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| One of comics' most iconic covers. |
Before I say anything else, I think after slogging through the first 6 issues of this series with my opinions of them being decidedly in the mixed category, I can happily say that this issue was fantastic. It's focused, has a sense of purpose, and has a sense of stakes and consequences that feel real. More importantly, I felt an emotional reverberation that the first 6 issues honestly lacked. The previous issues all seem like they are constantly at risk of buckling under the weight and scope of the sprawling narrative that ranges across time, and space, and realities. With this issue, however, the story zeroes in on characters in a way it hadn't before. Oh, don't get me wrong, the gratuitous size of the cast is still there, but the POV doesn't shift quite so often. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the old beat-by-beat...
Lyla and Alexander are
floating around in space on an asteroid. Lyla is pretty much tapped as far as
powers and Alexander is pretty much being kept to the rear for some sort of
final trump card because he is made of both matter and anti-matter. Pariah appears
insists that Lyla must know why the Monitor set up his “eternal life/appear at
mass misery” powers. She says she does and says that perhaps it is time for
explanations, but first she tells him to take the three of them to earth, where
“all will be enlightened.”
Cut to Earth-S, home of
Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel, and presumably Fetus Marvel. Also, an anthropomorphic tiger because Earth-S is the best place in the DC Multiverse.
 |
This looks like the beginning of furry slash a beautiful
friendship. |
Two
characters I’m assuming are part of Captain Marvel’s rogues gallery are having
a discussion. Sivana is your run of the mill 50’s mad scientist. Short, bald,
round glasses, lab coat. Ibbac seems to be his designated hired muscle. Big,
not too bright, doesn’t wear a shirt (very hairy chest—woof),and has a short
proto-mohawk. Sivana thinks he’s ahead of the curve. He tells Ibbac of his plan
to take over all five Earths before anyone knows what has happened. Captain
Marvel appears, totally interrupted the supervillain monologue because I’m
assuming Captain Marvel, his alter being only a kid, lacks proper
superhero/villain etiquette. Before that gets too far Sivana and Ibbac vanish.
 |
| The Murky and Lurky of Earth-S |
We see that Psycho
Pirate’s hold on the heroes of Earth-4, Earth-S, and Earth-X has dissipated and
they’re playing nice with the Earth-1/Earth-2 heroes who were sent there to
help.
Meanwhile, the heroes of Earth-2 commiserate over their maimed comrade, Wildcat. They are secretly observed by someone who
was on the scene when it happened, Yolanda Montez. She seems to know who his
secret identity is. Her thought bubbles say she regrets never having told him
about her own powers and regrets that they would have made a good team. In this
issue, she has donned his costume, which really must have been taken in to be
such a snug fit on a woman. She’s the new Wildcat. If this proves important is
anybody’s guess.
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| The Exposition station has been downsized to Exposition asteroid. |
Back to the whole universally-significant plot, Lyla, Alexander,
and Pariah have gathered up six characters, one from a different Earth, only
five of them from a still extant Earth: the Superman of Earth-1, the Superman
of Earth-2 (the older one), the Blue Beetle of Earth-4, Lady Quark of Earth-6
(the sole survivor), Uncle Sam (yes that Uncle Sam) of Earth-X, and Captain
Marvel of Earth-S. Also, Alexander is from Earth-3 and Pariah is, safe to
assume, not from one of the main Earths either, but the writers seem to have
forgotten that. Lyla is telling these representatives the big explanation in
the hopes that they will explain it to the rest of the population of their respective
earths.
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| Elections were not held, I'm taking it. |
Ages ago, there was
only one universe and the people of the planet Oa (distinguished by their blue
skin, white hair, and penchant for robes) were the sole residents (or sole
residence of consequence) and were an immortal, scientifically advanced utopia.
