Time is a funny thing. I can recognize that Crisis On Infinite Earths happened in 1985 and know that it was twenty-three years ago. However, it wasn’t until I jotted down some thoughts on each of DC’s line-wide crossover events, and realized that Final Crisis would be Event No. 20* (!!) that it started to sink in. I’ve lived through the main parts of every one of these things, with varying degrees of reward — and where has it gotten me?
Well, at least a couple of posts. Here’s Part 1 of my pocket guide to those post-Crisis crossover events, done up bullet-point style for your reading convenience.
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1. Legends (1986, 6 monthly issues, 22 tie-in issues)
Why? DC had just reorganized its spice rack; time to start cookin’!
How? Darkseid sends Glorious Godfrey to Earth to make the superheroes look bad. When that doesn’t work, it’s time to release the robot hounds.
So? After he realizes the public’s against him, Cap surren– sorry. At the end of Legends, a parade of adorable children, led by a pre-gritty Jason Todd, tries to convince an angry mob that the superheroes are A-OK. When Godfrey slaps one of the kids, his hold over the crowd is broken. The miniseries was therefore a little too earnest for its own good. (Godfrey does accidentally lobotomize himself with the Helmet of Fate, but still.)
After? A better marketing tool than a story, Legends launched such successes as Justice League International, John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, and the current Flash series.
2. Millennium (1987, 8 weekly issues, 37 tie-in issues)
Why? To bring part of his ’70s Justice League run into Steve Englehart’s master plan for Green Lantern.
How? A Guardian of the Universe and a Zamaron want to protect the next step in cosmic evolution from the Manhunters. However, a Manhunter sleeper-agent may be Someone You Know!!
So? The Manhunter-exposing didn’t go too much further than this event. A mind-controlled Lana Lang was the highest-profile Manhunter agent, and it didn’t stop her from becoming First Lady of the U.S. Wally West’s dad was more unrepentant about his Manhunter work, but that just seemed to confirm what a manipulative bastard he’d turned out to be. Also, although Joe Staton was well-suited for Green Lantern, his work was a little too quirky for the “stylebook sensibility” a big event seems to require.
After? The New Guardians got their own short-lived series (12 issues) and the Old Guardians went back to Cosmic Stud Farm (the all-male Guardians were the Zamarons’ once-estranged mates) for a few more years. As for the next next step in cosmic evolution, I suspect only Geoff Johns knows for sure.
3. Invasion! (1988, 3 monthly 80-page issues, 28 tie-in issues)
Why? Keith Giffen and scripter Bill Mantlo bring the 30th Century’s alien empires to Earth, to rub out our super-folk!
How? Destroy Australia, then drop a “gene-bomb” which neutralizes most super-powers. Just make sure you keep the Daxamites on your side….
So? Not bad, and certainly a good summer-blockbuster concept. However, for the second straight event, the art (pencilled by Todd McFarlane and Bart Sears, over Giffen breakdowns) was a little too cartoony and stylized for the carnage.
After? The book spawned L.E.G.I.O.N., a 20th Century precursor to a certain 30th Century team. Giffen and Sears reunited on the new Justice League Europe. The term “meta-gene” soon became ubiquitous.
4. Armageddon 2001 (1991, 12 Annuals and 2 bookends, spanning 25 weeks)
Why? With his regular series on the chopping block, DC wanted to turn Captain Atom into a villain — but keep it to yourself….
How? The time-traveling Waverider comes back from the horrible future of 2001 2030 to warn Earth’s supers that in ten years, one of them will turn to the dark side!
So? A mixed bag, depending on which Annuals you picked up. What’s more, Superman and Batman each got two shots at being Monarch, I suppose to heighten the suspense.
After? You might have heard that the original ending was leaked. As a fix, Hank “Hawk” Hall became Monarch, at least for a while. Because Captain Atom didn’t get any more popular, he got to be Monarch in time for Countdown. Uh … yay?
5. War of the Gods (1991, 4 monthly issues and 19 tie-in issues)
Why? If you happened to like George Pérez, and you thought Zeus’s loyalties were divided between being part of the Shazam-power and overseeing the Amazons, this was a no-brainer. It’s Crisis On Infinite Pantheons!
How? Circe, the Amazon-event-planner’s friend.
So? Production problems plagued the main books, and the crossover’s chapters were published out of order as a result. Considering that WOTG involved keeping track of most of DC’s super-characters plus assorted deities, this didn’t make it any easier to follow. Still, it wasn’t without its moments. The Flash raced both Hermes and Mercury; and Grant Morrison joined the Suicide Squad.
After? Wonder Woman took some time off to prepare for new writer William Messner-Loebs. The hiatus might also have helped fans forget how they felt about this crosssover. As for Circe, she wouldn’t headline another event until Amazons Attack, and we see how that turned out.
6. Eclipso: The Darkness Within (1992, 18 Annuals and 2 bookends, spanning 14 weeks)
Why? Eclipso turns good guys bad without us waiting 10 years to see it. Sounds like an Annual-driven summer event to me!
