Alan Kistler's Guide to The Crisis - Chapters 1-4
Monday, December 3, 2007 at 04:26PM Continued from the Intro and Prologue.
You can skip ahead to other parts by going to the CRISIS FILES button in the Table of Contents to the left (that's your left, not my left).
THE CRISIS – Chapter 1: "The Summoning!"
And so, the story begins. Just in anyone didn’t know that DC Comics had been, for a while now, composed of many universes, there's a quick one-page recap to kick things off. But the narration also told us "a multiverse that should have been one, became many." So astute readers realized that the multiverse was not meant to exist, a point that would later come full circle in this story.
Our story takes us to one of the millions of parallel Earths that inhabit the multiverse. This version of Earth seems very much like the one you and I live in, in that it's full of ordinary people and no apparent heroes. A wave of white nothingness is consuming it entirely, a wall anti-matter that is moving without any sign of slowing down. And watching this destruction
is a figure cloaked in green with purple hair and black eyes. He's called Pariah and he weeps as he watches this version of Earth die in front of him, unable to save anyone. He screams that he wants to die too, that he has paid enough for his “sins”, but against his will he feels himself being teleported away before the wall of white can reach him. He knows that he’s leaving because somewhere else yet another universe is also about to die. He moans "and I must attend as I have the hundreds that have died before it."
Our next stop is Earth-3, known for being a "mirror-world" to the reality of Earth-1 (with the Crime Syndicate being an evil version of the Justice League). Most of the universe is already gone and the anti-matter wall is making its ways towards this version of Earth now. The Crime Syndicate, villains who refuse to have their playground taken away, do what they can to fight and contain the many natural disasters that are happening, not realizing these are merely symptoms of a larger problem. The villains Johnny Quick and Owlman lament that they can’t win this fight.
The heroic Alex Luthor of Earth-3 flies over the destruction and watches as Superwoman is destroyed by anti-matter.
Quickly, he retreats to his home where his wife Lois holds their infant son Alexander, Jr. This good-guy version of Luthor then takes his son and places the boy into a prototype ship designed to travel between universes. As programs the ship, Alex Luthor parallels Jor-El of Krypton as he tells his wife, "We will die, but our son will survive."
Elsewhere on Earth-3, the villains Owlman and Johnny Quick (not to be confused with the hero Johnny Quick of Earth-2) die as the anti-matter washes over them. Meanwhile, their teammates Power Ring and Ultraman find the man called Pariah standing nearby. They demand answers from him as to how to stop this but Pariah simply tells them, "Mine is not the hand which slays worlds. I can do nothing more than CRY."
Way to be all about self-pity while others are dying, Pariah. Emo jerk.
Ultraman decides he’s had enough and marches towards the wall. Power Ring asks what he’s doing. Ultraman turns and 
gives a Superman smile as he says "What I have done all my life. I fight to the very end!" He then flies into the wall headfirst and is destroyed in moments as Power Ring pleads for him not to try the suicide run. A heartbeat later, Power Ring himself dies, another victim of the moving wall of anti-matter.
And finally, moments later, the whole planet of Earth-3, as well as the entire universe it occupies, is wiped away from existence by the destructive white wave of anti-matter. The only evidence that it had ever existed in the first place is the tiny spinning ship that leaves just before the anti-matter can engulf it, crossing the barrier from the reality of Earth-3 and journeying into the universe where Earth-1 exists. During the trip, the ship (and the child within) are hit by a subtle combination of energies involving both positive and anti-matter.
Alexander's ship makes its way into Earth's solar system and lands on the satellite base of the Justice League of America, just as his father had intended, hoping the JLA would take care of him. But no one is there to greet the boy, since the base was abandoned months ago when the JLA reformed and moved their headquarters to Detroit.
Elsewhere, on his own satellite base, the Monitor tells Lyla it’s time to summon those he needs. The 20-year-old girl says, "I still fail to understand. Why not BOTH Supermans and Wonder Womans? Why not the most POWERFUL of those we’ve observed?"
The Monitor responds "I have analyzed all those with power – in the past, present and future … and our greatest hope lies with both so-called heroes and villains fighting alongside each other. Yet, another alternative has been made available … one I could not have expected."
The Monitor then tells Lyla to energize and she does so, splitting herself into several replicates of herself, several armored Harbingers ready to travel through time and space to find the Monitor's recruits.
With her gone, the Monitor decides to talk to himself for its own sake. "As her mission begins … so does mine. For months I’ve observed the multiverse and the many planet Earths. But now, when all is ready, doubts begin to form. I see my own death as well as the death of worlds. Ahhh, the future comes as it will. I can only help prepare the many pathways it may take. The Luthor child … I need him now."
