Hello everyone and happy Tuesday. Hope you are all staying warm and I am so sorry I missed last week, it has been a busy busy February. Do not worry though, I am dedicated to these recaps and wanted to get something out this week. Today I am covering Justice League Volume 1: The Extinction Machines. That is right! Time to pull the team together. This volume includes Justice League: Rebirth #1 and issues #1-5. In an effort to keep this short, this recap is going to be a little less detailed, but hopefully still gives you all the gist of what happens. For part 1, I am going to cover the Rebirth #1 and issues #1-3.
JL: Rebirth #1: Fear the Reaper: A giant monster is attacking what I assume is Metropolis, (might be New York) because Superman is narrating. The giant monster is dropping little monsters that are attacking people, but the Justice League is on it. (Note: Current members are Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg.)
Upstate, Lois is asking Clark why he hasn't reached out to the Justice League (remember that this Lois and Clark are not from this Earth, so it might be awkward). Meanwhile the little monsters are attaching to people and turning them into zombie types (very much like the Starro babies in The Suicide Squad movie). The fighting isn't going well, so Cyborg boom tubes the infected people to Jersey to buy some time.
Lois and Clark are watching the fight, Clark seems confident that the League can handle it without him. Lois tells him to get his butt in there. In China, our two Green Lanterns, Simon and Jessica are on their way to the fight having been called in for the first time. (They both have a history with the League, but are still gonna go help.
The core League members have gone inside the giant monster (I think in hopes of finding its brain). They are exploring, but first a flashback of the team up in the watchtower satellite. Everyone is very sad that Superman is dead, Batman does not trust the new Superman, but does still want him to join the League, so they can keep an eye on him. Back in the now, the team has found what they think is the monster's giant brain.
Aquaman can sort of understand the monster, because it is kind of a giant squid. He tells everyone it is called a Reaper and is the first of many, it has come to reap the whole of humanity. Outside, Simon and Jess arrive and head in to meet up with the rest of the team. Once they do, Jessica asks what the plan is. In the same moment, Superman arrives shooting lots of heat vision eyes and telling everyone to target the spots he just hit.
Naturally everyone does what he says and the damage is enough to free all the people from the mini squid monster's control. Aquaman can still hear the monster, who warns more are coming and its way would have been mercy. Batman tells the monster to GTFO and that they will take on whatever is coming because (insert power pose), they are the Justice League. The monster flees into space.
Aquaman is sure something worse is coming. Wonder Woman is confident. Batman doesn't trust Superman. Superman tells them he'll be around. Flash flirts with Jessica. The news thanks the Justice League and we end with another epic power pose.
The Extinction Machines, Part One: Wonder Woman crashes into a war zone on a mission of peace. While she is trying to break up the fighting a huge earthquake causes a ton of damage. A news report tells us this is happening all over the world.
Members of the Justice League are spread out all over the world trying to save lives and limit the destruction. In Hong Kong a giant tsunami is being held back by Simon and Jessica, the people in the city are chanting that the green light is stolen. At that moment their rings stop working. Other heroes, Wonder Woman and Flash are running into people also chanting about stolen powers. Flash's speed stops working.
Cyborg and Batman are still working hard. Superman is everywhere trying to make up for being down four members. In Gotham a spaceship has crashed, creepy bugs start coming out of it attacking people. (These ones are different from the ones in the previous issue.) Aquaman is dealing with stuff in Atlantis, his people are also possessed and chanting about stolen powers and a stolen world.
Wonder Woman seems to get the bulk of the story. The awakening is happening and the Kindred are coming. In true Wonder Woman style, she tells the Kindred that she is Wonder Woman, an Amazon, and she has friends who are coming for it.
The Extinction Machines, Part Two: A news anchor tells us the quakes have stopped and the Green Lanterns are missing. The anchor then becomes possessed (you can tell because the words are in red now, the color of evil obviously) to tell us about the Kindred being awake and everywhere.
