Opening Note: My thanks to Wikipedia, the MoviePoopShoot comic section, and all the other sources that allowed me to write/compose this article. I would also like to note that I am not a professional writer, and that any dislikes or disdains said in the article are mine alone and up to the reader to decide if they share.
Warning: This is a VERY LOOOOONNNNGGGGGG explanation. You have been warned. I wish that I didn't have to compose such a diatribe to explain one story…but this is comics. It is the nature of the beast, and sadly necessary.
There was a biography once about Hitler's official moviemaker (she made the (in)famous propaganda film Triumph of the Will) Leni Riefenstahl. The content is unimportant here: what matters is the title, which was 'The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl.'
That title is apt for comics too. They are a wonderful horrible medium.
They are wonderful because you can tell stories in comics that are impossible in any other medium, be they books, radio, television, movies, cartoons, internet cartoons, plays, operas, sporting events, and anything else you can think of. In comics is a unique doorway to other worlds our minds can touch, if but for a moment, and what a wondrous world it is.
They are horrible because this doorway is fickle. Comics are, above all else, a medium of impermanence: one switch in writer or artist and suddenly the comic that was on top of the world yesterday is lining the litter box today. One advantage that books and Japanese manga tend to have is that they are almost always written, from beginning to end, by one person. If they weren't, things would get extremely messy. Do you think Harry Potter would have the level of popularity he enjoys if each book was written by a new author? Would Inuyasha be better or worse if Rumiko Takahashi took a break and let someone else take the reigns? Would you trust anyone to write more Lord of the Rings books now that J.R.R Tolkien has passed on?
Looking at the average comic character, who may have had dozens if not hundreds of writers involved with him, and examining his history in chronological order, can make you sit back and go 'WTF were people thinking?'. And it gets worse if writers have a fanboy adulation or a severe dislike of whoever they happen to be penning, or even worse, don't understand the character. And let's not forget the almighty retcon, short for 'retroactivity continuity', in which a character or characters' past is mucked around with for the sake of a new story. I'm sure plenty of comic fans want to forget what J. Michael Straczynski did to Gwen Stacy, though if one does research that was much the fault of Marvel's editors as him.
In short, comics are a complicated business, and most of the complication is needless yet happens anyway. And that's just one character.
Imagine trying to figure out a whole universe, created by, added too, and overloaded by potentially THOUSANDS of writers.
Got a headache yet?
Now factor in the outside, real world reasons why these things are happening ie what is usually politics, prejudices, egotism, and greed that is causing all kinds of whiplash effects as we try and figure out who's alive, who's dead, and who's now evil.
You can go take an aspirin now, I won't go anywhere.
Jumping into a world like this can be overwhelming, especially if you've become interested due to a cartoon series, where things are often simplified, or a movie, where things are simplified even more. You wonder how something that seemed so simple in the medium that introduced you to it became so complicated. And since comics companies are owned by larger businesses that often worship the almighty dollar, they see no profit in publishing cliff notes to summarize stories. You want to know? Go buy the book!
And considering the sheer background needed to understand this story, I didn't want that to happen to you.
So here's the history my reader. It's long and complicated and may make you want to give up comics entirely, but here it is: how we got to this story.
So, as Stan Lee Might say…Just Imagine.
I. He Turns All His Weaknesses Into Strengths…
In June 1938, it appeared. Its title was Action Comics #1, and on its cover was something quite extraordinary. A man lifting a car above his head, as easily as if it were made of paper, and smashing it into a wall, as the occupants of the car, assumed to be criminals, fled in sheer terror. In the release of this magazine, the superhero was born.
Sure, there were those who preceded him. The likes of the Shadow and Doc Savage had graced the pulp magazines of the time, and heroes like Zorro and The Scarlet Pimpernel had swung and dueled through their own adventures in novels and pulp magazines as well. But while these heroes may have been more then average men, and may have worn costumes and protected the innocent, they were in the end just extraordinarily gifted human beings.
Superman, who appeared on that cover, was the first that could truly be said to 'possess powers beyond that of mortal men', which was fitting as he was an alien. With Superman, a new kind of character was born: the superhero, who possessed amazing powers and used them in the service of good and righteousness.
It caught faster then any inferno, and Superman did not have to wait long for any company. Within months there were dozens of superheroes, with powers ranging from the original to the ridiculous to the magnificent in their own right to the imitation, and in some cases no powers at all (what separated the Batman from his earlier brothers in the Shadow and Zorro had yet to be made clear, as terms such as 'metahumans' had yet to appear in comics, but he was also termed a 'superhero', the first of his breed of redone vigilantes).
Of course, the medium was in its infancy, and the moral compass of the hero had yet to be defined, nor had the proper storytelling structure been clarified. Superman spent his first few adventures fighting racketeers and wife-beaters, while Batman, whose character would later be defined to hold human life sacred above everything else, thought nothing of using guns (an act later retconned to be abhorrent to his means) to kill villains if it was necessary, and in his first adventure actually allowed the villain of the piece to fall into a vat of acid to his death, with the comment 'a fitting end for his kind.' While the heroes were sworn to fight evil, the acts of good and the acts of evil had yet to be fully separated.
But the heroes were about to get a blackness so dark anything they did in retrospect would shine, no matter what it was.
Real Life I: World War II
In the Second World War, virtually every hero found an enemy to fight, as the shadow of Hitler loomed over the world, and seemingly seemed destined to embrace it. People were afraid, and when people are afraid, they will fight back in any way they can. And for the writers who wrote the comics of the time, unable to fight in the war usually due to physical defects, they fought back in the comics, as every single superhero turned their attention to Nazi Germany and the supposed rampart sabotage and terrible things it was doing on the home front. It worked, which perhaps was inevitable: why create villains when the dark spectre of Nazi Germany, and later Imperialist Japan, provided an endless array of foes to battle? Especially when it could serve as propaganda at the same time, with the enemies of American drawn as grotesque caricatures if not outright monsters (the Japanese bore an especially heavy brunt of these, for the Americans didn't much care for them sneak attacking Pearl Harbor) and the heroes of the Allies seen to be able to smash through them and their (often highly fictionalized plots and war machines), because they were fighting for freedom, and freedom is the mightiest force of all!
In World War II, the era that comic historians later termed the Golden Age truly began, as several of comicdom's most famous characters were created: Captain America swung from the pages of Marvel, while the first incarnations of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman emerged from DC, as well as the first versions of lesser known characters such as Hawkman, the Atom, The Blue Beetle, Plastic Man, and one of Jerry Siegal's, the man who co-created Superman, lesser known creations: The Spectre, who began as an attempt to top even the powers of Superman and ultimately evolved beyond a typical hero to one of the mightiest entities of the DC World, showing his face usually only in true crisis' and when vengeance was needed. Fawcett Comics came out with their own hero, Captain Marvel, a hero that was more then a little derived from Superman (and after Fawcett folded, would join Superman in the DC world as DC acquired the company's properties), as other comic companies, attempting to capture lightning in a bottle, would create dozens of their own characters. Some would survive all the way to the modern day, while some would appear once or twice and be forgotten afterward, but at the time they all had plenty to do, as the heroes battled the Nazis in stories, in propaganda, in movie serials and radio shows, and anything else they could find. Soldiers were sent comics as gifts and as encouragement, even as the number of heroes continued to multiply like rabbits. For all its flaws, it was a golden age.
And then the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and everything changed.
Real Life II: Seduction of the Innocent
As the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing, and with the end of World War II, that became readily apparent in the comics industry. With the Axis gone, virtually all heroes found themselves out in the cold in terms of who to fight: without the ready made foes of Hitler and Hirohoto, there really didn't seem any reason to have superpowered humans running around. They'd fought for freedom and won it, now what? Secondly, with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a new power had entered the real world, one that could destroy cities and lay waste to all life as effectively as any Superman could were he real and was he inclined to. Third, and perhaps more importantly, tastes had changed. The public is fickle, and superhero comics had simply fallen out of favor. New comics, such as love, comedy, western, and horror were taking their place.
It's the last one that's the most important, for as the 40's gave way to the 50's it nearly sounded the death knell for comics entirely.
His name was Dr. Frederic Wertham, and for his time, he actually had surprisingly modern views, including viewpoints on black people that would have gotten you shot in some places in the States. His job at the time of the early 50's, an extraordinarily repressed decade if there ever was, was to treat homosexuals, who were then considered to be mentally ill for their choices. Wertham found, through his interviewing of young homosexual men, that a lot of them identified with Batman and Robin, and their 'relationship'.
However, Wertham was an educated man. He understood the subtleties of such viewpoints and feelings, and how they actually related to what was appearing in comics at the time.
He also knew that would never go over with the parents of the time. They needed to be spoken to in a different language. For his own reasons, which to this day are incomprehensible to me, he decided to do so.
Seduction of the Innocent, the book that resulted from this choice, was released in 1954. It warned that comic books were a bad influence on youth and a leading cause of juvenile delinquency, that Batman and Robin glorified gay relationships, that Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a Sapphic paragon that also glorified bondage (though he may have actually had something there, but that's another story) and who spewed Feminist nonsense about what women could be, that horror comics showing violent and scary images would bring about the downfall of society, and so on and so on. It was junk psychiatry if there ever was, blaming a boogeyman that would later shift to rock and roll, television, video games, rap music, and Janet Jackson's partially exposed for half a second breast, a boogeyman that would instantly turn children into sadistic rapists and killers if they were exposed to it. And as these things have a habit of doing, it was accepted wholeheartedly by parents unqualified and uneducated enough to understand the true meanings behind such a claim and whipped into a hysteria that caused newly formed groups to demand censorship of the evil, perverted comics.
Most companies collapsed, and Marvel and DC, the big two then and now, barely survived. It also had the effect of utterly killing off the horror field, as well as putting all but the most popular superheroes and villains on ice and in limbo, as comics now had to be examined and censured by the newly formed Comic Code Authority so that said heroes and villains did not demonstrate the evil subversive messages Wertham had claimed.
The results are quite obvious if one looks at 50's comics today. Batman, a grim brooding avenger of crime, was dragged into the daylight, deputized by the police, and went around smiling as he was given a Batwoman to try and alleviate the comments that he and Robin were gay (for proof of the success of this effort, please see every first joke ever made about Batman and Robin to this day). On top of that, with the horror field dead, science fiction was becoming popular, and as a result characters such as the aforementioned Batman went from protecting his city and battling criminals and villains to going on space trips, meeting aliens, and getting turned into everything from a 'Merman' Batman to a 'Negative' Batman.
There is a reason most comic fans these days pretend the 50's never happened. If you want a first hand look, feel free to scroll over to Superdickery Dot Com.
Fortunately, things were about to get better. In some aspects anyway…
II. As Bright As Sterling Silver…
However, the science fiction aspect that had become all the rage did allow for something good to happen: while Batman may have had to go gallivanting around with men on Mars when he should have been knocking heads in Gotham, it allowed new DC editor Julius Schwartz to get the idea of re-introducing forgotten DC heroes in new forms with new science fiction-esque origins. It began with a new Flash, and after that met with success, a new Green Lantern swiftly followed. New science fiction versions of Hawkman and the Atom quickly followed. Schwartz was on a roll…having no idea he was setting up one of the greatest problems to ever plague comics: the demon known as continuity. But that comes a little later, for at the moment virtually no one was paying attention to what happened in comics story to story. This was a severe problem, especially with Superman, whose writers were essentially never told just where they should place limits when it came to his powers, resulting in him gaining a new (and as they went on, often ridiculous) power for seemingly every situation ('What if he could freeze stuff with his breath?' 'SURE!' 'What if he could perform super-ventriloquism?' "RIGHT ON!" 'What if he could somehow use his heat vision to turn water into acid?' "GROOVY!"), and when he wasn't gaining new powers, he was getting new friends. Far from being the Last Son of Krypton, Superman was soon joined by his cousin Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who had also escaped from Krypton. And before that he had been joined by Krypto the Superdog. And would soon be joined by Streaky The Supercat. And Comet the Superhorse. And Beppo the Supermonkey. (What, did Superman's father cram a whole zoo in that capsule?). And also, there was the bottle city of Kandor, where had somehow been blasted off the exploding planet Krypton when it blew, but survived by building a dome and floating in space…until the villain Brainiac found it and shrunk it down to model size: it was filled with Kryptonians too, who all had Superman's powers should they re-enlarge and head out onto Earth. And let's not forget kryptonite, the only substance that could harm and kill Superman (save magic, of course), who started out with green kryptonite and quickly got one for every color of the rainbow, as well as everyone and their mother having some (Sci-fi writer Larry Niven, in his comical essay 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex', quite accurately remarked "It has been estimated, from the startling tonnage of kryptonite fallen to Earth since the explosion of Krypton, that the planet must have outweighed our entire solar system.").
