The Bum’s Rush #26

The Crisis Is Upon Us (a.k.a. This Is The Big One, Folks) - Part One

As of this moment I have not yet made the weekly trip to Titan Comics for my much-needed fix of funny books. When I do go (most likely tomorrow afternoon) waiting for me in the tattered and beaten seven year old manila folder that houses the books from my weekly pull list will be Infinite Crisis #1, quite possibly one of the most anticipated books of the year. With that in mind I figured I’d do something a little bit different, dividing the article up into a two-part “before and after”.

The first part, called Pre-Crisis, will be written now, before I’ve even cracked the cover to Infinite Crisis #1. Here I’ll give you a rundown of what has come before, the events that have led up to this book and my impressions of what to expect from the buzz book of buzz books. An Infinite Crisis primer if you will.

Next week, in part two of the column, appropriately entitled Post-Crisis, I’ll discuss my reaction to the book. Not just opinions regarding story and art but on whether or not the book has lived up to the hype. And because I just can’t help myself, I’ll probably be making a few predictions as to what looms on the horizon for the next six issues of this seven-issue mini-series.

Be warned, there will most likely be some potential spoilers within.

Pre-Crisis (a.k.a. Your Guide to Infinite Crisis)

If you really want to talk about Infinite Crisis, it’s probably important, or at least noteworthy, to address exactly what the word Crisis means for the DC Universe and its characters. The term “Crisis” in relation to DC Comics first popped up in the sixties during several crossovers between the two biggest teams in the DCU, the Justice League and the Justice Society. At the time the Justice Society had not appeared in comics for quite a while having been made up of characters that DC had been forced to stop writing stories about years earlier, part of the Golden Age of comics. They were replaced at the advent of The Silver Age with brand new characters bearing similar names to those of their predecessors. Characters like the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and more. These new characters eventually joined together to form a new team of superheroes, The Justice League of America.

The Justice Society was dusted off and brought back in the pages of the Justice League comic book in a story called “Crisis on Earth Two”. The idea was that these WWII heroes existed in another dimension called, of course, Earth Two, with the Justice League residing on the central Earth One. Several more “Crisis on …” stories followed and after a number of years other alternate dimensions were added. Earth Three, where an evil Justice League called the Crime Syndicate had taken over the planet. Earth S was the home of characters from the Captain Marvel family of comics. A group of superheroes called The Freedom Fighters hailed from Earth X (not to be confused with the Marvel Comics series of the same name). There was even an Earth Prime, which was supposed to represent the “real world”, our world.

Alternate worlds on top of alternate worlds were added to DC Comics lore, eventually becoming a so-called “multiverse”. Eventually this “multiverse” became an editorial nightmare that made DC Comics almost impenetrable to new and old readers alike. So it was decided that a little house cleaning was in order. Thus DC published the first major “event” comic ever with their massive 12-issue series, Crisis on Infinite Earths. By the end of the series old characters had died, new characters were born and most importantly, there was no longer any multiverse. Everything was condensed into one single universe from which DC Comics could essentially start from scratch.

There were a few problems here and there as writers and editors desperately tried to create a coherent history encompassing all the various aspects of the DCU throughout the years, but by and large the problems of an impenetrable continuity had been solved in one fell swoop. Things seemed great for everybody. Then the Crisis reared its ugly head once more. This time though, the Crisis took a much more subtle approach. Rather than focusing on some amazingly disastrous cosmic event, readers were exposed to the dark side of their favorite heroes in the pages of Identity Crisis.

In Identity Crisis, while trying to solve the murder of a hero’s wife, it was revealed that, at a point in their past, certain members of the Justice League had decided to alter the minds of some of their worst foes. They did it not once, but several times throughout the years. And if that wasn’t bad enough an even bigger violation had occurred. You see, back in the day, when Batman discovered what his teammates were doing he threatened to expose their dirty little secret. Rather than let Batman tear down all their work they chose to alter his memory and make him forget the entire incident. The seeds were planted and a disturbing feeling of distrust began to creep its way into the very foundations of the most powerful relationships in the DCU.

But DC wasn’t done messing around with things yet. Shortly after Identity Crisis wrapped up it was announced that another, larger Crisis was looming on the horizon and that Identity Crisis had merely set the stage for everything that was yet to come. Earlier in the year the 80-page Countdown to Infinite Crisis was released. Countdown was the shot that started the race, a prequel of sorts that would lead into four separate mini-series that were to touch on four main aspects of the DCU and would eventually lead into an even larger story, the seven-issue Infinite Crisis mini-series.

