REVIEW: Justice League Red #5

Justice League Red #5, “Kings and Pawns,” is the fifth issue in the six-issue DC Comics series written by Saladin Ahmed, with artwork by Clayton Henry and colors by Arif Priyanto. Red Tornado spent four issues bringing together his black ops Justice League team—consisting of Cyborg (Victor Stone), Green Lantern (Simon Baz), Power Girl (Kara Zor-L), Deadman, and Red Canary (Sienna)—pleading with them that he needs their help to prevent an apocalyptic event that would begin with Black Adam.

With several superheroic powerhouses on the team, you would think they’d have Black Adam taken care of in a few minutes. But by the end of the fourth issue, nearly every member of Justice League Red is laid unconscious at the feet of Black Adam. Their first outing as a team ends in a miserable loss in Black Adam’s kingdom of Kahndaq. Still, the team is convinced that Red Tornado is correct, and they’ve got to figure out how to stop Black Adam.

Before I delve deeper into that thought, let’s tackle the two covers for this month’s issue. The main cover, by Henry and Priyanto, features Red Tornado and Black Adam sitting down for a game of chess, with action-figure-sized representations of Green Lantern and Power Girl on Red Tornado’s side of the board, facing Cyborg and Red Canary on Black Adam’s side. Hovering above the chess players are large chess pieces featuring the members of Justice League Red as bust-style pieces. This cover is perfect for the story inside, as the members try to determine who is playing who.

Power Girl, rendered in muted colors save for her bright red cape, is a powerful and terrifying superwoman in Sweeney Boo’s variant cover. Kara Zor-L is a super-powered force to be reckoned with and is far from being a girl. She is an awesome woman of Kryptonian heritage who is finished playing games and stands for truth and justice just like other Kryptonians in the DC Universe. Crossing her would be a brutally erroneous decision.

Together, these covers frame Justice League Red #5 as a story of strategy, power, and hard choices. Whether it’s the calculated chess match between Red Tornado and Black Adam or the raw, unapologetic strength radiating from Power Girl, each image reinforces the same idea: this is not a game being played lightly. Trust is fragile, power is undeniable, and every move made by this team carries consequences that could reshape the world from the inside out.

Speaking of teams, Ahmed, Henry, and Priyanto work very well together. The writing, story, and artwork in this series have been consistently strong and intriguing, and it’s hard to believe there’s only one issue left. This issue alone raises several questions that I hope are answered. There simply isn’t enough information or evidence to determine whether Red Tornado has been telling the truth or if he has been compromised. And if he has been compromised—how and why did it happen, and how can it be corrected? Henry does a magnificent job conveying emotion through the characters’ facial expressions and body language. His background art pops, and the action panels are very cool. Priyanto’s colors complement Henry’s artwork beautifully and make the images come alive.

(8/10) Justice League Red #5 is another great issue, but it feels like it ended too soon—especially with only one issue left in the series. I love this team and its members and hope we see more of them beyond this series. I need the lingering questions answered and to finally learn what the truth is.

This series is exactly what it was promoted to be: a tale about a covert superhero team thrust into a mission to stop the end of the world. However, the heroes haven’t really had time to become a true team or to fully trust and learn about one another. I really wish there were more issues in this series to flesh that out and allow readers to see them become a cohesive unit—DC Comics’ less-lethal version of Marvel’s X-Forceiiiii. Hopefully, the final issue is double-sized and concludes the series in a satisfying way.