Winick's best known strength as a wrigter has always been characterization, and it's a deserved reputation. He brings those skills to bear here in the penultimate chapter of this short limited series, but those grounded elements just don't have the same impact without a greater context. Furthermore, the plot surprisingly stalls out here, as we learn little new by the end of this issue. Garza's art remains strong for the most part, but it's sketchy and a bit rushed at times as well.
The injured members of the Titans and Young Justice have been rushed to the San Francisco General Hospital, where some of the country's top medical talent works. Still, the extreme and unusual nature of the young heroes' injuries prove to be beyond them, and some more specialized aid has to be rushed in. Meanwhile, Nightwing continues to beat himself and the others up for their ill-conceived attacks on the cybernetic woman who laid them low, while elsewhere, the innocent creature finds a new robotic individual with which to interface in order to repair itself.
Garza's artwork boasts a dark, thoughtful look at times in this issue, and it's in keeping with the confusion, hurt and fear that the characters are going through. Still, there are also panels in which the characters also seemed glossed over in their depiction. Detail is lost, and a hurried, even sloppy look is to be found; fortunately, those moments aren't too frequent. At the end of the book, Garza clearly seems to be trying to evoke Jim Lee's recent depiction of the Man of Steel in Batman, but it doesn't quite carry the same impact.
Nightwing's anger, Wonder Girl's fear and the other emotional elements in the script boast plenty of potential, but in the narrow context of this limited series, they seem to come from out of nowhere. Winick tries to give all of the characters a moment in the characterization spotlight, and as such, none of them really shines. The most striking moment in the book, though, is when we see Impulse's fear and pain in the ER. It makes for a sharp contrast with the character's usually energized yet easy-going attitude.
The scenes in which we see the cybernetic woman's desperate quest for self-preservation are rather drawn out, and despite the fact we only have one issue left to go in the series, we still know nothing new about her, not even a name. Her actions here are pretty much a replay of what we saw in the first issue as well, making for a rather empty read overall.
