A History of Batman Vs. Deathstroke

So, Deathstroke the Terminator is going to be the villain in the upcoming solo Batman movie. I am of mixed feelings about this, as I find Deathstroke to often be written in odd and confounding ways, ways that put him way stronger than his weight class. But the more I considered it, the more I realized I have the same problem with Deathstroke that a lot of readers have with Batman, and so with a shrug of my shoulders I decided that it was a pretty cool idea, and decided that I wanted to write about Deathstroke.

But how to do that? There have already been plenty of articles on sites with way bigger readership than mine about who Deathstroke is. So I decided to come at it from the angle I'm best qualified for: the specific relationship between Batman and Deathstroke, and their confrontations, as well as a little about my history with Deathstroke. So what you're going to find is a little personal history, followed by a brief bio, and then a spotlight on the comic book and associated media battle between Batman and Deathstroke.

So I first encountered Deathstroke as a reader in New Titans #72 (well, a cameo at the end of #71 technically, but that was one panel), the issue at the top of this post, which was the second part of the famous (or infamous depending on who you ask) "Titans Hunt" story, the one that drastically altered the Titans line-up and began Deathstroke's trip from villain to anti-hero. It was the '90s, after all, and the only thing the big publishers liked more than a hero was an anti-hero. So I got to know Deathstroke as this tortured sort of good guy who still killed. And that was his status quo for a quite a while at DC. He had an ongoing, he guest starred in the various Titans titles a lot, and he never did much for me.

I actually started liking Deathstroke more when he returned to flat out villainy in the first volume of Titans and the Geoff Johns written Teen Titans series. By that point, I had read "The Judas Contract," which remains the definitive Deathstroke story, and other earlier appearances, and there, while he had a code of honor, he was still a hardcore villain. And he's sort of waffled from that over time, sometimes returning to being an almost anti-hero, but usually now being portrayed as a homicidal maniac for the highest bidder. When you factor in the infamous Identity Crisis #3, where he takes out the entire Justice League single handedly by counting on such plot improbabilities as Kyle Rayner, the Green Lantern who is not a scrapper, deciding to come at him by punching him instead of, oh I don't know, trapping him in a bubble, and you get a character who is sort of all over the place, often portrayed as a deus ex machina sort of character.

Deathstroke made his first appearance in New Teen Titans #2, created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, where he accepted a contract on the Titans after the Ravager, his son Grant, died in battle with the Titans. Over time it was revealed that Deathstroke was Slade Wilson, a former soldier who had agreed to go through an experimental process that did not work as planned: it was supposed to make him more resistant to chemical interrogation, but instead granted him access to the 90% of his brain a normal human doesn't, which increased his tactical skills and reflexes, as well as enhanced strength, speed, and durability. When he left the army, he became a mercenary and assassin for hire. When fellow assassins kidnapped one of his sons, Deathstroke was not fast enough to save the boy from having his throat slit. While the child, Joe Wilson, survived, this drove a wedge between Deathstroke and his wife, Adeline, that was furthered when, enraged, Adeline tried to kill him, but Slade used his enhanced reflexes to dodge the bullet, just losing his eye and earning his trademark eyepatch; the two split up.

Deathstroke's earliest appearances were all in relation to the Titans, trying to complete the contract that his elder son, Ravager, had accepted from the HIVE to take them down. Eventually, Deathstroke employed Terra, a young metahuman, to go undercover and get him all the secrets of the Titans; which she did, giving him the information he needed to defeat the team. Fortunately, Robin had recently left the team, and returned, with the new identity of Nightwing, with help from Deathstroke's younger son, Joe, who was the mute hero Jericho, to save the Titans and capture Deathstroke. Deathstroke was found not guilty, and returned to his mercenary ways, but had a newfound respect for the Titans.

As I said above, this led to a period of cooperation between the Titans and Deathstroke, a period that included Deathstroke having to kill Jericho, who had been possessed by the Trigon corrupted spirits of the people of Azarath (ah, there's a statement you could only make in comics). As the '90s waned, so did Deathstroke's popularity, and with the loss of his ongoing series, he returned to his status first as a Titans supporting cast member, and then adversary.

Since the return of Jericho, who as it turned out wasn't dead but had used his power to possess people to enter Deathstroke's body and had lain in wait, dormant, until he was strong enough to exert control, Deathstroke has been more of a full-on villain than he ever was before. He has worked with Alexander Luthor's Secret Society, bombed Bludhaven with a nuclear Chemo, and tried to kill the Titans on numerous occasions. The Deathstroke of the New 52 has no real ties to the Titans anymore, and is just the world's greatest assassin.

That was a really elementary rundown of who Deathstroke is, and there's a whole lot more to it, especially when you start to bring in more about Jericho, Grant, and Slade's daughter, Rose, who is the on-again-off-again Titan who took the name Ravager. All of these children have also appeared in the new DC continuity, although none with a real Titans connection (Rose worked for Harvest, the evil being who hunted teen heroes, but that's about it). Also, in recent years, Deathstroke became a regular nemesis of Green Arrow, something made even more a part of the character as he has been a recurring threat on Arrow.

So, with all that laid out, what exactly does Deathstroke have to do with Batman? For a pair of characters with such similar backgrounds (highly trained fighters with massive extended families that are Shakespearean in their trauma), they have actually met face-to-face relatively few times. Mostly, Deathstroke is thought of as one of the main nemeses of Nightwing, as the two have a long history. Deathstroke also had more than his share of run-ins with Tim Drake in his days as Robin with the Titans, and Deathstroke manipulated Cassandra Cain, then Batgirl, with a drug to make her one of his puppets in his vendetta against the Titans. So, what are the notable battles between Batman and Deathstroke, and who came out ahead in each?

City of Assassins (Deathstroke the Termination V.1 #6-9)

The first on page meeting of the two characters, this storyline sees the two initially fighting, and then teaming up, to save the life of a mob hitman who has escaped witness protection. It is an exciting four part story, Marv Wolfman at his best on Deathstroke. It does feature a scene of Deathstroke pretty savagely beating Batman down, which establishes which side of the debate on who would win in a fight Deathstroke's co-creator falls on.

The Death Lottery (Detective Comics #708-710)

When a dying man decides his last wish is to see the wealthy of Gotham die as well, a contract is put out on the wealthiest men in Gotham, bringing assassins to the city for around the world, including low level Batman rogue Gunhawk. Deathstoke, who had previous encounters with Gunhawk, has also come to Gotham to get revenge against the assassin. Batman and Deathstroke fight twice in this arc, the first time with a clear win by Dethastroke, and once with Batman victorious, although he did attack by surprise. This story is from Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan's nearly 100 issue run on Detective, a vastly under-rated run of solid stories, and features a notable instance of Batman using firearms.

Infinite Crisis (Infinite Crisis TPB)

When DC released it's crossover event Infinite Crisis in collection, it made certain strategic art and dialogue changes, as well as adding a few pages of new content. One of those pages was a confrontation between Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Deathstroke. This time, it's Batman who pretty clearly wins, although this is Deathstroke at one of his lowest points, driven pretty crazy by the loss of his family, so you have to take mental stress into account.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One... (Superman Batman Annual #1)

So, Batman doesn't really fight Deathstroke in this issue, but they both appear, as Slade has been hire to kill Bruce Wayne. Needless to say it is not successful. This is a tremendous comic, one that I am always surprised that more people don't know. Written by Joe Kelly, with principle pencils by Ed McGuinness (with various others throughout), it retells a Golden Age story of how Batman and Superman learned each other's identities, while also tossing in counterparts from the morality reversed Earth-3. And not just Owlman and Ultraman, but an unnamed Deathstroke doppelganger, who is obviously Deadpool. And it's written by Joe Kelly, master of the Deadpool quip. Oh, and no matter what some people might want to believe, Slade Wilson/Wade Wilson? Come on, there's clearly a connection.

Battle Royale (Deathstroke Vol.2 #5)

Deathstroke comes to Gotham. Batman fights Deathstroke. They both get in some good punches. Deathstroke escapes. That's pretty much it. It's some of Tony Daniel's most action packed art, really well drawn, but is pretty much an issue long fight sequence.