But for all that nonsense going it, no one was noticing it. Something else was about to get their attention.
Because as the 60's arrived, over at Marvel Comics, in response to the renewed success DC was having with superheroes, publisher Marvin Goodman asked a certain writer to come up with a new superhero team to get in on the act. And since said writer was planning on changing careers, his wife encouraged him to experiment and write a story HE preferred, since he had nothing to lose.
That writer was Stan Lee. The comic he came up with was the Fantastic Four. With it, the Silver Age of Comics truly arrived.
Lee wrote his new heroes with a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes that were typically written for pre-teens. His heroes could have bad tempers, melancholy fits, vanity, greed, etc. They bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, and even were sometimes physically ill. Before him, superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no problems: Superman was so powerful that nobody could harm him, and Batman was a billionaire in his secret identity. In doing so, Lee tapped into something in his readers: while reading about idealized paragons may have been good for a thrill, there was more substance in a hero that the reader could relate with, a truth that perhaps had no better definition in the last issue of a canceled comic series called Amazing Fantasy, on which a red and blue garbed figure, one arm carrying a gangster and the other swinging on a line through the air, boldly declared that while people might mock the timid teenager Peter Parker, they would soon marvel at the awesome might of Spiderman.
Lee's creations (though they were usually co created with someone else, such as the equally legendary Jack Kirby, Steve Dikto, and Bill Everett), which soon also include The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, the Avengers, and the X-Men, brought superheroes back to comics, where they have dominated ever since. However, the resurgence was more for Marvel then DC, something that would happen a few more times throughout history. Over in DC, the 60's would be more defined by camp, or more precisely the immense amount of popularity that would return to Batman, and the company in general, with the release of the mid 60's Batman TV show. But the less said about Adam West in his powder-blue outfit with his paunch and overacting, complete with "WHACK! POW! CRACK!" and dancing the Batusi, the better.
Because some long time readers were beginning to ask questions, like, what happened to the Flash and Green Lantern who showed up around World War II? And speaking of World War II, that was nearly twenty years over, why hadn't the heroes aged?
The answer could have been so simple…but it wasn't
III. When Worlds Collide
When you can move really fast, reality can go funny. And so Barry Allen, the Flash created in the late 50's, found this out firsthand when he was running really fast one day and ended up tearing through dimensions. He ended up on Earth…except in THIS Earth, the Flash was a man named Jay Garrick…the Flash who had been created around World War II. And oh yes, there was also another Superman, whose name was Kal-L instead of Kal-EL, and a Batman (whose name was still Bruce Wayne, thankfully), and a Wonder Woman, and older copies of all the DC heroes. This was Earth-2, which was what we were watching during the World War II comics, and the comics we read now (now being the 60's) were Earth-1, where the heroes started their careers later in time and hence haven't aged. That makes sense, right?
In other words, the Silver Age DC Heroes lived on Earth-1. The Golden Age versions lived on Earth-2. On Earth-1 there was the Justice League, on Earth-2 the Justice SOCIETY. On Earth-2 there wasn't anyone created during the Silver Age, like J'onn J'onzz aka the Martian Manhunter, or The Green Lantern Corps. Two worlds, each containing a set of heroes from a different time.
Ok, it somewhat makes sense.
Except it just couldn't stop there.
Once you've started exploring alternate dimensions, it can become rather hard to stop. And in the real world, when you are buying bankrupt comic companies and adding their characters to your own company, yet not wanting to explain 'If these heroes were doing hero stuff at the same time, how come Superman and co never met them' with a simple 'Because they just didn't', it gets even worse.
Earth-3 swiftly emerged. This was different though, as this universe contained EVIL versions of Earth-1 heroes, as it took place in a realm where history was 'backwards': Christopher Columbus was an American who discovered Europe; Britain fought and won its freedom from the United States in the Revolutionary War; President John Wilkes Booth was assassinated by actor Abraham Lincoln; the United States flag had "reversed" colors (black stars on a red background, and alternating blue and black stripes); and so on. Here, the evil Ultraman (Superman), Owlman (Batman), Superwoman (Wonder Woman), Power Ring (Green Lantern), and Johnny Quick (The Flash, not be confused with Johnny Quick the World War II speedster hero on Earth-1) ruled the world as the Crime Syndicate of America, while the sole hero was genius Alexander Luthor, and his love Lois Lane.
And it just did not stop, as the 60's and 70's saw the rise of Earth-4, Earth-6, Earth-12, Earth-A, Earth-B, Earth-C, Earth-C-Minus, Earth-S, and Earth-X. No, I made none of those up. A notable one was Earth-Prime, which was supposedly 'our' world, where the DC world characters were just people in comic books. However, Earth-Prime treaded into metafictional concepts as the Flash of Earth-1 would occasionally 'visit' Earth-Prime to talk with real life DC editor Julius Schwartz. And on Earth-Prime, just before the end, a young Clark Kent (not the same Clark of Earth-1) discovered he had superpowers and became Superboy.
By the time the 80's arrived, it was clear the end was coming, as the solution had become the problem. There were now so many Earths that it was virtually impossible to keep track of who belonged where, especially when they were introducing their own new heroes and crossing over with each other. Not to mention the fact that after 50 years a lot of the DC characters were in a big mess. The lack of any restraint on Superman's powers by the people writing him over the decades had resulted in the character becoming an invincible god who could never be hurt, could always have a power for the situation, and whose enemies only existed as jokes. Batman's past was a seesaw ride as the vigilante went from violent to happy to campy back to violent with a hint of broody. You had to be a genius to make any sense out of Wonder Woman's tangled continuity. And so on. The machine had become mammoth and clogged, and a restart was needed. And since DC's 50th anniversary was coming up, there was a perfect chance to do so.
It was time for a crisis.
IV. Crisis on Infinite Earths
It was supposed to be the solution, once again: a 12 issue maxiseries that would finally sort all the complications of the DC Universe out, make the company more accessible to new readers, and shake the DC world to its core. It, along with Marvel's Secret Wars, would also spawn the concept of company-wide storylines. It was the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and its storyline went thusly.
You may want to grab a snack.
The Background: Billions of years ago, there was just one universe, in which lay the planet Oa. It was the base for a species of immortal humanoid who would later serve as the Guardians of the Universe. One of them was named Krona, a scientist, who was obsessed with observing the creation of the universe, despite an Oan legend that said discovering that secret would cause a great calamity. Krona created a machine that allowed him to see into the moment of creation. Somehow, his experiment disrupted the process of creation, with terrible consequences. While this consequence had been established before, a retcon added the fact that his experiment caused the universe to split, forming the many alternative universes in which all the Earths rested, creating in its stead a multiverse. A multiverse that was not supposed to exist, at that. It also led to the creation of an anti-matter universe, which stood alone among all the other universes, which were positive matter. And in one universe, Earth-1, due to these events, a being known as the Monitor was born (a gimpy name, yes, but the name 'Watcher' had been taken by Marvel back in the 60's) on the moon of Oa, and in the evil anti-matter universe, on the moon of the main planet of that world, dubbed 'Qward', his opposite was born at the same time, the evil Anti-Monitor. The two beings were instantly aware of each other, and proceeded to battle for a million years, but all they did against each other canceled each other out, and at the end of their stalemate went into a state of inertia for nine million years.
In more modern times, the alien scientist Kell Mossa performed an experiment similar to the one Krona attempted long ago. The end result was the reawakening of both the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor, and also caused the Anti-Monitor to learn of the existence of Mossa's planet, which made him send waves of anti-matter that resulted in the destruction of the entire world. Mossa survived (unbeknownst to him, through the intervention of the Anti-Monitor's benevolent counterpart, the Monitor) and acquired the ability (which was also his curse) of immortality and being invincible from harm, as well as the power to travel from one alternate Earth to another, but only when he was pulled there by extreme danger to witness the destruction of said Earth by the Anti-Monitor, who had discovered that by destroying a positive matter universe, he increased the power of his own anti-matter universe. His goal became clear: the Anti-Monitor had to destroy every single positive matter universe to triumph, and he promptly rebuilt his army, taking over Qward and using the warriors of the planet, known as the Thunderers, as his own private army, as well as creating terrible Shadow Demons from the elite of the Thunderers. Mossa took the new name of Pariah as he was forced to watch the Anti-Monitor destroy these universes, seemingly in penance for his experiment that awoke the Anti-Monitor to this in the first place. In reality, he was serving as the Monitor's eyes and ears on the progress of his evil counterpart, for with every positive matter universe that was destroyed, the Monitor grew weaker. Pariah never knew this, and spent untold years watching the destruction, as the Anti-Monitor used his vast cosmic powers to annihilate the Earths…one…by one…by one…
The Story Itself: Crisis on Infinite Earths began as Pariah finds himself on Earth-3, witnessing the destruction of the world and the universe of the Crime Syndicate. In a parallel to Superman's origin, the hero Alexander Luthor and his wife Lois Lane, even as their universe is vanishing, send their infant child Alex Luthor Jr off, not to another planet but to another universe. However, Alex's capsule is buffeted by the forces destroying his universe before he can cross over, where he is retrieved by Lyra, an orphan rescued by the Monitor for reasons known only to him. Known as Harbinger, with the power to split herself into multiple bodies, she served as his assistant for such tasks, as the Monitor believed Alex Luthor Jr would be useful in the upcoming final battle: only a handful of worlds remained and the Anti-Monitor was fast approaching them. Alex Luthor Jr did indeed prove to be special, as the powers that buffered him as he escaped his destructing universe granted him a body composed of BOTH matter and anti-matter, and command over each form of said matter (though it also accelerated his aging, as he swiftly becomes a young man within a few days). Meanwhile, the Anti-Monitor recruited a DC villain known as the Psycho-Pirate, who could command and control emotions, to assist him in his final push to destroy all the positive matter universes.
The Monitor himself had appeared in several DC comics over the past few years, where he had been presented as a simple weapons broker to villains. In reality, this was one of the final steps in his last gambit against his opposite, as it was to test both heroes and villains to see which could aid him. As the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter wave began approaching the main Earths of the Multiverse, The Monitor had Harbinger track down said heroes and villains the Monitor needed to fight his foe. He explained to them what was going on, and sent them to protect giant tower-like devices that he had created on several places across space and time; his plan was to use this massive devices to merge the surviving Earths into a single one that could resist the Anti-Monitor's attack.
Unfortunately, disaster struck, as when Harbinger returned, one of her 'split form incarnations' had been attacked by one of the Anti-Monitor's shadow demons and corrupted by it, and that corruption caused her to attack and kill the Monitor. However, he had foreseen the attack and allowed it to happen, as he used his machines and the power within his own body (power then guided by Harbinger, Pariah, and Alexander Luthor Jr, now a young man as mentioned) to pull the remaining five earths (Earth's 1, 2, 4, S, and X) into a protective dimension to shield them from the Anti-Monitor's unstoppable antimatter wall. This bought enough time for the combined forces of the five universe's mightiest heroes to lead a dangerous counter attack on the Anti-Monitor, as they would have to attack him in the anti-matter universe where some of their powers would be lessened. Nonetheless, they succeeded, forcing the villain to retreat…thought at the cost of Supergirl from Earth-1's life.
The lull didn't last long, as the Anti-Monitor attempted a backup plan of using the Psycho Pirate to manipulate the emotions on the five combined (but not yet merged) Earths while he attempted to use an anti-matter cannon to penetrate the shield around the five remaining worlds. To stop him, Barry Allen, the second Flash, sacrificed his life to destroy the machine in one of the finest and most tragic moments in DC history, a moment that has launched Barry to near saint-like status in his fictional world and in the real one.
(Though I must point out that due to the exact nature of Barry Allen's death, which was essentially he ran so fast his body disintegrated and transformed into living Speed Force energy, the fact that he did go so fast combined with the theory of relativity to allow future writers to occasionally use him, as it was said that as he died he crossed all of time and all of space, and hence was able to show up in future events despite being dead, usually to give advice of aid to the Flash, his successor Wally West, or Impulse/Kid Flash, his grandson, before he finally did completely transform and streak back through time once again to become the lightning bolt that hit himself, Barry Allen, in the event that granted him his powers. So yes, he essentially created himself. Yes, it's a pre-destination paradox. Just accept it. When it comes to comics, and especially when it comes to the speedsters of the DC Universe, time and space tend to go out to lunch, and long ones at that).
