Flash #203 (February, 1971)
"The Flash's Wife is a Two-Timer!"
Story - Robert Kanigher
Penciller - Irv Novick
Inker - Murphy Anderson
Cover Price: $0.15
There are a handful of covers I'd love to have blown up to hang on my wall... this is most definitely one of those covers! It's somehow wacky and comicbooky while still being somewhat haunting.
In my research I discovered that a lotta folks thought that civilian walking behind the Flash was Stan Lee or Gray Morrow. Turns out it was just some random dude who they threw a beard on. The truth is always less fun, ain't it?
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We open aboard the Justice League Satellite where a lonely Flash arrives a bit early for his shift on monitor duty. His wife is away on assignment... and he's also just learned something about her that has left him a bit shaken. He meets an... oddly passive-aggressive Superman. I mean, really passive-aggressive... he's all like "I'm a lonely alien... but what would you know about that?" Yeesh. This starts Flash's walk... er, run... down memory lane. He shares the story of Iris West's secret origin...
Ya see, a few days ago Barry returned home to find a note from his wife... one which revealed that she was being drawn 1,000 years into the future! So, a quick ride on the Cosmic Treadmill (which looks so weird in Barry's house), and he arrives in the year 2970! It's a strange desert landscape and the Sun glows red. He appears below a river... in a tube!
Now if you've ever traveled through time, you know what kinda thirst ya work up. And so, Flash heads up to the tube-river and bores a hole to get himself a drink. Little does he know that stealing water is a capital offense in 2970... and he is chased off by some futurecops.
He is able to evade capture by vibrating through a nearby mountain... and winds up standing before a strange "self contained city"... it's really quite the thing! Super interesting to see. As he approaches the city he spies some gigantic mutant vegetation... like giant tomatoes and stuff.
Inside the town, he accidentally bumps into a citizen who bumps into another citizen who had just procured his family's daily allowance of water. Before a fight can break out, a siren begins to sound... and all of the folks start heading for shelter. Coming down a nearby staircase... is Iris!
She tells Barry to beat it... he doesn't belong here. Flash doesn't quite understand... and she doesn't really need much arm twisting to spill the beans. She claims that while cleaning out her father's basement she came across a locket with the name "Iris Russell" engraved on it.
She picks it up... and it begins speaking to her! It tells the story of the Secret Origin of Iris Wes-- Russell! Ya see, Iris was born on the doomed planet Krypto-- oh, wait... that's the wrong one... but as we're about to learn, it's not too far off. Here goes: In the future, the Earth has split into two factions... Earth-West (no relation) and Earth-East. The two sides were in conflict, and when West got word that East was preparing to drop the nukes, the Russell family decided to send their only daughter Iris BACK TO THE PAST. She appears on the backyard patio of the West family in the weeks following Mrs. West's miscarriage. They decide to raise the child as their own.
As the story winds down, Iris is met by her father Ira who confirms it all as true. We get a little bit of the "How could you have kept this from me?" spoo from Iris, but really now... you'd imagine that'd be a tough subject to broach. After a chat everything is hunky-dory, and Iris even wears the locket! While fixing dinner for her husband... she begins to feel a vibrational pull... to the future! This is when she writes the note. She signs it "H", which I don't quite understand.
Before we know it, Iris arrives in the year 2970... and wouldn'tcha know it, no sooner does she appear than her birth parents just happen to stroll past! Talk about convenience...
Her parents take her to a tower where they tell her the story of their own survival. They reveal that Earth-West is kept under constant surveillance from Earth-East. They are often raided for slave labor and other unpleasantness. We get a pretty grim view of the future here. Suddenly a Spy Satellite flies by with a message... it would seem that Sirik, Supreme Leader of Earth-East has decided to take a wife... and wouldn'tcha know it, he's picked Iris Russell-West-Allen! Iris, good daughter that she is agrees if it saves Earth-West from another nuclear situation.