That is… until one of them who is selfish about his scientific discoveries,
named Krona, scienced too hard and created both the Evil Anti-Matter Universe
and the multiverse. Oa seems to be the only planet without duplicates in the
other dimensions with the exception of the exception of the EAMU, where it is
known as Qward (Oa being the one from the Positive Matter Universe). As
punishment for his actions, Krona is turned into immortal incorporeal energy…
because no comic book character has ever come back from an eternal prison or
anything like that. Oh, when he’s sentenced he’s totally saying “you will
suffer for this,” putting him firmly in General Zod territory.
The Oans get hypervigilant about maintaining the integrity of the
multiverse and anti-matter universe, since one of their own was responsible. At
first they created the Manhunters, which were machines, but later abandoned
them in favor of creating the Green Lantern Corps. [Quick case of backtracking
for something I forgot to mention in an earlier recap. GL John Stewart and
other corpsmen have been having trouble using their rings. A trip to
present-day Oa in issue 5 or 6 revealed that the Guardians are trapped in a
stasis field. These two facts will probably tie into this somehow.]
The GLC’s rings are powered by an energy
source the Oans generate. I don’t see how this really fits into the multiverse,
since the GLC acts more like intergalactic cops than interdimensional ones. But
I digress… Not all Oans were satisfied with the GLC, which led to an Oan civil
war, resulting in half the Oan population to an alternate dimension, where they
built destructive weapons and evolved into a race known as “The Controllers.”
I’ll hazard a guess and say they’re bad news.
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| I wonder if they shrank and went nearly bald as a species from dealing with the likes of Kilowog. |
Over the course of the millenia, it's probably important to note, they evolved from fairly humanoid with blue skin into blue yoda-sized guys.
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| Anti-Monitor might as well be a space zombie. |
On
the moons of Oa and Qward, respectively, the Monitor and Anti-Monitor sprang
into being. The Anti-Monitor took control of Qward and created an army of
“thunderers” (no idea what those are), the elite among them he changed into the
shadow demons who have been plaguing the heroes on the various Earths in the
COIE series thus far. With these, he conquered the EAMU.
Meanwhile, the Monitor
was basically going the route of asceticism—meditation and learning the secrets
of the universe. Running out of things to conquer, Anti-Monitor sensed the
Monitor across the multiverse, recognizing him both as his other self and as
something to be conquered, resulting in a million years of stalemated warring
between them until they both blasted each other into a very long comatose state
for 9 million years. It turns out that Pariah was the one who woke the
Anti-Monitor. He considers it 1 of 3 of the sins he must atone for. Thought we
were done with the info dump? Ah, such optimism…
 |
| Unreliable narrator? |
Pariah can’t even tell us which
Earth he’s from, it’s just a foggy memory for him. Like most of the major
players riding COIE’s backstory asteroid, he was a brilliant scientist who
created wonders that damn near created a perfect world—he was like Jesus,
DaVinci, and Caesar Augustus all rolled into one. Then he discovered the
existence of the multiverse, which was frowned on by his people because they
have a damnation prophesy regarding learning the origins of the universe, but
he (like most comic book scientists, I now realize) is made up of 99% hubris. He
builds an anti-matter chamber to explore the multiverse and destroyed his
universe in the process because matter and anti-matter cannot co-exist. Whoops.
 |
| This is what we in the professional world call a "whoopsie daisy." |
He was kept alive in solitude for 1 million years. The explosion of his world
caused the Anti-Monitor to awaken and feed upon the energies of Pariah’s world,
making him stronger and more powerful than the Monitor.
To Summarize Pariah’s Three Sins:
1.
Exploding his own universe.
2.
The Explosion awakening the Anti-Monitor.
3.
The Anti-Monitor increasing his powers by
feedings on the energies of the exploded universe.
Conclusion: So, he didn’t really commit three sins. He committed one sin that
had compounded levels of bad results.
Lyla chimes in to mention
that he also woke up the Monitor. Silver linings… Being more proactive this
time, and made Pariah into a being with the ability to sense and be drawn to
dimensionally cataclysmic events and he would follow Pariah to them. But with
every universe the Anti-Monitor destroys, the Monitor’s powers wane. The
Monitor looked for heroes to aid in his mission and in the process, he found
Lyla as a girl drowning at sea and takes her as his own and raises her as his
daughter.