But the trouble wasn't over, and it got worse, as the various supervillains from the Earths joined forces under Brainiac and Lex Luthor from Earth-1 to attempt the conquest of all the Earths, sparking a gigantic war between hero and villain that was only halted by the intervention of the Spectre, who announced the Anti-Monitor's final plan: he had absorbed the entirety of the anti-matter universe into his own body and was attempting to use this new power to travel to the beginning of time, where he would 'intercept' Krona's experiment and use it to create, instead of an infinite number of positive matter multiverses, an infinite number of anti-matter universes ruled by him. The Spectre could not help against the Anti-Monitor earlier, as the anti-matter universe severely weakened his nigh-omnipotent powers, but he could help now.
Heroes and villains joined forces in response with the heroes traveling to stop the Anti-Monitor, and the villains traveled to the planet Oa in the past to prevent the renegade scientist Krona from performing his experiment. Unfortunately, the villains failed, and Krona went through with his experiment… while the heroes supported the Spectre, whose battle with the Anti-Monitor created an energy overload that, as Krona performed his experiment, shattered space and time…
And the universe snapped back as we returned to modern times, the five combined Earths now merged into one, as the Monitor had planned, with various elements of each combining to form a whole. Instead of infinite positive matter universes, there was now one singular one, with one singular continuity.
Unfortunately, there were two grave side effects. The act of combining the worlds caused various people, events, landmarks, and such, to simply cease to exist, as if they had never been, as the Golden Age Superman finds to his horror as he realizes his world, his friends, and his wife, Lois Lane-Kent, are all gone because the merging effect has caused all but him to cease to exist because he was there at the dawn of time, a factor that existed for several other characters as well. They were not remembered as dying, like the Flash, they just never were.
And the anti-matter universe still existed, as the Anti-Monitor, enraged, drew this new Earth into it, intending to destroy this last bastion of positive matter once and for all. What followed was the Shadow Demon War, wherein many heroes and villains lost their lives against the Anti-Monitor's forces. Finally, the combined efforts of various superheroes, Doctor Light II, the heroic Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three, Darkseid, Superboy of Earth-Prime, and Kal-L, the Superman of Earth-Two (the Golden Age Superman) destroyed the Anti-Monitor by punching him into a star. The star went nova and caused anti-matter waves to erupt, threatening to destroy the entire anti-matter universe. Kal-L and Superboy-Prime were willing to resign to their final fates, as both were the sole survivors of their universes (and Earth-Prime's end hints that indeed, it was not OUR world) and had nothing to live for in the new singular universe, when Alexander Luthor Jr, using his power to open dimensions, revealed that he had created a "paradise dimension" within his own body, and he used it to prevent the Lois Lane of Earth-Two from being erased from existence when the post-Crisis universe was formed, as Golden Age Superman had thought. Using his own body as a portal, Alexander Luthor, Kal-L, and Superboy-Prime went into the "paradise dimension" alongside Lois, and so the Crisis ended.
Or so we thought.
The Aftermath: Characters and other elements established before Crisis on Infinite Earths (especially those eliminated by it) are considered "pre-Crisis" and revised ones are considered "post-Crisis".
Crisis was used, as mentioned, by DC as an opportunity to wipe much of its slate clean and make major changes to many of their major revenue-generating comic book series. John Byrne would completely reboot Superman, retelling his origin in modern (then the mid 80's) time, getting rid of all the Super-Everythings so Superman would once again be 'The Last Son of Krypton', and altering his powers so he was nowhere near as omnipotent. Frank Miller would retell Batman's origin and reestablish him as a dark vigilante protecting a corrupted city in Batman: Year One (which set off a whole bunch of "Character: Year One" stories). George Perez would redo the story of Wonder Woman, and The Flash would be relaunched with Wally West, formerly Kid Flash, taking over the namesake for his deceased mentor. Many characters also had their backstories changed or rebooted in regards to this new world, as all the surviving characters that had existed in the now gone worlds of Earth-2, 4, S, and X were given new origins and stories in this new, singular continuity.
In the post-Crisis timeline, while the DC characters are aware of an epic "Crisis" that still occurred in which numerous heroes opposed the Anti-Monitor's attempts to destroy the (singular) universe, and while the Flash still died, most heroes are unaware of the true nature of the Crisis (the Multiverse and its end). To this Post-Crisis world, Supergirl did not die, as she had 'never existed' in this new timeline. Though some did remember the exact details, one being the Psycho-Pirate, his ramblings were dismissed as lunacy, and it remained a universally forgotten memory.
And that was it.
Except it wasn't. While the concept of merging all worlds to clean up a messy fictional universe may seem great, there are considerable problems in doing so. The changes made in the wake of Crisis were not ushered in consistently. The series itself was published over the course of a year with ongoing series continuing at the same time, and several months of stories set in the "old" continuity continued to be published following its last issue. Furthermore, revamped or relaunched versions of series did not debut at the same time, and DC continued to feature the "old" versions of characters until new versions were launched, sometimes a year or more later. The character of Hawkman was one of the most problematic, as a new version did not appear until 1989; this raised the question as to who this "Hawkman" character was who had been running around with the post-Crisis heroes since 1986. Similar problems faced the Legion of Super-Heroes, a group of heroes set in the future of 3000 and which, through time travel, counted Superboy as a main member. The Crisis proceeded to remove Superboy from DC continuity, and successive attempts to "repair" this removal had met with mixed results. Two major female characters, Donna Troy and Power Girl (Power Girl especially, as her origin was not cleared up until the end point of this discussion) also had their place in the DC Universe become problematic. In 1994, DC produced a mini-series titled Zero Hour, which attempted to resolve these problems by again rebooting the DCU, but this time with fewer wholesale revisions. It did not entirely succeed, which leads us to the second part of this very long explanation.
On a final note, in a detail just recently revealed, while Golden Age Superman, Superboy-Prime, Lois Lane-Kent, and Alex Luthor Jr may have left the universe for a 'paradise' Luthor had created, they could still see the new, merged DC universe. Indeed, they watched it.
20 years later, that would come into play…
Interlude: Ok, we're about a third of the way there. But the 90's in comics, and what spawned them, require almost as much discussion as the period from the Golden Age to the Crisis. You may want to get a drink or use the bathroom.
Ready? Here we go.
Real Life III: Who Watches The Writers?
It's fitting that such a cataclysmic chance would occur to DC during the mid 80's, as it coincided with another massive change that was on the horizon, one that was about to sweep the comic world. And while said change was anything but good, what in some ways started it were two exceptional comic series: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, and Watchmen, by Alan Moore.
The Comic Code Authority's influence had begun eroding by the 70's, despite constant revisions on what was 'acceptable' subject matter. By the 80's, it had lessened enough so that even major writers could attempt things, under controlled conditions, the code would normally never allow: not just in terms of content matter, but in intelligent writing and storytelling that could never exist under the 'think of the children' stranglehold the Code had placed on the industry back in the 50's.
And just as the Crisis was wrapping up, that fact was about to become very clear…
The Dark Knight Returns: The book is set during the cold war. It is a dark, depressing world where criminals run amok in the absence of superheroes. Gotham City is terrorized by a gang of vicious and aimless teenage murderers, the Mutants. Bruce Wayne has been retired for ten years following the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Attempting to bury his moral outrage, Wayne has turned to alcoholism, near-suicidal recreational activities, and has funded the rehabilitation of Two-Face in an attempt to prove to the world - and to himself - that a man's demons can be truly exorcised. On the eve of Commissioner Gordon's forced retirement, however, several events push Wayne to reestablish the presence of his alter ego: a major crime wave hits the city, Two-Face's rehabilitation goes awry, and an enormous bat crashes through the windows of Wayne Manor.
Re-donning the cape and cowl, Batman must deal with a world where even the petty criminals are homicidal maniacs who kill for thrills. He no longer has the absolute support of the police, public, or government. Miller's interpretation of Gotham (and of America) is a place of deep moral ambiguity. Reporters and psychologists see the Joker as a victim and Batman as the madman. The new Police Commissioner is upstanding, capable, and smart, a fitting replacement for Gordon - yet she has no love for the Batman, and hunts him ruthlessly. Even Superman himself has been twisted into a covert agent for America's Cold War agenda, putting his loyalty to the American government above his fight for the American Way. Batman spends no time fretting over these ambiguities; instead, he seeks to impose his stark black-and-white view on a world of relativism. The Dark Knight Returns deals in large part with Wayne's uncompromising obsession with his dual identity, in opposition to a world where duality has gone by the wayside. In this bleak landscape, Batman's obsessions and demons finally, completely, submerge into Bruce Wayne, and the Dark Knight is given free rein to wage his war without inhibition…
Upon its publication, The Dark Knight Returns turned the comic book industry on its ear. It helped to introduce an era of more adult-oriented storytelling to the mainstream world of superhero comic books, and it received media attention the likes of which had never seen before in a medium long believed to be little more than children's entertainment.
And another book was coming that would rip that ear right off…
Watchmen: Originally conceived of by DC as a mini-series involving characters DC had required from the defunct Charleston comic company, Watchmen proceeded to evolve from that into something that was said "What The Maltese Falcon did for detective stories and Shane did for Westerns, Watchmen did for superheroes. It transcended its origins in what was previously considered a lowbrow form of fiction to provide a rich reading experience for all, whether they came in as fans of the genre or not."
Set in an alternative history in which superheroes are real, Watchmen is an adventure and crime drama that incorporates moral philosophy, popular culture, history, art, and science. In October 1985, Walter Kovacs (Rorschach) investigates the murder of New York citizen Edward Blake and learns that Blake was also The Comedian, a longtime costumed adventurer/government agent. Forming a theory that Blake's murder is the first in a plot to eliminate adventurers, Kovacs extends warnings to four others still living in New York; Jon Osterman (Dr. Manhattan), Laurel Jane Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II), Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) and Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias). Veidt, Juspeczyk and Dreiberg are long retired from crime-fighting, the last two because of the 1977 passage of the Keene Act, banning costumed vigilantes (which Kovacs, by then deeply immersed in his Rorschach identity, ignores). Osterman remains exempt, being (like Blake) a U.S. government agent, though he no longer engages in crimefighting. Veidt had retired voluntarily in 1975 and publicly disclosed his identity, using his reputation and intelligence to build a large personal fortune. The world of Watchmen is dark and violent, with the United States and the Soviet Union edging toward a nuclear showdown. Since the 1959 nuclear accident that transformed Osterman into the super-powered Dr. Manhattan (the only super-powered character in Watchmen), the U.S. has enjoyed a distinct strategic advantage, allowing it to force the Soviet Union in a series of defeats, most notably in Vietnam. This imbalance has dramatically increased global tension. In seeming anticipation of global war, American society has a general sense of fatalism about the future. Signs of this in daily life range from "Meltdowns" candy to graffiti inspired by the Hiroshima bombing to the designation of many buildings in New York as fallout shelters. In such a backdrop, the reason behind Blake's death blends with the whole notion of being a hero as well as the fate the world seems to be rushing towards, and asks not only the question "Who watches the watchmen?" but "Do you watch, or do you act?"
What the Dark Knight Returns did for Batman, Watchmen did for the concept of superheroes, turning the seemingly noble aspect of protecting society from its worst elements upside down and inside out, where you are left wondering if the psychotic Kovacs, whose horrific 'origin' and psychopathic viewpoints redefines the whole concept of a hero, is really the one you are to support, and the villain, who will not be named, whose ultimate goal is truly horrific, is really the one you should be booing due to why it was done. In the end, it leaves you wondering which side you can be on. In Watchmen, what comics could be was completely redefined.
But much like fanfiction, just because you are thrilled by something does not mean you can accurately reproduce it yourself. And in any field of entertainment, any form of success or something fresh and new are inevitably followed by one thing above all else: copycats trying to get a piece of the pie.
That real life factor, and how it affected the 90's, was about to start.
V. The Dark Ages
As mentioned, The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen allowed a redefinition of what comics could be…but it was a redefinition that most people could not wholly understand. While some got the whole concept behind the story, most only absorbed the more visceral aspects, internalizing the message that what made these stories so cool was how dark and gruesome they were. Like a parasite, that notion would spread, until it arrived at a state where the ONLY way to do anything worthwhile, anything 'cool', was to do it dark and violently. And if the hero's characters didn't support that, well…just change them, or better yet, replace them. Superman and Batman are for old fogies. Forget serving as an example of the best of America, or as a man at a pinnacle of body and mind solving crimes and saving lives, they need to kill people and break bones. That's 'cool'.
While Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen set the standard of what darkness and nihilism could do with comics, perhaps the first example of those not fully understanding the intricacies behind such storytelling and using it anyway came with the Death of Jason Todd.
Jason Todd was the second Robin, the original, Dick Grayson, having grown up and changed his name to Nightwing. When Todd debuted in the early 80's, he was little more then a carbon copy of Robin, literally: he was also a circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by villains to squeeze money from a circus, and was hence taken in by Batman and trained to be Robin. While not original, the readers seemed to accept him.
Then the Crisis came and went, and the writers of Batman got the idea that maybe they should reset Jason's origin, do something different. The idea arose that they should make Jason a street kid, put him on the opposite side of the law at first, hey, have Batman meet him when he tries to steal the tires of the Batmobile!
In the end it was put forth, and Todd's character, originally unfailingly cheerful, was changed thusly. However, the post-Crisis Todd never blossomed under Batman's tutelage. He was, in contrast to his original self, impulsive, reckless, hard-headed, and full of rage. This would sometimes provide him with great strength and courage, but would more often lead him to take unfounded chances and risks. One story implied that Todd actually murdered a criminal (the criminal had brutally raped a woman, later causing the woman to kill herself, and the criminal got off with no charges due to being the son of a diplomat). And the readers, who had not quite yet 'turned over' (which will make sense in a moment), reacted with immense dislike that such a petulant, violent brat had usurped the noble mantle of Robin.
So in the end DC made a historical decision: with recent technology allowing easy mass telephone polls, DC set up a storyline where Jason's life was put in extreme jeopardy and the only ones who could decide his ultimate fate were the readers themselves: they had 30 hours at a specific date to vote via a telephone poll whether he lived or died.
The final result: 5,343 to 5,271 for Jason dying. And so he did.
And in doing so, Jason touched off a new movement in the DC comics world, as the death of Jason struck Batman to the core and nearly drove him mad, an event that began Batman's long decline into a realm perhaps unthought of.
But that comes a bit later. For now, Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen had allowed the idea that dark and violentcool to seep into the mindset of comic writers and younger comic fans. Two more things would merge with this concept to give birth to the 90's era of comic, which, like Icarus and his wings, would soar to heights never thought possible…before the sun melted the wax…
Real Life IV: Anatomy? What's That?
In 1988, an artist known as Rob Liefeld completed pencils for DC for a Hawk and Dove miniseries, and after a dispute with DC, proceeded to go to Marvel, where he was given the reigns to a comic known as the New Mutants, a young group of heroes. Liefeld's art style, extremely bombastic and flashy (and also highly unrealistic) eventually caused him to start becoming popular, VERY popular, a factor that allowed him to increasingly take control of the book's story until he was both writing and drawing it, at which point he transformed the series into X-Force, a book whose No 1 issue proceeded to sell four million copies.
Liefeld was the frontrunner of a new trend that began as the 90's emerged: the superstar artist, whose books were sold solely on the basis of their art style, which was often filled with overmuscled men and women with gigantic breasts, waists as thin as pencils, and wearing as little as possible. While the educated eye could almost immediately catch the gross distortions of anatomy that such drawing showed, such criticisms were lost under a tidal wave of young teenage boys, whose hormone-addled and still developing minds were thrilled by the violence and the sex present in the comics. In Liefeld's wake came artists such as Jim Lee and Todd McFarlene, and the whole comic industry began to change, morphing to suit only such artists and nothing else due to the sheer number of books they sold.
That giant number was due to the final factor that would explode in the late 80's and early 90's…
Real Life V: Damn You Antique Road Show
In one of the many ironies in life, the collector's market that erupted in comics in the late 80's nearly destroyed the business after bringing it to unprecedented heights.
The Crisis on Infinite Earths and the stories by Miller and Moore had done more then redefine comics, it had made people realize something: if you could find a copy of an older comic that was in good condition, it was potentially worth a lot of money.
Articles appeared in newspapers, magazines and television newsmagazines pointing out how rare, high-demand comics such as Action Comics #1 (1st Appearance Superman) or Incredible Hulk #181 (1st Appearance Wolverine) could be sold for hundreds or even thousands of times what they originally cost on the newsstands. And they also planted the idea that if you bought the comics of today and sealed them off, then maybe one day your comics might be worth just as much, if not more.
And once this was realized, the publishers proceeded to milk it for all it was worth, as they took advantage of this environment of speculation by using several techniques specifically designed to exploit the collectors' market. Such techniques included selling a comic with multiple different covers (knowing that many collectors would buy one of each version), selling certain issues in sealed polybags (knowing that collectors would buy two copies, one to keep preserved in the bag, and one to open and read), and publishing comics with "gimmicks" such as glow-in-the-dark, hologram-enhanced, or foil-embossed covers. These gimmicks were almost entirely cosmetic in nature, and almost never extended to the actual content of the comics. However, many speculators would buy multiple copies of these issues, anticipating that demand would allow them to sell them for a substantial profit at some nebulous point in the future. Sales soared to unheard of heights, many comics selling millions of issues each, numbers almost unheard of today.
And one can only shudder at the stupidity and greed that kept people from realizing one crucial thing: the reason such comics were rare and expensive was because HARDLY ANY OF THEM EXISTED ANYMORE. The reason Action Comics #1 was so rare was because most of the copies were tossed out by mothers cleaning their kid's rooms, hence leaving only small numbers of such copies available, and even less in what would be dubbed 'mint condition'. But if you print millions of copies and everyone saves them, they're not rare any more, and hence aren't worth anything, you idiots!
But yet parents were buying comics in the idea that they could sell them in 10-15 years and put their kids through college, a fair indication on how far and how persuasive the idea was. It was the third and final step for what would define comics in the early 90's, and what would almost destroy the market in a way Wertham wished he could have.
In Watchmen and Dark Knight, the idea had been leaked down to lesser writers that only violent, vicious, and otherwise unheroic by the traditional standards of heroes characters were cool. In the rise of Liefeld and his ilk, the idea that only the art of such artists, who often wrote and drew characters like the so called 'cool' archtype, with their ridiculous muscles and giant guns (and pouches that don't have ANYTHING IN THEM) was what sold comics: the story was irrelevant. And with the collector's market, the previous two ideas combined with the collector's frenzy and caused all comic companies to think that only that would sell.
The 90's were dawning, and with them a black plague on the comic industry: the birth of EXTREME.
VI. XXXXXXXXTTTTTTTTTTTRRRRRRREEEEEEEMMMMMMM!11111!11!1!
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
It was the best because comics were selling at unprecedented levels, as the three combined things as mentioned brought in a new massive audience that, at the time, couldn't get enough of the likes of Liefeld and Lee. While the previous audience found Jason Todd's more violent side abhorrent, the new readership proceeded to overwhelm them with their perverted idea of what heroes were. Written by lesser writers in the vein of Miller and Moore, the idea that heroes had to kill, had to have giant guns and shoot people, had to be mean and nasty and say words like shit, and had to have gigantic muscles (for males) and breasts (for females), because that was the only thing that was 'cool', became the dominant mindset, and with all the comics in that vein selling by the crate, the comic companies were literally rolling in money, Marvel especially, whose X-Men had been given a gigantic boost by Liefeld and was at unseen levels of popularity, which Marvel tried to milk as much as possible by putting out six or seven X-Titles a month. And over at DC, wanting a piece of that pie, the men in charge had realized something else from the Jason Todd poll: while the media got a hold of the concept (readers kill teenage boy! Never mind it wasn't a REAL teenage boy, or the original Robin…nor did he stay dead, though that came later…) and reported it, it got people's attention. Attention increased sales. And with Marvel setting the charts on fire with X-Men, DC had to do something to counter them. True, their recently released Batman movie had been a great success, but there could be more. They could go further. After all, if killing some unliked sidekick got so much buzz, imagine what they could do if they killed someone bigger…
They could kill their flagship character, the man who gave birth to it all, Superman.
And damn could they sell a lot of comics in the process.
While Superman did not stay dead (hell, by the terms of the story, he never even 'died' in the first place, though the intricacies of that is a story for another time), Superman's death, and its reason, as a reaction and attempt to cash in on the new era of 'EXTREME', was the touching off of DC's Dark Ages, as the aura of 'EXTREME' and the money it brought overwhelmed the notion of good writing and characterization. With new characters being introduced that were oh so 'EXTREME', characters like Superman and Batman looked like dinosaurs by comparison. They had to go, or be severely altered, lest they be left behind.
And so Superman was killed off, and was replaced by not one but FOUR imitators: one was a violent energy shooting killer, one was a man in armor who battled in a brutal violent neighborhood much like the one presented in Dark Knight Returns, and one was a teenager who fought crime more to show off and impress girls then to do good. Of the four, only a seemingly resurrected and cyborgized Superman seemed to have any qualities of the original Superman. And he turned out to be the villain.
(On a side note, the teen Superman, who became the post-Crisis Superboy, was cloned from Superman's cells, but since the lab that did do could not perfectly duplicate the kryptonian cells, the clone had to be made from part kryptonian and part human cells. Whose human cells? It would be, much later, revealed to be Lex Luthor…which will be notable in a bit…).
And it didn't end there. Batman's back was broken by a new supervillain known as Bane and replaced by a man named Jean-Paul Valley, who had severe mental issues and proceeded to turn the Batman suit into an armor clad death machine armed with razor sharp batarangs and flamethrowers. Wonder Woman was replaced, her replacement was killed, and then Wonder Woman was killed herself and revived. Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, originally a paragon of justice and humanity, was abruptly turned insane after a comic event destroyed his home city (albeit when none of his supporting characters were there) and after being denied the power by his bosses to undo the event he went on a rampage as he proceeded to kill off the Green Lantern Corps, as well as his mortal enemy Sinestro, before destroying the Guardians of the Universe and sucking up all the power of the Central Power Battery of the Green Lantern Corps to become the villain Parallax, an event that would swiftly balloon into what is considered one of the worst decisions ever made, as Hal had survived great tragedy before and having him suddenly snap and turn evil when he was considered such a noble hero was reviled by his fans. Said fans would proceed to bother DC about it for the next decade, which will be expanded on later…
Everywhere, heroes were twisted and altered, given new costumes and attitudes, and barraged with tragedy and horror, all trying to tap into the era of 'EXTREME'. It was truly a 'Dark Age'.
Especially since it was all about to collapse like a house of cards.
Real Life VI. Life of Reilly
If anything can really show, in great detail, just why the comic industry utterly collapsed in the mid-late 90's, the VERY VERY VERY LOOOONNNGGGGG (it makes this article look like a drabble, you have been warned) Internet article 'Life of Reilly' (any search engine should provide it) can. It revolves around a Spiderman storyline that has since become a dirty word for Marvel fans: the Clone Saga.
The idea was simple: Spiderman was supposed to be happy go lucky, tossing off wisecracks and jokes, and yes he occasionally got into serious situations, but for the most part he was light-hearted. However, much like DC, Spiderman had in the past few years been darkened a great deal, and on top of that had grown older, gotten married, and was expecting a child with his wife. The decision was made in the thought that Peter Parker no longer defined what Spiderman was…so perhaps he should be replaced.
This replacement would come from a 15 year storyline left back in the mid-70's, where Spiderman was cloned and forced to fight his clone. The story ended with Spiderman (Peter Parker) beating his clone and going back to his life after disposing of the body.
The story was then rewritten so that the clone did not die…and that maybe that the clone WASN'T. That the clone had actually beaten Peter Parker and stolen his life, forcing the real Peter Parker to scratch out a new one under a new name, Ben Reilly.
The basic idea was that Reilly, who was not tied down, could take over the Spiderman identity while Peter (the supposed 'real clone') could go off into the sunset with his wife and child. It might even have worked.
To understand why it did not, go read the article when you have some time to kill. The summery is this: Marvel executives had become so blinded by dollar signs that they forced the writers to stretch out the storyline and make it more and more complicated in the process to sell as many comics as possible…a process that backfired horribly as many readers finally gave up and abandoned Spiderman, and comics, entirely when it simply would not resolve itself. Oh, and as it turned out, Ben was the clone after all.