Meanwhile, the team is gathered. From Gorilla City on Earth-1 comes King Solovar, an intelligent speaking gorilla and frequent ally of Barry Allen. From Earth-1’s distant past, in a time before the continent of Atlantis sank beneath the waves and its people became into water-breathers, comes the Atlantean sorcerer Arion. Lord of Atlantis, Arion is a very powerful mage, especially because Atlantis is the focal point of much of Earth's magic.
While recruiting Arion, that particular replicate of Harbinger is attacked and infected by a creature that looks like a living shadow. This creature isn't alone and we'll soon see many such "shadow demons", all under the command of a mystery villain. Keep this scene in mind, kiddies, because when the different Harbinger replicates re-merge into a single entity, the infection of this single replicate by a shadow demon will affect and influence Lyla's whole person.
The Harbingers recruit heroes from Earth-1's present-day time period as well. Among the heroes recruited are John Stewart (recently made a Green Lantern Corps since Hal Jordan retired), Prince Brion of Markovia AKA Geo-Force (Earth-powered member of the Outsiders), teenager Victor Stone AKA Cyborg (member of the Teen Titans) and Firestorm, the "nuclear man" (able to control/alter matter).
The Earth-1 super-villains include the ice-powered Killer Frost (who gets temporarily hypnotized into thinking she’s all friendly and in love with her enemy Firestorm), Dr. Polaris (magnetically-powered psycho) and Psimon (telepathic/telekinetic villain and leader of the Fearsome Five).
From Earth-1’s 30th century comes Dawnstar, a winged member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. And from Earth-4, Harbinger recruits Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. Though the first Blue Beetle Dan Garrett had superhuman abilities due to the use of a seemingly magic blue scarab, Ted has no such powers and relies on athletic prowess and several devices of his own invention (such as his air-craft, the Bug).
From Earth-2's past (1942) comes the female fire-wielder called Firebrand (who is the successor of her brother, the original Firebrand). From modern-day Earth-2 comes the hero Obsidian (son of Alan Scott and gifted with shadow powers, a member of Infinity, Inc.) and the now-older Golden Age Superman (Kal-L). Remember kids, this is a version of Superman who was old enough to be around for World War II (and has the graying temples to prove it), got married to his Earth's version of Lois Lane and can shrug off an atomic bomb blast (though he's still not quite as powerful as his Earth-1 counterpart Kal-El).
Harbinger also approaches the super-villain Roger Hayden AKA the Psycho-Pirate, who's incarcerated in an asylum. Hayden's gimmick as the Psycho Pirate was to use the mystical Medusa Mask to control and engender emotions in others. Roger doesn't want to go with Harbinger at first, saying he can’t control the damage he does to his own mind when he controls emotions, since he inadvertently absorbing them as well. He suggests Harbinger find Halstead, who was the first criminal to call himself the Psycho-Pirate. Harbinger reminds Hayden that Halstead is dead, saying that this makes it impossible for her to pick him up. Which, honestly, seems like a very curious remark (or just the writer not thinking about his own story) when you consider that since she's been time-traveling to pick up Arion from ancient Atlantis and Firebrand II from World War II, why can't she just go back a few years and grab Halstead before he died? Either way, she gives Roger Hayden the Medusa Mask again and takes him with her.
The Monitor sees all this and muses to himself. Looking at the image of Harbinger, he says, "When I found you a half-dead child floating lost at sea … when I saved you, nurtured you to grow into womanhood these past twenty years, when I came to love you like the daughter I never had and never could … little did either of us know that one day you would be my killer! I fear for you, Lyla. My life may be forfeit – but you, my dear … you hold in your hands the fate of the cosmos itself."
The gathered heroes and villains chit-chat in the Monitor’s satellite for a bit before suddenly being attacked by many shadow demons. A big brawl ensues before the Monitor slams on some high-powered lights and the demons scatter. Interestingly
enough, the demons seem to resemble the Monitor's own silhouette.
The heroes fight for a while before their unseen host finally drives the last of the shadow demons out of his satellite. The Monitor then finally reveals himself to the assembled heroes and villains. Before any of them can ask "Who exactly is this guy with the purple cape, disco-like body armor, strangely neanderthal-like appearance and mutton chops?", the Monitor explains two simple facts. First, he calls himself the Monitor. Second, he tells the heroes and villains that at this moment, all of their worlds, all of their universes, are facing complete and total annihilation. In short, the multiverse itself is in trouble and it's going to take everyone working together if there's going to be any hope of survival.