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Isn't this the same backstory for Fury and/or Troia?
Pretty homogeneous origin story for Amazons not named Diana, huh? |
Now that we’re done this, Lady Quark is about ready to pounce on
Pariah for his part in all this, but Captain Marvel holds her back while Uncle
Sam exhorts them all the band together instead of resorting to in-fighting.
Master strategist, that Uncle Sam…
 |
| Calling her "ma'am" is actually kind of charming. |
Next, we
are treated to a page where each row of panels includes different heroes across
different Earths are discussing their situation, having presumably been caught
up on the details. Earth 1: Spectre, Deadman, and The Phantom Stranger are having
a meeting of the Spooky Club. Earth 2 has Power Girl and Huntress [sidebar:
Earth-2’s Huntress is the daughter of Bruce and Selina Wayne and she’s all
kinds of cool].
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| Possibly a callback to Supergirl and Batgirl's scene from issue #4 |
Earth-X has clearly the most important characters ever: a pink
“Dead Pirate Roberts” lookalike named Firebrand, a guy in a hazmat suit named
Human Bomb, and Dollman. He seems to be about 10”, wears red ankle boots, and
Dr Strange’s cape. Earth-4 has Blue Beetle, who must have since returned from
the Exposition Asteroid, talking to Nightshade and Peacemaker. Earth-S features
the Marvel family worrying about Captain Marvel, but it cannot go without
saying how fun it is to see Beast Boy, who was one of the Earth-1&2
characters sent there last issue,
fluttering about as a pterodactyl, as is appropriate behavior for any
megamorph when extinction is nigh.
We
return again to the Storytime Asteroid, where a large fighting force of heavy
hitters has been gathered. It is explained that while Pariah can go to the next
cataclysmic event, he can’t take people with them (that time he teleported Lady
Quark to safety must have been a one-time deal), so Alex, being composed of
both matter and anti-matter is the residential transit macguffin of COIE.
Monitor instinctively knew this, which is why he sent for him in the first
place. Sidebar, Alexander has grown to manhood and has a curly red mullet.
Alexander opens a portal and the narration compares it to the parting of the
Red Sea.
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| Christ imagery is heating up. |
In this moment, Alexander, who like Kal-El, was put into a rocket as a
baby and shunted off into space in order to avoid a genocidal event, officially
becomes more of a Moses analogue than Superman. Pariah spells out what he said
a page ago by saying that as part of his atonement, it’s his job to lead the
heroes to the Anti-Monitor.
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| Moses powers are a go! |
The assembled heroes fly
through the “cosmic membrane” and the narration is in full congratulatory
tones. You can almost hear the intense orchestral John Williams music playing
in the background. They arrive at fortress that looks like an ancient near
eastern ruin floating in space. The heroes regard it as having never seen
anything like it.
 |
| An evil lair as built by an ant colony. |
Inside, Anti-Monitor
knows all, sees all and wants Psycho Pirate to use his powers to enslave the
oncoming heroes, however, PP is tapped out from having used his abilities on
the entire Earths of three different realities. Anti-Monitor is most displeased
and smacks PP around before deciding it’s time to take matters into his own
hands.
 |
| I get the feeling that Prof Stein is fucking with him. |
The heroes enter the outermost
extremes of the fortress. Characters notice a) their powers don’t work here the
same way as they do back in their world, b) they got into the fortress way too
easily, c) they’re all feeling afraid of what is to come. Light appears in the
mouths and eyes of the gargoyle-like statuary of the fortress and the very
stone and mortar of the building shapes itself into limbs and stone golems
assaulting the heroes. Lady Quark is beseeching the spirit of her husband to
help her blast their foes to pieces. Earth-2 Superman is shocked to discover
himself bleeding following a direct hit—Kryptonians, it seems are vulnerable
here. They are barely holding their own. The only hero who seems to have an
edge is Captain Atom. And it’s not even that great an advantage since his
ability to smash them to bits is counteracted by their ability to reform
themselves.
 |
| This either raises the stakes or belies the color of the sun. |
The party is split in the chaos.
