Science, Shouting, & Heroism: The Dr. Light Story

               The cover of issue #4 promises us two things: the end of the world and the death of the Monitor. However, we are now only 1/3 of the way into a 12 issue series, so let’s just wait and see if the creators deliver on either of these promises. The image is an arch overhead image of the Monitor, laying down having been assaulted with energy blasts. Harbinger stands over him with her hands haloed in Kirby crackle. Opposite her, Pariah cowers on the floor. At this point, we can take it as read that I’ve made a crack about him being maudlin, ineffectual, or both.

We start off with Supergirl flying high above presumably Gotham City, as she is coming to check in on Batgirl, who called her out of the blue in a panic. At first I thought that the series must have changed art teams mid-stream, but no, Perez just draws a damn good Supergirl. Batgirl, too, for that matter. I’m not sure if he’s been doing this all throughout the series and I just haven’t noticed but he’s really good at expressive close-ups. There has been such an overabundance of group scenes and action scenes that he really hasn’t had a chance to show his talent with faces. Medium shots are decent, too, but I think he flounders a bit with wide shots. Although, he’s getting demerits for that silly jazzercise headband Supergirl is wearing.

An honest to goodness quiet moment between two characters.  This series was in need of space to breathe.

At this point, it seems like the denizens of Earth accept that the end of the world is a foregone conclusion. Batgirl despairs, while Supergirl seems to be committed to doing what good she can as long as she can. Supergirl’s telescopic vision spots a small airplane coming apart in mid-air and rushes headlong to rescue it’s pilot. Batgirl watches on with her binoculars (I presume they’re called “bat-noculars”), admiring her bestie for her dedication, calling her a hero through and through. But this only increases her self pity.

Constantine's buddy (lover?) really is sitting comfortably

Elsewhere John Constantine and his super-rich sugar daddy friend, Stephen Dayton drink and contemplate the fate of the world from inside the parlor of Dayton’s posh estate. Dayton looks pretty haggard and is drinking away what might be his final hours, but Constantine is pretty certain of their fate (and for some reason, also Swamp Thing’s) and doubts that the world is doomed.

Oh no... the plot is back!

After these two scenes of quiet reflection, we are jarringly returned back to the main plot by way of Pariah’s “oh” face. Another day, another doomed Earth. Again, why is he always so shocked? He should be desensitized to it by now. This Earth is apparently unique, as there are absolutely no counterparts of established characters on this. In fact, it only has had twelve heroes, though only three remain: this Earth’s king, Lord Karak Volt, who is possessed of electrical powers and a Flash Gordon villain-esque costume, his wife Lady Quark, who has nuclear powers and an amazing bodysuit—she looks like Gozer from Ghostbusters—and their daughter Liana, an elemental who reminds me of Wily-Kit from ThunderCats. Pariah tries to reason with the royal couple, but they are much more smashy than they are talky. It takes their daughter falling prey to the anti-matter cloud for them to turn their attention away from Pariah. Lord Volt, too is consumed by the anti-matter. This world is screwed, apparently, but Pariah soothes his guilt by taking Lady Quark with him as he teleports away, making Lady Quark the sole survivor of her world.

Oblivion or Pariah? Tough choices

So apparently, Harbinger was not in the room with the Monitor when she declared that he shall die, for it would appear that he is finally getting around to making his new Dr. Light… In a Japanese science lab, Dr. Kimiyo Hoshi is all kinds of wonderful. She’s a bitch on wheels and suffers no fools. While all her male counterparts, including her own father, are cowering over the impending apocalypse, she’s all like, “fuck that noise—let’s do science.” I want to be her BFF. 

My new favorite DC character.

"Screw all these weak-willed men. I have to do science!"

Suddenly a blast of white energy shoots down on the lab, hitting Dr. Hoshi’s exact location, teleporting her away and destroying the lab in the process. It leaves her co-workers even more scared than they were a moment ago, especially her father, who declares that wherever and whatever has become of her, he still loves her.

Cutting back to the Monitor’s space station, we shift perspective from the Monitor, to Harbinger, to Alexander Luthor in quick succession. Monitor, watching Dr. Hoshi’s father on a view screen, confirm that she will amaze her father after she is recreated—pretty much confirming that she is going to be the new Dr. Light that Monitor has been teasing for a while now. Harbinger talks about being controlled and feeling hate towards the Monitor, and compulsion to kill him. I wonder if this place has bad acoustics. It looks like the whole facility is metallic, so sound should carry, but she is being the opposite of discreet for someone who means to keep her intentions a secret. Maybe she should be thinking instead of saying this. Meanwhile, Alexander, exhibiting either clairvoyance, pre-cognition, or telepathy, is basically a one-boy Greek chorus, lamenting Harbinger’s task and also revealing that not only does her killing the Monitor serve his overall agenda, but it is part of her destiny.

Nothing says "big bad" quite like verbally smacking around your lackeys.

Our villain still thinks he’s Dr. Claw. He reminds us how much he hates the sound of Psycho-Pirate’s voice and that he has promised Psy-Pi all the emotions of the new world he has planned. Then he abducts the Red Tornado, who was in the middle of a mid-apocalyptic crowd rescue mission. He doesn’t tell us why exactly, but we do know that RT is integral to his plans. Psy-Pi cracks wise about Red Tornado being an artificial life form, and our Dr. Claw threatens to replace him with another empath, if he doesn’t shut up.  When RT asks if he’s the one responsible for the current status quo, all we get is some “ominous, ominous, ominous.”