And so The Crisis starts with a bang.
CRISIS – Chapter 2: "Time And Time Again!"
This chapter opens up in the pre-historic age of Earth-1. In particular, we are watching the DC Character "Anthro, the first cro-magnon", a character who was basically supposed to be the progenitor of the human race. Before the Crisis, Anthro had only appeared in seven different issues during the 1960's and had been forgotten by most readers at this point.
So anyway, our boy Anthro is hanging out and enjoying his little Stone Age life when, lo and behold, a ripple in space and time causes him to see the city of Metropolis circa 3000 AD. Anthro is weirded out by this strange image of the futuristic city, which he describes as a strange village, bigger than any he's seen before. His Neanderthal buddies wanna see what he's talking about, but the village then vanishes immediately and they assume that the guy's been hit on the head pretty hard.
Personally, I find it remarkable that a Cro-Magnon would be able to recognize a 30th century city of
such complexity as having any resemblance or relationship at all to what he would understand as a "village", even if he is smarter-than-the-average-Stone-Age-bear. But hey, maybe he was really just that smart and was a prehistoric futurist who was able to recognize what towers and sky-scrapers and streets and other things he couldn't have names or context for would look several millennia in the future.
Speaking of the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century find themselves having to deal with a herd of woolly mammoths suddenly rampaging through city streets, seemingly appearing from nowhere.
The scene then sways away from the 30th century and goes to present-day Gotham City of Earth-1, where the infamous criminal and mass murderer known as the Joker is at it again. Fortunately for the citizens of Gotham, the city's Dark Knight has arrived. Having solved the clues to the Joker's latest crime (he is the "world's greatest detective" after all), Batman is able to corner the Clown Prince of Crime.
During the battle, the Joker gets the drop on our hero and is about to shoot him. But suddenly, the villain gets distracted by another breach in time and space. A vision of the Flash appears before them. Thinking that the Scarlet Speedster has joined the battle, the Joker quickly leaves, not wanting to tackle any superhuman opponents this night.
Batman is confused, thinking about how it’s been a month since anyone’s seen Barry Allen after he decided to retire. Barry looks weak and injured. He warns Batman that everything’s going to die and then seems to disintegrate before the Dark Knight's eyes. Realizing this is not actually Barry but some strange vision, Batman worries about what’s happened to his friend and what this image of warning might mean.
Back on the Monitor's satellite base, the heroes and villains gathered are arguing about what they should do or whether they can even trust this guy. Eventually, they agree to go along with the Monitor’s plan until they get more information. The Monitor explains that there’s a wave of anti-matter coming that will destroy their universes. To preserve them, he’s built several large towers that act as cosmic tuning forks and will maintain the parallel realities once they are activated. The Monitor then sends out the heroes and villains in teams to protect each tower from the shadow demons who serve the will of the villain responsible for the anti-matter wall.
On the planet Oa in the center of the known universe, home base of the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians of the Universe contemplate what they can do about the oncoming crisis. A voice suddenly speaks to them through the Central Battery, the main power source of all Green Lantern rings. It declares, “What began with you so many centuries ago – ends with you now!!” A blast of energy then erupts from the Central Battery, knocking all the Guardians out cold.
Back on Earth-1, Superman is confused why so many natural disasters are happening all at once all over the planet. He finds Batman and during their talk the Dark Knight reveals that he saw an image of the Flash trying to warn him. Pariah suddenly appears and Batman and Superman look at him in surprise as the man cries out that their world will die soon. Before they can ask him anything more, Pariah vanishes again and the World's Finest Team is left wondering what the Hell is going on.
In the far future, one of the Monitor’s towers is discovered by Kamandi, DC Comics. Kamadi was the star of his own series
where, following an event known as "The Great Disaster", humanity was pretty much wiped out and replaced by intelligent animals. Kamadi was thus the "Last Boy on Earth" and helped the good intelligent animals fight the bad intelligent animals who wanted to rule everyone.
Kamandi's presence is a good counter-point to Anthro. To emphasize the scope of The Crisis and that its affects spread not just across worlds and realities but up and down time itself, Wolfman gave us scenes involving both the alleged first human being on Earth and the apparent last survivor of the entire human race. Unlike Anthro, though, our boy Kamandi will actually learn about what's happening and get involved in the action.
While he's investigating the Monitor's "tuning fork" tower, Kamandi is discovered by one of the Monitor's teams, composed of Solovar, Dawnstar and the Earth-2 Superman. The shadow demons show up and Kamandi does his best to help the heroes fight them off (he met the Earth-1 Superman before so he figures he can trust the Earth-2 counterpart).