The Clone Saga is perhaps the zenith of the 'EXTREME' era bubble bursting, as casual comic readers, drawn by the sex and the violence, finally came to realize what intelligent readers had at the beginning: the 'EXTREME' era was all sizzle and no steak. The characters were one-dimensional, perhaps even less so, derivative, and repetitive. Not to mention that their anatomy was completely impossible, with muscles that a human body could not have and their limbs and bodies often in positions that the human form simply could not achieve. Rob Liefeld quickly went from superstar artist to the butt of the comic industry's jokes due to this, as it was revealed he had never studied anatomy and never planned to. This was made cruelly apparent, as after the bubble bursting of the Clone Saga, as the deathblow for the industry nearly came once more as Marvel, now losing money by the bucketload, attempted to reboot all its major titles in the wake of another massive company-wide storyline (The Attack of Onslaught) and handed the reigns of said reboot to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld.
To say it was a disaster, especially on Liefield's side, is understating. To this day, the defining picture of Liefield's unique brand of 'art' is a poster he did of Captain America…whose chest muscles are so grotesquely large they literally extend more then two feet from his chin, one that came during the so-called 'Heroes Reborn' phase.
What really came was the second near death of the comic industry came, as the 'EXTREME' bubble bursting was complicated even more by the fact that Marvel had been purchased just as it began back in the late 80's by investor Ronald Perelman, who took advantage of the boom by selling hundreds of millions in junk bonds and basically strip-mining the company for his own gain. When it exploded, Marvel nearly went down with it, and Perelman and investor Carl Icahn battled it out in court to seize control of the comic company, which was only saved by a bankruptcy declaration and the efforts of several men from the Marvel Subsidary Toy Biz wresting it from the two investors before they could eat it alive for themselves. Marvel eventually got back on its feet with its movie productions, but it had teetered on the edge, nearly dragging the whole industry down with it, as Marvel and DC were now left with the litter of dozens of junk storylines influenced by the 'EXTREME' bubble and all the damage caused as all the new fans, caught on to the fact that the Emperor had no clothes and left in disgust, the older, more mature readers having headed out already.
It was not all bad though. While comics had indeed been dominated by the now properly discarded to the trashcan of history 'EXTREME' style, the 90's also produced some of the greatest comic series ever written, chief of which was the genius Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, a series of comics written for DC's new adult imprint, Vertigo, that took the genre, like Moore, in directions and heights never thought possible. Sandman No 18, 'A Midsummer's Night's Dream', received a World Fantasy Award for short fiction in 1991, a feat thought impossible for a mere 'comic book' (which also made the old narrow minded fogies in the World Fantasy Awards to change the rules so comics would not be eligible to win again, flips them off smug self righteous bastards…). And others followed. Garth Ennis wrote the bloody, disturbing, blasphemous, funny, and deeply moving western/theological piece Preacher, while Alan Moore took the reigns of the Swamp Thing comic for DC and took the former monster in directions of brilliance no one else could have thought of. Elsewhere in DC, Grant Morrison redefined surreal in his work on the Doom Patrol and redefined fiction and reality itself with his work on Animal Man, and also wrote one of the most unique (and one of the most messed up making no sense at all probably because he was on drugs while he wrote most of it no joke) conspiracy theory series in comics history, The Invisibles. Near the end of the 90's, Warren Ellis' vitriolic and thought-provoking postcyberpunk sci-fi series Transmetropolitan and Brian Azzarello's brilliant noir/pulp series 100 Bullets would continue this series of great writing, to try and take the bad taste out of the mouth of all those sick of the now dead era of 'EXTREME'.
But for all 'EXTREME' did, and how it brought 'The Dark Ages' to DC Comics, it also had one more good effect. It would later allow it to be used in a storyline…
VII. Follow The Yellow Ink Road
Comics would rebuild for the next few years, as writers took back the medium. Over time, several comic events would occur…
1. Hal Jordan: The fans that were furious over DC's abrupt changing of him into the villain Parallax had not lessened their rage, and over the years DC would attempt to appease the fans for their choice, while refusing to bring Hal back as a Green Lantern so his replacement, Kyle Raynor, could have a chance. After two major storylines as villains, Hal seemingly came to his senses and sacrificed his life to re-ignite Earth's sun after it had been devoured by a Sun-Eater, nearly condemning the Earth to its 'Final Night', hence saving the planet and seemingly redeeming his previous sins. That was not good enough. So Hal was brought back and made the new host of the Spectre, the near omnipotent spirit of Vengeance. He was fully redeemed and on a new role.
That was not good enough. And the fans continued to complain…
2. The Speed Force: A note that needs to be made: as you recall, I mentioned that Barry Allen had not so much died as he transformed into Speed Force energy. What the Speed Force is, if you don't know, is another story. While the superfast runners of the DC Universe all had different origins for how they got their speed, the true 'source' of all their power would eventually be revealed in the Flash comics in the 90's: a universal 'energy' that powered all those who could run fast (well, ALMOST all of them). Once discovered, the ability of speedsters multiplied dramatically, allowing the Flash and his ilk to pull stunts like you could never believe. What the Speed Force was, though, in its heart, was a Deus Ex Machina of the comic writers so they wouldn't have to explain the problems of such things as friction and metabolism of a human body going at superspeed: it was all handled by the powers of the Speed Force. In any case, a human speedster who ran fast enough could actually pierce the barrier between their world and the Speed Force dimension, but such a tactic was quite dangerous as once a speedster had crossed over, it was very hard to come back. Only if you had something immensely strong back on Earth, like say, a loved one, could a speedster return. Known in some circles as the 'Goes Fast', as a way of poking fun at all the things the Speed Force does despite the fact it's just the power to go really fast. For example, the Flash has a costume composed of Speed Force energy, which means Wally has pants made out of GOES FAST, and so on. Moving on…
3. The Downfall of Batman: While Tim Drake would come to replace Jason Todd as Robin, and hence stabilize the Batman, the 90's marked a change over the next fifteen years, as the Batman would slowly go from brooding dark knight to paranoid self-righteous asshole. Perhaps this was no more evidence in the late 90's JLA storyline 'Tower of Babel' where it was revealed Batman had 'contingency plans' to assassinate all of his JLA teammates should any of them go rogue…contingency plans that a villain stole and used against the JLA. While they did not succeed in killing them, the fact that Batman HAD such plans would drive a deep wedge between the vigilante and his fellow heroes, and while the wedge would seem to lessen later, Batman's sanctimonious attitude towards anyone other then himself and his quest continued to grow…
4. President Luthor: Post-Crisis Lex-Luthor had been re-imagined as the most evil thing that existed in the mid-80's, a businessman, and after several years of ups and downs, Luthor ran for, and actually won, the presidency of the USA. He would remain President for several years in real life terms, using his new power and position to play out various schemes, until he eventually overplayed his hand in the opening storyline of the new Superman/Batman comic in 2003, as he attempted to blame Superman for a kryptonite meteor approaching the Earth. It backfired, as he instead raised questions about himself as Superman and Batman uncovered a plot of Luthor's to further torment Batman (due to other storylines of him and Batman feuding) that involved tricking Batman into thinking that the Superman villain Metallo was the man who killed Batman's parents. With the two heroes closing in, and in desperation, Luthor used a variant combination of the "super-steroid" Venom (a steroid mainly used by Batman villain Bane), liquid synthetic green kryptonite, and a high tech robot battlesuit to battle Superman directly. Unfortunately, the madness that is a side effect of Venom took hold, and he revealed his true colors during the battle. Superman defeated him and smashed his presidency, and Luthor appeared to perish…but that was just 'appeared', as he limped to safety…and he promised a reckoning…a crisis…
5. Donna Troy: Originally Wonder Girl of the New Teen Titans back in the 80's, Donna Troy changed her name to Troia, and was a relatively minor character throughout the 90's. In the late 90's, a teen superhero group known as Young Justice would emerge, and enjoy a fairly popular run, while a series known as the Titans, featuring the adult versions of the members of several of the Teen Titans series, would not be so mucb enjoyed. However, with the release of the Cartoon Network Teen Titans show (you know, the one with the story that I'm trying to explain with this), Young Justice and the Titans were brought together in a storyline known as 'Graduation Day', where an android known as Indigo came from the future to seemingly prevent a great Crisis, but instead accidentally activated a rogue Superman android whose rampage was only stopped at the cost of Donna Troy's life. In grief afterwards, both groups disbanded, as various members of both proceeded to form two new groups: a new incarnation of the Teen Titans (perhaps inspired by the popularity of the cartoon show), and the more vigilante style Outsiders. But Donna Troy did not entirely die, as she appeared to be reborn elsewhere…and her role would soon become apparent…
And on a side note, Indigo would be rebuilt and reprogrammed with no memory of what she caused, and proceeded to become a member of the newly formed Outsiders…
6. The 'Silver Age Circle Jerk'. As mentioned, the Crisis on Infinite Earths back in the 80's had mostly been made to clear out all the clutter, but as the 90's wore on, new writers came on board DC who had grown up on those comics and had a (some would say irrational) love affair with them. And when you love something in comics, that something will often get a lot of play, or even reintroduced entirely, as Superman, once again made the last Son of Krypton, would eventually start getting company again as the 00's arrived, as Krypto the Superdog was re-introduced in the early 00's. And he was soon joined by a re-imagined version of Kara Zor-El, who had died and then 'been erased' in the original Crisis, who became the new Supergirl (there had been a few other Supergirl attempts in the years since the Crisis, but they all had different origins, while the latest one would mirror the original Supergirl created in the late 50's). The city of Kandor would return too, and people are probably already drawing up plans for the return of the Supermobile. Whether you liked or disliked these creative decisions is a matter of personal taste, but it does once again note the impermanence of comics: the original Crisis was done to clean away all this clutter, and now it was being brought back because the new writers had liked it. And when the new writers move on, who's to know what the NEXT set of new writers will do…but we're getting off track…
Tired? Take a break. We're finally getting to the last third…though that's not short either I'm afraid. As mentioned, the 'EXTREME' era had caused what could almost be considered an era of darkness in DC…and in 2004, a writer named Brad Metzinger, the first of many writers from DC working together, would set into motion a storyline that would once again shake the DC World to its core…
VII. Identity Crisis
(Warning: HEAVY SPOILERS FROM NOW ON. If you want to read these comics yourself and don't want it spoiled, DON'T READ THESE)
It began with a horrific murder. It ended with terrible secrets exposed, new lines drawn throughout the DC universe, and the planted seeds of a brand new Crisis.
It began with a somewhat minor character in the DC world, Elongated Man, a Mr. Fantastic rip-off who had never really played a major role but was a somewhat enjoyable character, being a comedian and a expert detective slash mystery enthusiast who would always bring his wife, Sue Dibny, along on his adventures. They were a sweet couple, whose identity was publicly known.
In the opening issue, while Ralph is off preparing for his 'birthday mystery', Sue is attacked and murdered in her home. Despite being protected by extremely sophisticated security measures, someone somehow made their way past all of them and killed her.
The DC superhero community rallies to find the murderer. Early suspicion rests on Doctor Light, as it is revealed (in a brutal retcon) that he had raped Sue Dibny years earlier after sneaking aboard the JLA satellite headquarters. It is also revealed that the Atom, Black Canary, Hawkman, the Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Green Arrow, who were all part of the JLA at the time, allowed the sorcerer Zatanna to do something drastic: after Dr. Light, captured after the rape, threatened to do the same thing that he had done to Sue to every one of the superhero's loved ones that he could find, she mind-wiped the captured Doctor Light, not only to remove his memory of his rape of Dibny, but to alter his personality to make him less of a threat. Thinking that Light may now have murdered Sue, the superheroes attempt to capture Doctor Light, who has hired Deathstroke the Terminator to protect him. In the ensuing fight with Deathstroke, Doctor Light regains his memory, is enraged at the violation, and escapes. Worse, the knowledge that the Justice League had actually been mindwiping villains for years to remove such vital information as secret identities from their memories comes to the surface, which not only causes shockwaves through the hero community, but the villain one as well.
The murderer next apparently tries to hang Jean Loring, the ex-wife of the Atom. The attempt fails. Next, the murderer sends a death threat to Lois Lane (Superman's wife). Finally, a hit is put together by Captain Boomerang, a washed-up Flash villain, on Jack Drake, Robin's (Tim Drake's) father. However, Jack Drake finds a note warning him of the attempt on his life, as well as a gun, both sent by some unknown party. As Jack Drake fatally shoots Captain Boomerang, the latter manages to throw a razor boomerang at Drake's chest, also fatally. Batman takes the note into custody before the authorities or the media can learn of it.
As the investigation continues, Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) is killed attempting to interrogate some supervillains when the Shadow-Thief stabs him with Shining Knight's enchanted sword, breaching his skin. Approaching critical mass, Firestorm flies into the sky and explodes.
Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) reveals to the Flash (Wally West) that Batman had walked in on the heroes mind-wiping Doctor Light. When Batman tried to prevent them from doing so, they mind-wiped Batman's memory of the event as well.