On Earth-2, Firestorm and Killer Frost arrive at a golden protect quest tower that looms over a castle in medieval times. Firestorm is still being horrible about Killer Frost being in love with him. I’m sorry. I know he mentions that there would be serious repercussions if she were to kiss him. However. He was complicit in her emotional manipulation— that’s a huge violation. I don’t know which is worse, the fact that this essentially robs her of her agency, by preventing her from acting and making decisions in her normal state of mind or the fact that this can be interpreted as rape.  At least his jerky behavior is confined to thought balloons this time.

Firestorm = the worst 

Vandal Savage, aka Immortal Villain Guy, watches from the castle, making really no contribution to the plot, but that seems to be par for the course in this issue. So many wasted cameos in this issue…

Firestorm and Killer Frost meet up with Shining Knight. I have to say Shining Knight is on the one hand, one of many characters I’m familiar with on account of the DCAU, but one the other hand, he’s one of those rare characters whose design I felt wasn’t suited to the DCAU’s stylization. He looks so much better on the page. You can tell he’s wearing golden chainmail. You can see the shining sheen of his helmet. He really does look like his bright namesake.

Unfortunately, that brightness doesn’t carry over into his intellect. He confuses them for evil wizards despite Firestorm’s friendly greeting and attacks them. Either they’ve arrived too early in Shining Knight’s personal timeline or the two characters never met one another on Earth-2. Regardless, shadow creatures attack again and SK figures out who their foe is and they team up.  Firestorm comments on how flimsy these towers are because they conform to video game protect quest logic. They think they’ve won the day when SK throws his sword, which I presume is magical, at them.

Voltron, Megazord, or kaiju... all jokes lead to Japan

That hope is quickly dashed however when the shadow creatures Voltron themselves into one cyclopean monster. It apparently exists in tandem across time and space, appearing at the sites of the four other golden towers which we’ve seen already. All of Monitor’s preliminary champions watch from their respective times and location, unable to stop the massive shadow creature.

I don't know who she is, but she couldn't have
committed a crime deserving of that costume.

Then we cut back to the present of Earth-1, where Batman, Superman, the Teen Titans, and Outsiders are still assembled, presumably only minutes or so from when we saw them last issue. A sixth golden tower has appeared and the flyers of the assembled teams fly forth to investigate, no doubt using Superman’s approach from issue #1: punching! Dr. Hoshi appears flying high hear the tower’s apex dressed as the new Dr. Light. She attempts to repel the heroes using her distinct charms. 

The New Dr. Light's primary battle tactic is shouting

Unfortunately, because of language barriers, the only person among the flyers is Superman who is still a ways away but has Kryptonian hearing, who tells them that she’s protecting it. Of course, considering the fact that a) this tower doesn’t seem like a good thing,  b) she’s dressed up like a well-known villain, and c) caring fuck all for niceties seems to defy language barriers, it probably isn’t putting her best foot forward in the superhero world when she blasts them away, sending Starfire and Halo(?) reeling.  

In the future, she'd incorporate a "rising sun"
into her mask to avoid this confusion.

On the ground, Katana tells them Dr. Light is not their enemy, and in the process pretty much accidentally designates herself as Dr. Light’s translator, despite the fact that Superman can both speak Japanese and fly. So let’s hope Dr. Light doesn’t have anything else important to tell us in mid-air. Up in the sky, however, as Superman arrives at the tower, changeling who carries the frazzled Halo in the form of an eagle, still think Dr. Light is up to no good, so clearly we don’t have communicators, let alone a telepath. Dr. Light finally gets some alone time with Superman, aka everyone’s reasonable dad (as opposed to Batman who is everyone’s batshit insane, reckless child endangerment, “prepper” dad), she conveys to him that the fate of the universe might hinge on her ability to guard the tower. Superman trusts her and says he’ll do whatever it takes to help her.

She suffers the burden of being the smartest person in the room at all times.

We have a half-page-long interlude on Paradise Island. Wonder Woman had returned to her home hoping to muster up a fighting force (because we’ve established that’s how superheroes fight annihilation—punching! Unfortunately, the island full of Amazon warriors are praying in the face of the end of the world. It pretty much sidelines the third member of DC's golden trio for the duration of this event, or at least this leg of it. Just call her "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Event."

I'm digging the symmetry and giving another long speech some visual interest or having each different battle need it's own scene. It's both pretty and efficient.

Meanwhile, in space, the Monitor is busy reminding us how integral he, Harbinger, Alexander Luthor, and Pariah are to the plot. Speak of the emo devil, Pariah appears and the two of them discuss the circumstances. Monitor explains how Pariah’s perpetual “drawn to doom” existence, but doesn’t give too much detail. Instead, he tells us how the fates of Earth-1 and Earth-2 are linked and his machines are bringing the two earths together for his final endgame. 

Okay... why exactly? Other than they're
where all your books are set?

He explains how this is tied into the “Book of Revelations” style natural disasters, but it’s a little unclear whether the weather is the result of the end of the universes or the unfortunate side effect of his machines. All this explanation is intercut with the heroes failing to stop the forces of the villain. He almost gets around to going into the details of his final plan when Harbinger appears. Monitor is resigned to his fate, and calls her Lyla as he tells her to do what she needs to. Harbinger yells at him for calling her Lyla as she vacillates between her evil persona and the dutiful daughter. I have a theory that Harbinger was supposed to be her evil dissociative identity, but the creative team got their notes mixed up because Harbinger only succumbs to darkness towards the end of issue #1. It feels a little messy. Anyway, torn between her faltering Lyla persona and the raging Harbinger, she shoots him with a bolt of energy. 

" If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

The next thing Pariah knows, Harbinger is gone and Monitor is dead. All he can do now is, you guessed it, impotently bemoan his fate. He and the heroes across two universes and multiple time periods are left to gasp in terror as the universe fades to white.

Well, there goes the neighborhood...