In ancient Atlantis (years before it sank), another tower has appeared. The team that arrives to guard this one is Arion (naturally, since its his home time period), Obsidian and the Psycho-Pirate. Pariah shows up to warn our heroes of what's about to happen. Rather than listen, the Pirate uses his emotion controlling powers on Pariah for fun, toying with him.
Arion stops Psycho-Pirate, but it’s already too late. Absorbing Pariah’s emotions has given him a power boost and he goes rogue, deciding he's not going along with the Monitor's plans. Before anything else can be said, the Pirate is suddenly teleported away to dark lair of some sort. While Obsidian and Arion wonder where he went, the Pirate is approached by a mysterious figure with a voice "like ice." This figure, the secret villain behind the anti-matter wall, forces the Psycho-Pirate to swear allegiance to him or else.
Back in ancient Atlantis, Pariah explains to Arion and Obsidian that he is "Not from this Earth, but another. The first that fell when this insanity began. But long after I was cursed for an evil act I had committed. A deed I have paid for a thousand times over and must suffer still a thousand times over."
Watching this afar, the Monitor's getting pretty concerned. He needed the Pirate’s unique powers for his later plans. Lyla suggests the magic-wielding Teen Titan known as Raven could take the Pirate's place (since she's a mystic who is capable of manipulating emotions), but the Monitor can’t find her on his screens at the moment. With no one available who can control emotions, the Monitor switches to plan B has and decides to bring in a new player. The villain Dr. Light has been out of the spotlight for a while and isn't trustworthy anyway (not that Psimon or the Psycho-Pirate are all that honorable either). The Monitor decides to create a new Dr. Light.
The Monitor knows he has to act quickly, though. As he watches ancient Atlantis begin to be consumed by the anti-matter wall (which seems to attack random time periods in each universe's history), he remarks that his unseen enemy is moving faster than he'd anticipated. Elsewhere, this very same secret villain watches the same scene in Atlantis, with Lyla standing at his side. Our mystery villain boasts to Lyla that each universe’s death makes him stronger than his "brother."
Back on his satellite, the Monitor muses that the only way possible to save everyone will be through Lyla and Alexander Luthor, last survivor of Earth-3.
CRISIS – Chapter 3: "Oblivion Upon Us!"
On his satellite, the Monitor is examining Alexander Luthor, the child of Alex and Lois Luthor from Eath-3. Remarkably, the child has aged from infancy to adolescence in just days. As the Monitor runs tests on the boy, he sees that somehow Alexander possesses both positive matter and anti-matter within him, possibly as a result of hurtling through the vibrational gap that separates universes. As he realizes the boy is a bridge between the positive matter universes and the anti-matter universe, the Montor sadly says, "My heart cries for you, child – For an innocent must be corrupted that a universe may live."
Harbinger flies off and returns to the secret villain. The villain already knows the news Harbinger wishes to share with him, saying “I know all as soon as the Monitor himself thinks it.” He then tells Harbinger to kill Alexander. As Harbinger leaves, the Psycho-Pirate says that her mind is a mass of contradictory emotions and offers to instill blind loyalty or love into her. The villain says this isn't necessary and that “Harbinger will do as I require. Before long, she will slay the Monitor.”
In the 30th century of Earth-1, Barry Allen has been living in peaceful bliss with his wife Iris for a full month now. But bizarre natural disasters are occurring an the sky is turning red. As the world itself seems to come apart, Barry dons his old costume and races through the streets, helping folks where he can. He then looks in shock as he sees the anti-matter wall arrive and begin to consume everything in its wake. Using his vibrational abilities, he sends himself back to present-day Earth-1 to get help.
On present day Earth-1, the anti-matter wall is appearing in the middle of New York City. Superman, the Teen Titans and Batman's team the Outsiders all show up to try and evacuate as many people as they can while also seeing if they can somehow stop the wall’s approach. The alien Teen Titan called Starfire is trying to force the wall back with her energy blasts. Superman flies up to her and tells her she's only wasting energy, her blasts aren't having any effect. But the passionate warrior cries out that she already lost one home when her own planet Tamaran was conquered ands she's not about to lose another.
"You CAN'T understand," she says. "I won't let this planet die!" Superman answers, "Believe me, Starfire. I understand all too well!"
