I just deleted my previous half-assed review of issue #3, which I initially mislabeled as issue #2, because it makes a lot more sense now that I've read issue #4. So, I'm going to do issues #3 and #4 together here, and we should be back on track.
First, these two issues are great examples of pet peeve #1, where the covers have nothing or little to do with the actual events depicted in the issue. Despite the cover of issue #3 showing Dr. Fate and Hawkgirl fleeing London as it's destroyed, we see them only briefly in this issue. Similarly, despite the cover of issue #4 showing Death taking over Atlantis, we see very little of Atlantis in either issue. We are left to conclude that Death has largely laid waste to it, prompting Marella to inform Khan that she plans on detonating some sort of super-weapon, though the nature of the weapons and the goal of using it aren't really clear to the reader.
But, the cover debacle is really the most negative thing that I have to say about these issues. We actually really see the plots move along at a nice pace.
First, Lois uses her powers and sucks her friends into a tornado, rattling them enough to (literally) shake off War's possession. She's able to do so because she allegedly rebooted her mind, breaking free of War's possession on her own. (Unfortunately, the authors don't really show how she managed to initiate the reboot. One minute, she was totally under War's sway; the next minute, she's suddenly rebooting.) The group decides to follow War into the Fire Pits to finally close them, a decision that makes sense to me. Val magically whips up some suits to allow them to survive the Pits (Thomas helpfully exposits that he studied science while in captivity), but, lo and behold, they find that Desaad is the master of the Pits (and the Furies). Trouble! The pits are apparently some sort of factory, but we don't get much detail on this discovery in these issues. (I'm also not sure how the heroes intended to shut down the Pits, but I'll give the authors a pass on that.)
Second, Mister Miracle wants his Mother Box (and I still have idea what a "Mother Box" is, despite 20 years or so of reading DC Comics) and uses Barda and Fury freeing him from imprisonment to find it. Elsewhere in the compound, Terry Sloan argues that the advisory council that runs the World Army is crazy if it thinks that its nuclear weapons are going to be successful against Apokolips (as they do actually think). He argues that they should let Mister Miracle and Co. to escape to Apokolips and then, knowing exactly where to teleport them, send in ground troops. Sloan approaches Mister Miracle and Co. to pitch this plan, but he dismisses it as impossible, arguing that no human could survive Apokolips. But, Barda -- freed from Bedlam's control (as is Miracle and Fury) thanks to the Mother Box -- posits that a squad of Earth's deadliest warriors could help her open something called the Morbius Chamber. Mister Miracle is skeptical, but it seems to be our plan now.
Beyond these two main plots, we still have a lot happening in the background. We've got Marella dealing with a devastated Atlantis, Green Lantern fighting a revived Grundy, and Dr. Fate and Hawkgirl feeling London. (Flash is presumably still looking for his mom.) In Chicago, it seems to be clearer that Dick was never Robin or Nightwing, as he leaves it to Barbara to do most of the fighting. It really sets up the possibility that something horrible is going to happen to her and/or their son, inspiring him to become the Nightwing of this world. It's his continued insistence that they'll be fine if they stick together that seems to doom them to me.
Despite some artistic licenses taken to move along the plots, the authors do a real bang-up job making it clear where we are on all the various sub-plots. (Snyder and Tynion should really take note.) I've got a good sense of where everyone is going and the intriguing part is how they get there (and how they interact with each other on the way). I'm still a little nervous about the upcoming issue of the main series, given the disconnected that we've seen between the two titles so far, but I remain optimistic.
*** (three of five stars)
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