Back in the present... future-present... present in the future, but after the future flashback we just read... er... back at the point in the future where the Flash has found Iris (there we go!) Barry says he'll take care of ol' Sirik. It just so happens that Sirik is arriving right at this moment! Barry challenges Sirik to a fight to the death for the hand of Iris... and Sirik, sporting dude that he is, is hip to the idea.
The battle begins with... Flash running away! Sirik sends his men to give chase, and they follow him to... a playground? Like, seriously... a playground. He trounces the grunts with relative ease... and by the grace of a swing set.
Barry confronts Sirik, who has situated himself behind a "trick wall". Ya see, it's like a ballistic two-way mirror... he can fire through it, but it shields him from attacks. I guess it's a good thing he wound up on the right side of it!
What Sirik wasn't counting on was Barry's ability to vibrate through walls... which, ya know... he does! Sirik gets his butt kicked pretty soundly. The baddie then reveals that for every half-hour he doesn't return to Earth-East... missiles will be fired at Earth-West. Convenient, that.
And so, in the matter of two panels, Barry vibrates the onslaught of missiles into exploding prematurely in the sky... and the destroys the missile sites in Earth-East. Wow. In a third panel, he solves world peace.
The story wraps up with Barry and Iris returning to the present... well, the present insofar as it's still 1970 and part of the story Flash is sharing with Superman. They return just a split-second after Barry had leapt to the future. We close with Barry ending his tale... and Superman kinda being a jerk about it. Playing "can you top this", like "Well, at least you have Iris... I'm all alone." Gotta wonder what crawled up his butt today.
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What a weird issue!
In being a post-Crisis, and thereby post-Barry DC fan... I never had all that much in the way of context for Iris being a future-child. When I read through the tail end of this volume... ya know, the Cary Bates Trial of the Flash stuff, Iris was dead... having been killed by Reverse Flash, but then she was back in the future... and she and Flash retire there after Flash #350... just in time for his ultimate moment of profundity during Crisis. I guess I never thought all that hard about it... and just accepted that Iris was somehow connected to the future. That's kinda the way being a comics fan was back in the day... or at least the way I was.
Little did I know that the idea of Iris being out-of-time was introduced some 15 years earlier! Let's chat that up a bit. I kinda joked about it during the synopsis, but it's kinda striking how similar her origin is to Superman's. Sent to safety in the face of destruction by parents... arriving before a childless couple, who raises the baby as their own. It might have been funny to pop back to Flash and Superman's chat at that point to see his reaction.
Speaking of Superman... wow, he was in rare form here wasn't he? I mean, he appears in all of two panels, and is insufferable in both! I never considered him to be a sad sack... but here we are. He's like that guy you know that you can't confide in, because instead of listening to your plight, they just try to top it! You get a lot of "You think that's bad...?" replies... and you just wanna walk away.
While I enjoyed this story, I gotta say... it was awfully convenient. It might sound hypocritical to raise that observation in light of my disdain for today's "for the trade" decompressed storytelling, but everything just fell into place perfectly here. Flash immediately found Iris in the future... Iris immediately found her birth parents in the future... Sirik immediately arrives to accept Flash's challenge... and Flash immediately disarms the entire Eastern half of the globe. Not that I'd want this expanded into a six-issue arc, but maybe give it a few more pages. Then again, I'm not sure if they realized the kind of ramifications this story would have... perhaps they assumed it would just be swept under the rug, and never referenced again. I'm guessing there were folks who wish it were!
The art here was really nice. I think I might be a bit gun shy on pre-Crisis Flash books because I don't dig Carmine Infantino's later style all that much... but that's like a decade after this. Either way, I was pleased to see this was a Novick book. Also, I mentioned it above but... dang, what a wild cover! Love it!
Overall, this might be an issue worth tracking down. It adds a whole lot to Flash lore, and is an all-around fun read. Unfortunately the SHOWCASE Presents line petered out before this issue could be reprinted... though, for your convenience it is available digitally.
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Letters Page (and Flash Facts!):
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1st Issue Special #7 (October, 1975)
"Menace of the Human Firefly!"