Eventually, the autopsy of Sue Dibny's body by Doctor Mid-Nite reveals that Sue Dibny had been killed by an infarction (necrosis of tissue due to upstream obstruction of its arterial blood supply) in her brain. A microscopic scan of Dibny's brain reveals the shocking find of two tiny footprints on her brain, which caused the infarction. Mid-Nite and Mister Terrific, along with Batman, separately realize that Sue was murdered by someone with access to the technology of the Atom, which grants one the ability to shrink himself to subatomic size. Before they can discover whether it was Atom or someone using his technology, Ray Palmer (the Atom's civilian identity), whose closeness with his ex-wife, Jean Loring, had been rekindled by the unsuccessful attempt on her life, realizes, from her mention of the note to Jack Drake (which she should not have known about), that she was the killer. Loring had used the shrinking technology to travel to the Dibny's house through the phone lines, bypassing all the security entirely, and entered Sue's brain, where she caused the fatal infarction. Loring asserted that she didn't mean to kill Sue, nor for Jack Drake to be killed, arguing that she sent him the note and the gun in order for him to protect himself. She tells Palmer that she undertook the plan, which including faking the attempt on her own life, in order to bring her and Ray closer together, but Palmer realizes that she is insane, and Loring is committed to Arkham Asylum.
Identity Crisis, much like Watchmen, had proceeded to challenge the nature of what superheroes were, as they were caught between such an act as violating the minds of villains with the harsh truth that the villains could do terrible things with the knowledge they had learned unless such steps were taken. Such a fact would reverberate through the superhero books…even as a few more events came into play…
1. Green Lantern: Rebirth. After ten years of bitching, DC finally gave into the rantings of the fanboys and wrote a six issue miniseries to revive Hal Jordan and restore him as a Green Lantern. To redeem his character, Parallax was retconned from a name Jordan chose to an actual evil entity in and of itself, an ancient demonic parasitic entity dating back to the dawn of time, that actually was the sentient embodiment of fear, and which traveled from world to world, feeding off the fear of sentient beings, and causing entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia.
It was this creature, yellow in color, which the Guardians of the Universe imprisoned within the central Power Battery on Oa using fear's opposite energy, willpower. Parallax had lain dormant for billions of years, his true nature covered up by the Guardians to prevent anyone from trying to free it, and thus, it had eventually come to be referred to as simply "the yellow impurity." This was the reason why Green Lantern rings were, as long established, useless against the color yellow: Parallax weakened its power over the corresponding spectrum, and hence only someone capable of overcoming great fear could master the power ring. When the renegade Sinestro was later imprisoned in the Power Battery himself, his Qwardian yellow power ring tapped into Parallax's power and awakened it, allowing it to reach out to Hal Jordan through Jordan's own ring when Jordan was at his weakest, spending years influencing him, causing him increasing self-doubt, and even causing his hair to turn white at the temples. Parallax's control over Jordan exploded with Jordan's grief over the destruction of Coast City, and it was Parallax who was responsible for Jordan's subsequent murderous activity, his apparent killing of Sinestro (which was later revealed to be an illusion on Sinestro's part, created as the final stage of Jordan's susceptibility to the impurity in order to break his will), and Jordan's destruction of the Central Battery, which allowed Parallax to graft itself onto Jordan's soul.
It was because Parallax was now free that Kyle Rayner's own ring did not have any weakness against yellow, and the Spectre explained to Jordan that it drew in Jordan's soul in hopes of eradicating the parasitic Parallax from it. The Spirit of Vengeance eventually removed Parallax from Jordan's soul, and itself from Jordan, departing in order to move onto the next recipient of the Spirit (or so it seemed), while the Guardian of the Universe Ganthet guided Jordan's soul back to his own body, which Ganthet had preserved after Jordan re-ignited the Sun during Final Night.
His soul and thoughts finally clear for the first time in a long time, Jordan was resurrected as a mortal human again, once again taking his place as a Green Lantern, the white portions of his hair even restored to their original brown. He fought Sinestro, who revealed himself as alive for the first time since his faked death, forcing the renegade to retreat back into the antimatter universe. Together, Jordan, and the Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kilowog freed Ganthet, whom Parallax had possessed after his expulsion from Jordan's soul, and imprisoned the parasite back in the Central Power Battery on Oa.
Hal was back, and comic fans had a new joke to make, as Parallax looked less like an ancient evil entity as a gigantic yellow space bug. But there was a severe consequence: the Spectre was left without a host…and hence, unknown at the time…left vulnerable…
2. Batman...Again. As mentioned, the heroes mindwiped him to prevent him from stopping their mindwipe of Doctor Light…but Batman's immense intelligence eventually allowed him to figure this out. It did nothing to help his paranoia, and even increased it, as Batman felt he needed an edge in his dealings with superhumans, who he had long ago stopped trusting, think eventually their power would go to their heads in one way or another and they would try something. He needed to keep an eye on them…
3. Teen Titans/The Outsiders: The Insiders. Remember how Superboy's cloned DNA was half human? And said human was Lex Luthor? Luthor, licking his wounds after his downfall from the White House, revealed that the reason he donated his DNA to help create Superboy was to generate a sleeper agent that he could use to destroy Superman, and with a code phrase, 'Aut vincere aut mort', he activated the so called 'evil genes' within Superboy, Luthor seemingly taking control of his mind as he shaved his head bald and viciously attacked his own teammates. Meanwhile, over in the Outsiders, the robot from the future, Indigo, finally revealed her true self: She was actually Brainiac 8, every bit the ruthless, inhuman villain that previous Brainiacs were. Indigo as the Outsider's knew her was essentially a subprogram, designed by her future masters to endear her to the superhero community, if such a task was necessary. Brainiac 8 had been sent back in time to kill Donna Troy, because a living Donna would negate Coluan (Brainiac's species) domination over the "organics" after a crisis, and since time was fluid, Brainiac 8 had to make sure Donna Troy stayed dead. Joining with the present incarnation of Brainiac, Brainiac 6, who was working with Lex Luthor and his new 'son', the four began a plan to 'wipe out the future of superheroes' and engineered an attack on the injured Titans and Outsiders…an attack that backfired as Superboy wrested his mind back from the genetic programming Luthor had installed and turned on his 'father', while a mighty blast from Starfire seemingly destroyed Brainiac 6 (though the evil intelligence had cheated death before). Finally, the Indigo persona herself wrested control back from Brainac 8, and revealed herself to be a genuine personality. Weeping, she begged her boyfriend Shift to kill her before the Brainiac 8 persona could harm the people she now loved. Shift, in tears, transformed her molecular structure into flesh, killing her in the process, as while he could turn her body to flesh, he could not imbue said flesh with life. Luthor retreated, while Superboy, in terrible guilt over the injuries he had inflicted on his friends, retreated to the Kent farm, where he sat and wondered where his place in the world was.
4. Donna Troy…Again. Troy was supposedly due to play an important role, (hence the whole mucking around with Brainiac 8 to try and ensure her permanent death) and she did. As it turned out, Troy was the Anti-Monitor's version of Harbinger, and hence is the repository of knowledge of every alternate universe version of herself that once existed, which means that with the right prodding she could remember the original Multiverse as well as its history. As mentioned, she was apparently reborn after her death: the exact circumstances being The Titans of Myth, realizing that she was the child who was destined to save them from some impending threat, brought her to New Chronus and implanted false memories within her mind to make her believe she was the original Goddess of the Moon and wife of Coeus. The Titans of Myth incited war between other worlds near New Chronus in order to gain new worshippers. They would then use the combined power of their collective faith to open a passageway into another reality when they would be safe from destruction. Donna was another means to that end until she was found by the Titans and The Outsiders who restored her true memories, which set off a chain of events that ended in the destruction or imprisonment of the Titans of Myth and Donna's learning of the information listed above. Now Donna has a new mission…
VIII. Countdown
With all these events happening in various comics, a focal point was needed…and in March 2005, Countdown to Infinite Crisis was released, as the point of all these stories became clear: Infinite Crisis, the sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths. And it began with a doozy…
The main plot concerns Ted Kord, the superhero and former Justice League member known as the Blue Beetle (who, while not a major character, was a very popular cult character), investigating the theft of funds from his company that has left him nearly bankrupt. Most of the other DC heroes dismiss Kord's concerns, either politely or outright. Only Booster Gold, another second-string superhero and Kord's best friend, eventually decides to help complete the investigation, but before he can he is seriously injured by an explosive trap. Alone and unaided, Blue Beetle continues to follow the clues to Switzerland, while plot details note the following…
1) The Spectre does not seem to be in a good mood…
2) Batman has built something, and it doesn't look nice…
3) Lex Luthor, as well as five other major DC Villains: Deathstroke the Terminator, Black Adam, Talia, The Calculator, and Doctor Psycho, have joined forces with a plan to form a Society of Villains, kept very carefully under their control to have their greatest revenge ever against the heroes who they have learned are nowhere near as righteous as they claimed…
…as we come back to Blue Beetle, when he infiltrates the castle base of the evil (but not very important) Checkmate organization. There he confronts Maxwell Lord, who had once financed a branch of the Justice League and who is now revealed to be a criminal mastermind, as he is using his Justice League files to plan something huge, a plan which is aided by something else: Batman's satellite, the Brother MKI, aka Brother Eye, which he built to keep an eye on the superhero community, which he considers a threat to the human race after the way they mind-wiped him. The satellite can, thanks to Lord's theft and modification of it, also create O.M.A.C.S, Observational Meta-human Activity Constructs, which are created from Brainiac-13 (Not related to the previous Brainiacs, there's a lot of Brainiacs!) derived technology acquired by the U.S. Department of Defense and Lexcorp, which was introduced into general vaccine supplies and hence randomly turn humans into superpowerful cyborgs specifically designed to kill metahumans. An OMAC easily defeats Kord, and Maxwell offers to let Kord join his plans, which involved the destruction of all metas for the sake of humanity. After Kord's refusal to join the anti-metahuman strike, Lord shoots the Blue Beetle in the head, killing him. He then immediately activates Project OMAC, declaring it's time to save the human race from itself…
And meanwhile, the reason behind the Spectre's strange aforementioned behavior is revealed elsewhere: The Psycho-Pirate, one of the few to remember the true details of the original Crisis, has been recruited by (then) unknown forces, and under their command has planted the black diamond of the villain Eclipso in Jean Loring's cell. Loring, sexually abused by the other inmates, did not need any motivation to take it, as she became the new Eclipso. And her first plan is quite vicious: with the Spectre hostless, confused, and without meaning, she plans to seduce him, and then convince him that he must destroy all magical beings in the universe. And secretly aided by the Psycho-Pirate's emotion manipulating abilities, she does just that…
And on one final note, out in deep space, things are going wrong, things that will spark an interstellar war…
IX. Final Four (and a few other details)
With Countdown having set these plots in motion, four six part miniseries were released to lead up to Crisis, as everything began to fall fully into place.
1. Day of Vengeance: Jean Loring, ex-wife of Ray Palmer (The Atom) and murderer of Sue Dibny and Jack Drake in 2004's mini-series Identity Crisis, is transformed into a new version of the villainous Eclipso. Loring escapes from her Arkham Asylum cell to unknown whereabouts. Meanwhile, the Spectre, the vengeful right hand of God, is now without a host since the revival of Hal Jordan. Eclipso manages to direct the Spectre against magic, declaring it the source of evil. The Spectre vows to destroy all of magic.
Having witnessed his attack first hand, the magical hero Enchantress summons Ragman (also a magic based hero) to the Mist Woods to save her from the Spectre, who has just defeated and killed "seven hundred combat trained sorcerers" who were having an informal gathering. As another sorcerer provides a distraction, they retreat to the Oblivion Bar, a bar between dimensions where magically powered beings meet to trade war stories. The subject of the day at the bar is the Spectre and his attacks on magic across the world. The bartender is Jim Rook, the Nightmaster, and the bouncer is Blue Devil, all magic based heroes. When Enchantress proclaims that the magic world needs to make a stand against the Spectre, she gets no agreement, save for Detective Chimp (an intelligent via magic crime solving chimpanzee. Yeah you read that right).
Detective Chimp reveals that Phantom Stranger, one of several "big-gun" magicians that Ragman believes is better suited for this type of fight, has been turned into a mouse as he emphasizes the importance of fighting the Spectre. These five are joined by Nightshade (another magic based hero) as the Shadowpact and they all agree to take the fight to the Spectre. While the mystics plan this attack, the ancient wizard Shazam recruits his superhero Captain Marvel in a bid against the Spectre. Also notable, the other "big guns" mentioned by the patrons in the bar were Dr. Fate and Madame Xanadu. Both were already disabled by the Spectre. Dr. Fate was imprisoned in the dimension within his helmet and Madame Xanadu has been blinded by the Spectre, disabling her abilities to interpret magic.
