(Spoilers ahead) “A Thousand Little Things” opens in space. Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz are out to stop an asteroid. Jessica comments on the looks and attitudes she feels the other League members are giving her. Wonder Woman looks at her as a child, Cyborg dumbed the mission specs down, and Batman would rather jump off a sky scraper than answer one of her questions. Over all she believes that the League has to take a minute to remember that she is not Hal Jordan. Her momentary distraction almost costs her life until Simon blasts the asteroid. Simon reports in to Cyborg that the asteroid has been taken care of and the two return to the Watchtower for their interview with Lois. Again, Jessica is nervous and she just wants Lois to reprint the last “lame” interview she did before.
Inside the Tower, Superman comments that he cannot believe that Perry allowed Lois to write a “puff” piece on the Justice League. Lois just asks how often she’d gets to hang out with her favorite person while he is at work and also Jon could come up without super-villain interference. The Lanterns arrive and Simon high fives Jon and clanks Cyborg in the shoulder. He even high fives Wonder Woman. When he tries to high five Batman he ends up just shaking his hand and saying sir. Lois talks to the Lanterns and she prepares to leave with Jon to take him to school and promises to call Clark when she is in the office. Cyborg prepares to transport the two when he detects an unidentified life form aboard the Tower. Simon asks if it is left over of the contagion incident which can be read about in the current Trinity story line. Cyborg says that they are nearly microscopic aliens and they are covering the Lanterns. Jessica again freaks out and starts shouting to get them off and she immediately wants to go home. Cyborg finds the bugs are all over the Watchtower. The Tower is put on quarantine, tapping all inside except Flash and Aquaman. On coms the two agree that the bugs cannot be introduced to earth.
Batman, Superman, and Lois start to investigate. At first Batman questions Lois’s ability until she discovers an Antarctic krill that seems to mimic this swarm. Batman is impressed.
Simon is frustrated that they brought these creatures in. He throws a chair and sits on the floor to mope. Wonder Woman comes in and tells him to come with her. Jessica is taking a shower and we see one of the bugs on the back of her neck. It grows a little then it looks like it burrows into her neck. Wonder Woman asks Jessica if she is ready after she gets dressed. Jon plays a video game on his phone when Cyborg comes in. He notices the game and then blows up a virtual game. Cyborg and Jon have a lot in common, but Jon moans about his dad always on his case about screen time. Cyborg just says that dads are going to be dads and you just gotta be cool being you.
Wonder Woman conducts a training session with the Lanterns. The two attack her but she counters knocking both of them down. The three are interrupted by the bugs, they form an entity in the training deck and the three Leaguers start to fight. The others arrive to find the fight and they join in, leaving Lois and Jon in the corridor. The team’s efforts are fruitless and Lois shouts that the behavior of the bugs is hive behavior. Batman orders the team to find the queen but he notices something in the battle. The creatures are mirroring Jessica, they are looking at her as their queen. Superman and Batman moves in to separate her from the swarm but they only get angry and start to cover her as she is freaking out. Superman and Batman calm her telling her to control herself to control them. The League is able to contain the creatures and and Jessica inside a jar construct from Baz. Jessica is still scared but Cyborg detects a pheromone coming from her. She taps her neck and finds the bug that was fused to her.
Outside the Lanterns still with he bugs contained, now in an ant farm find an asteroid to deposit them. They leave them there and Jessica says that they did well today.
Inside the Tower, the Lanterns celebrate and Wonder Woman tells them both they did well. Jessica thanks her and also thanks her for the training earlier. Wonder Woman tells her that she was not training them, she was training with them. The two are worthy opponents to help her sharpen her skills, this thrills Jessica and she flies out yelling in joy. Next issue when strikes the black shield.
This was a one and done issue which is rare in comics today. Not a lot of action here other than the final battle, but a lot of character pieces.
I admit that I have not been keeping up with Superman so I was surprised when Perry was mentioned, I am assuming it is Perry White of the Daily Planet. It appears that at least Lois is working there but I am not sure what her last name is. They used to go by the last name of White and I do not know what is going on with the New 52 Lois who is Superwoman at the moment. I have a lot to catch up on with the Super books.
The Green Lantern angle, I am more familiar with. I just finished the first trade and it was full of this characterization of Jessica Cruz. It got kind of old and it quickly got old here with her doubting herself. It was good to see her get her confidence up, but that is a common trope in the Green Lanterns book. Jessica doubts herself does something amazing gains confidence and then doubts herself again. It is reminiscent of the introduction of Kyle Rayner in the Post Crisis DCU however. I like to see growth with the characters not the constant cycle played over and over again just with different situations and threats.
The art here is good. The colors are vibrant and I liked the design of the swarm when it formed a humanoid form. The issue here is the shower scene. I am not sure if the bug was always on the back of Jessica’s neck or did it burrow inside of her. She easily picked the bug off of her which makes me think that it was on her and not in her. From the last panel of the shower scene, there is a clear hole in the back of her neck.
Overall it was good, but not great. It may just have been a filler issue to calm the characters down until the next big crisis.
[wp-review id=”38091″]