Writer - Michael Fleisher
Penciller - Steve Ditko
Inker - Mike Royer
Editor - Joe Orlando
Cover Price: $0.25
On this weeks Cosmic Treadmill, Reggie and I discuss Strange Tales #110 from Marvel Comics in 1963. In it, we met that Master of Black Magic... Dr. Stephen Strange, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
As you might imagine, by the time we were getting ready to wrap up we had discussed the creators so much that we'd almost forgot what book we'd even covered! If you're interested, you can check it out right here... and/or in the archives.
It left me in a Dikto-y mood, and I figured why not work some of that blog/podcast synergy (black) magic and cover a book with the man himself making the pictures happen? It's also an issue of 1st Issue Special... so, it's got that going for it too!
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We open with Gotham City newscaster, Jack Ryder (with cameraman in tow) being given a tour of Gotham Penitentiary. We can see familiar faces like the Scarecrow and Two-Face (who had been temporarily transferred from The Arkham Asylum) along with Garfield Lynns... the Firefly! Funny that they preface Arkham with "The"... but again, this is back in the time where the Arkham brand really wasn't a thing. Anyhoo, after Ryder and company are out of sight, Lynns turns to his lighting-effects genius to finagle a laso-lighter out of some lenses he'd snagged while helping out, get this... backstage during the annual prison play! Gotta wonder what kinda show they put on in the Gotham Pen... I hope it ain't Zorro.
So Lynn's cuts his way through the cell bars and goes about making an all-around nuisance of himself. The prison alarms begin to sound, and Jack pulls away from the Warden and his cameraman so that he might transform into... The Creeper!
With a cackle, the Creeper swoops into action... well, he would'a if not for the laso-light blast he takes to the chest! Well, that's embarrassing.
Even worse, the Warden and prison guards arrive and begin to swarm... assuming that the Creeper, who... ya know, doesn't really look like a hero, has aided in Lynns's's's escape! There's a brief skirmish, which ends with the Creeper escaping... those left behind can't help but wonder if he's Hero... or Menace! Well, not really... they all pretty much think he's a menace. Jack Ryder reappears and justifies his disappearance as wanting to catch the hot scoop.
We shift to a lighthouse where Lynns is in the process of adorning himself in one of the gaudier supervillain costumes I've ever seen. I'm almost certain I've seen this shot in Wizard Magazine as "Mort of the Month"... you might recall that the Wiz-folk were always keen on their low-hanging fruit. Anyhoo, what we need to know is that his belt o' many colors actually consists of light-weapons and illusion-granting lenses and stuff.
A short time passes, and we rejoin the Firefly as he enters a smoke-filled pool hall... in full geek attire. Ditko really does a great job showing how out of place a costumed fella would appear among civilians as Firefly looks pretty ridiculous. It's not about looks though, folks... at this juncture, it's about power and ingenuity. Firefly approaches a few patrons and introduces himself as a "Master Criminal". After they stop laughing, he (temporarily) belt-beams one out of existence! At this point, the remaining geeks agree to become his "assistants"... which is more formal a title than I would have figured.
We shift to the studios of WHAM-TV Gotham, where Jack Ryder is walking and talking with J. Jonah... er, I mean Mr. Marlies. Let's not get it twisted, dude looks nothing like Jonah... but the stuff that comes out of his mouth is very JJJ. He's convinced that the Creeper is not a hero... but a menace (okay, he doesn't say menace... spoilsports), and insists Ryder present him as such during the next broadcast... and company guy that he is, Jack obliges.
Following the broadcast, Jack is alerted to a raging inferno atop the Skytop Diamond Exchange. He hustles off to cover the hot scoop. After checking in with the firefighters and camera crew, he excuses himself to... er, interview passersby. Seems legit.
And so, Jack "Creeps up", then climbs up to the top of the building where he learns there's no fire at all... just an elaborate light show borne out of a lighting and special-fx genius's twisted mind.
The Creeper pounces! Or, uh... he would've if not for the electro-lighter blast he takes to the chest. By now he should know he's not all that great at this kind of frontal assault, right?