Batman then looks up in shock as he sees the Flash again. But this time, it’s not just an image, it actually is Barry, having returned from the 30th century. Barry cries out "Something's happening in the future … Everything's unraveling." Batman tells Barry to calm down and that they have to speak. But the Flash winces in pain, his body glowing. "What’s happening to me?" Batman reaches out to help his friend, but the Teen Titan named Jericho senses danger and tackles Batman to the ground. Barry suddenly screams as his body seems to contort and then vanishes completely.
"Oh my God – My GOD! … I tried WARNING you … HELP ME … HEL-"
The heroes are stunned. Was Flash captured or was he just killed in front of their eyes?
Meanwhile, far beyond Earth’s solar system, Superman's arch-enemy Brainiac sits in his star-ship (the very famous and creepy-looking "headship", which looks like Brainiac's skull but huge and with scary tendrils). The living psychotic android contemplates the anti-matter wall as he watches it consume a sector of space. For years, Brainiac has been obsessed with three things: the gathering of knowledge to increase his power (no matter who he has to experiment on or what planet he has to destroy in the process), conquest over the entire universe, and the destruction of his hated enemy Superman.
Realizing the destructive potential of the anti-matter onslaught and seeing that nothing seems to be stopping it, Brainiac considers the danger to himself and ponders the risk of trying to tackle this situation alone. He needs another mind, another point of view. As he revs up his ship's hyper-drive, the living computer being logically decides to look up his occasional partner-in-villainy. “To save myself is my prime directive. But to do that, I must also save the universe. I need assistance – on Earth! Only the one who calls himself Luthor can help me now.”
Back on Earth-1, in the year 1944, another of the Monitor’s towers appears in the nation of Markovia, a fictional country that is home to the hero Geo-Force (in fact, he rules it in the present-day as Prince Brion). As the Monitor's team of Geo-Force, Blue Beetle and Dr. Polaris arrive, they see that the tower has appeared in the middle of a battle between Allied forces and the Nazis.
Involved in the fight are some well-known DC Comics WW II heroes. There's J.E.B. Stuart and his famous Haunted tank, which was haunted, in fact, by Stuart's ancestor, the famous Jeb Stuart of the American Civil War (definitely one of DC's weirder ideas for a comic book series). There's also the O.S.S. task force known as "The Losers", which consisted of a Navy captain, a USAF pilot and two marines (their group got the nickname because each had been involved in a military operation where everyone but them had died). And, of course, there is DC's most famous war-weary character, the hard-edged, no-nonsense Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. Considering how many scrapes and hopeless situations he and his crew got involved in, Sgt. Rock became famous for saying "Nothing's ever easy in Easy Company."
The soldiers are surprised and confused by the appearance of the tower, the shadow demons who are suddenly attacking it, 
and the strange costumed people who are doing their best to defend it. During the chaos, the shadow demons attack and kill all four members of The Losers. In clockwise order from the top left, the Losers are (as depicted in this picture): Captain William Storm (one eye, one leg, all courage), Johnny “Navajo Ace” Cloud, Sarge Clay (just call him "Sarge") and Gunner McKay.
As if the four of them weren’t enough, one of the shadow demons then goes ahead and kills young "Farmer Boy" of Easy Company (though for some reason, this comic refers to him as “Flower”).
During this battle between the Allies and the Axis Powers, the Blue Beetle is touched by a shadow demon. But instead of killing him, it merely burns him and then explodes. The first Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett, had possessed a blue mystic scarab that had given him powers. When he died, he gave the scarab to Ted, who went on to become the second Blue Beetle (though without the benefit of powers, since he didn't know how to use the mystic gem). Apparently, the scarab is now protecting the new Blue Beetle from the demons' touch.
Watching from afar, the Monitor says he was hoping Ted Kord could wield Garrett’s scarab and use its full potential. Deciding that Kord is useless if he can’t do this, he immediately teleports the blue-costumed vigilante back to Earth-4 (and why didn't he realize Ted didn't have powers before now?).
In the far distant future of Kamandi, King Solovar is mortally wounded during the battle with the shadow demons. And in the year 1879, another of the Monitor's towers appears. It's soon discovered by the warrior Ke-Woh-No-Tay (known as Matt Savage or "Scalphunter" to the white man) and the masked gunslinger called Nighthawk.
Nighthawk and Scalphunter are suspicious of the machine that no animals will approach. They telegram a few friends to join them for help and advice, making this a reunion of several of DC's classic Wild West heroes, including: gunfighter Johnny Thunder (not to be confused with the JSA member of the same name who controls a magic genie), renowned poker player Bartholomew "Bat" Lash, and the most famous of DC's western heroes, the scarred bounty hunted named Jonah Hex.
