the artists will use entire spreads to their visual advantage. It’s taken me a while to get over that frustration and embrace the use of multi-page illustrations. It’s just trickier to read on my computer screen, and often the effect is lost on me as I move back and forth along a two-page spread. But that’s my problem, not yours.