A second blast... and monologue which mentions "collecting light-duty" sends the Creeper off the side of the skyscraper... and he plummets to the ground below and hits with a gut-wrenching THUD. Somehow... he's still alive (and as we're about to find out no worse for wear). He wakes up in the Detention Ward of the General Hospital where he finds himself shackled to his bed.
When he's left alone he goes about freeing himself from the cuffs... and busting the bars off the window. He's got a pretty good idea where Firefly and his geeks are holed up.
Remember Firefly mentioned "light-duty" earlier? The Creeper does! It doesn't mean he's suffered an on-the-job injury and is stuck jockeying a desk... it's a reference to fees paid by ships to lighthouses... sooooo, stands to reason Firefly's shacked up at the lighthouse, don't it? The Creeper (uh-oh) leaps into battle... and for the first time this issue, is successful!
He busts up Firefly's nerdy belt... and the fight is taken outside. Firefly attempts one last blast... which Creeper reflects back at him with a shard of broken glass. This knocks Firefly off the lighthouse... sending him into the angry (and craggy) seas below... and, if I were a betting man... to his death. Thankfully I'm not a betting man, because I'm fairly certain this isn't the last we've seen of him. We close out with the Creeper celebrating his hard-fought victory by cackling in the moonlight.
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Now I ought to preface by saying I don't know a whole lot about the Creeper. I can't rightly say I've ever read a solo adventure of his before. I mean, I might have... but couldn't reference it off the top of my head. That said, I had a good time with this one. It did feel like a very quick read though.
It's so strange how Marvel-like this issue felt to me... and not just because of the Ditko art. The Creeper feels a lot like a Marvel character. There's the whole "hero or menace" vibe... he's not perfect... he didn't check for a body after Firefly fell... just a few things that don't scream "DC hero" to me.
Let's parse that a bit. Thinking the Creeper is a villain works better for me than folks in Marvel New York thinking Spider-Man is a villain. I mean, Spidey's costume... while it hides his face, isn't outright scary. Yeah, it's not like Captain America's or anything... but I'd imagine it's something folks would see as "cool" before "scary". The Creeper, on the other hand... looks like a creepy (pun!) goblin or something. The fact that he cackles all the time only adds to the, er... creepiness of it all. Plus, this is the DC Universe, and costumed folks who laugh and cackle sort of have a precedent. The evening news fomenting fear (or bewaring) of the Creeper is just the cherry on the sundae.
The Creeper makes mistakes... I mean, if he were a ball player, his batting average would be a 0.3 for this adventure. Two out of three times, he got his butt handed to him... and that's no indictment on how awesome Firefly is... it's simply the Creeper's own impetuosity. "Look Before you Leap!" needs to be stitched on a sampler at the Ryder home. I liked this though... it made it feel like the Creeper doesn't quite have the experience or finesse of some/most of the other DC heroes.
I thought it was interesting that Firefly was just allowed to fall to the "angry sea" below the lighthouse... and the Creeper's reaction was a "long, chill, mocking laugh" rather than a rescue attempt followed by turning over to the police. Hell, not even the narrative captions mention Firefly's fate... you'd usually expect a "the police scoured the seas for hours before finding a frantic Firefly" or something. But, nope... nada. Like I said above, I'd assume he was dead... if this wasn't a comic book.
The art here is from Ditko... and it's his haunting and sorta uncomfortable style that we all love. The characters aren't especially handsome, nor do I believe are meant to be. That was the thing with Ditko... take a look at old Amazing Spider-Man comics... Peter Parker wasn't a terribly good looking kid. That wouldn't come until John Romita arrived and gave Pete his "lunchbox look". It's weird, the Creeper is actually more visually appealing to me than Jack Ryder. Ryder looks kinda like Lupin III here, only with a narrower face.
Overall, had a lot of fun with this one. This has been collected in The Creeper by Steve Ditko collection released by DC in 2010... and, I believe was set to be in a SHOWCASE Presents volume... which either fell through, or was just a rumor. Can't find a whole lot of agreement online about that. There is an Amazon link to a(n unavailable) book bearing the name... and classic SHOWCASE Presents cover though. Either way, this issue shouldn't be terribly difficult to procure. I'd say it's well worth a read.
