For the last couple of years, I have felt that DC Comics has been a company that has been creatively in a state of disarray.
The company being bought and sold a couple of times might be the foundation of this issue. COVID delaying things for while didn't help. But leadership changes definitely are a big part of that feeling. There were a number of 'events' unfolding at the same time, overlapping each other, and delaying each other's finales. The '5G' future that now-gone Dan Didio wanted has been a carcass that DC has picked at for a while. With Future State bringing in 'the future' and introducing us to Jon and Yara as mantle-wearers, it seems DC just didn't know where they were going.
Except for Batman books. They knew they were going there.
Recently the news of the latest event was released. Writer Joshua Williamson is going to write Dark Crisis, a book that he describes as a 'love letter' to the DCU. Art will be done by a recent favorite of mine, Daniel Sampere. There are plenty of stories out there about this but here is one:https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-dark-crisis/
Now it sounds like The Great Darkness, perhaps the one that has been hinted at in Brian Michael Bendis' Legion book is the 'anti-God' that was behind the American Gothic storyline waaayyyy back in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run. Seems odd to have something so metaphysical and religious be the basis of a Crisis but here we are.
Meanwhile, we also got this nugget:
Somewhat a surprise, DC has revealed Pariah, a key character in the original 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez and who last appeared in an epilogue of Infinite Frontier #6, is the main villain. Pariah is using the Great Darkness as a weapon to bring his Multiverse - now dubbed Multiverse-2 in the new, greater DC Omniverse - back from obliteration. The mad Pariah wants to destroy Earth-0 (otherwise known as Earth-Prime or the main DCU Earth) in his quest for rebirth and vengeance.
It seems that every hero from the ending of Crisis on Infinite Earths has ultimately made a heel turn. Superboy Prime? Alex Luthor? The Earth-2 Superman? Now Pariah?
I guess the only hold out is Harbinger ... but for all I know I might have missed something.
The beginning of this story is the 'death of the JLA'.
Pages are out there including this candle-light vigil at the Hall of Justice for our fallen heroes.
Williamson promises a book about legacy and what it means to be a hero. He hasn't let me down before. So I am hoping that this will be worth it. Because I can't remember the last universal crisis book that has come out that I have loved.
But this is a Supergirl blog.
I get it that Jon is the hot commodity as Superman these days. But I hope that Supergirl has some role to play in this. She is as much a legacy for Superman as Jon is.
I was glad to see her on the extreme left of the top most image, the cover of Dark Crisis #1. Yes, she is off to the side, not prominently displayed. But she is there.
And she does have a pretty prominent center stage in that funeral scene, hugging who I assume is Lois.
If this is about legacy, I have to assume all the Robins will be involved, all the Wonder Girls, all the Flashes. So maybe Supergirl will have a moment in the sun with the rest of the Super-family.
What do you all think of this?
8 comments:
Is it REALLY a Crisis, if Supergirl DOESN’T get Fridged? Seems like she’ll be decorously ignored while all the focus will be on Superman’s dubious issue. Otherwise the wellsprings of DC’s creativity have run even thinner than usual. I do think it’s ironic that in the wake of “Wonder Woman ‘84”, Wonder Woman goes for the terminal dirt nap just as Supergirl got offed (and expelled from continuity) in the wake of the 1984 Supergirl feature with Helen Slater.
Curious circularity.
JF
I’m slightly more optimistic, I can’t see Kara being in the publicity if she’s not going to play a part beyond supporting Lois (as Lois supports her).
Ridiculous name for a crisis- I think they're just throwing refrigerator magnets at the wall at this point. I do admittedly like the idea of an omniverse though- multiple multiverses has an old-school feel to it. Pariah's a bit of an odd choice though- has he really been in anything besides COIE and a couple other stories from that time? I recognize that none of this will ultimately matter but I'm at least curious about how they're going to go about it.
I'm relieved that it looks like the Great Darkness in the JLA v. Legion of Superheroes mini series isn't going to be
Darkseid. He's been terribly overexposed lately.
At least it seems that Kara will be able to get back to Earth after her True Grit adventure. Hopefully, she'll stay around for awhile.
I see that Jon is front and center on the cover, while Supergirl is on the back. With so many characters in this story, I'm not expecting her to have a big role. I just hope this doesn't turn into a "Where's Waldo" situation for her.
As a rule DC 'Events' are completely unappealing to me and I only read the first issue to confirm that at most. Since the lead up hasn't excited me in the least I'll be stopping JL the issue before the deaths and skipping all of Dark Crisis. Normally I go ahead and buy the tie in issues that infect my regular titles but I'm leaning towards skipping them too.
Thanks for great comments and feelings.
I’m on the fence.
I do wonder if the great darkness was supposed to be just a Legion thing and then was co-opted when the book sank.
Hoping Kara is part of this.
"Hoping Kara is part of this."
Why Anj? She's already gone through enough, those last two miniseries basically finished her off, now a knock-off CoIE right after the death of JLA should kill her again? This is looking grim already.
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