Judging A Book By Its Cover - JSA #85

Usually a George Perez cover is a thing of beauty (it certainly was the best part of Infinite Crisis #7, which I'll lambast this weekend, count on it). This one though, I'm not too sure about. It attempts to convey a certain mood the same way his chilling cover to Avengers v3 #19 did (the return of Ultron), but it sort of falls flat to me. It's like he couldn't be bothered to do a "real" cover and simply did an outline of the five heroes involved, leaving the rest to colorist Tom Smith (who's duly credited on the cover itself, next to Perez's signature). Even Smith didn't put in too much effort though, merely going for a greenish-blue glow. The lack of background isn't so much unsettling as it is boring. As covers go, not an eye-catcher nor a page-turner.

It's fairly representative of the story inside, which is competent and all, but not altogether thrilling. I had expected more of this, to be honest. I wanted the Gentleman Ghost to be spotlighted in a fast-paced, exciting romp, but it's far more middling than that, which can't be helping my favorite obscure DC villain. Like ghosts themselves, I predict that in the end, this arc will just fade away...