As the name of my reviews would suggest, I'm a fan of super-hero crossover stories. I like seeing a colorful, diverse array of characters brought together in a common adventure. It's the kid in me, I guess. But my inner child's sense of wonder is far from enough to get me past this concluding issue's fatal flaw: it's pointless. The story goes unresolved. Day of Vengeance was merely a six-issue prologue to Infinite Crisis. The story here is quite unfulfilling, and I almost feel cheated. The art is sharp and entertaining, though. Justiniano's less-is-more approach on this title has proven to lead him to the strongest work of his comics career thus far.
The good news: the Spectre is powerless, thanks to Black Alice's abilities to steal the abilities of any magic user. The bad news: the effect is only temporary, and the Spectre's powerless, ghostly form cannot be touched or harmed. While the Detective Chimp learns the key to defeating Eclipso, the Spectre sets his sights on a new magical prey, and this time, he's not after any small potatoes.
My memories of Justiniano's earlier work is that it was just as angular and exaggerated by with a higher level of detail. Meticulous detail doesn't really factor in as much in his work on Day of Vengeance. Whether it's by design or the result of handling such a large cast of characters, I don't know, but I do know I like the result. By setting the hyper-realistic level of detail aside, the artist's unique, angular approach really shines. His style is well-suited to this collection of bizarre characters, and it brings an energy and sense of fun to the book while still maintaining a dark and eerie tone. The colors go a long way to reinforcing that slightly edgier tone as well.
Where the writing wins me over in this issue is the latter part of the book, when Willingham's narration gets into the horrific and disturbing effects that the Spectre's war on magic finally has on the regular, average people going about their daily business. The art doesn't convey the ideas too graphically, and that's appropriate, as this is a super-hero crossover book. But the writing taps into a chilling quality that I appreciated.
The plotting, on the other hands, was no appreciated. In many ways, we learn in this issue that this was all a lackluster opening act as we wait for the big band to take the stage. The only real resolution to be found is in Eclipso's fate, but it's still anti-climactic all the same. Furthermore, what happens to the wizard Shazam isn't all that suspenseful or dramatic, because the reader knows DC isn't going to shed Captain Marvel from its stable of characters. 4/10