Son of Batman

Again, not really much Deathstroke Vs. Batman in here, mostly Damian vs. Deathstroke. This was the first Batman movie in the new DC Direct-to-DVD universe, and introduced Damian in a story VERY loosely based on Grant Morrison's "Batman and Son." And by based on, I mean it introduces Damian and has a similar name. In the story, Slade kills Ra's al Ghul to take over the League of Assassins, and when Damian comes to get revenge on Slade for the death of his grandfather, we get a sort of war of philosophies between Slade's merciless assassin thinking and Batman's value of life. Damian spares Slade,so you can chalk this up a a win for Batman.

Batman: Arkham Origins

On Christmas Eve, Black Mask has hired some of the world's best assassins to kill Batman. And when you're hiring the world's best assassins, you have to get Deathstroke in there. But since the game has Batman in the name, and you're playing as Batman, take a guess who wins this fight? Although I will say Deathstroke puts up one of the best fights of any of the big bads in the game. From what I gather, Deathstroke also appears in the final game in the Arkham series, Arkham Knight, but I don't have a PS4 yet so I don't know how that one turns out, but the game isn't called Deathstroke: Arkham Knight, so I've got to give the edge to Bats there again.


So, what has past experience taught us about who will win in the movie fight between Batman and Deathstroke? Well, it's going to be a big fight, that's for sure, but I have to give the edge to Batman, since it's his movie. Still. it's rare to see Batman fight a character on the big screen who is his physical equal, so I'm excited to see the fight choreography on it, and I like Joe Manganiello, announced yesterday to be playing Deathstroke (and returning to comic book movie acting, as he played Flash Thompson in Spider-Man), so I remain cautiously optimistic on this one.

Hope in Crime Alley: The Importance of Leslie Thompkins

Superhero comics have a language of violence in them that is implicit, if not explicit. Heroes fight villains. There's punching, kicking, shooting, bataranging, webbing, and blasting. It's been part of the lexicon since the formation of the genre. And I've been thinking a lot about violence this past week. Gun violence in particular, but also the fictional worlds I love, the violence in them, and their relationship to the real world. And of course there are no easy answers to any of the questions I've read or I've posed to myself, and I would feel strange writing some paean to better fiction worlds in the face of reality. But when I was thinking about a world that could be a better one, and how that interacts with reality and fiction, I thought about a character from the Batman mythos. Leslie Thompkins isn't exactly an obscure character, but she isn't a top billed one either; she's never been in a movie, and the incarnation of the character on television right now is about as far removed from the actual character in the comics as possible. But I wanted to write about Leslie today, about her history, and about why she's such an important character not just for Batman, but for superhero comics in general.

Leslie Thompkins made her first appearance in Detective Comics #457 from 1975, in a story entitled, "There is No Hope in Crime Alley!" Written by Denny O'Neil, one of the greatest of all Batman writers, and with art by Dick Giordano, this story establishes a bit of continuity that has been played on many times since, that Batman visits the alley where his parents were killed on the anniversary of their death. It also added another wrinkle. After his parents' death, a social worker came to the crime scene and talked to Bruce, and held him, and did her best to comfort him. This little bit of light in that darkest of days for Bruce came from Leslie Thompkins, who appears in that story as a little old lady. one who comes to the alley herself every year to remember the tragedy she witnessed, the one she spent her life working to help make sure never happened again.

Right from the start, Leslie takes the violence she witnessed and went in the complete opposite direction as Bruce did. She does her best to help people to prevent tragedies. And when Batman finds her being mugged in Crime Alley, and begins to savagely beat the mugger, Leslie tells him to stop, and condemns his rage. It's a ten page story, beautiful and perfect. It appeared in the excellently curated collection, The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, that came out in 1988, which is where I first encountered it. At the time, Leslie was a footnote in Batman history, but the story impacted me enough that Leslie being at the Wayne's murder became part of my personal head canon, and my affection for the character was not alone, as I soon discovered.

Leslie only appeared twice more in the course of the next twelve years, once in another O'Neil penned story about Batman returning to Crime Alley on the anniversary of his parents' death, "The Curse of Crime Alley," which also introduced C-List Bat-villain Maxie Zeus, and once in "The Player on the Other Side," Batman Special #1, Mike W. Barr's introduction of The Wrath, one of the earliest anti-Bats. And while O'Neil introduced Leslie, and established the baseline of her personality, it's Barr who would take the character in new directions.

I've written a feature about Mike W, Barr and Alan Davis's run on Detective Comics, one of the most underrated runs on any Bat-title, and the final full issue of that run is the one that introduced the post-Crisis version of Leslie Thompkins (there's weirdness in the continuity of this issue, but I won't focus on that right here). This issue, Detective Comics #574, "My Beginning... And My Probable End..." (which is a quote from "There is No Hope in Crime Alley") features Batman bringing a severely wounded Jason Todd to Leslie Thompkins clinic to save his life.

The changes to the character are notable. Leslie is no longer a social worker, but is instead a medical doctor who runs a clinic in Crime Alley. She is also noticeably younger, not an octogenarian, but probably in her fifties or sixties. This is the story that introduces the idea that Leslie was Bruce's foster-mother for a time, taking an active part in raising the boy. It also establishes that Leslie is well aware of Bruce's identity as Batman, and that she disapproves. She does not consider Batman a heroic knight, but a tool that continues to forward the problems of violence in society; while sometimes Batman is necessary, she feels like Bruce would be better without being Batman. And more than that, she feels responsible for Bruce being Batman, that it was partly her failing that put him on the path. But for all the negativity and confrontation, Leslie cares for Bruce deeply, and is concerned that his crusade will lead to his death, and still wants to protect him.

Barr would use Leslie in his next arc on Detective Comics, "Batman: Year Two," which builds off the relationship established in the previous issue, but the next truly notable Leslie story would be another Barr story, "Faith," from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #21-23. "Faith" is set prior to "Year Two" but after the events of Frank Miller's "Year One." The story deals with Batman's first encounter with the idea that people may want to follow in his footsteps; in this case a young former addict who he saved starts up the Batmen, a group clearly inspired by the Guardian Angels civilian patrol organization, down to the red berets, but are considerably more violent. Meanwhile, Leslie is furious at Batman and what he's doing to the city, and it's after Batman is shot by the man who he once inspired for being a disappointment, that Batman comes to Leslie and reveals his identity. Barr does interesting things with the idea of faith, Leslie's faith in non-violence and peace and the Batmen and their faith in Batman.

While Leslie would continue to pop up occasionally in the Batman titles for the next few years, usually when Batman or one of his allies needed medical attention beyond what Alfred could provide, and was further incorporated into Batman's origin in Batman #0, the post-Zero Hour origin of Batman, the thing that I feel helped cement her in the minds of Batman fans as an essential part of Batman's origin and life is her appearance on Batman: The Animated Series. Voiced by venerable actress Diana Muldaur (best known in geek circles as the argumentative Dr. Pulaski from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and remembered fondly by me as the hardass Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law, who met with an unusual downfall), B:TAS captured everything that Barr and O'Neil had established and distilled it. Leslie was tough but loving, always willing to tell Bruce what she thinks and to try to convince him that Batman, and the violence he represents, is something that he can leave behind. While only in a handful of episodes, Leslie was woven into the tapestry of Batman's origins so seamlessly that she would be a part of it moving forward. There was one notable change to Leslie's backstory made in B:TAS, which established her as a co-worker and longtime friend of Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father. While I can see some problems with this, as it stops her from just being a good Samaritan as Joe Chill is just a random criminal, it explains how she was able to be such a big part of Bruce's life, and does not interfere with her as a strong and loving influence; this change would eventually be adopted by the comics as well.

Leslie became a more steady fixture in the Batman comics starting with the 1999 massive event, "No Man's Land." Leslie decided to stay behind when Gotham was shut off from the rest of the world, and kept her clinic running as a neutral space among the city's warring crimelords, where anyone could come to receive medical treatment or to find a safe haven. Alfred spent much time there with her, and she was befriended by both Azrael and a young woman who Barbara Gordon used as a runner through the wastes of Gotham, Cassandra Cain, Leslie had her own spotlight issue, Batman Chronicles #18, "Spiritual Currency," showing how, even in the darkest hours of Gotham, Leslie kept her hope alive and her pledge of non-violence, even when faced with more violence around her than ever before. It's a great issue, and one of the best spotlights on Leslie.