How? Get someone angry, give ‘em a black diamond, and take cover.
So? Keith Giffen and Bart Sears are back for the bookends, this time with Giffen’s Ambush Bug scripter Robert Loren Fleming. I actually bought every issue of this event, just for the heck of it. For the most part I wasn’t disappointed — there’s continuity between the Annuals, heroes stay “eclipsed” past the end of their particular chapter, and the plan to free Superman is a corker.
After? An Eclipso ongoing series lasted 18 issues. Take that, New Guardians! Down the road, this crossover redefined Eclipso into a major DC villain, and enabled (among other things) the character’s plotlines from the past few years.
7. Bloodlines (1993, 23 Annuals followed by 2 double-sized Specials, spanning 24 weeks)
Why? DC needed new characters, no matter how lame.
How? Those which don’t kill you (namely, shape-shifting extraterrestrial monsters) make you stronger (by activating your dormant meta-gene). That is, unless they actually do kill you.
So? Pretty bad. 1993 happened to be the summer that both Superman (dead) and Batman (wheelchair-bound) were out of commission. Therefore, because Kal-El came back around the time Bloodlines wrapped, the latter’s big finish featured the Man of Steel helping to save the day.
After? While each Annual introduced a new character, few caught on. Anima and Loose Cannon each got their own series (15 and 4 issues, respectively), but the breakout star was one Tommy Monaghan. Hitman ran sixty issues, plus separate team-ups with Lobo and the Justice League.
8. Zero Hour: Crisis In Time! (1994, 5 weekly issues and 27 tie-in issues, followed by 40 issues in “Zero Month”)**
Why? Dan Jurgens got frustrated with DC’s rolling timeline hijinks.
How? It’s complicated — it starts with the Time Trapper, but he gets killed by new villain Extant, who used to be Monarch, and … you know what? There’s Parallax. Ask him.
So? As an excuse to reboot the timeline “once and for all,” it’s still pretty confusing and stilted. The tie-ins and the Zero issues tend to be better.
After? As a follow-up, all the October ‘94 DC superhero books got “Zero Issues” intended to lure new readers. Among these were the first issues of James Robinson’s Starman and the penultimate from-scratch Legion of Super-Heroes reboot. Thus, like Legends, ZH was better for marketing than for drama.
9. Underworld Unleashed (1995, 3 monthly issues and 4 specials, plus 40 tie-in issues)
Why? Forget tinkering with the heroes — the villains need help!
How? Neron, pretty high up in the Hell hierarchy for someone we’ve never seen before, gets the bad guys (and at least one good guy) to grow more powerful through deals with the devil.
So? Neron’s master plan involves corrupting the most incorruptible DC hero. Everybody breathes a sigh of relief when they realize Superman’s on a mission in space. Not so fast, though … Neron was thinking of someone redder and cheesier. I don’t remember UU being particularly bad, and I do remember being faked out by that particular twist.
After? UU writer Mark Waid played the innocent-Captain-Marvel card the next year in Kingdom Come; and UU’s penciller Howard Porter went on to draw Grant Morrison’s JLA.
10. The Final Night (1996, 4 weekly issues and 20 tie-in issues)
Why? So that Hal Jordan could die a hero. (If memory serves, it was originally going to be called In Blackest Night. Guess that would have been too spoilery.)
How? A Sun-Eater extinguishes the Sun, leaving the Earth with less than a week to live.
So? Pretty suspenseful, I thought, for a miniseries which would have to hit the reset button pretty hard.
After? The lack of solar radiation also snuffs out Superman’s powers, leading eventually to Electro-Supes. You might not have liked that development, but I give Final Night credit for setting it up. Also, we weren’t quite done with Hal Jordan….
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Hmm … now I want a Showcase Presents War Of The Gods, to see if it reads any better in one big chunk. Come back next week for Genesis through Countdown, plus some big-picture analysis and thoughts on what makes a worthwhile crossover. See you then!
* [I am taking the list of crossover events mostly from Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, a site for which I am sorely grateful. To that list I have added 52 and Countdown (including CD's related miniseries).
** [Not including Booster Gold #0.]
May 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Fantastic overview, Tom….it’s great to get the Big Picture angle of DC’s many event comics. Can’t wait to see what you have to say about Our Worlds At War, probably the worst and most nonsensical of all 20 events.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Okay, I know I’m picking at nits here, but since, when it came out, my eleven-year old self was enthralled with Armageddon 2001, and I still have a great fondness for many of the annuals, I have to correct something:
Matthew Ryder, in the beginning of the first special, was from somewhere around 2030 and was sent back in time, becoming Waverider, from there.
2001 was the year that, in the original time line, Monarch first appeared and killed all the superheroes.
I’ll stop now. Thanks.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Here’s the thing, right? The leak of Captain Atom as Monarch happened in what, 1990? 1991?
It was squelched b/c the information was distributed across the internet “of that time”, right?
In 1990, the internet consisted of 1 tube and 3 LEDs.
