Justice League Unlimited (2024-) #3

by Mark Waid, Dan Mora (artist)

The global terrorist group Inferno has taken its next step toward world dominance with an ecological disaster! Will Superman, Wonder Woman, and the others have to sacrifice the life of Swamp Thing? Plastic Man and Beast Boy work with The Atom Project to fix their scrambled superpowers!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Wonder Woman

Kindle Edition

Published January 22, 2025

About the author

Mark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.

Reviews

[whoknowswhynot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Waid is almost single-handedly keeping DC alive for me. There’s only a handful of writers that come close to the love and respect that Waid has for comics. This is the ultimate take on the Justice League, borrowing heavily from the JLU cartoon of the 2000’s. If you’re a hero, you’re in the Justice League and teams are dispatched based on skill sets. This allows for some super interesting deep dives into DC lore. Highly recommend reading this if you’ve been burnt out on the repeated DC reboots.

[Murphy C · Rating 4 out of 5]

2/7/25

[Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, cool! Swamp Thing! :D

Oh.... never mind.

[Edward Covington · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 🔥

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun Little Read

The league is trying to handle a major problem in the Amazon forest.

lots of second and third tier characters see action in this one.

Nice thing about these ensemble books is the second third and fourth tier characters can be front and center even for a short time

[James B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good fun story with a shocking ending. Not a big fan of all the tie-ins they keep linking too which is a bummer

[Cybernex007 · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anything I will give this a 5/5 for Mora’s art, I just eat that up and with plastic man showing up this issue I need more of Mora drawing that! But jumping into the massively enjoying events of this issue, we first find ourselves on the watchtower as we follow the question hunt down a lead with a dog named Blue? Who is this dog, honestly don’t care, they are a good dog regardless of affiliation. But more importantly it allows question to hunt down airwave…who has been living in the walls. She does roster checks and noticed he hasn’t left for 12 days. But before he can explain she explains for him, she knows that since the events of stargirl lost children, that he was one of the sidekicks plucked from the timeline that she saved…and now he doesn’t have a home. I need to read that storyline that sounds awesome. But he isn’t getting kicked out and he isn’t in trouble, she apparently has another idea for him than living in the walls.

Which I’m primarily guessing has to do with helping on missions, especially with this next mission as this is a big one. You know the Amazon rainforest? Yeah, that entire thing is on fire! Red tornado hops into high gear, deploying Superman, sapphire, WW, flash, the captain, stargirl, and STRIPE to the field to control the blaze and evacuate people. With airwave on communications, facilitating all contact to the first responders in action. But things are already not as they seem, s Superman is able to locate hundreds of fire pillars in the ground, and trying to remove them reveals they are magic. So even Superman can’t remove them easily. Red tornado is able to deploy Zatanna, Xanthe Zhou, and Dr occult but it’s not enough. Three of the metal men can also be deployed as they can handle the heat, but I do want to say that even though this is a terrible situation I love seeing all these different corners of the dc universe working together towards this goal. I love that so much about JLU, and I love they are keeping this up.

One other thing they immediately noticed, the insignia on the pillars is that of the inferno. The same group they fought in JLU #1. One idea that immediately pops onto Terrific’s head is that of ethereal fire, possible what wiped out Martian manhunter’s race, but they won’t be able to follow up on that until Batman tracks him down. But what’s so strange about this situation is last time they fought the inferno it was all about a control over global economics, but this is just pure destruction. But Zatanna has an ode, why don’t they ask the people behind it themselves. This magic is being summoned, which means the summoner is still connected to it and they can draw them out. With a backwards spell from Zatanna, and a few magic blasts later, a giant portal opens above one of the pillars to reveal a hooded figure that mocks the “humans” for finally learning to do that. But they are not backing down, they demand the figure declare its intentions!

Meanwhile in gateway city, the atom project is doing its own fun thing. Apparently this still takes place before the atom project solo series and we now follow the atom’s along with plastic man as they go and visit phantom girl. It turns out that she was a member of the terrifics (had 0 clue about that) and plas and her swapped powers. So he is having a hard time holding himself from phasing into the ground and they are horrified to find that PG is having a hard time holding her body together at all. She looks like Rita from the doom patrol tv show whenever she looses control of her powers. Sadly PG has just stayed by herself in the dark, not wanting anyone to see her this way. But with the use of the atom project technology the two heroes are able to take hold of the device and swap their powers back. Returning them to their normal bendy and phasing selves, and giving PG the power to return to her people in the future. Hopefully she doesn’t join the omega squad teased in the all in special lol. But what’s even more interesting is that this issue just adds to the mystery surrounding the atom project. As Ray reveals they have been working on a way to stabilize everyone’s powers…and beyond? What does beyond mean? Regardless they ask plastic man if he wants to hear more…is he going to end up showing up in their series as well!?