After "No Man's Land," Leslie would continue to appear regularly in the Batman titles. She befriended Selina Kyle in the early issues of Ed Brubaker's excellent Catwoman series, helping Selina and her protege, Holly Robinson, get their lives in Gotham's East End together. She remained a recurring character in the Denny O'Neil written Azrael series until that character's death. It was even established by Devin Grayson in an early issue of Gotham Knights that she and Alfred had flirted with having a romantic relationship for years, but their duties had kept them apart.

This next paragraph is going to be tricky for me to write, partially because it violates the blog rule about only writing about comics I like, and partially because it takes a good character and drags her through the mud. "War Games" was a Batman event that was released in 2004-2005 and featured a massive gang war in Gotham started by Spoiler, one of Gotham's younger vigilantes, who took an exercise Batman had run in the Bat Computer about how to get control of Gotham's mobs and tried to implement it without thinking of the consequences. It's a messy story for many many reasons, and in the end features the death of Spoiler at the Thompkins clinic after being tortured by Black Mask. After Spoiler's death, Batman discovers that Leslie, who had left Gotham for Africa, let the girl die, not treating her, to give Bruce an object lesson and hope to stop his endless crusade and save further children from dying in it. It's an ugly, out of character twist, and completely violates everything Leslie had stood for over the past thirty years. I'll be honest: I mentioned head canon earlier, that trove of stories you keep that "count" for you, and while I try to stick close to canon, this was a story I hated from day one and never counted.

Fortunately, Chuck Dixon took over as writer on Robin again in 2008 after a six year or so absence from the book and character he defined, and immediately set about making things right. He revealed that Spoiler, Stephanie Brown, was in fact alive, having asked Leslie to help fake her death so she could escape Gotham and the life she had lived. In one fell swoop, Dixon had returned Leslie to the good, noble woman she had always been. Leslie would return to Gotham and appear briefly in those Dixon issues of Robin, and would get a spotlight in the Gotham Gazette mini-series that took place around the "Battle for the Cowl." Her final pre-Flashpoint appearances would be in Batgirl, when Stephanie was the title heroine.

Since Flashpoint, Leslie's backstory has actually returned to closer to what it originally was, as she seems to now be a social worker for Gotham's child protection services working with children and adolescents. She has only made brief appearances, once in a flashback as Jason Todd's case worker after his parents died but before Bruce took him in, and a few times in We Are Robin, where she is working with Duke Thomas after his parents disappeared in the wake of Joker's assault on Gotham. Her one appearance with Batman in this context was in Batman #52, a flashback to her working with a young Bruce, but it could be taken either way that she's his case worker or a family friend. There is one odd appearance in an issue of Grayson, where Leslie is seen working in a refugee camp in Africa as a doctor, which doesn't seem to fit this persona, but we'll see if that gets folded in. In a recent Twitter interaction I had with him, new Detective Comics writer James Tynion IV said Leslie will be appearing in Detective Comics #935, coming out this Wednesday.

Just as a brief aside, There is a  Leslie Thompkins in Fox's Gotham, played ably by Morena Baccarin, however the character is Leslie in name only. In the series she is a former Arkham doctor turned medical examiner who has little to no relationship with Bruce Wayne and is one of the romantic partners of Jim Gordon. She has no problem with violence. So basically she's about as close to her comics counterpart as anyone is on Gotham.

But earlier I said I wanted to not just talk about who Leslie Thompkins is, but why she's important to Batman and comics. To start with, Leslie is a smart, driven, female character who takes no guff from anyone, even if it's Batman, which puts her in a league with character like Wonder Woman and Amanda Waller, which is worth noting. But more importantly, Leslie represents to me the path not taken. In a world where flashy people in flashy costumes fight and destroy everything around them, she is the calm blue ocean, the voice that says there has to be another way. She reminds Batman every time they talk that he could stop, that he could use the Wayne fortune not to fight the results of crime as Batman, but confront its roots in poverty and pain. And while she judges and will never go easy on Bruce or any of his allies, she also always has a kind word and an embrace. In a world where violence is on every corner, whether it's on the pages of a comic book or a newspaper, a person who holds out hope that people really can be better, that peace and non-violence is an option is a rare thing. And because of the laws of comic book plot, Batman can never take up the path Leslie offers, her mere existence assures that the option remains open, and hope for a better, more peaceful world is always available. And that hope is important to have in the dark days of Gotham, and anywhere else.

The Players on the Other Side: A Guide to Your Anti-Bats

Years and years of reading Batman comics have shown me something very interesting: writers love the idea of the anti-Bat. I'm not talking an opposite; The Joker is the opposite of Batman. Joker is chaos to Batman's order. I'm talking that villain who is the cracked mirror version of Batman. Most superheroes have one villain like that, but with Batman it seems like they could form a club. So I was thinking, as something fun for this Friday, to run down the anti-Bats, and end with a mention of a character who isn't a DC character who is, in my opinion, the ultimate dark version of Batman. I won't be drawing in any of the other characters from outside DC who are takes on Batman, so fans of Nighthawk of the Squadron Supreme or Darkwing of the Guardians of the Globe (or Darkwing Duck, for that matter), I understand your love, and there might be s piece someday about alternate takes on Batman. But today, let's bring on the bad guys.

Killer Moth
First Appearance: Batman (Vol.1) #63

Killer Moth is looked on a kind of a joke character now. I think the striped leggings don't help much in that respect, to be honest. But when he was introduced, he set himself up as the Batman of the criminal set. He had a Mothcave and a Mothmobile, and criminals would hire him to help them escape the police and Batman. This goes about as well as you might expect, with Batman shutting him down repeatedly. When he first appeared, he even had a millionaire secret identity, as Cameron Van Cleer (who sounds like the jerk rich boyfriend in a 80s movie). Over time, he became more of a generic 60s villain, performing all sorts of heists and capers. He's probably best remembered as the first villain who fought Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. He would pop up occasionally throughout the 70s and 80s, and in the 90s, he got one really great story, "The Misfits", in Shadow of the Bat, a new secret identity, Drury Walker, and was one of the villains who got a serious Underworld Unleashed treatment, transformed into a giant moth monster called Charaxes in Robin. As opposed to a lot of the villains from that crossover, this change stuck, and he remained Charaxes until he was killed in Infinite Crisis. While there was another Killer Moth briefly after Charaxes's death, and one who has appeared in the New 52, he has mostly returned to obscurity. For a villain who hasn't been a major threat, well, pretty much ever, Killer Moth has a pretty interesting career in other media. He never made Batman '66 (although there was a test short of Batgirl with him as the villain), or Batman: The Animated Series. However, he did make The Batman, both in his Killer Moth costume and his Charaxes form, and pops up a couple times in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He is also a recurring villain on Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, where his form is closer to Charaxes than Killer Moth. Starfire's pet grub, Silkie, is a product of Killer Moth's experiments. I list him as the first anti-Bat, though I will admit that Deadshot, who pre-dates him by a year, did start out as something of an anti-Bat as well.

The Wrath
First Appearance: Batman Special #1

Created by Mike W. Barr in one of his numerous excellent Batman stories, The Wrath is one of two villains on this list whose origins directly mirror Batman's. In his one appearance in the one-shot, "The Player on the Other Side," (from which I drew this piece's title), Barr and artist Michael Golden created the Wrath as a criminal whose parents were shot by police in Gotham, and who trained around the world as a hitman. He comes back to Gotham on a contract, and plans to take out the officer who killed his parents, namely Jim Gordon. This is an excellent issue, and it's been collected a couple of times, but only in recent years. The Wrath never popped up again after his death in this issue, but an apprentice of his appeared as a new Wrath in a Batman Confidential arc by Tony Bedard and Rags Morales, and Jonathan Layman and Jay Fabok introduced a New 52 Wrath during their run on Detective Comics. Interestingly, the Wrath also appeared on an episode of The Batman, along with a Robin-like sidekick called Scorn. This was towards the end of that series, when it was firing on all its cylinders and was pretty solid.

