Following the death of Martian Manhunter, the Justice League is no more. But when the Green Lantern Corps capture Lobo, whose recent most heinous crime is killing the New Gods, they turn to the scattered League for help in ensuring he makes it to trial. Batman’s plan? Hide out in the ruins of Apokolips…
Like most people, I haven’t been reading the main Justice League title, so I’m only guessing but it feels like Last Ride is its own standalone thing, separate from the main Justice League stuff, and I think that’s a solid approach. That way you can do big things like kill off J’onn, etc. and focus on telling a self-contained story without worrying about stuff happening in other books.
That said, for all Chip Zdarsky’s machinations and twists, Last Ride ends up being just another dumb “superheroes punching supervillains” comic, whose big changes at the end have a question mark over whether they’ll be lasting changes or not given its possible done-in-one nature.
I liked Miguel Mendonca’s art - I’ve not encountered it before but he’s definitely a talented artist. Darick Robertson draws the covers, fittingly, given that Mendonca’s art is quite similar to Robertson’s, so readers drawn to the covers won’t be disappointed by the disparity between that and the interior art (which is often the case with DC/Marvel books).
Zdarsky made the right choice letting you know from the jump that J’onn is dead because you’re then interested to keep reading to find out how exactly it all went down. The plot gets a little convoluted towards the end but it at least feels like Zdarsky did put some thought into constructing it.
And it is suitably large scale enough for a Justice League outing, though, as I said before, it’s kinda boring in how it all eventually plays out. Not just the end but quite a bit of the middle too, where not all that much happens - just lots of characters sitting around nattering.
Ultimately, Justice League: Last Ride is yet another forgettable outing for this supergroup. A murder mystery is an intriguing angle to take but Zdarsky doesn’t fully realise it enough before abandoning it and falling back into lazy genre tropes to close out the story. A visually appealing, but underwhelming, ride.
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