Lucky for Hong Kong, Simon and Jessica are okay and their rings are back to working. Simon saves the people while Jess pushes the water back out. The people are not grateful and start attacking Simon. Flash is having the same problem in Central City. Both get hit by red lightning of some kind, but it seems okay. Flash bolts to Gotham to help Batman with the creepy flying bugs. Flash rounds them all up, because once again his powers are working.
Down in the ocean Aquaman is having a rough time (he had fallen into a deep crevice following the quake and trying to save his crazy possessed people), but some cool shaped stones sing to him, so he gathers them up and heads back to Atlantis.
Up in the Watchtower, we got Cyborg, Simon, Jessica, Flash, and Batman trying to figure out what caused the quakes. Cyborg finds something huge just under the Earth's crust that is emitting gravitation pulses (there are at least 4 of them) Wonder Woman joins the gathering and explains about the Kindred. While they are trying to come up with a plan, that may involve going into the Earth's crust to stop the things that are shaking all the fault lines at once, a whole ton more of the ships that had the creepy flying bugs start falling to Earth. One ship hits the Watchtower, breaching it.
Cyborg is staying to take care of that problem. Batman is going to get Superman (who they just keep calling him for some reason). While the rest get ready to head back to Earth to fight the invasion.
In Atlantis a helpful guard tells Aquaman he is holding the Zodiac Crystals. Aquaman figures they saved his life but is also wondering why people haven't evacuated. Helpful guard is more helpful and shows Aquaman that all the people have been converging into a sort of super being (like literally merging, I'll include a picture).
We end with Batman and Superman having a little chat. In his head Batman really doesn't trust this guy, but out loud he tells him they have a job only Superman can do. Go into the center of the Earth.
The Extinction Machines, Part Three: Now there are many giant people made of people. One in Australia, one in Japan, and another in Russia. (Also that one in Atlantis.) Wonder Woman jumps right into the mouth of the one in Russia in the hopes of getting more information. She doesn't get much, they try to get her to join them. All the giant humans start walking and giving us the reader helpful info. The Kindred must join and sing before the Purge takes all the people. (I am going to take a leap and guess the invasion is the Purge.)
Flash is fighting on the ground, Cyborg is fighting in the Watchtower, and Simon and Jess head up into space to find the source of the ships. Batman tells Cyborg to get to the Kent farm. Simon and Jess fly in search of the source of the invasion. The two of them get sucked into a wormhole that takes them to a destroyed planet and bigger ships that are launching smaller ships right at Earth.
Back at the Kent farm, Lois is not happy about this plan to send Superman to the center of the Earth. Clark is sure he will come back and that this is not just to save his family but all the families. Cyborg shows up and opens a Boom-Tube to get him close to the core. Lois is about to chew out Batman when a ship hits right next to the farm. Superman is struggling in the center of the Earth. Cyborg figures out how to draw all the aliens to him, while Batman get Lois and Jon to safety.
Down in Atlantis, Aquaman is trying to chat with one of the giant people. Both the giant and Aquaman can hear the zodiac crystals singing. Looks like maybe Wonder Woman did get inside the giant and is in some kind of void. The Kindred are not sure what to make of her.
The four giants have emerged and met up. Their powers seem to match up with some members of the Justice League; speed, light, the stars, and magic? All the while Superman is still trying to navigate under the Earth's core. He finds one of the spheres, that are maybe causing the earthquakes, but is not sure how to destroy it.
Quick thoughts: A lot is happening in this first half, look forward to the second half on Friday. I'll also cover my favorite line, cover, and share my thoughts in the part two post.
The writer of this volume is Bryan Hitch, he also did the art for the Rebirth issue #1. The rest of the issues were drawn by Tony S. Daniel. I 100% recommend checking out both of these guys as the art in this volume is pretty dope (I am for sure going to keep calling things dope). Click on their names if you want to see their tweets. See you all soon for the conclusion of the extinction machine.
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Note: All images belong to DC™
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