Justice League of America #26

The Second Coming Chapter Five: Spiritus Mundi

Dwayne McDuffie – Writer
Ed Benes – Artist
Pete Pantazis – Colorist
Rob Leigh – Letterer
Benes w/Hi-Fi – Cover
Adam Schlagman – Associate Editor
Eddie Berganza – Editor

Our cover shows Vixen's boobs surrounded by the alternate version of the Justice League created by the West African spider god of mischief, Anansi. Yes, I am still annoyed and will forever be annoyed by Benes' art style. Anyway, this alternate version of Bart Allen basically looks like Impulse in the New Titans back in 1995. And I also have to laugh at the "Not an Elseworlds!" line. As we'll soon find out, this is basically an Elseworlds story, as the new reality Anansi created only exists within Vixen's totem.

Our story picks up with Vixen in this alternate reality, trying to gather together the heroes of this world to enlist their aid in her fight against Anansi. She first visits the alternate Batman, Paladin, and just so happens to encounter him while the new Green Lantern was trying to take Paladin into custody. Vixen somehow convinces the two of them to come with her to the Fortress of Solitude, where they find Wonder Woman still mourning the death of Superman. Wonder Woman's lasso of truth confirms Vixen's story, so they all go up to the Watchtower, where the rest of the Justice League takes Wonder Woman's word for Vixen's story. The elderly Zatara comes out of retirement to cast a spell that sends this Justice League and Vixen back to Anansi's webs inside the totem.

Anansi blames himself for the excessive continuity he put in his alternate reality, so he flips the tables on Vixen, by corrupting all the heroes she just brought with her. Vixen manages to dodge the first couple of attacks, but ultimately knows she's hopelessly outnumbered. So she grabs one of Paladin's guns and holds it to the Tantu Totem, threatening to destroy it unless Anansi brings her friends back and the world to the way it was. Anansi compromises by bringing in the entire real Justice League of America, and they all help Vixen defeat the evil alternate heroes.

The good guys win — a little too easily, Vixen realizes, and she soon finds herself standing alone before Anansi. He tells her the world is changing, but it's not his doing, as he can only control the stories within the totem. Making a vague allusion to the upcoming Final Crisis, Anansi explains that this whole ordeal was just a test for Vixen — his attempts to make her a stronger hero to face this upcoming threat. With that said, Vixen and the rest of the JLA find themselves out of the totem and safely back in the real world, wondering just what had happened.




This alternate Bart Allen does not say a single word in this issue. Nor does anyone address him or even talk about him. He just shows up in the background of this story that can essentially be classified as a dream sequence. Once again, McDuffie spent an inordinate amount of time with the alternate Batman, Paladin, but I don't really blame him. That concept is really interesting. I just don't think it was fair to throw a whole new world at us, but basically only talk about one person in it. I suspect that McDuffie had this idea of Paladin for a full-fledged Elseworlds story, but realized he wouldn't be able to do that, so he crammed it into this Vixen story. As such, both stories felt compromised.

Well, that's it for the year 2008. Next time, we'll have our 15th Year in Review.