Bane
First Appearance: Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1

Right before The Dark Knight Rises, I wrote a long piece about Bane's history, so I'll just give a quick rundown here and you can go and read that of you want to read more about probably the most infamous of the anti-Bats. Created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan, Bane was a child raised in an island prison, paying for the crime of his father. There, he trained his mind and body to perfection, escaped, and went to Gotham to prove himself by defeating Batman. While Bane isn't as much a direct visual counterpart to Batman as Killer Moth or Wrath, he is the self-made man, the man who pushed himself harder than anyone else to become the pinnacle of human achievement. His use of the super-steroid Venom also makes an interesting parallel, as Batman was addicted to the drug during its first appearance in Legends of the Dark Knight, but kicked the habit. And as Bane grew, he also spent time as the chosen heir of Ra's al Ghul. The great thing about Bane (at least before the New 52 reset him to being similar to his original incarnation) was that Bane grew out of his role as an anti-Bat and became a fascinating character in his own rights, mostly thanks to Gail Simone's tremendous work with the character in Secret Six. Bane is a solid part of the Batman mythos now, entering that highest echelon of Batman villains, He has appeared in all modern animated forms of Batman, as well as in both movie series, and had a prominent role in the Arkham video games series.

Prometheus
First Appearance: New Year's Evil: Prometheus #1

Prometheus is a character created by Grant Morrison, so you know you're in for a trip right off the bat. Prometheus's basic origin is the same as the Wrath: criminal parents killed by the police. But while the Wrath's parents were petty crooks, Prometheus's were like the couple from Natural Born Killers. And instead of training with the best people the mob could find, Prometheus trained with evil monks and the like, and got his Batcave as a house in a void dimension. So, yeah, totally Morrison there. He decided that if he was going to make an impact, he had to kill superheroes, and set his sights on the Justice League. He also had a helmet that enabled him to download the fighting styles of anyone, so it's interesting to note that, as much of a parallel to Batman he might be, he cheated to do it. And when Batman finally defeated him in Morrison's final JLA arc, it was by exploiting the helmet. When Prometheus next appeared, he had inexplicably gone from a guy who could face down the whole Justice League to a henchman for another villain (more on him later) who Green Arrow took out handily. It was eventually revealed that the Promethus from those stories was in fact the apprentice of the original Prometheus, who the original killed when he recovered from his defeat by Batman. Prometheus was the main villain in the much derided Justice League: Cry For Justice mini-series, where he exacted vicious revenge on any superhero who crossed his path, and was killed by Green Arrow. He has not appeared since.

Hush
First Appearance: Batman (vol.1) #608

Hush is a tricky character. Created to be the mastermind villain of a mega-arc in the ongoing Batman title, Hush was Tommy Elliot, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who came from a privileged background. But as opposed to the loving Waynes as parents, the Elliots were terrible people, and so young Tommy tried to kill them. He would have succeeded, if Thomas Wayne hadn't saved his mother's life, and so years of slow planning began for Tommy to get his revenge on Bruce. When he was pulled into a conspiracy with Jason Todd, Riddler, and Scarecrow, Tommy took on the identity Hush, and became a criminal mastermind.I think a lot of the problems people have with Hush comes from the fact that he came from out of nowhere, was an obvious suspect, and there were various structural issues with the story, and that the next stories featuring the characters were an awkward series of stories in Batman: Gotham Knights where he and Prometheus teamed-up with Prometheus as the lesser partner (see, I said there'd be more on this later). Paul Dini did a great job rehabilitating the character in his run on Detective Comics and Streets of Gotham, making him a fully formed character, and even making him more of an anti-Bruce Wayne by Hush having surgery to look like Bruce and try to take his place. Hush popped up recently in Batman: Eternal as one of the suspects for mastermind of that conspiracy, but has not been seen since that series wrapped.

Owlman
First Appearance: Justice League of America (Vol.1) #29

Owlman is a little bit of a cheat for this list, as he is simply a version of Batman from another universe, specifically Earth-3, the Earth where good guys are evil and bad guys are good. However there are some wrinkles that made me want to call him out. One is that he has interacted wit the "real" Batman in various battles between the Justice League and their evil opposite numbers, the Crime Syndicate. Also, he's an interesting character in his own right; in his various origins, Thomas Wayne Jr. either killed his parents or watched his brother, Bruce, and mother killed, and decided to become a criminal. Grant Morrison reintroduced the Crime Syndicate in his excellent JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel, and the Syndicate popped up a few times after that. Since the DC reboot, there have actually been two Owlmans. One is this version, the alternate Thomas, who is still lurking out in the DCU after the events of Forever Evil. The other is Lincoln March, the ally of the Court of Owls, who claims to be Thomas Wayne Jr. of Earth Prime. He was a centerpiece of the "Court of Owls" storyline, and appeared at the end of Batman: Eternal, where he was recaptured by the Court. What will happen to him next remains a mystery.

Grendel (Hunter Rose)
First Appearance: Comico Primer #2

OK, here's my pick as the greatest anti-Bat in comics, and he wasn't even created to be one! The assassin/mobster/bon vivant Hunter Rose, better known as the first Grendel in Matt Wagner's epic cycle, shares many of the same cultural roots as Batman, with the pulps as the backdrop (although I have to imagine Batman factors in somewhere in that cultural DNA as well). Hunter is a self-made man, who as opposed to Batman didn't have everything laid out in front of him. He pulled himself up, as an exceptional person in a world of ordinary people. And while Batman had legions of good influences (Alfred, Leslie Thompkins, etc.), Hunter was only noticed by Jocasta Rose, a woman who became his lover and confidant at an impressionable age. With her loss, Hunter decided that he would never be mundane, he took the flashy name of Hunter Rose, he became an internationally best selling novelist, and when that wasn't enough, he took over the New York mobs. Hunter is as cool, as calculating, and as brilliant as Batman, but everything he does is for himself. Except for one thing. He has a young ward, Stacy Palumbo, who he took in after he killed her uncle and saved her from a child pornography ring. But, in another inversion, instead of this being the thing that saves them both (as I feel Bruce Wayne taking in Dick Grayson kept Bruce in touch with his humanity), when Stacy discovered that Hunter was in fact Grendel, she manipulated events that led to his death, and her own eventual slide into madness. Hunter is a phenomenal character on his own, with no Batman necessary, but Wagner's Batman/Grendel is an excellent showcase of the two characters and how they relate. Seriously, it's the best batman related intercompany crossover ever, and should be in the collection of any Batman fan.

An Annual Event: A History of Crossover Events in DC Comics Part 3

Welcome back to our final installment of the history of events in DC Comics. This final installment talks about the crossovers and theme years of the Annuals, the oversized comics that were published, obviously, once a year. Originally, this was done to get around certain publishing and postal regulations about magazines, but over the years, as these rules were relaxed and books could come out more than once a month, the annual faded from prominence. Annuals used to be a big deal, especially over at Marvel. Many landmarks happened in those massive Stan Lee-era annuals. The Sinister Six made it's first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, and Reed and Sue got married in Fantastic Four Annual #3 While I can't recall any such huge events in DC Comics annuals, you still got Alan Moore writing Batman in Batman Annual #11 and Superman in Superman Annual #11, so there are some pretty great stories in those earlier annuals.

But in 1991, DC tried to get some extra buzz going on their annuals. Marvel had been doing company crossovers in their annuals for a few years, and so DC decided to give it a try with...

Armageddon 2001, bookends (issues at the beginning and end of the series, with the crossovers doing the heavy lifting in the middle) written by Archie Goodwin and with art by Dan Jurgens, was a classic sci-fi dystopia story. In the year 2030 the world is ruled by Monarch, an armor clad conqueror who is said to once have been a great superhero who turned on his own, and wiped them all out in the year 2001. Matthew Ryder, a scientist in that time, travels back in time to find out who Monarch was and to stop him from becoming the despot. Transformed into a being of pure time energy called Waverider, he arrives in 1991 and goes about encountering as many heroes as he can, and by touching them, he sees their possible futures.

This is a really fun conceit, as it allows for all these stories of the heroes in the future, What If? or Elseworlds type stories, but they have a little more resonance because they are presented as actual possible futures. Of course, Waverider learns the classic time travel trope that if you interact with the past it can change things, so he has to touch some (more popular) heroes multiple times to see if he's actually created Monarch. The ending of the crossover is legendary, as the original ending, that Captain Atom was Monarch, was leaked, and so a quick change was made to make the much less logical ending that Hawk of Hawk & Dove was in fact Monarch. A great event was somewhat spoiled by this quick change, but it's still my favorite full scale annual crossover.

