September, 1987 (22 Pages) Cover Artists: Tom Grindberg & Josef Rubenstein Writer: Gerry Conway Penciler: Keith Giffen Inker: Vince Colletta Letterer: Rick Parker Colorist: George Roussos Editor: Howard Mackie Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

After defeating Black Justice (see JUSTICE #10), our hero finds himself wandering into a small town, trying to recover from the battle. Hounds watch from the shadows as Justice enters a small store run by an old man.

The Hounds attack, allowing the old man to escape. Justice finds himself outnumbered and jumps through the store’s window, blasting stored oil cans as the Hounds pass by them.

Justice heads through the town, memories of the visions from his travel through the desert flashing before his eyes -- the most prominent of which is that of a very wounded Webstral hovering nearby.

Two cops see Justice and believe he is a vagrant. Justice runs with the cops in pursuit. He throws a shield in front of them and slips into a van, packed with goods, so that he may rest and heal.

Webstral informs him that his aura is corrupted and his powers are no longer pure. He tells him of the battle on Farside, his emotions feeding the minions of Winter with power. Webstral feeds him the visions of what has happened -- that his King’s head now rests atop a spear, the Queen is captured, and the forces of Spring lay dead.

Justice listens as the driver of the truck gets out, and decides now is a good time to leave, quietly climbing down from the back. Beneath his feet he sees a newspaper: The Los Angeles Times. He remembers the city as being where he fought Damon Conquest before (see JUSTICE #4).

The last memories of his desert travel surface, revealing that Webstral sacrificed himself to make Justice pure again.

Two punks ask for change, only for Justice to see their corrupt auras and judge them, using his sword and leaving a pile of smoldering ashes. His powers are purified at last.

I thought this story was absolutely terrible when I first read it. How wrong I was! While a far cry from the last issue, it still captures the wealth of the feeling that's come from the best of the stories to date. Here, we have the end of the world of Spring, told of in a flashback-within-a-flashback, and what an ending it is. Keith Giffen's art gives the right impression of the alien worlds here, and actually made me feel something for these poor people. Then there's Webstral's purification ritual, followed by, at the very end, the revelation that Justice's sword power is functional again, which is a given. A change of focus happened in this story, as now Justice turns his dealings of Justice more to the Earth, to prevent Dad from turning the planet into a world just like the Winterland. It's been done before, this focus change, but now it seems more permanent than before. Plus, this is the last time we truly see the alien worlds as they were intended to be (as the status quo changes in #15). Rating: 3.5 Bolts (out of 5)

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