Too-Quick Climax Clears Path for Future Story Launches in JL vs SS Finale

Warning: Here There Be Spoilers!

Eclipso. He's a world-beating kind of villain on the level of Darkseid. He's a force of the universe, malignancy personified. When he shows up, you can expect the summer to be filled with crossovers as heroes become "eclipsed" and let their darker instincts come to the fore.

Or he can be knocked out of the air by Batman's planning and a very complex (but made on the fly) ice prism to convert eclipsed-Superman's heat vision into sunlight. Don't you just love comic book physics?

So with the big bad guy out of the picture, which took five issues to ultimately set up, what are we supposed to do with the rest of these pages? If your Joshua Williamson, you use them to set up future titles for DC Comics. With Killer Frost having saved the day by revealing her hidden hope to make a difference in the world, Batman decides she's fulfilled her obligation to the Suicide Squad and demands her release from Amanda Waller. And when Lobo offers Batman a 'freebie' assignment for having freed him from Max Lord's psionic influence, Batman takes him up on it immediately. His goal: to bring both Killer Frost and Lobo into a brand new Justice League.

But that's not the only revelation we have to look forward to. Max Lord is now incarcerated in Belle Reve, and Waller has his mind-control abilities creatively contained. But she hasn't killed him, which leads him to conclude that she plans to make him part of Task Force X, the technical name for the Suicide Squad. Apparently Task Force X is using Roman numerals, because this book's final panel is the kickoff of something called Task Force XI. So is that pronounced "Eks Eye?" "Eleven?" Or maybe "Psi?" Whatever it is that Waller has in mind that Task Force X couldn't handle, it must be big.

JUSTICE LEAGUE VS SUICIDE SQUAD has had a lot of good in it. The rotating-artist approach allowed for a quick one-a-week release without any delays in scheduling, and most of the artists maintained a rather consistent look across the series. I feel a little disappointed in the conclusion, however. It just felt rushed, and made the entire series seem to be put out as a launch point for two other ongoings. And yes, that may have been the actual point, but the reader shouldn't be as aware of it as I feel I am in this instance. Batman's change of mind on the necessity of Task Force X is a departure from his usual intractible views on justice, and I have to wonder if he's only saying that to get his way with Killer Frost's release or if he truly has found a place of compromise in his philosophy. But that's a debate for another time.