Some of the annuals are really solid stories. Superman Annual #3 is one of the early examples in the Modern Age of a trope that's gotten stale now, where Superman is corrupted and has to be stopped. Since it's 1991, it's one of the first comics to riff on the classic conclusion of Dark Knight Returns, inverting the final battle between Superman and Batman. Justice League America Annual #5 steps back from the darkness of the Breakdown story happening at the time to tell a series of very funny vignettes. New Titans Annual #7 introduced a team of Titans from the future who came back in time later to form the Team Titans, which must have seemed like a good idea at the time. And Flash Annual #5 tells the story of Wally West coming out of retirement and witness protection to save his son from old enemies in a story written by a fresh young writer named Mark Waid a year before his legendary run on The Flash would begin.

The 1992 annual event was Eclipso: The Darkness Within, bookends written by Robert Loren Fleming and Keith Giffen with art from Bart Sears. This story took Eclipso, a C-List villain from 60s villain who was the Hyde to solar scientist Bruce Gordon's Jekyll, and made him a world beater by revealing he's not just Gordon's dark side, but is in fact an ancient vengeance god who has been trapped on the dark side of the moon in a castle for centuries, and is now making a play for his freedom. To do this, the black diamonds that hold Eclipso's earthly essence begin to posses and control super beings so Eclipso can gather an army.

This series gives a lot of classic hero on hero action, as various heroes and their allies become possessed by black diamonds. The black diamonds in some cases don't possess characters but create monsters made of the anger of the holder. So if you ever wanted to watch Jim Gordon vomit up a smoke monster to go kill the Joker, you can check out Detective Comics Annual #5. I'm being glib, but it's actually a solid event, and Eclipso is made into a really solid threat.

There was also some very distinct fallout from this series. Eclipso remains a major part of the DC Universe to today, having an ongoing that spun out of this series that had some ripples. That series brought Amanda Waller back from limbo, was an early example of a DC trend where a squad of B- and C-list heroes raided Eclipso's fortress and were mercilessly wiped out, and had a great two part story in issues seven and eight where Eclipso fought Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London. He showed up after that series in John Ostarnder's The Spectre, Geoff Johns's run on JSA, and James Robinson's run on Justice League of America. He has appeared in a few places in the New 52 as well. The series also seemingly killed off Will Payton, the sixth Starman, setting the stage for Jack Knight to take the name, and making the quest for what really happened to Payton a key point on James Robinson's seminal Starman.

Bloodlines was... well, not either of these previous two events. Large, spinal fluid sucking aliens arrive on Earth and begun feeding on the populace. If you happen to survive the encounter, you get superpowers. Seemingly random powers; it's not a consistent set. This was an attempt to create a batch of popular new characters. It did not succeed in that. Instead of having bookends like the previous two events, Bloodlines culminated in a two issue mini-series called Bloodbath, written by Dan Raspler with art by Chuck Wotjkiewicz and Sal Velutto, where these New Blood heroes joined the other DC heroes to stop the parasites.

Of the 27 annuals, six individual titles were spun off, as well as a team called Blood Pack. Most of these were mini-series, and of the three ongoings, two ended pretty quickly. The only real breakout success was Hitman, the irreverent story of Tommy Monaghan,written by Garth Ennis and drawn by John McCrea, who debuted in Demon Annual #2, and whose series ran 60 issues plus an annual and some specials. Some of these characters, like Flash Annual #6 debut Argus, were pretty decent characters, but it seemed they couldn't escape the Bloodlines stigma. One favorite Bloodlines moment is in Hitman #1,000,000, a tie-in to DC One Million, where Tommy is pulled into the far future by hero fanboys, where he confronts Gunfire 1,000,000, the long distant inheritor of the title of a New Blood hero who could turn anything he touched into an energy or explosive weapon, who Tommy shoots and embarrasses, and who dies from inadvertently turning first his medpack into an explosive, and then, well, let's say his last words are, "Oh my God, I turned my ass into a hand-grenade--" Garth Ennis, everybody.

After Bloodlines less than stellar success, DC changed it's tactic. Instead of going with full on crossovers, it's annuals started having themes. The first years of themed annuals were all Elseworlds tales, where the heroes of the books were put in unusual settings and time periods. As with a lot of Elseworlds stories, these were hit and miss, but there were some highlights. Detective Comics Annual #7, from Chuck Dixon and Enrique Alcatena, told of Leatherwing, Batman as a privateer fighting a pirate version of Joker. This was actually a world adapted by Grant Morrison as part of the 52 Earths in Multiversity. Karl Kesel told a two part stories of the DC heroes in a dystopian future in Adventures of Superman Annual #6 and Superboy Annual #1. And the modern Batman learns he had a predecessor in Renaissance Italy in a story involving Leonardo da Vinci in Batman Annual #18.

Skipping a bit ahead, 1997 annuals were also Elseworlds themed, this time specifically called "Legends of the Dead Earth" which all take place in the far distant future where the heroes are legends in the same way the Greek heroes are to us, and we see some very interesting variants on classic themes and heroes, some very magical, some very sci-fi. The one that sticks out in my head is Aquaman Annual #2, where Peter David tells the story of two men meeting and sharing their conflicting versions of the history of Aquaman, only to reveal they both believe themselves to be his direct descendant and begin fighting, thus continuing the brother versus brother theme that pervaded David's entire Aquaman run from Atlantis Chronicles onward.

The year in between the two Elseworlds themes was for "Year One" annuals. This was a somewhat perplexing choice, as some heroes had long established early years (like Superman in John Byrne's Man of Steel, Batman in Batman: Year One, and Flash in Mark Waid's first arc on Flash called "Born to Run"), while many others had origins retold less than two years earlier in the zero issues that followed Zero Hour. But what this allowed was for the creators to get, well, creative. Mark Waid spent time in his annual focusing not on Wally West's first year as a hero, but his first year as the Flash after Barry Allen's death. Each Batman annual focused on the first year of a particular villain. The Superman annuals focused on various firsts for Superman, like his first trip into space and his first confrontation with magic.

But some annuals stretch farther to make for substantive changes. Since we watched Jean-Paul Valley become Azrael, Azrael Annual #1 focused on Jean-Paul's father, the previous Azrael, and fleshed out a character who only appeared on a few pages before this. The Superboy Annual revealed that Paul Westfield, the evil director of Project Cadmus, was in fact the human half of Superboy's DNA (later retconned by Geoff Johns to be Lex Luthor. Superboy probably should have been happier when he thought it was Westfield). And New Titans Annual #11 tried to clear up some of the time travel hi-jinks left over from Zero Hour concerning team members Terra and Mirage.

DC's final year of full Annual themes was Pulp Heores in 1998. Each of these annuals had a painted cover reminiscent of classic pulps and with pulp-like titles running down the left side of the cover (many drawn from old DC anthology titles), and a theme that went with that painted cover and title. Thus you got lots of adventure, detective, and western themed stories. Again, while most of these are not major continuity intense stories, they were a ton of fun. Hitman Annual #1 was "Weird Western Tales" and had a classic standoff tales with Tommy and his allies against a gang. Aquaman Annual #3 was "Suspence Detective" and has a Peter David story narrated like an old detective pulp, and has a very funny riff on Aquaman's old power limitation that he would die if he was out of the water for more than exactly one hour. Starman Annual #2, pictured above, was slightly different, as Jack Knight learns about the past love affairs of his friends and family as he has problems with his girlfriend, Sadie, and ends with a major revelation that would change the direction of the series.

The next three years had much smaller annual events. "Ghosts" and "JLApe" both only involved annuals for the big seven Justice Leaguers and the annual for JLA. The former featured the Justice League haunted by the spirits of people whose deaths they felt responsible for, so kind of a downer. The latter, though, featured the League fighting, and getting turned into, apes in a plot by Gorilla Grodd, so that was monumentally fun. The following year, 2000, was a series of Annuals called "Planet DC" that again tried to introduce new heroes, this time all from different nations. Most never appeared again.

Our final stop on this whirlwind tour is a bit more of a stretch. In 2001, DC started an event called Our Worlds at War, where a being called Imperiex was on his way to destroy Earth, and if he did so, it would bring about the end of all reality in a massive wave off entropy. The core of the series ran through the four Superman titles over the course of three months, with various other titles, including Batman and Young Justice, tying in. As there was no core mini-series, I left this out of the rundown of previous events, but thinking about it, I realized something. Many of the crossovers were oversized one-shots released over the course of those three summer months showing how the war effected other heroes. And that made me realize that those one-shots took the place of annuals that year, so I figured I'd include Our Worlds at War here.

