Well, OK, I definitely didn't see that coming.
Johns does much better crafting a believable story in this issue than he did in "Justice League" #16. First, Arthur and Bruce have a normal conversation where they bury the proverbial hatchet, though I still don't think that Arthur needed to apologize for trying to reason with his brother. But, this conversation at least puts aside the "house divided against itself" storyline and allows the pair to focus on trying to locate Superman and Wonder Woman. In so doing, they discover that the King of Atlantis' scepter controls the weird zombie Atlanteans that we've seen lurking on the edges of this conflict since the start. But, most importantly, they also learn that Orm doesn't have it, as the zombies attack the Atlanteans; Vulko does. It's a great reveal, one that makes sense in terms of the story but one that I didn't really see coming. I thought Johns made a wise decision in throwing us off the scent by having Aquaman suggest somewhere in the middle of the issue that Orm might've been behind the attack as a justification to attack the surface world; it really amplified the impact of the surprise that Vulko was behind it. Vulko's motives seem pretty clear (revenge for his exile and Arthur's treatment), though I think Johns at some point needs to show why Vulko chose now to act. Moreover, Johns still has some work to do in explaining Dr. Shin, whose role in this conflict is still unclear. But, at least we get a good sense of why the attack is happening in the first place..
The other main event in this issue is the debut of the Justice League of America and Johns shows enough disfunction there that I think that I can say that I'm actually excited about this one.
All in all, Johns saves the concept here and I'm legitimately intrigued to see how he wraps up this arc.
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