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(Not the) Letters Page:
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Infinite Crisis #1 (December, 2005)
"Infinite Crisis"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Phil Jimenez
Inker - Andy Lanning
Colorists - Jeremy Cox & Guy Major
Letterer - Nick J. Napolitano
Assistant Editor - Jeanine Schaefer
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Special Thanks - Greg Rucka, Marv Wolfman & George Perez
Cover Price: $3.99
Been in that strange Infinite Crisis mood for a little while now... figure why not take a look at the main story itself?
Gotta mention that the spoilery synopsis you are about to enter contains a whole lotta exposition... I did my best to try and fill in any information we might need going in. I hope it all makes sense!
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In panels which are reminiscent of the opening of Crisis on Infinite Earths, we open with Superman arriving at the ruins of the JLA Watchtower. The HQ was destroyed during the penultimate JLA story arc Crisis of Conscience, which followed up on the events of Identity Crisis... ay yai yai. Anyhoo, Superman arrives and is met by Batman, who is looking for the Black Box so he can check the security cameras. Superman is irritated as he considers this to be more of Batman spying on the League... a callback to both the Tower of Babel storyline a few years earlier, where the League learned that Batman had protocols to take each member out should they go rogue and The OMAC Project miniseries which revealed that Batman had a part in the creation of the Brother Eye Satellite. At this point, Wonder Woman arrives... and both fellas are a bit uncomfortable with her presence. Oh boy... arright, this is coming off Wonder Woman breaking the neck of former Justice League International financier and "owner" Maxwell Lord... this is, of course after Max shot and killed Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Ya got all that? Good. Oh! There's also a bad guy lurking in the shadows... so we got that too!
We shift to Smallville where Conner Kent is watching the Teen Titans fight off some OMACs in Los Angeles. Ma Kent suggests he go help his friends, but he's in a pretty dark place at the moment. This is off the heels of his learning that half of the DNA cocktail he was cloned from belonged to Lex Luthor. It looks like he's about to leap into action... before hearing some Luthor-centric patter on the news and rebuttoning his shirt. This is after Lex was President... and he was back to being an openly bad dude.
Elsewhere... we see several figures in shadow watching over the DC Universe via a wall of crystal. We can see Lanterns, Black Hand, Aquaman, Flash... a bunch of stuff's going on. They discuss the idea that it might be time for them to intervene... whatever that means. Yeah, yeah... we'll find out soon.
We next visit Bludhaven... which is in a pretty dire state. Nightwing is joined by Starfire, Donna Troy and Supergirl. Donna is planning to take the ladies to New Cronus, despite Dick's thoughts to the contrary. He mentions that she "just got back"... which is in reference to her "death" during Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day. She returned during the appropriately titled DC Special: Return of Donna Troy... which I remember most for being the first issue that came with DC's "swoosh" logo.
Okay, so Donna, Kory and Kara leave... the OMACs continue taking over Bludhaven... we get a brief cameo of Ratcatcher (who dies), which is something... and before long the sky goes red... and is absolutely packed with OMACs. Rumor has it at the time that Nightwing was going to be "offed" during this event... at this juncture, his odds ain't lookin' all that hot!
Next up, we head into Sector 2682, the Polaris Galaxy... and we're in the midst of the Rann-Thanagar War. I ought to mention that in the months leading up to Infinite Crisis, DC Comics released several miniseries'. They were: Day of Vengeance focusing on magic characters (more on them in a bit), The OMAC Project (which was mentioned earlier), Rann-Thanagar War, and Villains United which is sort of the precursor for Secret Six. Gotta say, this two-page spread is rather breathtaking. My photos will do it (and the rest of the art) very little justice! Anyhoo, the Guardians are lurking about discussing how "something" has changed the nature of the cosmos. Wonder what that might be...