Nevertheless back in the Amazon rainforest things aren’t looking good. The hooded figures reveals that they have much planned for the world, conquest being the least of it. But they plan for earths heroes to life to see the doom planned for humanity, and he claims that they are the agents of vengeance. Even terrific is confused about what they are talking about, but they are running out of time and the mystics are loosing grasp of the portal. But Doctor occult isn’t done asking questions, and in a totally reckless move he jumps into the portal right as it closes! Now they are done a mystic leaguer and still stuck in this situation as the green is turning to ash. But that’s when it all clicks with Mr terrific…the green! The green is a force of energy and infierno is trying to bend it to their will. Terrific gets Aquaman ready and orders airwave to pick him up and bring him to the Louisiana swamp. Aquaman is going to meet the current Swamp thing — Levi Kamei! But as Aquaman gets there, it’s very apparent from the smoke coming off swamp thing that he is aware of the situation and trying to fight it. But it doesn’t seem to be enough, as this issue ends with swamp thing fully bursting into flames right in front of Aquaman and airwave!! NOOOO!

[Roland Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is shaping up to be an epic. Really solid story.

[Elan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic art in this issue. In terms of story, there is a healthy enough balance of plot progression and foreshadowing of things to come. I love that the League is battling a forest fire and climate change at a time when the real world is doing the same. I am a sucker for commentary of current events in my comics.

That being said, there are a lot of characters in this issue. There’s no one to latch onto. Hopefully in the next issue we will see more of Swamp Thing. I think he could be a great anchor for this arc. Overall, a great issue.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es increíble cómo Mark Waid logra hacer los malabares argumentales más impensables como colar micro historias tan personales como la situación body horror de Phantom Girl con los poderes intercambiados con Plastic Man, una nueva propuesta en el seno de las cabezas más pensantes de la comunidad superheroíca, y la nueva manifestación de la amenaza global aún en la sombra. Todo en el extenso catálogo de una Liga Ilimitada... Pero estando junto a Dan Mora, el World´s Finest de DC ya es TOTAL.

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read issues four and five before this, and it helped fill the blanks of why some heroes were involved.

The pacing for the first arc seemed sluggish, because the entire arc could have wrapped up in three issues, which included this one, were actually backdoor pilots for the various tie-ins. Especially for the "Atom Project", which seemed important enough to occupy a third of this issue and include a preview of the first issue.

[Colin Post · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more Levi Kamei Swamp Thing here! Hopefully he gets a bigger role next issue. The Atom Project cameo felt a bit rushed and jumbled up the plot a bit, though it was also the best moment in the book - Phantom Girl with Plastic Man’s powers…not a good combo. I’m also a bit skeptical of the villain team but it sounds like they’ll be developed more next issue as well.

[Powerman61 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Justice League Unlimited (2024-) #3

So far it seems that Justice League Unlimited is spread all
over the globe. The storyline is hard to follow and its hard to keep up with the characters. The writer peels off one character
and then introduces you to another. The next issue should
make the Inferno plans more clear.

[Richard A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has yet to hit its stride but it is a nice work in progress. The team is just not jelling yet but perhaps that is due as much to my unfamiliarity with the new heroes as the writers trying ot figure it out. Time will tell.

[Jason Holtzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn't have as much emotional depth as the previous issue, but it was still very fun! The art continues to be great, especially the colors, and I enjoy that this issue started to get more characters involved.

[Dennis Brock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave it a 3 issue shot. What is this book trying to do exactly? I don't know to be honest. I'm not sure if I'm absolutely all in on ALL IN DC. It feels at times like a Commie / DEI feverdream. There is a bunch of good though. I might continue with issue #4 or I might not. 2.5/5

[Seth Daub · Rating 4 out of 5]

love mark waid. love dan moras art a tonnnnn…

the actual story is interesting and is ramping up a bit with the reveal of inferno and their intentions as well. cool stuff going on. i liked the atom project stuff as well.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I miss Alec but I'm still happy to see Swampy.

[Yasser Maniram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good plot, interesting turn of events, the character art was good. Builds on the prior issues but develops a whole new threat.

[Andy Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO much going on in this book, and damn it all looks great. waid/mora are seemingly genetically incapable of missing. loved seeing the envoy make an appearance here!!

[alejandro galvez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good series.

From the art down to the writing, it is some of the best DC has to offer. I am having a great time with this series. So much fun. Give it a try.

[Chris Loan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than issue 2, more confined. Loved the art, especially the plastic man and phantom girl scene. That alone is worth the 5 stars

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-rounded issue that brings the action and reveals our mystery villain. But, we get more questions in return, and poor Swamp Thing...!

[John-E-Raps · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot going on in this issue. Recommended for HARDCORE DC FANS ONLY!!!

[Rob Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great issue, although the Phantom Girl page was such a tease.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

[ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

not swamp thing 💔

[José Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

#3-4