"Syndicate Rules (Part Five) 36 Hours: The Storm"
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artists: Ron Garney (p), Dan Green (i), David Baron (colors)
Publisher: D.C. Comics
Plot: As the Crime Syndicate find themselves confronted by the JLA, this group of villains hold no illusion that they'll win this battle; they simply stall for time, until the JLA are pulled over to their universe, where the Crime Syndicate are guaranteed to win the fight. However, as the Crime Syndicate make an unexpected but welcome discovery about their ability to hand the JLA their heads, an even greater threat approaches the planet Earth.
Comments: I recognize that Kurt Busiek is simply following a well established formula, as the good guys eventual victory is far more impressive if a prior scene has established that the bad guys are capable of defeating them, but I have to say I found this issue to be highly entertaining. The issue also nicely manages to play up the idea that the JLA entered this battle expecting to win thanks to a rather smile-inducing Silver Age plot device, where we see the cosmic balance would never allow the Crime Syndicate to win when they were on the JLA's Earth, and Kurt Busiek aptly manages to eliminate this restriction. Along the way he managed to bump up the threat level that these villains now pose to the JLA. Plus, I'm sure fans of the JLA popcorn movie action are sure to be quite pleased with this issue, as it's not often we get to see a group of villains who are able to match the JLA in raw power, and Kurt Busiek does a surprisingly effective job of convincing readers that the JLA are in very real danger of losing this battle. Now there are a couple strange continuity details that the writing fails to address ( such as why Wally didn't simply vibrate his way out of the bubble that Power Ring enveloped him in), but in the end Kurt Busiek projects the sense that he's got a pretty good grasp on all the various threads that make up this arc, and the secondary plot involving the Weaponers of Qward is shaping up quite nicely into a threat that could very well eclipse the threat that the Crime Syndicate are currently posing. Plus any story that brings in the JLA reserves earns itself a gold star, as Hawkman and Green Arrow's presence is always a welcome development.
Ron Garney's art has never quite grabbed my full attention, and while his work on the past couple of issues has looked pretty sharp, this issue marked a bit of a step backwards; it regained the rough edged quality that has kept me from embracing his work. It's also worth noting that this issue calls for the art to deliver several big impact moments as the JLA clash with the Crime Syndicate, and frankly I felt Ron Garney's work missed several opportunities at delivering more dramatic images; instead of taking us right into the action, he pulls away and delivers a less exciting shot. I mean the Flash's escape from the Power Ring's bubble is one such example, but there's also a surprising ineffective scene where the Crime Syndicate fall victim to an attack from a guest hero, that never really captured the intensity of this attack. Still, I did enjoy the panel where Superman is used as a human projectile, and the art nicely captures the looks of anticipation as the Crime Syndicate discover reality has been twisted to their advantage.
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