I don’t want to prejudge Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America Vol. 2: Long Live the JSA based on the delays that plagued the series (I’ve seen figures that the 12-issue series took two years to release). But reading Long Live, I couldn’t help but notice a preponderance of single- and double-page splash pages, enough to stand out, that for whatever reason suggests the total amount of pages here doesn’t equal the effort put into it. I would neither downplay the effort of an artist to draw a splash or a writer to describe it for the artist, but so many of the splashes fail to move the story forward that’s something seems amiss. And that’s before the swift wrap-up and any number of details never addressed.

The loser, of course, is the Justice Society (and the audience). Among the first casualties of the New 52, and in uncertain position through DC Rebirth and the Dark Knight: Metal books, it was not until Infinite Frontier that the JSA felt really “back,” longer than it took most other DC properties. And what a return, at last — both a new Justice Society series and the Stargirl: The Lost Children miniseries, both with Doomsday Clock and Flashpoint Beyond ties, such to finally set straight a number of Johns' projects over the years that were foiled in the shifting winds of comics. Much of that promise seems squandered in this ignominious end.

[Review contains spoilers]

Of the 20 or so “lost children” returned to continuity at the end of the Stargirl miniseries, fewer than 10 actively appear in Long Live, to give a sense of how little that miniseries comes to. Further, though both Lost Children and the Justice Society of America Vol. 1: The New Golden Age teased “Young Justice Society” (and who doesn’t want to read about Young Justice plus the Justice Society?!), even that titular two-part story in Justice Society #7–8 hardly features the kids. Focus has swiftly shifted to Huntress recruiting the children of JSA villains to join the heroic team; arguably that’s “young” in comparison to gray-haired Jay Garrick, but no one can mistake what we were originally talking about.

My guess is the art difficulties with Long Live are a trailing indicator, a symptom and not a cause. Trouble seemed apparent from the beginning when artist Marco Santucci has eight splash pages (and two double-page spreads) in just the first two issues, including one that just has a character posing on a rooftop and another with two characters standing in front of a big door; late in the book, there’s even a double-page splash followed by a single-page splash, all to convey just a handful of dialogue. Santucci inks himself unevenly, with scenes sometimes as crisp as a Jerry Ordway rendering and sometimes very muddy.

But neither are the problems limited to Santucci; I count as many splashes among the work of superstar artist Mikel Janin, and Janin’s art too in places seems inexact and blurry. In the Red Lantern spotlight issue, too, Johns appears to give Janin a number of panels that are just color or just existing art washed over with color. On the writing side, any number of moments from the beginning don’t line up with the end, from Wildcat’s search for Amanda Waller that’s never mentioned again to why the Legionnaire was trying to encounter the Red Lantern before Green Lantern Alan Scott could.

Long Live eventually becomes a full-circle tale for the JSA and Johns. The lost children and even Huntress' recruits eventually take a backseat to the Society’s enigmatic Legionnaire, whom we learn is young version of the wizard Mordru, trying to proactively change his later evil ways. This, plus the eventual appearance of Eclipso, hearken to the inaugural JSA: Justice Be Done by James Robinson and David Goyer, as well as Johns' 50th-issue storyline JSA: Princes of Darkness. I don’t discount this, having been a great fan of those books at the time, but neither did I find it particularly emotional given the book’s troubles to that point. Characters like Sand and Cyclone in the background of (yet another) double-page splash is not nearly as good as having them actually interact with their old colleagues on the page.

This goes too for Johns' final issue, a Stargirl spotlight with art by Todd Nauck. Fifteen years ago, I praised Johns' Stargirl-centric “Black Adam Ruined My Birthday,” concluding his initial run in Justice Society of America: Black Adam and Isis. “Curveballs” here is similar, but it’s another full-circle-ish type story right after the last, and furthermore, of the six flashback splashes in the book, three of them take place within the period of this current Justice Society series! I don’t discount Johns' connection to the Stargirl character, and between the comics and the TV series, recognizing 25 years of the character is warranted, but the celebratory nature of the issue feels like a tonal disconnect from what came before.

Following Justice Society of America Vol. 2: Long Live the JSA, we know Jeff Lemire picks up the team for DC All in, so at least this isn’t the current end of the JSA in the DCU. But obviously Lemire is under no obligation to forward Geoff Johns' “New Golden Age” material and my sense is he isn’t doing so. There’s a sentiment among tech enthusiasts to never buy a product for the promise of functionality later on, and it feels true here too. We know now “New Golden Age” didn’t manifest and indeed rather petered out; I hate to be so cynical, but it’s a lesson not to get so enthusiastic about a comics initiative before you see how that initiative actually ends, or at least what the second volume is like.

[Includes original and variant covers]