Back in Gotham City, we see the Rock of Eternity floating in the sky. This is coming off the Day of Vengeance miniseries. In the streets below, there is absolute madness. We see baddies like Riddler, Fisherman, Murmur, and the Body Doubles from Resurrection Man... dang! Watching the riot unfold are detectives Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen.
The Rock of Eternity explodes, Captain Marvel comes flying into Montoya and Allen's car. He is able to utter that the Spectre killed the Wizard Shazam. At this point we can see the Spectre looming over Gotham... it's pretty cool, the Bat-Signal is illuminated and pointed at where the Spectre's chest would be. It's a really neat visual. Freed from the wrecked rock, the Seven Deadly Sins now run amok through the streets of Gotham.
We jump to Metropolis... or thereabouts, and meet up with the... well, I'll be damned, it's the Freedom Fighters. They are by a Stagg Industries refinery, which is likely in reference to Metamorpho's main squeeze Sapphire Stagg's father whatshisface. They make their way inside, with some raw strength and some laser-dodging stealth... only to find themselves stood before, welp... a whole lotta bad folks. This is fallout from Villains United... and our baddies include Dr. Light, Deathstroke, Dr. Polaris, Sinestro, Bizarro, Zoom (I think it's Zoom), Cheetah, Sinestro, Psycho Pirate... and if that ain't enough, Black Adam too! Oh yeah, and Sinestro kills Black Condor too!
Back on the Moon (remember that?) Superman is startled by a fourth heartbeat among the Watchtower wreckage. Before he can act, however, he is walloped and sent flying. Our mystery guest is... Mongul... and with Superman briefly out of the picture, we get a scene which is a nice callback to For the Man Who Has Everything.
We return to Earth where the Freedom Fighters are getting positively wrecked. Dr. Light fries the Ray while Zoom pounds Damage at super speed. Cheetah uses her enhanced senses to "spot" and attack Phantom Lady... who eventually winds up on the end of Deathstroke's blade. Welcome to the all-new all-dark DC Comics!
Some quick bits follow... we briefly return to the Moon, where the heroes do their best to hold off Mongul. Back with the FF, Bizarro makes the Human Bomb explode... then pounds him to mush. Back to the Moon again... Superman nails Mongul with a kayo shot... at which time, Wonder Woman leaps in to deliver the killing (?) blow... which Superman stops. They make eye contact and Superman says he doesn't know who she is anymore. Mongul takes this opportunity to make a hasty retreat.
Back in Metropolis, Black Adam is beating the holy hell out of Uncle Sam. The Ray tries to pull himself to his feet when he is approached by our old friend the Psycho Pirate... who emotionally manipulates the lad. As he drags Ray away, Uncle Sam gets a second wind... unfortunately, by this point he finds himself surrounded by Black Adam, Deathstroke, Dr. Light, and Sinestro... dang.
Back at the Watchtower, the trinity engages in a... very uncomfortable heart-to-heart. Wonder Woman defends her use of lethal force by saying she didn't have a choice. Batman says there's always a choice... and refers to having been mind-wiped by the Justice League (more Identity Crisis stuff).
Now here's where it gets rough. Superman says there's only so much he can do... because he's not a God. Batman says they don't need a God right now... just someone to inspire them. He continues... saying the last time Superman was inspirational was when... he was dead. Ouch.
We return to the silhouettes from earlier. They're watching all of this go down, and realize that the heroes have no hope if they can't work together. They come to the conclusion that they are once again needed. It's up to them to save everybody... including "her".
One of the figures begins punching the crystal wall... eventually breaking through revealing himself to be... Kal-L, the Superman from Earth-2! He is flanked by Lois Lane (of Earth-2), Alexander Luthor, and Superboy-Prime! Business is about to pick up!
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Ho' boy... that's a lot to unpack, ain't it?
Let's start with some Christory. The first time I read this was on release... a time in which I didn't really have proper context required to truly be impacted by what we just experienced. My main takeaway wasn't the return of the Crisis on Infinite Earths survivors... but the interpersonal conflict between the members of the Trinity. The most salient bits to me were also the most "immediate" so to speak. I'd followed along through Identity Crisis Countdown to Infinite Crisis and the various miniseries', so my focus was on the "present" rather than the past... or even the future, really.