As these warriors of the wild west discuss what to do about this strange machine, Nighthawk leaves to gather more weapons. Once he's gone, another one of the Monitor’s teams arrives. The Green Lantern John Stewart, Firebrand, Cyborg and Psimon quickly introduce themselves to the 19th century heroes. Jonah Hex and Bat Lash vouch for the Green Lantern, having met Hal Jordan and other JLA members during a time travel adventure not too long before. The Monitor's team doesn’t have much time to explain themselves before a group of shadow demons suddenly attack. John Stewart panics when his ring doesn’t seem to have any direct effect against the creatures.
Gathering weapons outside, Nighthawk panics as the skies go red and suddenly the anti-matter wall begins forming on the horizon. He takes off on his horse towards a nearby town that’s directly in the path of the wall, hoping to save what people he can. As he rides, he says, “It’s gotta be that metal machine’s fault! Never did trust mechanical things!” This statement is either supposed to be sarcastically ironic or is just ignorant writing, since Nighthawk was known to be quite the handyman in his own adventures and had a great love of mechanics. Either way, the masked vigilante can only look in horror as the wall devours people in front of him and then takes him as well.
In the 30th century of Earth-1, the Legion of Super-Heroes are trying to help people evacuate Earth as the anti-matter wall consumes the planet. Element Lad watches in horror as his friend Kid Psycho is consumed by the wall and wiped out of existence.
On his satellite, the Monitor sees all this and declares, “He’s moved quicker than I expected. Instead of days, only HOURS remain! The earths are doomed! Still, my machines are in place, my agents are at their posts – it is time for my plan to begin.”
But elsewhere, Harbinger is watching the Monitor himself on her own view-screen. Hearing his words, she energizes her hands and says to the view-screen, “Wrong, old fool. It is time for you to die!”
Time-Out, readers. A quick comment here. A few times during this series, it seemed that story ideas were changed down the line. Pariah said his Earth died long after he did a horrible thing, but we later find out that the two events happened simultaneously. Secondly, at the end of this issue, we know that Lyla is watching the Monitor on a viewscreen because the panels featuring him are curved, indicating a screen. But if you look, the Monitor is obviously looking up in reaction to Lyla’s words. And if you ignore the way the panels are drawn, it seems like a very direct page layout in which Lyla has just walked into the Monitor's chambers and has told him he’s about to die.
I think that Lyla was actually supposed to kill the Monitor at the very beginning of the next chapter initially, but that it was decided he wouldn't die until later in the story (for whatever reason). So rather than re-draw the entire last page, Perez quickly just curved the panels around the Monitor so that we would think Harbinger was just watching him on a view-screen. While this is a fun story, one of the failings of The Crisis is little things like this (and the fact that Solovar's name is mispelled several times) that showed it wasn’t as planned out as it should have been, especially considering the scope of the story and all.
Still, Wolfman and Perez do a good job. Nothing but love for each of them.
CRISIS – Chapter 4: "Death of the Monitor!"
Well there's a title that doesn’t give anything away, huh? And just in case you doubt it, check out that cover.
A lot of stuff happened this chapter. In modern-day Japan (Earth-1), solar scientist Kimiyo Hoshi is granted power by the Monitor, who also dons her in a female version of the costume worn by the villain Dr. Light. As the new Dr. Light, Hoshi is sent to the Monitor’s vibrational tuning fork tower in New York, where she meets Superman, Batman, the Outsiders and the Teen Titans and demands to know just what the Hell they think they're doing trying to wreck the tower.
Katana and Superman translate Hoshi's words (cuz she speaks Japanese, duh) to the
others as this new Dr. Light explains that this tower is not the cause of the red skies, natural disasters or the shadow demons. She explains that this tower is actually meant for their protection and they need to prevent the shadow demons from destroying it. Hoshi's not polite about asking for help either and is actually quite demanding and short-tempered with the assembled heroes. Meanwhile, while this new female Dr. Light is busy shouting orders and wondering why everyone around her seems like an idiot, heroes all over Earth-1 and Earth-2 are trying to save lives as both planets begin to go nuts with disasters and the like.
On Earth-1, Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl is having a crisis of faith (pardon the pun). Supergirl, a good friend of Barbara's, lands by her and they have a heart-to-heart. Their conversation foreshadows Kara’s fate in Chapter #7.
In his mansion, Steve Dayton (a billionaire who’s also the occasional super-hero called Mento) discusses the event of The Crisis with self-described “blue collar sorcerer” John Constantine (star of the Hellblazer comic and that film with Keanu Reeves). Constantine actually has a pretty good understanding about what’s causing the Crisis and what needs to happen to fix things. His conversation with Mento will lead into the Swamp Thing storyline “A Murder of Crows”, which I’ll talk about later.
