Justice League of America #34

I'm relieved that Dwayne McDuffie at least got to wrap up his Starbreaker story, even if it did go on too long. It turns out that Icon and Hardware fit into the book better than I expected, although Hardware would probably not have fit in to the team too well (unless Hawkman had come back, I bet those two would get along). Starbreaker explains how the DCU Sun-Eaters are in fact larval stages for his race, which makes sense from a nutritional point of view, I suppose. I never became too interested in Starbreaker as a villain at any point in this story though. I did enjoy all the teamwork the JLA showed in this issue, they actually won their battle through teamwork and toughness, which was nice to see. I hadn't figured I'd like this B-team of the JLA too much, but with Hardware, Icon, and Paladin (an alternate Earth Batman) the team worked out ok after all. The highpoint of the issue would be Dr. Light and Firestorm getting some nice revenge on Shadow Thief. I particularly liked Firestorm mentioning Ronnie Raymond, the previous hero to bear that mantle.

The art by Ardian Syaf is suitably consistent with Ed Benes and the other pencillers throughout this story. I do wish Rags Morales could have done more issues with McDuffie, I think that would have improved this story greatly (or even Chris Cross with a decent amount of time).

As a whole, this doesn't stand out as a fantastic run for Dwayne McDuffie. I usually love his work and he did have some shining moments in this close to 2 year run, but I'm ready for some new creators with a freer hand to come in and tell less editorially-mandated stories. I will give Len Wein an issue to win me over with his fill-in work, but I'll definitely be back when James Robinson and Mark Bagley take over.

Average