Magog #2

I do love Magog and how he fits in with the rest of the JSA over in the core Justice Society title, but on his own, I'm afraid that Mags just isn't unique enough to sustain my interest.

Keith Giffen is trying his darndest to introduce a new supporting cast and new villains while still servicing the JSA membership angle too. This issue had some nice interactions with both Cyclone and Jay Garrick, and it was interesting seeing Magog's take on the two of them. Sure, he is down on them, but we expect that by now. He is a jerk after all. Magog is at least trying to be a proactive hero and getting involved in the brain-washing tech introduced last isssue. Giffen has a neat sequence where Magog heads out to the super-genius prison where T.O. Morrow was kept during 52 to question Hector Hammond. Hammdon doesn't come off as creepily as he did in Geoff Johns' GL title though. So the supporting cast, the guest-stars, even the idea for a new dealer of high-tech illegal weaponry is good. After all, now that Intergang has stupidly been retrofit into a bunch of Crime Bible cultists, the DCU needs a good sci-fi crew of villains again. The problem is that while the separate elements might hold up, I'm just not engaged to see what happens. I don't think this title will have any relevance on the JSA and Magog isn't likeable enough to keep me around. I enjoy a lot of titles that don't have an impact outside their own pages, but I need to love the characters. I just don't like Magog enough.

Howard Porter's art is interesting. His Magog looks decidedly Larry Stroman-ish in places, which isn't a style crossover I expected. His figures are always blocky, but he's really unleashing those tendencies in this book.

Average