Review: Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special

When you get to be as old a comic fan as I am, major comic events from the past become history and begin to celebrate pretty big anniversaries. 

I was already in my 20s when Zero Hour first hit the stands, DC's valiant effort to tidy up some of the timeline conundrums that spun out of the Crisis On Infinite Earths. So trust me, I felt pretty old when I saw the Zero Hour 30th Anniversary issue hit the stands. 

I wasn't sure how the story would play out. Would this be some side adventure within Zero Hour? Some untold tale? Or something Zero Hour adjacent, adding to the story.

Turns out it is the latter. Writer Ron Marz and Dan Jurgens bring us a Kyle Rayner story, set in an offshoot universe which is both familiar to the DC world of the 90s but also quite different. Do you want a world where Superman stayed dead, Batman stayed paralyzed, and Wonder Woman is missing? A world where Matrix, Donna Troy, and Barbara Gordon are the Trinity? Then this book is for you! Do you want to see Hal as Parallax? Jack Knight as Starman? A classic Fatal Five and Legion? Waverider? Then this book is for you. 

And I suppose for someone like me, this book is for me. It brought me back to that time, let me enjoy seeing these characters (in a way) again, and have some fun.

Add to that the incredible bevy of veteran artists on the book. Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Paul Pelletier, Kelley Jones, Darryl Banks, Howard Porter, and Tom Grummett all are here. I got to see Grummett's Matrix Supergirl again. Ordway on Infinity Inc characters. Kelley Jones haunting Gotham, and Jurgens drawing a version of the JLA again. 

On to the book! Get ready for some Parallax-ction!

Back Issue Box: Guy Gardner Warrior #24

 Death Metal has happened and the DCU has been re-written. We are in a Future State. But as far as I can tell, Supergirl didn't have much to do with the victory over the Batman Who Laughs.

It got me thinking about Supergirl's place in other mega-events. Obviously, she played a huge part in Crisis on Infinite Earths. But otherwise? 

In 1994, DC rewrote the timeline again in Zero Hour. This time instead of Kara Zor-El heading into battle, it was Matrix Supergirl. And instead of a major role, this Supergirl was only seen in background shots of the main title. In fact the biggest role she had to play was in Guy Gardner #24, a Zero Hour crossover issue. And even in this, she is but one of many,

And remember, this is an odd time in Guy Gardner's history. He is a true warrior now, with Vulderian shape-shifting powers, making him a living weapon. The issue is written by Beau Smith, the main writer on the title. Art is by a smorgasbord of artists, many of whom are favorites of mine - layouts by Jackson Guice with pencils by Phil Jimenez, Howard Porter, and Mike Parobeck among those listed.

How does Matrix fare in a battle against time despot Extant? Well, let's take a quick good at the extent of her fight against Extant.

JLA In Crisis Secret Files

It is hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we are rapidly approaching the 30th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths. If that fact says one thing to me, louder than anything, it says that I am getting old.

Now I am of two minds about the Crisis. I actually like the Crisis and it's simplification of the DCU. Most of that comes from the immediate aftermath within DC Comics, a sort of explosion of creativity and new books. Of course, Supergirl was killed in the Crisis, something I have never quite understood.

But there is one thing that I do find interesting. Despite everything that happened in the Crisis, it is clear that the lasting image of that story is Superman holding Supergirl's body after she sacrifices herself to save him.

Yes, the cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 is a beautiful cover and a great image. But that image doesn't have multiple earths. It doesn't have the Anti-Monitor of the Monitor. It doesn't have the true 'hero' of the story, the Earth-2 Superman. And didn't the Flash also die.

I wonder why that image resonates so much. One of my theories is that Supergirl's death had more impact that DC thought it would. Instead of her being a footnote, a secondary character, she meant something to people. Another is that it stands as the end of an era. Someone bright and optimistic is killed. The grim and gritty era of comics starts shortly thereafter. Maybe Supergirl's death meant something more, something about comics.

Of course, it just might be that it is a masterful cover by George Perez, homaged many times.

Okay, so you might be asking why am I talking about this now. Well, I recently stumbled across the JLA in Crisis Secret Files from 1998. It is an issue with an original Flash story. But more importantly, it has 2 page spreads recapping all the major company-wide crossover that have occurred in the DCU up to that point. That includes the Crisis. And there is Superman holding Supergirl in that classic pose on the cover (drawn by Robert Campanella).

Open the cover and the first page is a reprint of the Crisis #7 cover but now with the JLA in Crisis logo.!

Again, amazing the power of that image, such that in an issue looking at ALL the crossovers, this was the image the chose as their opening page.

Here is the Crisis on Infinite Earths double page spread, drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Garcia-Lopez is a legend. I love this splash as it covers the story nicely showing the last battle, the Flash's destiny, and the united villains.

But again, there, in the center, is Superman holding Kara.

Incredible.

The pages come with text explaining what happened. I include the Crisis text for completeness.

I thought I would include some other crossover splashes that include Supergirl.

Here is the Zero Hour picture, drawn by Paul Ryan. There is the Matrix Supergirl on the left, next to the Darkstar Donna Troy!

And I found this interesting. Here is the Genesis pages drawn by Ron Wagner.

There is Supergirl on the fold, being blasted by a parademon. No Superman. No Batman. No Wonder Woman. But there is Supergirl!

I have covered a lot of Crisis over my 6 years doing this blog. I'll be covering it more in the upcoming year.