You may remember, amongst Rob Liefeld’s Twitter assault last week, this part about the ever-changing minds at DC:

Grifter was to cross-over into a larger story with Helspont and the Daemonites. The other titles were Superman, Supergirl, Red Lantern[s]… I was told that Voodoo was ending and to implement her into the story. I had to connect to the events in the Superman annual. Grifter was featured in the Superman annual, as was Hawkman. I wrote Grifter #13 and it placed him in the center of the Daemonite plot. I arrived at Comic-con to be informed that the Superman office changed their mind, whatever that means and there was now no fall cross-over.  So issue #13 had to be re-written from page one. The Superman annual was also changed and Grifter was removed as was Hawkman. Voodoo still needed to be featured though as Grifter was her new home. All fine and good. You take a corporate assignment you take direction.

Here’s an unexpected twist: Grifter and Hawkman are very, very present in the Superman Annual as released today.

In fact, they’re there at the center of a Daemonite plot which, because I haven’t been following Superman, Grifter or Hawkman, makes very little sense to me whatsoever (I’m not being snarky; the Annual is quite clearly the culmination of threads that have been spread through those various books – including something that apparently picks up directly from Grifter #12 – so I was almost entirely lost). Now, this doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a fall crossover on the cards that was then dropped – Certainly, the solicits for issues between now and November would definitely suggest that it has – but it does just add another layer of confusion into the whole thing. Did Liefeld’s editor misunderstand what was going on with the Superman Annual? Did Liefeld?

Also: This means that the fall crossover plot was apparently created and then dropped at – appropriately for Superman, I guess – superfast speed. After all, the story that’s in today’s Superman Annual wasn’t the one originally announced for the issue, and the changeover was only made public less than four weeks ago. I’m beginning to suspect – especially having read the Annual – that the fall crossover wasn’t dropped at all, but instead just postponed for awhile. Certainly, the issue ends with an unresolved plot that feels like we’re going to see raised again, and pretty soon…

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