It’s said during this issue that only four universes remain in existence, but we quickly discover that that's just plain wrong. Along with Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-S and Earth-X there is also Earth-4 (although DC hadn't decided to keep it around for a while longer yet), Earth-6 (which will make its first and last appearance in this very issue) and Earth-Prime, which we'll find out in DC Comics Presents #87 is still very much alive.
Scattered throughout time, the Monitor’s teams are trying to protect the various towers. On the newly-introduced Earth-6, Pariah watches as the anti-matter wall consumes yet another world. Here, the only super-heroes
are part of a royal family that rules this Earth. They are Lord Volt, Lady Quark and their daughter Princess Fern. Lady Quark sees her family and planet die around her, unable to stop the anti-matter. Pariah grabs her, trying to console her and prevent her from flying into the anti-matter wave in rage and anguish.
Pariah is then teleported away, as always happens when a universe is about to completely die, and inexplicably he somehow manages to take Lady Quark with him. Thus, Lady Quark becomes the sole survivor of Earth-6 and swears that she will have revenge on whoever is responsible for the anti-matter wave.
Readers find out that Barry Allen wasn't destroyed when Batman and the others saw him scream and vanish. The evil villain behind the anti-matter wave actually teleported him away and is holding him as a 
pirsoner. Barry watches as the villain also captures the second hero to be called Red Tornado.
The Red Tornado (often called "Reddy" by his friends) is an android who was originally programmed to combat Earth's heroes. He later went against his programming and seemed to possess sentience. He became a hero and joined the Justice League of America for a while. And during this time, the hero Firestorm (and comic book readers everywhere) learned that the reason Reddy had sentience was because the android body had, open its creation, been inhabited by an elemental spirit known as the Tornado Champion (originally, he'd been the Tornado Tyrant but changed his ways after being inspired by watching the JLA in action). Thus, the Red Tornado was more powerful than anyone had realized and this meant that it was doubly-dangerous for our hidden villain to want to capture him and use him for God knew what purpose.
While Barry realizes he is in the villain's lair, the man called Pariah finds himself teleported onto the Monitor’s satellite, alone (what happened to Lady Quark, did she get dropped off somewhere?). The Monitor approaches Pariah and reveals that he's actually the one responsible for keeping Pariah alive, making him immortal so that he would always survive the destruction of each universe. Pariah demands to know why he was cursed in such a way, but the Monitor assures the self-pitying man with the purple hair that he has a purpose to play later on.
Harbinger then enters the room and the Monitor doesn’t resist as she fires an energy blast, killing him on the spot. Outside the Monitor's satellite, the anti-matter walls seem to consume Earths 1 and 2 and as Pariah weeps (he does that a lot, doesn’t he? Wuss), it looks like everyone and everything has just died!
CRISIS – Chapter 4.5
The "Lost Chapter" - Featured in LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE SPECIAL: Crisis On Infinite Earths.
Over a decade after The Crisis On Infinite Earths was published, Marv Wolfman and George Perez created a “untold chapter” issue that was supposed to take place between Crisis issue #4 and #5. It’s not a bad story, but it doesn’t exactly fit into the timeline of things nor does it really add anything to the saga of the Crisis.
In this lost chapter, Barry is on his way back to Earth to warn everyone that the future is dying (which we already saw him do anyway, remember?). He somehow gets lost along the way and winds up on a never-before-seen world that gets the label of "Earth-D." Just as Barry had grown up thinking that the Flash of Earth-2 was only a comic book character, the Flash of Earth-D (named Tanaka Rei) thinks that Barry is only a comic book character. He's shocked to meet Barry in the flesh and shows him his collection of DC Comics. On Earth-D, all the heroes are not just costumed vigilantes. They are all recognized as deputized law officers.
Presumably the “D” in Earth-D stands for “diversity”, because all the versions of the DC heroes here are of different ethnicities and nationalities. The Superman and Supergirl of Earth-D are black, the Earth-D Flash is Asian, Green Arrow is
Native American, Green Lantern is Brazilian, etc.
It has been said by some that Wolfman thought the DC Universe should have been made to be more ethnically diverse after the Crisis rebooted continuity, so Earth-D may be the fulfillment of that idea (although the alternate Flash and Superman costumes are just silly-looking in my opinion, sorry). On Earth-1, the Justice League of America was known for having a satellite base orbiting Earth. Here, the Justice Alliance of America has an underwater base at the bottom of the sea. Here, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are siblings rather than married, Superman and Supergirl are husband and wife who came to Earth as adults (rather than cousins who came to Earth as children), and Robin is literally Batman's son.
