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.

The Greatest Bat-Mite Stories Ever Told... Yup, You Read That Right. BAT-MITE

Yes, Bat-Mite. Bat-Mite is one of the most reviled characters in comics from certain corners on the comic book internet, a character some view as an embodiment of everything that was wrong with a certain era of Batman stories. For those of you unfamiliar with Bat-Mite, he was introduced in Detective Comics #267, at the end of the 50s and in the height of Batman's crazy sci-fi period. An imp from another dimension, he was Batman's self-described number one fan, and if you've ever seen Misery, you know it's never good when someone says they're your number one fan. Basically, he was to Batman what Mr. Mxyzptlk was to Superman, only with less malice and more fan worship; he always tried to help Batman, but wound up getting in the way far more often than he helped. He was goofy, and the stories that surrounded him were just as goofy.

But after the 50s and early 60s, Bat-Mite vanished for quite some time, as opposed to Mxyzptlk, who continued to appear continually. I think Mxyzptlk did better in fan's eyes for a couple reasons. Superman, while made tonally less crazy than those 50s stories, Superman's stories were always lighter, so Mxy would work better. Also, Mxy was never brought in as a sidekick, as Bat-Mite was on the ill-conceived 1977 New Adventures of Batman, where Bat-Mite appeared every episode like the Great Gazoo in the room. And if O'Neil & Adams didn't kill the silliness that let Bat-Mite exist, Frank Miller and the Post-Crisis DCU certainly did.

But recent years have been kinder to Bat-Mite. A more accepting comic book audience has allowed the little guy to pop up occasionally, despite all the fans who only like their grim and gritty Batman moaning,. Grant Morrison did a service to Bat-Mite by including him in his run (more on that later). And while New Adventures of Batman nearly destroyed Bat-Mite, another animated series pretty much raised him from the dead. This coming Wednesday sees the debut of a Bat-Mite mini-series as part of the DCYou initiative, so I thought it might be fun to revisit some great Bat-Mite stories before the new series starts.

Batwoman's Publicity Agent (Batman #133)

I'm not as familiar with the Silver Age Bat-Mite stories as I probably should be, but they haven't been the most reprinted Batman stories. This is a story I read somewhere, and it stuck in my head because it's just so fun. Bat-Mite decides to help Batwoman as her partner, but falls in love with her and creates hijinks to help her beat Batman to some criminals, including shrinking everyone down to tiny size. He also gets help from Ace the Bathound, another Silver Age character who has gotten a renaissance in recent years. Between Bat-Mite, the Kathy Kane Batwoman, and Ace, this might be the most Batman Family inclusive story on the early 60s, and is tremendous fun. Written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger, it has a strong pedigree behind it, and is probably the best example of Silver Age Bat-Mite.

Bat-Mite's New York Adventure (Detective Comics #482)

This was the first Bat-Mite story I ever read, as it was included in the late 80s Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told trade, a book I read nearly to pieces when I first started reading comics. In a very meta story before meta was a big thing in comics, Bat-Mite appears in the DC offices and demands his own feature. It's a fun story, with Bat-Mite causing all sorts of chaos. While Marvel was well known for writing and drawing the Bullpen into comics, DC used the device more sparingly, and so that, plus the fact that it was a rare late 70s/early 80s appearance of Bat-Mite and the excellent Michael Golden art, make it stand out.

Legends of the Dark Mite (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #38)

Not to be confused with the cartoon to be discussed later, this comic is technically the first post-Crisis appearance of Bat-Mite. It's not as light a story as the previous ones, but is not less trippy. Drugged out criminal Bob Overdog encounters Bat-Mite in this issue, and is brought to Bat-Mite's dimension, populated entirely by imps who play at being super-heroes. It's a twisty story, and it's not one hundred percent clear if it's real or in Overdog's head. It was followed up by a prestige format one-shot, Mitefall, that was a send up on the "Knightfall" storyline with Batman replaced by Bat-Mite, and Overdog in the Azrael roll. Not necessarily canon, but Alan Grant has a ton of fun, and Kevin O'Neill's art gives the books a truly unusual feel.

Superman and Batman: World's Funnest

The fact that this one-shot is out of print and uncollected is a complete travesty. Not only is it so delirious, insane, and funny that every fan of DC Comics should read it, but it has one of the best collections of artists I can remember in a jam comic. While Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk had met in the Silver Age, this modern age Elseworlds story written by Eltingville Club and Milk & Cheese mastermind Evan Dorkin takes their rivalry to a new level. Basically, Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk rampage across the multiverse, with Mxy trying to destroy Bat-Mite, and basically destroying every world they encounter. In itself, this sounds like one of those fun concepts that would make for a decent comic, but nothing memorable. But when you add in Dorkin's biting commentary about the way comics take themselves so seriously (but still done with a love of comics as a medium), you get a truly hilarious comic. As for the art, a few of the absolute murderers row of artists include Bruce Timm drawing the DC Animated Universe, Alex Ross drawing the Kingdom Come universe, Ty Templeton on a whole myriad of worlds, and Frank Miller on the Dark Knight Returns universe, along with a group of other A-List artists hitting a bunch of other realities. It's one of the best Elseworlds ever, and true lost gem.

