Justice League #3 DC Rebirth Comic Book Review/Recap

Justice League #3. The Awakening.

Justice League #3 DC Rebirth Comic Book Recap

It started with possession, people talking about the coming of the kindred. As individuals, they were able to siphon the powers of the flash and the lanterns. Powers they say was stolen from them. Soon after, the phenomenon became something else. People all over the world band together creating one single entity.

Russia, Wonder Woman confronts the entity who calls itself the kindred. But her words fall upon deaf ears, the kindred calls upon the many souls to do its bidding. Join us the souls scream in unison. Diana gets over powered and becomes consumed by the kindred.

This entity isn’t only confined to Russia. Japan and Australia has been taken. But in the skies above, the rookie lanterns are doing all they can to stop the invading alien vessels but there are too many. Jessica Cruz knows that they can’t stop them all. The Flash radios in. He will cover the ground and Cyborg is nearly finishing up at the watch tower. Since the green lanterns are space fairing cops, Barry Allen advises them to leave earth and neutralize this threat from the source.

The lanterns comply. They launch towards the stars. This should be easy. All they got to do is follow the trail of the thousands of alien vessels like bread crumbs. But then something unexpected happens. The Green Lanterns found themselves caught in a worm hole. Seconds later, Simon Baz And Jessica Cruz enters an uncharted sector of the universe. They found the source of the alien vessels. But what they found is a world in ruins and yet, their rings detect Millions of life forms on the planet’s surface. Simon Baz found dozens of large vessels shooting their missiles towards his home. After a scan, his ring tells him that there aren’t any life forms on board the ship. So, he doesn’t hold back.

Back on earth, Superman again must stare death in the eye and come out victorious because, this time, he has a wife and son that need him. Batman gave him his mission. Unfortunately, it’s a one way trip to the mouth of hell itself. Chances of survival are slim to none and Lois knows this. She hates that her husband must give her the goodbye talk. But the man she married is a hero. He wouldn’t be that man if he didn’t go through with this mission.

Superman said his goodbyes and now, he is ready. Cyborg Boomtubes in. He informs the man of steel that he can open a boomtube to earth’s core where these EXTINCTION MACHINES are held. But he can’t boomtube superman out for the obvious risks. Whatever is down there, they’ve been there for a long time and they have been able to withstand the pressure and heat that is similar to the surface of the sun. They won’t go down without a fight. And with that, superman enters the boomtube.

Seconds later, another alien vessel crash lands 10 feet from their location. The swarm emerges but Cyborg has got this. He tells his dark knight friend to get superman’s family to safety.

Cyborg unleashes his sonic blasts to repel the swarm but, there it is again. The signal he heard before in the watch tower is emitting again now. It must be from these things. Cyborg begins to alter his sonic frequency to match theirs. It caught their attention. They turn towards cyborg and engulf him with their flesh.

Earth’s outer crust, Superman emerges from cyborg’s boomtube. His entire body screams out in pain. This is so much worse than he ever thought. He can’t see and he can’t fly. The pressure is squeezing his head. All he can do is drift in the current of molten lava. (THUD) he found it, he found one of the machines. His heat vision will not work down here. Doubt fills his thoughts. For the first time in a long while, Superman does not know what to do.

Atlantis, the entity turns toward Arthur. It says that it is made from magic that was stolen from them. Somehow, it hears the song from the crystal. But, the music fades. The kindred now calls and it must answer.

Canada, the Atlantic Coast. The entity from Atlantis emerges. It now joins its brothers because, the kindred called, and they have awakened.

Justice League #3 DC Rebirth Comic Book Review

So there are a lot of things going on in this issue. We get a few clues and the story is progressing with a lot of reveals but with more reveals means more questions. As stated in my last issue, the justice leaguers are faced with three threats: natural catastrophes, mind control and tons of alien missiles each housing hundreds of alien swarms.

Well the earthquakes and tsunamis are created by what cyborg calls the extinction machines, which is the title of this story arc right now. There are three of these machines and they have been on earth’s outer core for a long time and they are only active now, as far as I can tell. Superman found one but he doesn’t know how he is going to neutralize it much less find a way to the other 2.

We have the possessed civilians that form a humungous humanoid entity. 4 of them are created and they all talk about the kindred is calling and that they have been awoken. At first, I thought that this kindred thing is a bad guy but what if these entities are actually the good guys: Long forgotten defenders of earth that got AWOKEN when the extinction machines turned on.

Well, there’s the argument that these entities possessed hundreds, possibly thousands of people to gain its form. And they all talk about their powers that the justice league stole. In justice league issue 2, we get a scene where the possessed civilians see the missiles in the sky. They say: the purge has come, faster than before, more must awaken, and the kindred must rise. This backs up the theory that the alien swarm is not in cahoots with these 4 kindred entities. And right now, I do believe that the kindred are like legendary gods that once protected earth from extinction or from this purge. They somehow were awoken and they are now ready to defend earth again.

If we take a closer look at these 4 entities then you can see that they exibit powers resembling members of the justice league. The green one says the light of the color spectrum flows through me. That is a direct nod to the green lanterns. The next guy says the power of the stars shines in me. This is most likely a nod to superman. He is from the stars and the yellow sun gives him his power. The next guy says magic is returned. Well we followed him from Atlantis so he is a nod to Aquaman. And the last red entity says ‘speed and motion are mine again’. Of course this is a nod to the flash. I don’t know what this all means yet but the comparisons are too eerily similar to the 4 justice leagues that I had to bring that up. I hope Bryan Hitch has an ace up his sleeves because he is building this to be a great epic story.

OK the last threat I wanna bring up is the alien missile swarm vessel thingy. I honestly don’t know what to call it. The green lanterns found the source. It looks like a destroyed planet to me. Jessica Crus says that there are millions of life forms on the planet but Simon Baz found no life forms on the ships that fired the swarm missiles to planet earth. I speculate that these alien missiles are the first wave of an alien invasion, expendable robotic drones that are sent in to soften the defence before the arrival of the big attack.

Arthur’s zodiac crystal is somehow connected to these entities. We know the Atlantians are an ancient civilization so we assume that at one point, they had a connection to these kindred entities and now, the only remaining connection is the zodiac crystals. This entity hears its music and so does Arthur. But if Arthur can hear it than what does it mean for Arthur’s heritage? I’ve done an origins video for new 52 Aquaman but it’s not documented as to how distant his bloodline goes. So if he can hear the zodiac crystal songs, then does he somehow have a hidden power that even he does not know yet?

The last thing I want to bring up is Superman being a hero as always. Yes, I’ve said that this superman has been the greatest thing to happen to his run in a long time and he does what we expect him to do. But Lois Lane has to endure a ‘goodbye im going to save the world and might never come back alive’ talk from him again. This is basically the kind of talk that every fire fighter or law enforcement office should be saying to their significant other every once in a while so I get how this will appeal to that demographic and I appreciate it a bit more because of that. But, now we again have a scenario where superman could die. As a reader, we know he probably wont die from this. New 52 Superman JUST died so I highly doubt they would end his run this fast. But that’s just my opinion, what do you think about this issue?

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