Justice League of America #41

This issue has two separate covers by Mark Bagley that connect into one larger image showing the new lineup of the Justice League of America. It's a rather random assortment of heroes, and I'm not sure how well they all work together. Notably, three of Bart's former Titans teammates have been promoted to the big leagues — Cyborg, Donna Troy and Starfire. And in case there's any confusion, that Batman isn't Bruce Wayne, but actually Dick Grayson, formerly Nightwing, formerly Robin.

Blackest Night went on for eight months, which is an incredibly long time to ask all these other titles to put their stories on hold. So this issue is our first glimpse of a post-Blackest Night world before that event has officially concluded. Sadly, that means we now know that Green Arrow and Donna Troy will recover from being turned into Black Lanterns. And that nothing bad will happen to Green Lantern, the Atom or any of these other characters on the cover. It also means that James Robinson is forced to address the Blackest Night event without actually being to talk about it. And he pulled that off by beginning the issue with a splash page of previously resurrected heroes becoming Black Lanterns and a caption box simply saying, "We survived."

Our story properly begins with an injured Vixen overlooking a completely destroyed Red Tornado with Dr. Light, telling her she's going to leave the team. Vixen explains that she didn't have time to think during the Blackest Night event, but now that it's over, she blames herself for the team's failure against a villain named Prometheus, who cut off Arsenal's right arm.

After Blackest Night, Donna Troy decided to give up on being a hero (even though she kept wearing her uniform) and flew to a children's hospital to find her son's body and bury it. However, a group of terrorists are holding the children as hostages. So Donna reluctantly, but easily defeats the terrorists. Wonder Woman shows up once the fighting's all over and convinces Donna to join the Justice League of America.

Donna not only immediately changes her mind on the spot, but she actively begins recruiting her former teammates — Vic, Kory and Dick. Dr. Light and Guardian offer Mon-El a spot on the team, and Green Lantern and Batman ask Green Arrow to join them. And that's all we really care about.




This issue had lackluster art and suffered from playing into the cliché of having a reluctant hero suddenly change their mind because of a 30-second pep talk. Add in the difficulties of moving on past a major event before it's finished, and you end up with a rather rough comic book.

Next time, we'll move on to the publication month of April 2010, where we will finally — finally! — conclude The Flash: Rebirth.