There was The Rann/Thanagar War, which dealt with a massive cosmic war between two of the biggest alien races in the DCU. At the end of that book, instead of being resolved peacefully, the war between Rann and Thanagar has escalated out of control, threatening to encompass the entire universe.

Day of Vengeance saw the Spectre, the living embodiment of God’s wrath normally bonded with a host to give him a more human perspective, trying to make sense of his mission now that he no longer had a human host to anchor him. With some prodding by Eclipso, an agent of chaos, the Spectre declared war on magic in the DCU, determining it as the source of all the evils in the universe. By the end of that series the Spectre had succeeded only in breaking the ties that had previously bound magic into a controllable force, thus unleashing chaos upon the DCU.

In The OMAC Project, probably the most involved of all the minis, a covert organization known as Checkmate had come under the control of the madman, Maxwell Lord. Lord had managed to subvert one of Batman’s greatest creations, the watchdog satellite called Brother Eye, created to monitor all superhuman activity across the globe. Lord was convinced that all superhumans were a threat to the planet and used Brother Eye to create an army of over a million sleeper agents called OMACs (Omni Mind and Community), an army that was programmed to annihilate superhumans. It was revealed that Lord had even managed to take control of Superman and used him to attack the Justice League. In order to prevent Lord from controlling Superman again, Wonder Woman confronted the villain and snapped his neck. At the climax of the story Brother Eye unleashed every single OMAC upon the heroes. The OMACs were defeated but some two hundred thousand escaped and went into hiding with the now self-aware Brother Eye. On the final page Brother Eye unleashed an even deadlier weapon, broadcasting the footage of Wonder Woman murdering Maxwell Lord to every person on the planet, sending the ordinary citizens of the world into mass panic.

And finally, in Villains United, a group of the most powerful villains on the planet, led by Lex Luthor, gathered almost every single other villain in the DCU into a terrifying organization known as The Society. Using the idea of the Justice League as the ultimate boogieman thanks to their mind wiping antics years previous, Luthor managed to maintain a tenuous grip on this league of evil. But there were a few villains who refused to join the fight. Six to be precise. These outcasts, led by a mysterious benefactor known only as Mockingbird, were viewed as traitors by The Society and over the course of the series were repeatedly attacked while trying to throw a monkey wrench into Luthor’s plans. In the final issue of the series the six outlaw villains barely manage to escape an assault by The Society after the mysterious Mockingbird abandons them. Mockingbird himself is revealed to be none other than … Lex Luthor? Yes, it appears that the Luthor who has been running The Society is an imposter, possibly hailing from an alternate universe. The “false” Luthor has also been holding a captive named Pariah, a character who first appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, whom Luthor murdered in the final issue of this series.

Besides the four main mini-series there have been a multitude of tie-in’s and other books that provide clues to what may be coming in Infinite Crisis. While most of the tie-in’s were, overall, insignificant to the larger story there were two books which proved to be almost as important as the four main mini-series themselves. Namely the JLA story arc “Crisis of Conscience” (JLA #115 – 119) and JSA Classified story arc “Power Trip” (JSA Classified #1 – 4).

In “Crisis of Conscience” the Justice League was faced with six old villains, all of whom had their minds altered by the Justice League years before, returning, memories intact, to exact vengeance upon the team. In this very big, and yet very personal story, the team dealt with the villains and with the startling fact that they don’t entirely trust one another anymore. Near the end of the story the choice of altering the six villains minds was forced upon the League once more. The team became split when half voted to do it and the other half said no. In the end though the choice became a non-issue when Zatanna, the League’s most powerful user of magic and the woman who did the mind altering in the first place, refused to do it again and quit the team for good. But the story didn’t end there. It was discovered that one of the League’s oldest foes, the alien despot called Despero, was the one behind the villains regaining their memories and set them upon the JLA. After being forced to fight one another by the mind-controlling alien the team managed to defeat Despero. Then, well, then they called it quits. The League disbanded, no longer able to trust one another, or even themselves, to do the right thing. At the very end of the last issue, the Martian Manhunter, the League’s longest standing member, was back at the JLA’s headquarters on the moon trying to manage the task of rebuilding the League. He was visited by a mysterious figure in a red cape and then BOOM! The JLA’s headquarters was destroyed in a giant explosion.