As Captain Marvel fights a duel of magic versus spirit against the Spectre, Enchantress, Blue Devil, Ragman and Nightmaster keep Eclipso busy, hoping to give Captain Marvel the few moments he needs to defeat the Spectre. To do so, Enchantress syphons magical energy from mystics around the world, empowering Captain Marvel. Meanwhile, Detective Chimp and Nightshade bring back Black Alice, a girl with the power to steal another's magical powers for a short amount of time, leaving the being powerless. The Shadowpact is able to briefly shake off Spectre and Eclipso's attack. With Captain Marvel empowered by Enchantress's spell, and Blue Devil's spear stunning Eclipso, the evil pair retreats to regather its strength.
In the window of time left open, the Shadowpact, joined by Black Alice, return to the Oblivion Bar, to plan the next level of their attack. They will kill the Spectre and defeat Eclipso before he can complete his war on magic by using Black Alice's ability to steal powers. The plan reaches a snag, however, when Black Alice successfully steals the Spectre's powers, only for the heroes to find that a powerless Spectre is an empty spirit and hence unkillable. However, with her brief possession of the Spectre's powers, Black Alice uses them to help Nightshade send Eclipso into a perpetual orbit around the sun, which weakens her power and leaves her trapped.
Captain Marvel, meanwhile, has returned to the Rock of Eternity, where the wizard Shazam reveals that he is ready to face The Spectre. The restored Spectre, Black Alice unable to contain his immense might, travels to the Rock of Eternity to battle the wizard Shazam, changing Captain Marvel back into Billy Batson, his alter-ego, to keep him out of his way. The Phantom Stranger, restored from a mouse, uses his powers to allow the Shadowpact to watch the battle between Shazam and the Spectre from Earth. After it appears that Shazam has beaten his opponent, the Spectre revives himself, drains the wizard of his powers, and kills him. The Rock of Eternity begins to disintegrate, and travels through several dimensions as it does so, eventually appearing in the sky above Gotham City before it explodes into "a billion pieces".
The destruction of the Rock frees an untold number beings of evil magic back into the world, among them the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, who were formerly trapped in stone statues in Shazam's throne room. Billy Batson, unable to remember his magic word, is seen falling from the Rock above Gotham City. The scene leads directly into Infinite Crisis #1…
2. The OMAC Project: Blue Beetle is dead, Booster Gold is in the hospital and the Checkmate organization, led by Maxwell Lord and in command of Batman's former spy satellite Brother Eye, continues its mysterious operations against DC's superheroes. Booster Gold wakes up and after learning of Ted Kord's disappearance, he decides to investigate it with the help of Wonder Woman.
OMACs (Observational Meta-human Activity Constructs) have been spotted all over the world and have managed to kill several metahumans. Batman and Wonder Woman investigate the OMACs while Booster, after meeting Guy Gardner in space, decides that he would rather investigate Ted Kord's disappearance with other former members of the Justice League International.
Interwoven through this plot are scenes detailing the power struggle within the Checkmate organization itself. Checkmate is led by the White Queen, White King, Black Queen and Black King; each of whom have Knights (of the corresponding color). Through his machinations, Black King Maxwell Lord becomes the only leader of the organization, despite being double-crossed by one of his own Knights, Sasha Bordeaux. Maxwell Lord then puts another one of his plans into effect…
Interlude: Sacrifice. Maxwell Lord, through the detonation of a 'gene bomb' years earlier, gained the ability to control the minds of others…at great difficulty at the time. However, this power seems to have grown, as Maxwell Lord reveals that he has used the powers to influence and control the mightiest hero of them all, Superman. Using his power, he makes Superman brutally beat up Batman and attack Wonder Woman, believing them to be his old enemies (ie Brainiac, Darkseid, Ruin, and Doomsday). After barely escaping from Superman, Wonder Woman confronts Maxwell Lord and binds him in her Lasso of Truth; telling him to tell her how to free Superman; Maxwell tells her that the only way for Superman to be free of Maxwell's control is that Wonder Woman has to kill him.
And without a second thought Wonder Woman snaps Maxwell Lord's neck…right in front of Superman. She did what she had to…but to Superman, that is not an excuse…
And all she has done is made it worse, as Brother Eye, the artificial intelligence directing the OMAC drones, has seen this event initiates a protocol specifically designed to be used in the event of Lord's death and OMAC drones world-wide are activated and begin to wreak havoc and destruction. In fact, Sasha herself is transformed into an OMAC-like hero, powered by nanite technology. Rocket Red #4, a former member of the Justice League, sacrifices himself in order to destroy several drones and save the lives of his friends.
Batman then works with the remnants of Checkmate to lure the majority of OMACs to the Sahara. There, he activates an EMP device that disables all of the OMAC's, allowing their human personas to be freed. However, the Brother MKI satellite is still hidden and has about 200,000 OMAC's still under its control.
Brother I overrides all television screens around the world and broadcasts Wonder Woman's killing of Maxwell Lord. The people don't understand the circumstances, just that they're watching Wonder Woman murder a recognized Justice League colleague.
In Wonder Woman #221, Wonder Woman took a defeated OMAC to a hospital, and noticing everyone staring at her in fear, saw the broadcast and realized "They have killed my name." It leads into Infinite Crisis #1…
3. Villains United: For months now, former President Lex Luthor has been using his resources to assemble an army against the superheroes. Luthor's team now has over two hundred members with a six-member core team consisting of Luthor, Talia al Ghul, Doctor Psycho, Deathstroke the Terminator, Black Adam, and the Calculator. But not all the villains offered a chance to join this army are thrilled with this idea. Batman villain Catman has joined a team of five supported by the mysterious Mockingbird including Cheshire, Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll and Parademon to oppose this new Secret Society. Catman replaced the first Fiddler, after he was shot by Deadshot on Mockingbird's orders when Mockingbird felt he had not fulfilled his part in a mission.
Late one night in the mansion of the Secret Six, Catman and Deadshot have a discussion about their unknown leader, Mockingbird and the dramatic change in Catman's life (they found Catman, who until recently was considered a joke, on the African Savannah, where he had reinvented himself as a Batman-like perfect human and was living peacefully…until Deathstroke killed his pride of lions and forced him back into action) while Cheshire secretly listens in the shadows. After a short while Scandal informs everyone that Mockingbird has just assigned them to steal Thanagarian weaponry from a tanker in Gotham harbor. Upon their arrival to the tanker they are ambushed by members of the Society, which include Weather Wizard, Cheetah, Doctor Polaris, Count Vertigo, Killer Frost, Captain Nazi, Hyena, Crazy Quilt, and others. After their capture, the Crime Doctor tortures the Secret Six, asking them the identity of Mockingbird among other questions. After a few rounds of torture, Catman breaks free and rescues his villainous teammates. While escaping they decide to send the Society a message by murdering the Hyena.
After their escape the Six infiltrated a Society installation in Brazil. After fighting their way through the H.I.V.E. troopers defending the mainframe, they discover the Society's plans for the 'Vindication Scenario'—erasing the memories of all of Earth's superheroes in retaliation for the mindwiping the heroes had been doing for years. The facility is a giant battery, powered by a kidnapped Firestorm. They release Firestorm just as Black Adam was arriving with a response team and the facility is destroyed.
Once the Six return to their base Cheshire and Catman are in bed together when Cheshire accuses Catman of being a spy and wanting to be a hero. However, she reveals that she has slept with him in order to conceive a child.
A short time later, most of the Society's founding council votes to mount a final strike on the Secret Six—Lex Luthor disagrees with a preemptive attack, but the remaining four members (Black Adam is absent for unknown reasons) decide the action is necessary. Simultaneously, the Six agree to a last stand, but only under the condition that any survivors be set free from Mockingbird's control with no strings attached.
Previous to the battle between the Society and the Six, Deadshot visits Scandal's room to talk about the team's future. A framed picture on the woman's desk reveals that her father is the immortal Vandal Savage.
Before the conversation has a chance to progress
past base greetings, Deadshot is ambushed by an irate Catman; he
admits knowledge that Deadshot masqueraded as the villainous
Deathstroke and murdered the lions comprising his pride, which caused
him to join the Secret Six in the first place. The two engage in a
scuffle before pausing to find Deathstroke (the genuine article)
leading a rather large band of villains to the front door of the
House of Secrets
.
As the motley crew debates as to how the Society
was able to find them, Cheshire confesses to several traitorous deeds
including giving Luthor the coordinates of the Six's base and
covertly joining the Society. When asked what would possess her to do
such a thing, considering the fact that the enigmatic Mockingbird has
threatened to eliminate her daughter if she refuses utter compliance,
Cheshire points out that the baby she's having with Catman would make
a fine replacement for a lost child.
The Society storms through the castle, and Cheshire is shot and possibly killed by Deathstroke, who comments that "The Society doesn't need traitors". The Secret Six manages to fight successfully, though. Talia al Ghul and Scandal Savage, daughters of immortals Ra's al Ghul and Vandal Savage respectively, fight each other. Just when Talia has the upper hand, Scandal's mole in the Society, Knockout, knocks out Talia. (It is also revealed that Knockout is Scandal's lover.) Ragdoll convinces Solomon Grundy, a fellow "ugly monster," to switch sides. Ragdoll and his father, who HAS joined the Society, fight until Parademon beats the elder Ragdoll. Catman and Ragdoll Jr. escape from Black Adam's group while Parademon blows himself (and the battleground) up, along with Ragdoll. Deathstroke and Deadshot duel, ultimately shooting each other at the same time. Vandal Savage, to save his daughter Scandal, infiltrates the Society's headquarters and threatens to kill Luthor if he does not disengage the Society's attack against the Six. Luthor reluctantly calls an end to the battle over Black Adam's objection; Deadshot is lead away to medical help from the surviving Secret Six.
The central revelation of the book, however, is that Mockingbird is actually…Lex Luthor, and that the Luthor organizing the Secret Society is some sort of "imposter". Mockingbird/Luthor reveals that he chose those six individuals because each had different knowledge and experience that could be used to oppose the Society: Catman, for his knowledge on Batman villains; Deadshot, for his knowledge on the remaining Suicide Squad members; Parademon, for his experience living on Apokolips; Ragdoll, because he grew up as a "nephew" to the members of the Injustice Society; Scandal, because she grew up with Vandal Savage and his associates; and Cheshire, for her knowledge on the villains of the Teen Titans. Mockingbird/Luthor reveals to Scandal that he had never placed the families and children of the Six in danger, and disbands the team.
And one final event happens, as the Luthor of the Society, the apparent imposter, reveals that he had captured Pariah, the man who has been hardly seen since the original Crisis. Even more alarmingly, he seemingly kills Pariah, which should be impossible as Pariah was supposedly immortal and protected against harm…but he seemingly kills him anyway. And Pariah, as you remember, was always drawn to great danger…as it leads into Infinite Crisis #1…
4. The Rann-Thanagar War: Perhaps the least important of the miniseries, but needed to be noted anyway. During a recent adventure, space cop Adam Strange, of the Planet Rann, battles a rogue group of the hawk-winged people of Thanagar. During the battle, the leader of the group transported Strange's adopted homeworld of Rann into the Thanagarian system with hopes of creating a dictatorship. However, Rann's new location caused the orbit of Thanagar to change and the planet crashed into the system's sun. The planet Rann now serves as a haven for the people of the now destroyed Thanagar.
But tensions are rising and Strange knows war will soon erupt. Strange goes to Earth to recruit the help of Thanagarians Hawkman and Hawkgirl to prevent a war that will plunge the whole galaxy into chaos. Meanwhile, Green Lanterns Kilowog and Kyle Rayner are sent on a covert mission to Rann, albeit under orders by the Guardians of the Universe not to interfere.
When Strange and the Hawks arrive on Rann, they are shocked to see that the war has already begun.
In a massive battle between Rann and Thanagar, which also grows to include the survivors of the destroyed Tamaran home world and their leader, Blackfire, Hawkwoman is killed by Komand'r (Blackfire) in betrayal of a pact. With the help of the heros Tigor of the Omega Men and Captain Comet, Onimar Synn, the villain of the series and starter of the war in the first place, is rendered apart into 7 pieces, with each piece being inserted into a separate star.