Superman-1 is looking for Pariah. Pariah needs to forge ahead along with Dr.
Light while Superman-2 holds off the stone golems. Pariah is crushed by the
very infrastructure of the fortress seconds before Superman-1 catches up.
Timing is everything. Dr. Light suddenly has a really good focal point for her
pent up irritation. “The Anti-Monitor is going to pay,” and flies off. She
didn’t get the memo about Pariah’s immortality, but Superman did. He’s not
entirely certain if she’s a hero or villain, but she seems to have the morally
right agenda, so he chases after her.
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| Dr. Light has mastered both English and empathy in a short time. |
Supes
reaches DrL. She’s vengeful not stupid, so she waited for him outside a chamber
containing a solar collector, a massive machine she deduces Anti-Monitor is
using to reduce the vibrational differences between the Earths. He asks if
she’s certain. Come on, Clark. You’re a reporter. She’s got a PhD. A PhD in
Science. Omni-disciplinary comic book science. She’s got this. She wants to
take this tech home to study, but Superman is feeling pretty punchy. Before
either can act on those urges, Superman is hit from behind with a powerful
blast of bright white energy. His pain is so intense and so visceral, his
scream appears as a sound effect instead of a word which Supergirl hears with
her superhearing and flies off to his aid knowing full-well that she might be
killed by something that can cause Superman to scream that way. Again, the
narration might as well be giving the superheroes one big collective blowjob.
EVERYTHING IS EPIC.
And I am not using that word lightly. Everything from this point and forward in the issue is worthy of viking songs or Klingon opera. The narration is beautifully purple and gives this half of the issue the emotional weight is richly deserves.
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| Idealism vs 80s grim-dark |
Anti-Monitor is smacking Superman
around. Dr L intercedes and declares how murdery she’s feeling. Anti-Monitor
either freezes her or teleports her away in an honestly cool looking silhouette
panel. Supergirl catches up with Pariah, who senses tragedy is about to unfold
and Supergirl rushes forth, determined to save her cousin, determined to take
up the torch for him if she fails to save him.
She catches her foe by surprised and
gets in a few good punches, thrashing him about as she harangues him over all
those lives now lost. He smacks her away sending her flying into a wall with
only one hit. She grabs the stone floor and literally rips it out from under
him, then resumes wailing on him and destroying his “life shell,” and
destroying the solar collector in the process.
Anti-Monitor’s proverbial kid
gloves are off and he transforms into a creature of glowing red and white
energy as he declares, “You, your cousin, your friends,
your worlds all shall die with you!” The fortress shakes and
Supergirl tasks Dr. L (whom she manages to really impress, which should not going unmentioned) with getting Clark out of there to safety and getting the
heroes out of the EAMU. She flies directly into the glowing form of the
Anti-Monitor, smashing him and soon she is consumed, glowing like the same red
energy.
She turns around, telling Dr. L to make a run for it and Anti-Monitor takes the
advantage, killing her. Without a body, that took a lot out of Anti-Monitor. He
blasts off screaming “you’ll pay for this next time” like a Captain Planet
villain.
The building is crumbling to bits.
While the rest of the heroes regroup out front, Superman-1 is still in the
solar collector chamber surrounded by Dr. L and a few others, holding the dying
body of Supergirl. She tells him how much she loves him and was inspired by him
until her final breath. Superman-1 assumes the “scream at the heavens” position
declaring he’ll kill Anti-Monitor for this while Superman-2 comforts him and
preaches against vengeance for Supergirl’s sake.
The fortress is still crumbling
(it’s like quicksand—it really does take a while) and they need to escape
before Alexander’s powers give out. They don’t want to end up like the
Egyptians at the end of
The Ten
Commandments and that Red Sea is a bitch to get caught in. They fly back
through, Superman-1 still carrying his cousin’s body.
EPILOGUE
The
five Earths are no longer at risk of destroying each other and the weird time
anomalies have stopped, but they’re still interlocked and frozen in time and
space. A memorial is held in Chicago on
Earth-1, news coverage airing. Batgirl delivers a eulogy intercut with images
of the Daily Planet folks watching from their offices as well as heroes from
multiple earths mourning for her in attendance.