At the start of “Power Trip” the connections to Infinite Crisis are not so clear. The Justice Society’s Power Girl is trying to discover her true origins. You see, back when there was still a multiverse, Power Girl resided on Earth Two and was the cousin of Superman. She was Earth Two’s version of Supergirl. When the multiverse ceased to exist Power Girl became a woman without a past. Over the years several different origins have been attached to Power Girl but none of them stuck. When the real Supergirl shows up Power Girl’s world, and powers, are thrown into turmoil. As she desperately searches for who she is Power Girl is bombarded by visions of different superhumans claiming to have the key to her mysterious background. First the Legion of Superheroes, then the Crime Syndicate and slew of others appear to Power Girl, each telling her a different story of where she comes from. The problem is no one else can see these people except for her. We soon find out that a forgotten supervillain called the Psycho-Pirate, a man who can control the emotions of others, has been manipulating all of her “visions”. You see, the Psycho-Pirate was an instrumental character in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and in the end was the only person who remembered the entire event, something that drove him insane. And, as revealed in the third chapter of “Power Trip", he still remembers everything and he seems certain that Power Girl, now his captive, is connected to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths in a big way.

There was also a mini-series called The Return of Donna Troy that had a number of clues tying into the upcoming series. But unless you’re a completist like me I don’t think it’s important enough to go into great detail. Suffice it to say, it was shown in that book that the multiverse may still be very much alive and there is something coming that forced even the godlike beings of the DCU to flee in terror.

So there you have it. There’s a massive war in space. Uncontrollable magic forces have been unleashed. The most powerful villains in the world are cooperating towards a single goal. The people of earth are afraid of their own protectors. The Justice League has been torn apart and none of the heroes fully trust one another anymore. The DCU is on very fragile ground and it seems like it’ll take only the slightest of nudges to send the whole thing crashing down to the ground.

While some people have said they are not too fond of this new, darker turn the DCU has taken I happen to think it’s absolutely necessary. This is a true challenge for these heroes, one that I think will leave a very lasting impression on them and their world. In the end those that survive will be much stronger and probably more entertaining characters than they were before. This is no ordinary crossover, but one that has far reaching effects that can be felt in just about every comic published by DC for the last six months and as such demands that cataclysmic, dark and world shatteringly bad things happen. Whenever a “Crisis” has been unleashed upon DC’s comic book universe it has always been accompanied by darkness, upheaval and in the end, massive change. It’s definitely an exciting time if you are a fan of this fictional world.

But above all these other happenings the biggest event hinted at so far is the possible return, in a very big way, of the DCU’s multiverse. It’s something that has been danced around and teased about and played with for years. But now it looks as if the stage is set for the multiverse to make its big comeback. Will it mean big things for the DCU? You bet it will. Will the writers and artists and editors behind this thing be able to control it once it’s unleashed? That’s where things get a little fuzzier. Let’s not forget, there was a reason this thing was done away with in the first place. But this time, coming at it with a plan of attack, maybe things won’t be so bumpy.

No matter what happens this is an event that has had one of the most massive buildups I’ve ever seen in terms of time, quality and overall cohesiveness. And you know what? It worked on me. I haven’t been so excited to read a mainstream comic in years. This is, or at least has the potential to be, a real event in the world of comics the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the very first big event in comics, the original universe-shattering Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Let’s just hope they don’t f*** it all up, huh? Cause if they do, well, you’re gonna read about it … next week.

Quick Bits

1. After having my work computer stolen and losing a bulk of material, not to mention the work we’ve been doing to get ready for Wizard World Texas, I had to put my semi-daily comic strip, Der Wundervolle Bean, on hold for about a month. Well last week I brought the strip back with a brand new storyline! Go check it out at www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean.
2. In a move that surprises absolutely no one, Geoff Johns has re-upped his exclusive contract with DC Comics for another three years.
3. I’m hoping that after Wizard World wraps I’ll be able to get back to writing in a big way, creating new comic scripts and short stories. If that happens I’m expecting to incorporate my adventures as an aspiring comic book writer into this weekly column. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
4. Joshua Middleton’s art on the Superman/Shazam: First Thunder mini-series is like a slice of fried gold. In other words, damn that’s a good lookin’ comic!
5. Gail Simone and John Byrne are off Action Comics as of issue 835.
6. In other news, John Byrne is a raging jackass. That’s not actually news but it’s always worth mentioning.
7. Greg Rucka is working on a brand new Atticus Kodiak novel!
8. DC Solicitations for January have been released.
    

NEXT WEEK: What else? POST-CRISIS!

Send me hate mail at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com

Read more stupid crap I write at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard

Check out my (semi) daily comic, Der Wundervolle Bean, at www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean

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