In reading this today, I can better appreciate how important that final page was... it's sort of the way I looked at that last page of Superman: Doomed #2 back in 2015...
When I saw this page, it was as though I was going to be getting a piece of my DC Comics back. Granted, this wound up just being a teaser for Convergence... but things worked out pretty good in the end with Rebirth. I couldn't imagine how jazzed I'd have been if I were a pre-Crisis fan seeing my Superman emerging from his crystal quarters... but I'm sure it would'a been amazing.
For the issue itself... it's a pretty awesome piece of work to behold. I mean, this whole endeavor was so meticulously planned... like, everything mattered... it's the kind of story I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around having been conceived.
Let's chat up the disparate miniseries'... each one leads almost flawlessly into the event. The OMAC Project revealed Batman's Brother Eye Satellite, and some the Maxwell Lord bits... which really did a number on how the heroes were perceived/trusted by the public. Day of Vengeance concerns the magic characters and features Shazam bringing the Rock of Eternity to Gotham... and going boom. Villains United, well unites the villains who took out the Freedom Fighters here... and Rann-Thanagar War, well... I never read that, but it's fallout looms somewhat large here as well. We also gotta consider things like Graduation Day and the Return of Donna Troy as part of the lead-up. I mean, you could read for days before even getting to Infinite Crisis #1!
The story is also heavily influenced by the events of Identity Crisis... the rape and murder of Sue Dibney opened up a huge can of worms, which revealed that Dr. Light had been mindwiped by the Justice League sometime back during the Satellite days. Not only that, but some members of the League who disagreed with that course of action were... also mindwiped! We're talkin' Batman here... so, is it any wonder he might have some trust-related side-projects like the protocols and Brother Eye?
The discussion between the Trinity really illustrates how fractured the superhero community has become. Like, this isn't just a disagreement or difference of opinion here... it feels like they're actively trying to hurt one another. Superman telling Wonder Woman that he no longer knows her... calling out Batman for his lack of trust... and most strikingly, Batman telling Superman that he's more of an inspirational figure when he's not breathing. It's like something you'd say in a heat of the moment argument to someone you really care about... and regret before you even finish saying it. Very powerful scenes here!
Shifting gears, there's the rumor that Nightwing wasn't going to get out of this one alive. It certainly looks as though he's being offered up to the comic deities as a sacrifice here, don't it? We know he survives... and I gotta wonder if this is being done as misdirection, or if they really did originally intend to "off" him here, and decide against pulling the trigger. Dan Didio said during Wizard World Philadelphia 2006 that he would have liked to kill Nightwing during Infinite Crisis, but Geoff Johns refused. Gotta wonder how close it came!
Now, let's talk about the Crisis on Infinite Earths castaways. We learn at the end of the issue that the narration we've been reading throughout the book is that of Kal-L. In knowing that, it's possible to give this a second flip through with the understanding that we're experiencing this story through his "eyes". He mentions making a sacrifice to help the younger post-Crisis heroes. If we recall, they remained to fight the Anti-Monitor during the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths and were believed to be gone forever. Just goes to show, there's no such thing as "forever" in comics, right?
The art here... ooooooooooh boy. If there's a worthy successor to George Perez, it's gotta be Mr. Jimenez here. There are a handful of double-page spreads here... and that's normally something I'd kvetch about... but ho-ly smokes, these are gorgeous! Just a wonderful package, words and art!
Overall, I would definitely recommend this issue... but with the warning that there is a whole lotta prerequisite reading required if you wanna get the most out of it. My first time through I only had a cursory understanding of the pre-Crisis DC Universe, and I was still able to enjoy it... however, reading it today with a more well-rounded knowledge of DC history, I enjoyed it so much more. This issue is available digitally (and has been collected a few times, including an out-of-print Omnibus that goes for like a grand)... but also, the 80-page Countdown to Infinite Crisis is available... FOR FREE! So definitely snag that first.
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