Sisterly Reunion
By: Andrew Hines
Since the beginning of this series, we've seen Jason and Kori break Roy out of a Quraci prison in the middle of nowhere, seen them fight the undead members of the Untitled, and witnessed the unlikelihood of Jason actually helping out Batman in his fight against the Court of Owls. There have certainly been some twists in the stories brought to you by Scott Lobdell. None of them, however, flips the old DCU relationships as we know them on their head quite like this issue. For one, the main focus of this issue, isn't so much the space battle, or Jason's quest for redemption as it is Kori and her sister's relationship. Add to that the fact that Roy is somehow the hero and you get one giant headache. I mean, seriously Scott, what the hell, man?!
Scott Lobdell continues his now year-long run on this title and delivers a surprising 180 in regard to the Starfire/Blackfire relationship. To write that, and make it not only plausible, but ultimately, believable takes tremendous talent. The pacing is decent, but not his best. The the only truly believable interaction is that between Jason and Isabel, the girl they unwittingly abducted and brought with them on this interstellar journey. The real test will be how the sisters' relationship turns out in October's Red Hood & the Outlaws #13. For that little shake-up, this gets a minor de-merit. Wait...people still do "de-merits", right? Anywho, the point is he gets knocked down to a silver star rather than a gold one. Still, a decent job.
Timothy Green II's artwork is really good and quite similar to that of the previous artist, Kenneth Rocafort. Actually it's more a mix of Rocafort and Ryan Ottley of Invincible fame. Despite the overly complicated nature of the suit designs in the comic, I'm surprised it was done on time. Impracticality aside, the artwork is good, though not exactly up to the par that Rocafort set on the previous 11 issues of the title. Blond's colors are great, still. There really isn't much that's missing or overdone, except that I don't recall Starfire's eyes resembling an anime character, but hey, what do I know? Anyway, we can still see Rocafort's artwork on the cover, along with more of Blond's fantastic coloring, which really translates better when paired with the cover artist.
This is a good title and I'm glad to not see quite as much of Jason as I do of the rest in this one. All things being equal, this earns a "B," putting it right up there with Nightwing this week. Yes, I know it would piss off Jason to be compared to Dick, but then what doesn't annoy that guy?