Our Worlds at War was frankly kind of a mess. Imperiex's power set was nebulous, but so powerful that Darkseid actually teamed up with the heroes of Earth. Superman, the title that the series spun out of and was one of the core books of the event, had a narrative device where speeches by American presidents served as narration throughout, and cluttered up the pages on gorgeous Ed McGuiness art. And nearly all the character deaths and fallout, and there was quite a bit, was reversed almost immediately. While there was some very cool art and great space battles, this remains one of the more forgettable and somber events comics from DC.

In recent years, DC went back to publishing annuals, but kept them more tied to their parent titles, letting them wrap up big storylines or providing background to tie into the events of the ongoing. Thus the annual event and theme faded into the past, left for people like me to comment on in posts like this.

And that's it for our survey of event comics and the history of DC Comics. I hope you enjoyed it. But I hear some of you saying, "What about Marvel? Secret Wars is coming up and there have been plenty of Marvel events that are tying into that." Well to paraphrase someone intimately related to Marvel Comics, have no fear Matt Signal faithful! Next week, Dan Grote will begin a series of articles directly addressing Marvel crossovers (with me stepping in for one on the cosmic corner of the MU). So stay tuned for more.

The Night is Black: A History of Crossover Events in DC Comics Part 2

Welcome back to the second half of my survey of crossovers in DC Comics! If you missed the first part, check it out here. So let's not waste time and get right to the fall of 1999.

Day of Judgment was a magic based crossover, where in a plan by Etrigan to Demon to overthrow Neron (remember him, from earlier crossover Underworld Unleashed?) the Spectre Force, the literal wrath of God, left hostless after John Ostrander's run of the Spectre, was bonded with the rogue angel Asmodel, who wreaked havoc with his nigh unlimited power, while Hell literally froze over, and the heroes of the DC Universe had to fight a two fronted war to save Earth. It served a couple of purposes storywise. It first introduced the Sentinels of Magic, a new team of popular and classic magic-based heroes to fight magical threats. The Sentinels never really took off, and it wouldn't be until after another crossover a few years later that another team of magical heroes was formed that met with a bit more success. But we'll get there soon.

Secondly, Day of Judgment gave the Spectre Force a new host: Hal Jordan. This crossover is the third of the crossovers that deal in Hal's fall and redemption. After his bringing about the destruction of the universe in Zero Hour, and then dying to save Earth in Final Night, this is where Hal is given a chance to redeem himself by becoming the new Spectre. This led to a series by J.M. DeMatteis where Hal tried to change the Spectre into the Spirit of Redemption rather than Vengeance. Both Hal's attempt and the series met with mixed results. Of course, this set up led the eventual return of Hal Jordan to actual life and to his roll as Green Lantern in Green Lantern: Rebirth, a series written by DC's rising star at the time, Geoff Johns, who happened to write this series as well.

Yes, Day of Judgment is the first crossover written by Geoff Johns, making it far more important for the "who did it" factor than the "what happened" one. It's not as well known as the later ones we'll be getting to in this piece. Frankly, this era could be known as the Era of the Johns Crossover as you'll see shortly. But this series has all the hallmarks of a Johns story: it has nods to ton of obscure DC characters and continuity, a sprawling cast, and a lot of Hal Jordan. Matthew Dow Smith was the artist, and his blocky, shadowy style really works well with Hell and magic, and added to the mood Johns was shooting for.

After skipping a crossover in 2000, DC returned to the form in 2001 with Joker: Last Laugh. Written by Bat-Scribe Chuck Dixon and his sometimes writing partner Scott Beatty, with art by a different artist each issue including the likes of Pete Woods and Rick Burchett, the story begins with the Joker being given a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. Deciding to pull one last joke, Joker, who at the time was locked up in DC's high security metahuman prison, the Slab, releases a gas that is a diluted form of his usual Joker Venom toxin, one that gives all the villains imprisoned a Joker smile and complexion, and a touch of his own madness. Joker goes to continually more extreme lengths to really put on one more show for the world before his death. Of course, it turns out the test results were faked by a doctor who hoped that Joker learning of his own mortality would make him rethink his ways, and in the end it comes down to Nightwing and other members of the Batman family confronting Joker in Gotham City.

From what I've read about the history of this series, it started out as a Batfamily event that grew too big for its own britches, with editorial thinking it would make a great line-wide crossover. Unfortunately, it felt very forced in the case of a lot of the crossovers, and really only had any effect on the titles that Dixon was writing at the time (Nightwing, Robin, Birds of Prey). Despite being kind of fun, it served no real purpose than to further overexpose the then very overexposed Joker, and a Joker based event that barely effected Batman can only be viewed as something of a failure.

After another period of no crossovers, 2004 saw the release of Identity Crisis, written by Brad Meltzer with art by Rags Morales. Calling this a crossover is a bit of a stretch. While a few books were bannered as tie-ins, they simply expanded on a couple of the events in the series, and the mini-series stood completely on its own. It did, however, have a drastic impact on the DC Universe at the time. When Sue Dibny , the wife of the Elongated Man, is murdered, the quest to find her killer is on. But as other family members of the Justice League and their allies are attacked, a secret from the League's past is revealed: for years a group within the League was erasing the memories of villains, and sometimes even changing their personalities by means of magic. In the end, the killer is revealed to be Jean Loring, the Atom's ex-wife, who had thought that by placing herself in seeming danger, the Atom would fall in love with her again, and it is revealed Batman had his memory altered to forget his finding out what his fellow Leaguers were doing, the gap in his memory causing his increasing paranoia.

Identity Crisis might be one of the most polarizing events in DC Comics history. While initially somewhat well regarded, the series has become reviled in some corners over the years. Accusations of misogyny due to it's handling of rape and female characters, and the fact that the mystery doesn't hold up on multiple readings, plus a somewhat strangely one sided between the Justice League and Deathstroke the Terminator, are often called out as its failings. I remember having heated discussions at the comic shop as it was coming out about who did it, and frankly I lost a bet as to who the initial victim would be (my money was on Connor Hawke, the son of Green Arrow), and I do feel the wonderful, light hearted characters of Ralph and Sue Dibny deserved a better and happier ending than this series gave them. Still, the art was gorgeous, and there are some great Batman moments throughout the series. Whether that redeems it on any level is up to the reader, and it did start setting the stage for the next, more ambitious, crossover.

Infinite Crisis, written by Geoff Johns with art by Phil Jiminez, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, and Ivan Reis, served as a sequel to and celebration of the 20th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The previous seven months had a series of mini-series (The OMAC Project, Villains United, Day of Vengeance, and the Rann-Thanagar War) that moved various pieces into place for the series, bannered as "Countdown to Infinite Crisis." With the events of Identity Crisis and The OMAC Project having splintered the relationship between Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the survivors the original Crisis, watching the universe from a crystal realm outside reality, decide to head back to the universe to set the world right, and rewrite reality to how they see fit. But while Kal-L, the original Superman of Earth 2, does his best to make the heroes of the one Earth understand and ally Batman with himself, Alexander Luthor has convinced the emotionally damage Superboy-Prime to serve him and create a world that will suit him. With a Secret Society of Supervillains at his beck and call, massive battles ensue and a new Multiverse is born at the end of the series.

Infinite Crisis served not just to restart the Multiverse, but to address the failings of how the current versions of DC's trinity were written: Batman's paranoia, Superman's indecision, and Wonder Woman's distance from humanity. Within all the cosmic happenings, these three characters have fairly distinct arcs. That massive cosmic story is elaborate, drawing on a lot of DC history, the history of the Crisis most specifically. All the moving pieces established in the countdown stories were addressed, if some perfunctorily. It also served as one of the first examples of something DC has become notorious for in recent years, the massive culling of low-tier characters, killing off former Teen Titans and other minor characters to add punch to the story.

DC tried something interesting after issue five of Infinite Crisis, where all its books jumped forward one year, leaving a lot of questions as to how the status quos had changed. When Infinite Crisis ended, DC spent a year telling the story of that year, a year where no member of the trinity were active, in a weekly series named 52. With no crossovers, 52 was a self contained story that featured a lot of B list characters in the spotlight, including a few of my favorites: Booster Gold, the Question, and Renee Montoya. It's a great story, one with a lot of character and depth, and while not a crossover, I wanted to mention it due to it being a major result of the fallout of this series.