While the two Flashes are hanging out, Tanaka mentions how he grew up reading stories about Barry's life in the comics and then comments how the stories got darker towards the end and no one seemed to have fun anymore. This seems to be both a comment on Barry’s year-long trial before his series ended and also on how comics in general seemed to darken after the time of the Crisis, entering what came to be called the "Grim and Gritty 80's."
To emphasize the innocence of Earth-D, all the Earth-D inhabitants have very bubbly, cute-looking speech balloons and it’s mentioned later that none of their heroes have ever died before (which means, by extension, that their villains are probably less violent and malicious as well).
Barry tries to help Earth-D fight off the anti-matter wave that's coming for them when Pariah suddenly shows up, still carrying Lady Quark with him. The purple-haired immortal then explains to Barry that this wave of anti-matter energy has been destroying one universe after another and doesn't seem to be stopping. For whatever reason, Pariah actually has pretty good control of his powers in this chapter and is able to use his abilities to bring a team of Earth-1 heroes to Earth-D in order to help try and save this world. This event just makes this "lost chapter" a little harder to get into, since throughout the rest of the Crisis Pariah seems more the passenger than the driver of his teleportation abilities.
The Earth-1 heroes can’t really help however and things keep getting worse. Shadow Demons show up and the Earth-D Hawkman and Hawkgirl are killed, marking the first time this Earth has ever dealt with super-heroes getting killed in action. Soon afterwards, the Earth-D Superman also dies, cradled in the arms of his wife, his Earth's Supergirl (which is very nice foreshadowing). Earth-1 Superman finds this a very disturbing experience. At the funeral service, he tells his cousin Kara that it was "like watching myself die. No matter what I seem to be, I'm still a mortal man. Sometimes it's hard to remember that."
An interesting scene came about then. After the funeral (and I must say, it seems odd to take time to have a funeral when the world's on the brink of death), Batman of Earth-1 tells the Earth-D Robin that he and his colleagues are good but "you all need to toughen up. Our enemy isn't going to show you or anyone else mercy because you're the good guys. They want to destroy us. Our job is to stop them first."
The Earth-D Batman then steps forward. Putting his hand on the shoulder of his Earth's Robin, he looks at our Batman 
and says quite sternly, "This isn't your world. We do things differently here. My son and I try to stop the bad guys, not cripple them. Yes, we have crime and the Alliance deals with it, but ours isn't a violent Earth. Our system works for us. Don't make us become you."
As the Earth-D Batman left, he mentions how he has always put his life before his work, quite different from our Batman who often sacrifices his personal life and his happiness in order to continue his war against crime as effectively as possible. The Earth-D Batman says that without his life, his work was meaningless and that he hopes his Earth-1 counterpart can understand that and that, if his world were about to die, he would also have someone to say good-bye to. The Earth-1 Batman ponders these words silently.
This conversation was definitely the high-light of the whole issue and a very nice comment on the Silver Age mentality of comics versus some of the stories that came later.
The story moves on but nothing the heroes can do seems able to stop the anti-matter wave from destroying this parallel reality. Finally, it's decided that if the world can't be saved, perhaps at least some of its people can. The Flash can travel through time and universes by altering the vibrational frequency of his molecules, often times with the aid of a machine he built that he jokingly-called the "Cosmic Treadmill."
Working together, the heroes build a giant version of the Cosmic Treadmill and start revving it up. Using the device and Barry's vibrational abilities, they create teleportation portals to Earth-1. As the Earth around them dies, the heroes send wave after wave of various Earth-D citizens across the dimensional barrier and onto Earth-1. They know they'll only be able to save a minor fraction of the human race of this planet, but at least those survivors will have a chance to continue living on a parallel Earth.
The last teleporation portal is about to close, but the Justice Alliance chooses to remain. Knowing their universe is in its death-throes and that any further effort will be a suicide run, the Justice Alliance of America charges on anyway, fighting to the very last, showing that they are true heroes no matter how silly or overly-friendly some people might find them.
Not a bad story and there were some great moments. But it felt like a first draft. Parts of it were repetitive of scenes that took place in the main Crisis series and parts of it downright contradicted the main storyline. Oh, well.
To continue this run-through of The Crisis On Infinite Earths, CLICK ON THIS LINK.
Reader Comments (1)
Reading on ahead now...