Let me tell you, the majority of comic fans had no idea. Completely unnecessary ret-con.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Here’s the thing, right? The leak of Captain Atom as Monarch happened in what, 1990? 1991?
It was squelched b/c the information was distributed across the internet “of that time”, right?
In 1990, the internet consisted of 1 tube and 3 LEDs.
Also, you left out the forgettable “Blood Pack” series from Bloodlines.
Let me tell you, the majority of comic fans had no idea. Completely unnecessary ret-con.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Slow blog post comment system is slow and not 100% reliable.
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FYI, you left out the forgettable “Blood Pack” series from Bloodlines, and a note that the whole Final Night / Sun-Eater concept was also used to spotlight the Reboot Legion’s 20th Century exploits.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
@ticknart: Nit noted — thanks!
@Squashua: According to a Wizard interview with Dan Jurgens (via Dr. Scott’s article on A2K1), a 900-number was the source of the leak. Oh sure, blame the 900 numbers, yet again….
Personally, I thought it had to be someone in JLE, because that Annual was the last one before the finale; and I figured it might be Cap because his book was being cancelled.
But yeah, rumor-spreading technology was pretty primitive back then.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Squashua: I also left out Psyba-Rats, a 3-issue miniseries featuring Razorsharp; and the 13-issue Gunfire series. You are right about the 20th Century Legion’s involvement in Final Night, which I remembered primarily as “Ferro Lad doesn’t die.”
May 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Does it make any sense that DC collections of these crossovers (Legends, Millenium, Invasion), only include the main series and not the tie-in issues? When Marvel collects things like Onslaught or The Age of Apocalypse, they include everything.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
A 900 number leaked the information? Other than, maybe, getting it on TV or the radio, how was the information so “leaked” that it would disseminate to the fans? Replacing him with Hank Hall was a true unnecessary kneejerk reaction to a non-issue.
I have also read that JLE/JLA/JLI Annual where Waverider is about to touch Captain Atom, and it’s such a shame that a buildup like that got so ganked.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I never dialed a 1-900 number — not even to save Jason Todd’s life! — but they did seem pretty popular at the time. Wikipedia says “the Hulk Hogan Hotline was the most lucrative 900 line in the United States from 1991 through 1993. Other early leaders in amassing huge volumes of revenue were the New Kids on the Block and the Dionne Warwick Psychic Network.”
Not that it excuses the Monarch switch, mind you.
Also, speaking of A2K1, I forgot to mention that the 2001 New Titans Annual introduced the “Team Titans,” another concept which has since gone the way of the Dionne Warwick Psychic Friends Network.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I remember hearing about the Captain Atom thing before the issue came out from a few different sources — from my retailer, from someone in one of the APAs I was in and on the floor of a con either that spring or summer (one of the Dallas Fantasy Fairs, I think, which they held three times a year, IIRC).
My retailer was pretty proud to share what he knew every time I bought one of the annuals.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I read the Captain Atom spoiler on a local BBS months before the book came out, so I know that those did play some part in spreading the news even if they weren’t “patient zero”.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I remember the Superman issues being fun alternate futures– does he become President, a crazed despot that Batman has to kill or Maxima’s husband?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:34 am
I thought of two things when reading this:
You forgot to mention that Zero Hour resulted from Dan Jurgens being told that he could not use the traditional Hawkman character as a guest star in Action since Hawkworld featured the new Hawkman (Katar Hol). So he threw his weight around and used Zero Hour as a way to destroy the Hawkworld series and launch a new very continuity muddled “avatar” Hawkman in a new Hawkman series. Then when he felt he had rubbed everyone’s face in it he left the new title before completing even a year on it.
Second Jurgen’s Zero Hour killed off a number of JSA members because who the hell would ever read a JSA comic series anyway? Right, guys, right?? Umm.
So after screwing up Ostrander and Truman’s Hawkworld and killing off the JSA what did Jurgens do? Oh, yeah he left the car wreck he had made at DC behind and went to Marvel to write Sensational Spider-man. It took Geoff Johns a couple of years of hard work on JSA to undo the mess Jurgens caused with Zero Hour.
Secondly, the Eclipso series was pretty good and the Hitman tie in issue to Final Night may be the best tie in I’ve ever read.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Great article! Don’t also forget the short-lived Valor series that came out of the Eclipso crossover, ending right around Zero Hour.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I’m a week late, but Dan Jurgens has never had credited work on a Hawkman book, so I’m not sure how he can possibly be blamed for leaving it.
The Zero Hour-era Hawkman book was launched by Ostrander & Truman writing with Jan Duursema on art, which lasted for six issues. The team when Zero Hour hit was William Messner-Loebs and Steve Lieber, who did 9 - 27 (minus a fill-in or two) plus the 0 issue in between 13 and 14. The last issue was #33.
An aside on the Hawkman avatar: I understand why they did it, because it looks like an elegant solution to the already existing continuity problems - the answer to the question “Which Hawkman did this happen to?” can always be answered with “this one!” and pointing at the one currently flying around in the DCU. It’s just that the follow up question is then always “No, seriously: which one?”