After the end of 52, DC began another weekly, Countdown, which was renamed halfway through to Countdown to Final Crisis. This series was not the success that 52 was, mostly due to it being more loosely plotted, and crossing over into various titles that seemed to have events inconsistent with the events in the core series. That inconsistency was made even more clear when Final Crisis itself began, and it was clear the writers of Countdown had only the vaguest notion of what was going to happen; their ending stood in contradiction to much of where Final Crisis started in 2008. Final Crisis, written by Grant Morrison and with art from JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Doug Mahnke, was the story of the day evil won. Darkseid, having "died" at the end of Countdown, rises with his Apokoliptian gods in human hosts, and unleashes the Anti-Life Equation, enslaving much of humanity. Meanwhile, the Monitors, the guardians of the Multiverse, are in disarray, and Darkseid's plans have begun to collapse the Multiverse. Only the return of Barry Allen from the dead, the seeming death of Batman, and an alliance of Supermen from across the Multiverse stop Darkseid, and the greater threat behind the scenes, Mandrakk the Dark Monitor.

Final Crisis was an ambitious story, possibly Morrison's most ambitious story told in the DCU. It's seven issues build an elaborate tale of a crisis of truly apocalyptic proportions. It suffered mostly from intense delays, worse than the ones often suffered by crossovers, and inconsistent art. The last issue was also told in an experimental style; time was broken at the time in the story, so events take place out of chronological order, requiring multiple readings to truly put it together, which is not uncommon in Morrison titles. Still, it's one of the greatest Darkseid stories ever told, and touches on many of Morrison's central themes, about reality and heroism.

Final Crisis crossed over into only one ongoing title, Batman, which Morrison was writing at the time. The other crossovers were mini-series and one-shots. The problem with these is that many were very tangential, while others were absolutely required reading. The two issue Superman Beyond by Morrison and Mahnke is the initial introduction of Mandrakk, and without having read them, he pops up out of nowhere in that last issue as some sort of diablus ex machina (that's devil in the machine) to serve as some sort of final video game boss. Meanwhile Rage of the Red Lanterns and Legion of 3 Worlds barely even acknowledge that Final Crisis is happening, seemingly only bannered this way to garner them attention. The others fall somewhere in between. On the one hand, this is unscrupulous marketing, but on the other all those crossovers were actually good stories, so I'm not complaining about having read them.

After a brief interlude, Geoff Johns returns in 2009 with Blackest Night, drawn by Ivan Reis, the culmination of everything he has been doing with Green Lantern since Rebirth. The dead are rising, brought back as undead Black Lanterns, feeding on the emotions of the living, killing their victims, many of them super-heroes. The monstrous Nekron, lord of death, and his servant, the Black Hand, plan to wipe out all life in the universe, and it's up to an alliance from the seven corps of light, one for each color of the rainbow to stand against them. The heroes win, naturally, but a group of dead characters are returned to life with mysterious purposes that would become key to the DC Universe over the course of the next year's stories.

Blackest Night does something similar to what happened with Last Laugh, taking an event that was initially going to be part of one family of titles and expanding it to encompass the entire DCU, but is much more successful in it. The risen dead loved ones and allies of heroes fighting them are a much more exciting plot thread than a bunch of knock off Jokers, for one. Also, Johns had been building this for so long, it felt like it needed all these heroes to confront the threat that he had been building. It spun out DC's next weekly, which was actually two biweekly series that were released on alternating weeks, Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost. These, along with a handful of other titles, addressed the resurrected heroes and their missions from the mysterious entity of Life, Nekron's opposite number introduced at the end of the series.

As crossovers go, DC went with a model similar to that of Final Crisis, with mostly mini-series tin-ins, three issue ones representing many of the families of titles that take up the DCU. There were a few minor two-issue tie-ins as well. All of these were tangential to the main story. However, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps also tied in, and actually served as important parts of the story in between issues, so they are nearly essential reading for the series to make full sense.

With more changes on the horizon, 2011 saw Flashpoint, from Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert The story opens with Barry Allen waking up in a world that is not his own, a much darker one than the one he is used to. Barry spends the series trying to set the timeline right, trying to figure out exactly what caused this new world to be born. It's one of those fun alternate reality stories where creators can go to town because nothing is permanent. In the end, Barry restores the timeline, but with some major changes to it, changes that birthed the New 52.

Because of its nature as a story set in an alternate timeline, Flashpoint has the least impact on the DCU as it was, but some of the most on the DCU as it is. This story created the new timeline that the DCU has taken place in for the past few years, the universe of younger and more inexperienced versions of the established heroes, a world without a Justice Society, a world where many characters no longer existed. In that way it's similar to Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, since it was only five issues, it didn't sprawl in the same way Crisis did. It really stayed focused on Barry Allen and this new world's Batman trying to set things right. It used it's crossovers, a series of three issue mini-series, to give the world more depth.

The final crossover to date, and the first of the New 52 era, was Forever Evil, once again by Geoff Johns, this time with art by David Finch. Unprepared for their attack by inexperience, the Justice League is easily taken out by the Crime Syndicate, their evil alternate universe counterparts, and the only people left to save the world from them is a small coalition of villains led by Lex Luthor and Batman.

Forever Evil was a fun enough story, with darker and more twisted versions of the classic Crime Syndicate than have been presented before. However, there wasn't much to differentiate it from other Crime Syndicate stories; sure, they fought other villains and not the JLA, but that could have been done as an arc in Justice League. It also suffered sever delays that screwed up the scheduling on other books, as the debut of various new titles was dependent on the series ending. There was also a dependence on reading Justice League to get important backstory on the Syndicate and to see what Cyborg was doing, so his appearance at the end of the seventh issue was not completely out of left field.

I'm being a bit harsh because I expect amazing things from Geoff Johns, and this was only ok. He does write one of the best Lex Luthors in comics, and so getting a seven issue Lex Luthor and friends series was a treat. And as for how it effected the DC Universe, well it made Lex into a hero, as least as far as the people of the DCU Earth are concerned, and it "killed" Dick Grayson, setting up the excellent Grayson series. And with the upcoming "Darkseid War" story in Justice League spinning directly out of it, there is still potential for ramifications yet to be felt.

And that's where we are. Next Wednesday, Convergence #0 is released, a series combining different cities from different versions of the DCU Earth, giving glimpses of many of the time periods I've talked about over the course of these articles. Whether it's a it or miss, we'll just have to see. Next Friday, the final part of this little trip down memory lane, talking about the themes that played out over DC Comics annuals.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 2/25

Batman #39
Story: Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV
Art: Greg Capullo and Dustin Nguyen

As "Endgame" nears it's, well, endgame, it feels like the stakes for Batman and Gotham have never been higher. With the Joker plague spreading, and little time until it starts killing those it has driven mad, Batman must make alliances that he would not dream of on any but his darkest day. Scott Snyder has done an excellent job of making the Joker the most terrifying he has been in years. The scene where Batman confronts the Court of Owls continues to develop the Court as a threat, and one that has no compunction about letting the city burn to rebuild it in their own image once more. It's also interesting to see that they view themselves as beneath the city, that Gotham will always be there. Also, credit to Greg Capullo for his design of the Talon, Uriah; it's a sort of Scarecrow/Talon hybrid, with the scythe as a weapon, and it might be my favorite design for any Talon we've seen. The Joker's invasion of the Batcave would have been creepy with no one else there; The Joker seems to be invading homes in this arc, between Gordon's a couple issues ago and now the Batcave in this one. It's a violation, and shows that boundaries don't exist for the Joker. His bloody confrontation with Alfred made my heart catch. I knew Snyder had talked about doing something similar in his last Joker story, "Death of the Family," but seeing Alfred brought low was stunning (in the literal sense; I was stunned). Snyder has spent so much time with Bruce and Alfred's relationship in his run that seeing Joker brutally attack Alfred again, and to cut off his hand, was a painful reminder that Joker just wants blood this time. It was nice to see Batman gather his allies again at the end of the issue. There's been very little of the Batman family as a family in the New 52, aside from in Batman:Eternal, but it feels like a natural place to gather them. I also like the idea that Batman is willing to gather his other arch-foes, and that they're willing to work with him. In places like Forever Evil and Arkham Manor it's been clear that the other Arkham inmates fear the Joker, and I am completely behind the idea that they would sooner work with batman than let Joker tear down the city. I'm also happy that Snyder has kept the question of whether Joker is really immortal and his exact origins nebulous; as I wrote last week, I think that's important for the character. And that part of Joker's nature was really drawn into stark focus in the final part of the back-up story, as we get one final version of Joker's origin, but from a more unexpected source. Joker's confrontation with Mahreen Zaheer is another telling moment, showing something about how he views himself, and the sadistic twists his mind takes. I'm going to want to reread all this when it's over as it is, but knowing where the back-ups are going, it adds a layer that makes them more important to the whole narrative about the Joker's identity. And I have to give major applause to Dustin Nguyen, who is best known now for Li'l Gotham, but wow does he draw a creepy regular Joker! One chapter to go, and the culmination of one of the best Joker stories I've ever read is going to be the book I'm looking forward to most this month, hands down.

