Justice League: Last Ride #2

Justice League: Last Ride #2

DC Comics 2021

Written by Chip Zdarsky

Illustrated by Miguel Mendonca

Coloured by Enrica Eren Angiolini

Lettered by Andworld Design

The League needs to prevent galactic upheaval by protecting a ruthless killer, and the only way to do that is to visit the scene of their greatest failure! But can Superman ignore the ghosts of the past to do what's needed?

I love Chip and what he can do as he proves that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword. This book is what I love about comics, before the multiverse was so readily utilised it would’ve been called and Elseworld’s title, same difference right? The opening here only goes to show what kind of warrior Diana really is and how ruthless she can be when the fate of the world hangs in the balance. After all what we see is brutal and ruthless in its own right as Darkseid’s forces have the heroes of Earth embattled harshly. This is the previous to what we saw in the first issue and what it does is give the reader a better understanding of why we see the attitudes of Superman and the others as we do.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is phenomenal as we see the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. This really does work to flesh them out even further. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story along with the twists & turns along the way thrill and shock readers.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and emerge make this more thrilling than you’d ever imagine. It is in these layers where things like the characterisation or say beheading someone or someone else dying that makes the bigger picture possible. How the layers go into the larger arc or just swirl around it is what makes Chip’s skill and talent noteworthy. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are bloody gorgeous! The linework that we see and how its varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail work is absolutely brilliantly done. This is the part where I say I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised, and I really would like to, but with how powers work and such the way we see the composition within the panels bringing us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is extremely well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show such an understanding of how colour works.

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I have no idea where or when this is supposed to take place but in all honesty I could care less all I do know is that this is one of the most interesting and well crafted Justice League books I’ve read since before the New 52 line came out. I want to see more of these types of stories that could take place on any number of worlds in the multiverse as it ignores the main continuity and moves full steam ahead with it’s own self contained mini epic. That’s what this is too a self contained mini epic.