REVIEW: Justice League Red #4
Justice League Red #4, “Justice League Dead,” is written by Saladin Ahmed with artwork by Clayton Henry. Across the first three issues, readers have slowly been introduced to members of Red Tornado’s black ops Justice League (consisting of Cyborg (Victor Stone), Green Lantern (Simon Baz), Power Girl (Kara Zor-L), Deadman, and Red Canary (Sienna)). The creative team has also had the members of this new team call into question RT’s motivation for sending them on several clandestine missions, while keeping the reason why from his team and from the regular Justice League.
In Henry’s standard cover, he delivers a bold, lineup-style image that instantly tells you this team is in trouble. Cyborg, Simon Baz, Kara Zor-L, Deadman, and Sienna stand united, each wearing Red Tornado’s iconic yellow arrow on their foreheads — except Deadman, who doesn’t need one to signal how strange things are about to get. Henry’s clean lines and powerful poses make this feel like the moment before a crisis breaks wide open, with Deadman daring the danger head-on.
Artist David Baldeón and colorist Rain Beredo pull the team straight into the digital heart of Red Tornado’s fractured mindscape. The Justice League Red crew stand on glowing circuit pathways as Red Tornado’s glitching, pixelated face looms over them like a broken god. The vibrant neon lighting and fragmented aesthetic sell the stakes instantly — this isn’t just a mission, it’s a journey into a fractured machine’s soul.
This book fits in great as a tie-in to DC KO as RT tries to prevent the end of the world, even if his actions appear to be dubious. As an AI now questioning his own humanity, he is willing to do everything he can to save the world he was created on, and he feels he has the right superheroes to do it. This is the issue when the entire team finally comes together, and the cover and variant cover bring home that fact. Ahmed’s layered storytelling pays off in this fourth issue as we finally get everyone on RT’s covert team together in one room to decide whether RT has been telling the truth about an impending end to the Earth. Some great scenes with some great payoffs in this issue.
And those scenes were masterfully brought to life by Henry and colorists Hi-Fi, David Baron, and Arif Priyanto. I love how the art team puts together flashbacks, shows us what we missed or weren’t shown, and fills in the gaps — and it all syncs up perfectly and moves the story along. I also love how the creative team had readers trying to figure out which apocalyptic ending was most probable and how Black Adam fits in the grand scheme of things. The once villain/anti-hero has given Shazam and Superman both a run for their money, and the superheroes on Red Tornado’s team — Power Girl being the exception — don’t seem likely to be able to stand up to the strength and power of Teth-Adam.
(9/10) This issue was great, slowly building up to getting every team member in the room together to prepare to defend the Earth and its future. I loved that we finally got a definitive answer as to whether Red Tornado has been correct or not and that Black Adam and the team finally come face-to-face.