Black Hood #1
Story: Duane Swierczynski
Art: Michael Gaydos

In all the hoopla about this being the first Archie comic drop an f-bomb, a lot of the press surrounding Black Hood #1 has been about that seeming stunt and less about the quality of the comic. And I don't think it was a stunt, I think it was organic to what was a very solid debut of the new Dark Circle line. Greg Hettinger is a Philadelphia cop who gets in the middle of a fight outside an elementary school, and is shot in the face. He gets off a shot and kills one of the perpetrators, who happens to be the vigilante known as the Black Hood. Now called a hero, Hettinger has speech therapy ahead of him to repair his ability to speak, but nothing will heal the damage to his face, or to his psyche from killing a man. Addicted to pain pills, Hettinger is on a spiral downward, stealing drugs to feed his habit until he runs out of his house wearing the Black Hood. This first issue is a lot of set-up, with the only major action being the shooting at the beginning of the issue, but it does a great job of setting up character. After one issue, readers know Hettinger, understand his struggle, and sympathize some. We don't get to really spend much time with other characters, except for speech therapist Jessie Dupree. I'm not sure if she's destined to be a confidant or love interest, but she is hopeful and brings a ray of sunlight to the dark world of this comic. Duane Swierczynski is a crime writer, and that grit works well with this story. Michael Gaydos is an artist who really fits the book as well. This isn't a book you would have expected out of the old Archie, but with it's more experimental bent now, I can absolutely see them publishing what is an honest to God superhero noir. And on a personal note, as someone who now lives right on the doorstep of Philadelphia, it's cool to see a comic set in that grand city. It is a different city than New York, has a different feel to it, and especially after reading the writer's comments at the back of the issue about his feelings about Philly, I think it will help with the atmosphere of this comic. I'm a fan of the Red Circle heroes, and I was a little worried about a mature look at them, but this was a good start, and if the rest of these series are as good as Black Hood, and it continues on this path, I'm on board.

Criminal: Special Edition
Story: Ed Brubaker
Art: Sean Phillips

There are lots of writer/artist teams in comics who have worked together for years. I think the biggest one in comics right now is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, who started out together with the Elseworlds Batman: Gotham Noir, and went on to do Sleeper, Crminal, Incognito, Fatale, and now The Fade Out. But this issue is a return to one of those other series, with this oversized one shot returning to the story of Teeg Lawless, one of the important characters from Criminal. And while I am waiting desperately to see what happens next in The Fade Out, it's nice to see old friends again. Not that I'd actually want Teeg Lawless as a friend; dude is not someone you want to hang around with. Set in the 70s, the story finds Teeg halfway through a 30 day stretch in jail for failure to appear in traffic court. Of course Teeg has done way worse than that, and he's going to have to do worse, as an open contract for his head is out there in the prison population. And since he's pissed off his boss, crime lord Sebastian Hyde by getting locked up when he was supposed to be on a job, he has no protection on the inside. It's a brutal comic, but that's nothing new for the world of Criminal. Teeg has to take out more than his share of guys who want him dead. And he's not a sympathetic character. Teeg is a bad guy who does bad things. But you still find yourself rooting for him to make it out. I'm always impressed with how Phillips can adapt to any era with his art, be it the 40s in The Fade Out, modern times in much of Criminal, and the 70s here. The issue has a great feel, like a 70s prison movie. And speaking of style, the main story is spliced together with pages from a comic that Teeg is reading, one of those 70s fantasy/horror mags, like the Warren books and Heavy Metal. The story of Zangar the Savage brutally tracking down those who wronged him and left him for dead. It's even more bloody and brutal than Teeg's own story, and actually felt a lot like a low fantasy version of Richard Stark's first Parker novel, The Hunter. Phillips does a great job of drawing the fantasy world as well as the real one. This stand alone story is a great introduction to the world of Criminal, and the works of Brubaker and Phillips in general. If you've ever thought about trying out some real crime comics, or any of the works of these great creators, this is the issue to try.

Gotham Academy #5
Story: Brenden Fletcher & Becky Cloonan
Art: Karl Kerschl

Last issue wrapped up a bunch of the mysteries in Gotham Academy, and while this issue doesn't answer as many questions, it does further a ton of character and answer one very big question. After stumbling across Killer Croc hiding in the walls of the school, Olive Silverlock, our intrepid heroine, decides she must find him again after he ran off, and the only place to do that is the forbidden and crumbling North Hall. And the best distraction, to assure all the teachers and other students won't see them, as well as making sure they can obtain the items they need from the headmasters office, is the big school dance! So Olive, her best friend Maps,  Pomeline the ghost hunter, and Colton the artful dodger of Gotham Academy, get together and plan their Ocean's 11 style heist of Colton's tools from the office. It's also amusing to note how disappointed Pomeline is that it's not a ghost and JUST an escaped Arkham inmate in the walls. Only in Gotham is escaped crocodile like mental patient something that is qualified with the word just. After pulling off the heist, and once again demonstrating that Maps is the coolest character in the book, and as they make their way over to North Hall, we finally get an answer to exactly what is going on  with the mysterious Tristan.I really try hard not to spoil anything in reviews, sometimes I think to the detriment of the review, but I do want to talk a bit about the big reveal. After everything that was done with the Man-Bat virus is Detective Comics, it's nice to see someone picking up that thread. The story of how he met Olive is another clue in the unfolding mystery of her summer, but with the appearance of another bat themed character at issue's end, I think we're going to get that soon. And I would be remiss in not calling out this month's cameo: We've had Aunt Harriet, Bookworm, and Grey Ghost in previous issues. This month, when Colton needed someone to distract Kyle, Maps's brother and Olive's still maybe/kinda ex, he got his buddy Warren to do it. Later, said buddy is addressed by his last name, McGinnis. Yes, Warren McGinnis, father of Batman Beyond Terry McGinnis, is a student at Gotham Academy. This books is just so much fun, full of so many great characters, and such a love letter to Batman's history, it's hard to believe everyone isn't reading it.

Joe Frankenstein #1
Story: Chuck Dixon & Graham Nolan
Art: Graham Nolan

Now, there are comics that are deep and profound. And there are comics that are grim and gritty. And then there are comics that are just plain fun. The new book from Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan, a team best known for their long run on Detective Comics, is one of those latter books. Joe Frankenstein feels like a book inspired by a classic monster movie. When pizza boy Joe Pratt is nearly killed by hot vampire babes, he is rescued by... the Frankenstein Monster, who tells Joe he is the descendant of  his creator. Joe is a lovable loser in the Peter Parker mold, who loses his job because of the monster attack, whose girlfriend is peeved because he has no money, and lives with a well meaning foster family with a lot of other kids around. He's a comic book hero of the old order, down to the dead parents, and I have a feeling their death was more than just a plane crash. There's a whole mystery of who the vampires are, a mysterious big bad, a sultry mistress of evil, and her dapper aide-de-camp, Saxton, and what they want from Joe. But what we get is an action packed comic of vampires and monsters. Frankenstein's Creation (as he prefers to be called) is more in line with the Shelley novel and the current DCU version, an erudite and long lived creature, in this case one who seems to have accumulated great wealth in it's existence. It looks like Joe and the Creation have a lot of foes to face and I think the world is weirder than he imagined. The team of Dixon and Nolan produced some of my favorite Batman comics ever, so to see them back together, and working on a comic that has a classic feel to it.