However, while the war is done, the battle has just begun, as the end of the series brings the assorted forces of Rann and Thanagar to face with a fracture in space that has been discovered during the fight…a fracture that resembles those that were seen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths…as it leads into Infinite Crisis #1…
1.1 Power Girl: Her origin a tangled mess: originally the Supergirl of Earth-2, then claimed to be the granddaughter of the ancient sorcerer Arion to retcon her existence Post-Crisis, then told years later she was not the granddaughter of Arion after all. Just before Infinite Crisis though, her true origin was finally revealed, as the Psycho-Pirate confronts her attempts to drive her mad, as in the process he ultimately tells Power Girl that she is from the Krypton of Earth-Two, and has somehow retained her pre-Crisis origin as Kara Zor-L, continuing to exist after the Crisis when many other (such as Huntress and Robin of Earth-Two) did not. In the end, it is revealed that the whole purpose of Psycho Pirate's scheme is to weaken Power Girl mentally so that she could be captured as part of Lex Luthor of the Society's as of yet unrevealed plot involving key characters in the Crisis of Infinite Earths. However, Power Girl beats Psycho Pirate into a bloody pile of guts and blood in anger only to discover that thanks to the Medusa Mask, the source of his power, Psycho Pirate can now regenerate his entire body via his own blood (which he does). Psycho Pirate flees and vows to make Power Girl his love slave once Luthor is finished with her…
1.2 JLA: Crisis of Conscience. The revelation of the mindwiping that the JLA has been involved in reaches its zenith, as mistrust between the team members of the Justice League is complicated by the arrival of several villains wanting revenge for the supposed mindwiping that has been done to them, a group ultimately revealed to be lead by the mind controlling alien Despero. While the Justice League ultimately triumphs over its foes, it cannot overcome the feelings of suspicion and paranoia they now feel for each other, and the group disbands. The Martian Manhunter returns to the Watchtower base on the moon…where he proceeds, in a sudden epiphany, to discover the connection between the team dissolution, the rise of the OMACs, the intergalactic war between Rann and Thanagar, the creation of a new Secret Society of Super-Villains and the rampage against magic by the Spectre. But just as he is about to inform the others, a mysterious intruder appears, and as J'onn cries out in shock, the final panel of the comic shows the Watchtower exploding into a massive fireball…
And so, the stage is set. Evil, chaotic magic has been loosed all over the planet. The Earth swarms with deadly killing machines specifically designed to destroy metahumans. Virtually all the villains of the world have been united in a grand plan to destroy the minds of all superheroes. A strange cosmic rift had opened in the Universe, one that grows by the hour. The Justice League is shattered, and Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are all at each other's throats over Wonder Woman's decision to kill Maxwell Lord. And with the viewing of Maxwell's death over the televisions of the world by Brother Eye, fear of superheroes and what they can do has hit a peak perhaps never seen before.
The crisis is here.
X. Infinite Crisis
As of this writing, there have been four issues of Infinite Crisis released. Later issues may confuse or contradict what is written here. All I can say is that the story I wrote here was written based on what had been revealed as of Issue 4 of IC. As before, if you want to read it yourself, these contain massive spoilers. You have been warned.
IC #1: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman investigate the destroyed Watchtower, and while they manage to fend off an attack by the alien villain Mongul, they cannot reconcile their differences…
And a strange group of figures watch…
Donna Troy returns to Earth (prompting a lot of "Aren't you dead?" "I got better."), gathering various heroes for a mission, including the new Supergirl, Starfire, Cyborg, Animal Man, and the new Firestorm, among others. She takes them into space.
Conner Kent, aka Superboy, watches the disasters from the Kent farm via television, but he is still too ashamed and in doubt of himself after the 'Insiders' incident to go and aid the fight…
On Earth, the OMACS continue their slaughter of every metahuman, hero and villain, they can find. Nightwing appears trapped by them…until their protocols are overridden with something called 'Truth and Justice' and they all cease their attack and begin to mass in the air, heading to an unknown place…
The Rann/Thanagar alliance, along with others, attempt to contain the rift in space, but they cannot, it continues to grow…
In Gotham, the shattered remains of the Rock of Eternity rain terrible evil down on the city…
The Freedom Fighters, a group of heroes originally from Earth-X, investigate rumors of the Society in a warehouse outside of Metropolis…and find a mass of powerful supervillains who proceed to kill or seemingly kill most of them, sparing only the Ray, who is captured for some unknown reason…
Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman go their separate ways, though Batman has retrieved video footage from the destroyed Watchtower computer, which he can hopefully clean up to see what happened to J'onn…
And the figures watching decide they can watch no longer. The DC world has thrown away their gift, and now they must get involved. Powerful fists slam against a crystal wall until it shatters…
Revealing Golden Age Superman, Superboy from Earth Prime (henceforce called Superboy-Prime), Alex Luthor Jr, and Lois-Lane Kent. The final remnants of the Crisis on Infinite Earths have returned to save the day.
IC#2: The Society attempts to capture Power Girl, but are defeated by Kal-L (Golden Age Superman), who takes Power Girl to his companions, and her memories of Earth-2 are restored.
The world is under siege from all directions. Superman goes to help, while, unable to capture one of the Marvel Family for some unknown purpose, the Luthor of the Society tells the Society to bring him one of their own, Black Adam. Meanwhile, the REAL Lex Luthor is out somewhere in the Arctic, and for some reason is in pain, unable to think properly…
Batman, while attempting to clean up the video file and see just how attacked J'onn and destroyed the Watchtower, is suddenly contacted by Brother Eye. Batman struggles to try and regain control of his former satellite, but Brother Eye had gained true sentience and will not stop its actions, actions Batman programmed it to do (actions which have been severely corrupted but Brother Eye does not realize that), protect the world…from people like Wonder Woman, as it is revealed a gigantic army of OMACS, under the protocol 'Truth and Justice' have lain siege to Wonder Woman's home island of Themyscria, and Wonder Woman and her countrywoman are fighting for their lives…
Kal-L then declares his plans and intentions to Power Girl: his wife, Lois Lane-Kent, is dying, and the new world created at the end of the original Crisis is falling apart. To save his wife, and everything, Kal-L, and his friends Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor Jr plan to reverse the action made during the Crisis on Infinite Earths which saved Earth-1, and bring about the return of Earth-2, so Lois can recover from her sickly state and the world can recover from its decadence.
IC #3: Villains lay siege to the world, as the Spectre, still on his magic-destroying quest, proceeds to annihilate the underwater nation of Atlantis. As the OMAC attack on Themyscira intensifies, the Amazons make use of a new weapon, the Purple Ray of Death, while Batman despairs over what he has unleashed in his paranoia and mistrust…before someone announces themselves in his cave.
Wonder Woman orders the Purple Ray of Death shut down when she realizes that Brother Eye is broadcasting the assault across the world in order to discredit her and her nation further. Quickly diverting the OMACs away from the Amazon armies, Wonder Woman orders her sisters to retreat. As they gather on the shoreline of Themyscira, Wonder Woman calls on the goddess Athena, who created the Amazons in the first place back in the times of myth, to send Paradise Island into another dimension, which she does. Wonder Woman however remains behind to battle the OMACs, her home now seemingly forever lost to her.
Power Girl struggles with whether to support the returned heroes on this venture, knowing that Earth-Two must be restored for Lois Lane-Kent to live, but also knowing the great cost that will occur if such a deed is done. The Shadowpact try and step the tide of evil magic unleashed, with aid from Superman. The rift in space grows worse, despite Donna Troy's group's attempts to stop it. The Flash springs into action to aid the world
Kal-L is the one who has visited Batman to enlist his support, stating that the mistrust and hostility Batman has developed — leading him to create the Brother Eye satellite — was due to the inherent "bad" nature of Earth-2 over the happiness of Earth-2.
While Lex Luthor finally confronts the Luthor of the Society, though doing so apparently causes Lex great pain. He nevertheless blasts the Society's Luthor…who shrugs off the blast and returns fire with his own mysterious power.
Upon learning the full genocidal implications of Kal-L's plan, Batman refuses to cooperate to the point where he attempts to attack the Kryptonian with a kryptonite ring, which proved ineffective. Kal-L leaves.
As Lex Luthor's attack on the society's Luthor finally shatters the hologram that the Society's Luthor is wearing, to reveal…
Alexander Luthor Jr.
Lex Luthor is then ambushed from behind, his armor easily ripped to shreds by unknown hands. Before he can be killed though, Lex Luthor escapes with a personal teleporter.
With Kal-L gone, Batman turns back to trying to restore the video file, while Power Girl wrestles with her feelings, finally returning to the place where the survivors of the Crisis have set up shop to announce her choice…
Only to find something she had not seen before: a gigantic machine, in which are plugged the bodies of Breach (A hero from Post Crisis Earth), Lady Quark (The sole survivor of Earth-6 during the original Crisis), The Ray (the son of a hero from Earth-X), Martian Manhunter (A hero from Pre-Crisis Earth 1), Black Adam (A villain from Earth-S), and Nightshade (A hero from Earth-4)…a machine apparently built from the remains of the Anti-Monitor.
But before she can do anything, Power Girl is struck down, by…
As Batman's video file, finally uncorrupted, plays back who attacked J'onn…
Superboy-Prime.
And it's quite apparent that while Kal-L wants to restore Earth-2 to save his wife, Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor Jr have an agenda all their own…
IC #4: Revealed as the masterminds, Alex Luthor Jr, while inserting Power Girl into their machine, tell Power Girl that when Kal-L had punched his way free of the paradise Alex Luthor Jr had created, it was not the first time that Alex Luthor and Superboy-Prime had visited the DC Universe. They had actually been doing so for quite some time, and they had organized most of the terrible events that have befallen the DC Universe, though they claim Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman's troubles were theirs alone, a sign of how terrible and dark that the DC Universe has become, a darkness they have grown sick of observing while 'trapped' in their paradise. For this darkness, which seems unremoveable and destined to only grow, the DC Universe as they knew it, and the Earth especially, must be destroyed, while is why they organized the new Crisis. Alex Luthor Jr used the villains to build the machine and capture the heroes imprisoned in it under the assumption they would use the machine to mindwipe the heroes, which is not the true case. As well, they arranged the Spectre's attack on magic to revert magic to a purer, more primal form, free of order or chaos, so they could use it to power the machine, while Superboy-Prime, on earlier missions to the DC Universe, manipulated planets and solar objects (and hence sparking off the Rann/Thanagar War) so the center of the universe shifted: originally Oa, the center is now where the rift in space is. With all this in play, they will use Power Girl and the others, via the machine they have build, to not remake Earth-2 (which Alex Luthor claims is 'just a step along the way), but to find a perfect world. With Power Girl (originally from Earth-2, remember) imprisoned, Superboy-Prime begs to visit 'him', while beforehand (before you knew just who it was), he had previously asked Alexander Luthor Jr to go to Earth, saying 'You know what I can do under that Yellow Sun'. When Superboy-Prime says that Alex Luthor TOLD him he could 'talk to him', Alex Luthor gives him the go-ahead, and Superboy-Prime takes off…
In the world, the Society, under Deathstroke's orders, in revenge against something Nightwing has done to him, drops the massive poisonous entity Chemo like a bomb from space and onto Bludhaven, Nightwing's city, reducing it to a toxic wasteland…even while Batman, finally seeing the whole board, attempts to make amends as he begins preparing counter plans.
Kal-L, clueless of the true intentions of his companions, tries to comfort his dying wife…
While on the farm, the Kents get a surprise visitor: Superboy-Prime, who confronts Conner Kent, lambasting him, telling him to admit he's given up and that it's time for a Superboy who knows what right and wrong is, that he's the Superboy the world needs…and when Conner refuses to accept it, Superboy-Prime blasts him with a punch, screaming "YOU'RE NOT SUPERBOY!"
The battle begins, as Superboy-Prime trashes Conner, calling him an imitation, saying that he is the real Superboy and he's what the world needs. But even when Conner snaps and fights back, he gets nowhere. While the veracity of him being the real Superboy is yet undefined, Superboy-Prime is something else: an earlier kind of a hero…a Silver Age Hero.
A hero of a time when powers were so much higher. A time when the Super-People were nigh-omnipotent.
Indeed, it seems as if Superboy-Prime commands strength beyond Conner's and perhaps beyond even Superman himself…and he's clearly not quite right in the head…
And he's still…trashing Conner.
But Conner has something he doesn't…
And so…it finally comes to an end. I'm sorry if I melted your brain and burned you out.
But that, all in all, utterly explains it.
And now…you know the rest…of the story.