Manga Review: Batman and the Justice League Vol. 3 by Shiori Teshirogi
Quick recap: Rui Aramiya is the heir to a legacy of Shinto shrine priests and priestesses. A year ago, his mother Sayuri was injured in an explosion and went into a coma. Recently, Rui has started expressing strange powers, powers which villains such as the Joker and Lex Luthor have tried to capture Rui for. Batman and his allies in the Justice League have been protecting Rui, but not all the pieces have fit together.
The battle between Aquaman and Ocean Master concludes as Arthur is finally able to break through and emotionally connect with Orm by showing him his memories. Meanwhile, Batman confronts new villain Akurou and manages to crack his oni mask a bit. Turns out Akurou’s control over ley lines is at least partially dependent on the mask and the villain is forced to retreat. Oh, and Superman stops the tidal wave.
The battle then shifts to Wayne Manor, where Wonder Woman and Rui are having to deal with a rampaging Sayuri. She’s being manipulated by Sinestro, master of the yellow power ring and its ability to instill great fear. Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth and Rui’s partial awakening to his ley line legacy finally break through to Sayuri’s real self, and the woman at last awakens. Sinestro announces he’ll be showing up in person soon, leaves behind a piece of the fear monster Parallax, and scarpers.
The fear construct is blown apart by the just now arrived Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Earth, and his green power ring that works on willpower and courage. (This version of Hal also has a bit of Kyle Rayner in the design.) Sayuri announces that the next task for Rui lies in the Batcave!
Sinestro meets up with Akurou, though he’s not much impressed, and we are introduced to the rest of the Injustice League. There’s the previously mentioned Lex Luthor and Joker, plus Cyborg Superman, Reverse Flash, and Ares, God of War. Ocean Master is also a member, but seems to have resigned. The ley lines are the key to the Akashic Records, control of which will allow the villains to change Earth to their ideal world. (The fact that they have very different ideas about what an ideal world will look like is left hanging for the moment.)
Green Lantern guards the manor while Batman, Wonder Woman, Sayuri, Rui, and Alfred go to the Batcave. Batman decides that Rui is trustworthy enough to learn that he is also Bruce Wayne. Turns out that the Batcave is a natural ley line focus, and a place where Rui can awaken his full power.
Up top, Green Lantern is surprised when Sinestro doesn’t show up, but Reverse-Flash does. In this continuity, they haven’t fought before, so GL has some difficulty dealing with the lethal speedster.
Back in the cave, Rui enters the ley line confluence. He’s transported to the spirit world, which presents itself to him as his childhood home and temple, complete with his deceased grandmother. She gives him sage if oblique advice, and reveals that Rui must go to a certain sacred rock some distance away as part of his ordeal.
However, Akurou and Sinestro have teamed up to influence the spirit world, buffeting Rui with fear and self-doubt so that the boy will agree to only be a conduit for Akurou to use the power of the ley lines.
We get more information on Akurou this time. As heavily telegraphed in previous volumes, he’s someone close to Rui who feels that he, not anyone else, should have been the heir to the family bloodline powers. He claims to have been poorly treated by the Aramiya family, but that might just be him overreacting to not being the favorite Chosen One. And it’s hinted that in addition to his festering resentment, he had a personal tragedy that he could theoretically have averted if he had powers.
So he began a campaign to undercut Rui’s confidence and found ways to partially tap into the ley lines in preparation for this master plan to steal the power outright.
Cyborg Superman is an unusual choice for the Injustice League, but understandable–the usual choice of Bizarro would be a no-go for “ideal world” motivation, but Hank Henshaw has had the kind of life where he would most assuredly like to rearrange the world. Ares is even more out there–he’s much more of a mastermind who has minions, not someone who’d be willing to treat human type villains as equals. (Note that “mastermind” doesn’t actually require him to be very bright, just that he is the one with the big plan.)
The art style has the tendency to make all the Justice Leaguers look younger than usual, early twenties at best. And Orm is outright a Saint Seiya-type bishounen (pretty boy).
The plot structure makes it mostly likely there’s only going to be two more volumes, but that would mean some of the villains getting shortchanged for screen time.
Still, if you want to see the Justice League in a manga style, this series delivers that.
