Release: August 2026 | Writer: Mark Waid | Artists: Dan Mora & Fico Ossio | Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
While the JLU fights Despero on the Ground, Atom is following an important lead back on the Watchtower!
Justice League Unlimited #22 SPOILERS ahead!*
The Despero Situation
Plot A or the "Action Plot" I like to call it has a raging battle with Despero, a constant throne in the side of the Justice League for almost as long as the League has existed. But he's taken control of Hawkgirl. She's flying around screaming that Despero has killed her partners.
But watching on are said partners, Guy Gardner, Metamorpho and Mr. Terrific. And they launch on the attack. After some more Mind games from Depsero trying to turn Gardner on Hawkgirl, shes able to literally beat the persuasion out of him, bringing his mind back. Whatever bit of a mind Guy Gardner does have.
I do have to say that Despero looks amazing in this issue. He's terrifying, and has a horror movie-like appearance. Very very cool.
Sidebar done, back to the action though. Despero casually tears Metamorpho into two pieces in this which looks gnarly! And the remaining trio is left to go on the run. But they run into issues both above ground and under ground. It's a lose-lose situation. Until Mr. Terrific can finally find the power bank they've been trying to locate.
This is the power bank that holds the powers of every single Justice League member, so that if another DC K.O. situation happens where their powers get zapped, their powers can be pulled from here for them.
That is until Mr. Terrific takes the bank and absorbs ALL OF THEIR POWERS to basically form into a god among men and defeat Despero. But this power goes to his head and he questions who else should be trusted with this much power?
A group of alien lifeforms lay him out, how will they get out of this?!
Something Isn’t Right
Besides all this happening with Despro, on the Watchtower, their still bouncing back from the horrible press about having villains in the JLU. But even worse, they found some of Darkseid's weapons. Batman wants these tracked down before he's questioned by Atom.
Something is different about Batman, but not just Batman but everyone that was in the tournament. Atom notices that there's something darker in all of them, and he confirms his theory by having his Omega energy reader still pick up some energy readings off of his testing pool from a distance.
A handful of the League who wans't in the tournament is noticing this as well. Why would Batman of all people want to have historically evil people in the JLU? It just doesn't make sense to any of them.
They swear to get to the bottom of this.
CONCLUSION
I've really enjoyed JLU as a book since I started reading it. Especially during DC K.O. This issue wasn't my most favorite if I'm being completely honest. The art is gorgeous as always, that's a given. But something about Terrific getting the powers from the locked box then being overcome with arrogance just didn't sit well with me. I get WHY that was the case. But just felt out of left field for the character.
What did pique my interest was the concept of a darker entity in all the tournament participants that may be guiding their decision to let villains into the Justice League. That's a concept I'm very into and want to see where that goes. While my score is a 7, I am no way saying this is a bad issue. It may be one of those issues I look back on when the story arc is finished and realized it deserved a higher score.
Also want to point out this cover, while beautiful, has nothing to do with this story whatsoever.