Superman takes her body, wrapped
tightly in her cape now repurposed as a burial shroud, to the Fortress of
Solitude. He reflects on all the hope and optimism of her when she first
arrived on Earth, a young girl of 15 with nothing but her future ahead of her.
From there, he takes her body out past Earth’s atmosphere and just lets it
float around in the vacuum of space for eternity. Good lord, Superman—cremation
is your friend. It wouldn’t surprise me if an alien villain had found her body
and used it to reverse engineer an anti-Kryptonian weapon or zombifies her.
Minor Spoiler: However, that didn’t happen. After this event, Supergirl is
literally erased from existence. She never happened. That heroic sacrifice is
utterly trivialized and her heartfelt requiem is obviated from memory.
DC probably didn’t realize quite what a “fuck
you” it was to their audience, but it was hardly their last. As meaningful as
the second half of this issue was, DC’s perennial tug of war it has between its
need to sustain the iconic status quos of their major character and its
creative teams’ need to have the space to tell new stories is one that
invariably results in the status quo winning out. The impact of the stories
they don’t tell are immaterial compared to the wills of an often capricious EiC.
Part of what was decided when
Crisis was
planned was that they decided that there was simply too many Kryptonians
running around, which diminished both the mysterious nature of Krypton and the
isolated “god amongst
men” aspect of Superman’s
character. Of course, this didn’t last because nobody remains editor in chief
forever. Jay Edidin of
Jay and Miles X-plain
the X-Men (listen to them, they are one of the best comics podcasts out
there) once pointed that you can tell what the status quo was when a new
editor-in-chief first started reading by what regressive changes s/he makes.
However, inevitably, the next wave of creative talent comes into the different
with a different status quo crystalized in their minds and can just as readily make
their own resets in whatever contrived methods they choose based on a precedent
that has its root right here. Such mentality in creative leadership is
capricious and cyclical, and really puts on display creators’ unwillingness to
grasp the fact that continuity and characterization marches on and their job is
to be the torchbearers and not the gatekeepers of modern myth.
Despite that angry rant, I have to say that this issue is without a doubt the best so far in the series. The issue does carry out some of my grievances from before during the first half of the issue, but it synthesizes them into something more cohesive. There is still a massive weight of DC cosmology exposition, but the writing doesn't try to fight against it like it has in previous issues. Yes, the Pariah and Lyla's exposition from the dawn of time is unwieldy, but it's finally providing some real, concrete answers so that the reader is finally given some solid footing in the narrative instead of just being told that the destructive force is the bad guy. Yes, there are the cast of thousands, but we most of them are largely left in the background and we narrow our focus on only a handful of characters so we feel engaged in the narrative. Then, once the narrative transitions to the raid on the anti-matter universe, the narrative transcends into something that truly feels epic, the narration becomes swells with the purpleness of its prose and you realize pretty quickly that out of the fodder of the first six issues has risen a truly standout piece of work that is a match for its iconic cover. Wolfman and Perez hit their stride with this series when they realized that one character's emotional experience and self-sacrifice and the resonance of her loss is more potent storytelling than checking in with hundreds of characters we don't have time to invest in. Taken out of the context of what came after, this is probably one of the most moving and earned comic book deaths I've ever read.
To Summarize Pariah’s Three Sins:
She turns around, telling Dr. L to make a run for it and Anti-Monitor takes the
advantage, killing her. Without a body, that took a lot out of Anti-Monitor. He
blasts off screaming “you’ll pay for this next time” like a Captain Planet
villain.
The
five Earths are no longer at risk of destroying each other and the weird time
anomalies have stopped, but they’re still interlocked and frozen in time and
space. A memorial is held in Chicago on
Earth-1, news coverage airing. Batgirl delivers a eulogy intercut with images
of the Daily Planet folks watching from their offices as well as heroes from
multiple earths mourning for her in attendance.
