JSA vs. Kobra #6 - Engines of Faith, (Part Six): Shedding Skin

ENGINES OF FAITH, SHEDDING SKIN
JSA vs. KOBRA #6

Published: 11th November 2009
Cover Date: January 2010
Cover Artists: Gene Ha
Writer: Eric Trautmann
Penciler: Don Kramer
Inker: Michael Babinski
Colourist: Art Lyon
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Editors: Rachel Gluckstern

Introduction

The problem with picking an arbitrary point to look at comics is that you'll always get odd little things like this where you get to look at the tail end of a series from another decade. In this case, this is part six of a mini-series about the JSA fighting Kobra, duh!

I could easily skip this for the next and move it to the previous decade, but just for a little variety, I figured I'd cover it here. Strangely the fact that is not hosted on DC Infinite, hence harder to find online makes it even more tempting to cover here and now. So let's go...

Sypnosis

We start in media res if you could call that for the last issue of a run, with three Kobra minions charging invaders of their Majorca. Spain base. The invade however are the entirety of the jSA, with Pee Gee from and centre and ready to kick ass. The more senior of the three minions is ready to fight and die for his boss but the other two are less keen and knock him out before surrendering. 

Our villain being one of those villains has according to Mr. Terrific played them to gain time to put whatever scheme he planned into action. This is in a scene with Pee Gee and Mr. Terrific talking in some sort of control room, the only members of the JSA so far to have any speaking lines. It's kind of nice after wading through a load of background appearances to see Kara front and centre from the very beginning, of the end of the plot! Apparently, Kobra is using Checkmate assets, the secret UN organization that tends to handle the Suicide Squad among others. This whole Checkmate connection causes Kara to mistrust Holt, something personally I don't know if it's just for this series or part of DC plotlines from this era. 

Kobra is taking on new recruits and carrying out operations throughout the US so we see a montage page of the JSA taking down various ploys of Kobra. They get caught up in saving the president from a Kobra attack, which seems to be a distraction for an assault on a Gateway Hotel, Washington DC where the Secretary General of the UN is speaking tonight. They open up with a rather neat, if yucky, trick of having people vomiting up sneaks, they're really married to the theme before some of them turn into snake people. They kill the Secretary-General, who has a name but it's really unimportant here. before teleporting away and making the JSA look like chumps.

And that's it Kobra is reduced but not out and the JSA failed to save the target of the attack. But in good news, a woman who seems to be doing a Domino impression, Sasha Bordeaux from Checkmate, wakes up with her nanotech system scrubbed of a nasty AI and she gets to smooch with Mr Terrific. 

Quickly doing the wiki it seems that this is her last appearance, and also despite being set up as a potential villain waiting in the wings, this is also the last appearance of Kobra, making his entire Xantos plot basically useless!

Final Summary

Despite this massive plot that Kobra seems to be masterminding it all seems rather slight an issue. it doesn't help that the JSA doesn't seem to be doing much with only two characters getting any major lines, Mr. Terrific and as it happens Pee Gee and two others (Stargirl and Magog of all people) a single line each.

Maybe this is one of those cases where going straight to the end harms the story as a whole, the villain wins and gets exactly what they want. That said it doesn't fill me with rage only a moment of mild disappointment before going on to the next comic.