Batman R.I.P. (Batman #676-681)

There are so many resources on-line for Grant Morrison's mind-bending and elaborate Batman run of the 2000s-10s that I haven't written a ton about it outside of reviews. But if you're unfamiliar, Grant Morrison basically said that every batman story ever happened, even those weird ones, although he re-imagined them under a more modern light. And when Batman is attacked psychologically, he begins to see Bat-Mite. It turns out this Bat-Mite is a figment of Batman's imagination, part of the programming Batman put into his own head to counter and attack like this. When Batman talks to Bat-Mite about coming from his imagination, though, Bat-Mite replies that imagination IS the fifth dimension, which is such a Morrisonian concept that it works really well in context.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

While these other appearances might have kept Bat-Mite alive in the consciousness and not one of the many completely forgotten characters of the Silver Age, I think his new series owes its existence to the use of the character in the animated Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Voiced to perfection by the hilarious Paul Reubens (best known as Pee-Wee Herman), this Bat-Mite is played straight as the ultimate fan boy. He's wacky, don't get me wrong, but in between his fourth wall breaking and causing of insane situations, the creators use him to make commentary on fandom in general. It works really well in the context of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a show that mixes some modern seriousness with the zaniness of the Silver Age.

The first Bat-Mite appearance is entitled "Legends of the Dark Mite" and is basically a Bat-Mite/Batman team up. We get views of different comic book versions of Batman, we see a convention with Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in the audience, and mutant bunnies. It shows everything that is great about B:TB&TB, mixing action, comedy, a love of Batman's history, and a decent lesson (even if Bat-Mite doesn't  really take it to heart).

"Emperor Joker" is loosely based on the Superman story of the same title, only in this case Joker tricks Bat-Mite into giving his powers to Joker instead of Mxyzptlk. This episode features a Joker musical number, the first appearance of Joker-Mite, and the first B:TB&TB appearance of Harley Quinn, who's a black-and-white twenties era flapper in this world. The thing about this episode that impresses me is there's a real serious tone to a lot of the Batman/Joker interaction, and while Bite-Mite is still allowed to be some comic relief, the show balances that with the other plot. It's very smart writing.

While Bat-Mite also narrates "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases" that episode doesn't really have much Bat-Mite in action. The last major appearance of Bat-Mite is, in fact, the final episode of the series, "Mitefall!" The episode features Bat-Mite, bored with the lighter toned B:TB&TB, deciding to get the show cancelled. It's so wonderfully written, filled with jokes about TV shows and comics and the ways they fail, and with Bat-Mite standing in for every fan who has ever complained about the show they once loved going downhill. Ambush Bug pops up to counter Bat-Mite, and we get a lot of fourth wall breaking. Aside from changing actors and adding little kids, classic examples of desperation moves to get viewers on TV shows that usually backfire, Bat-Mite also introduces a vehicle that is clearly created to be a toy, the Neon Talking Super Street Batluge (pictured below). And I will honestly admit, if they ever made that toy, I would buy it in a heartbeat. The episode ends with Batman breaking the fourth wall, and bidding his audience a fond farewell. It's not a Bat-Mite moment, but it's an excellent sign off to the show.

So, this Wednesday, if you're feeling like you want a comic out of DC that isn't full of doom and gloom, you might want to give Bat-Mite a try. You can check out an eight page preview here.

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.

The Skies are Red: A History of the Crossover Event in DC Comics Part 1

Convergence is coming. DC Comics new event starts in two weeks, a story that blends worlds from all across DC history into one massive story. And the beginning of that story has me thinking about all the crossovers that have come before. So today begins a multi-part article tracing the history of event comics at DC Comics. I'll be touching on the tent-pole events in parts one and two, and the events and themes of Annuals in the third. This is meant as an overview, but going back for a quick look at these made me want to do a deeper dive into some of them again, so there might be an upcoming longer piece or two spinning out of this.

In 1985, continuity for DC Comics had become muddled, with an infinite number of Earths and multiple versions of each hero interacting with each other through different stories. And so it was decided a stream-lining needed to occur. And Marv Wolfman and George Perez, creators of DC's biggest hit of the time, New Teen Titans, were the guys to do it. And so the stage was set for DC's first mega-crossover: Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is the crossover that all DC crossovers have been measured against since. Worlds lived, worlds died, and the DCU was quite literally never the same.

The Anti-Monitor, a godlike being from the anti-matter universe, decided that it was time to bring the curtain down on the positive matter universe, and the only thing standing between him and his goal was his opposite number, The Monitor, and the collective heroes of the DC Universe, gathered by the Monitor's herald, Harbinger. Groups of mismatched heroes were sent to stop different realities from collapsing... and they failed.

Yeah, the good guys basically lose in Crisis. Sure, they save the one remaining Earth, but their goal to save the Multiverse was a miserable failure. Along the way, countless heroes and villains die, most notably the Flash (Barry Allen) and the Silver Age Supergirl. The heroes do eventually stop the Anti-Monitor, and no one except D-lister Psycho-Pirate winds up remembering the history of the Multiverse, as the final heroes, Superman of Earth-2, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor of Earth-3, go off to their eternal reward. But more on them later.

Crisis works on a lot of the levels a crossover should. It's exciting, and brings in characters from across DC history. It presents unusual matches, and spotlights various heroes. It has a threat that logically would be something that would require all these heroes to team up. It even has legions of villains teaming up to stop Anti-Monitor. It's sweeping and epic. It also served the important purpose of unifying the continuity of DC Comics history into one Earth. There might be multiple Flashes, but they are three different guys from three different walks of life. There's only one Batman, one Superman, one Wonder Woman. There's one Hawkman. Or maybe two. No more than three! OK, so not everything was perfect. But the birth pains spawned a new universe with new potential. And the different generations of heroes set up the concept of legacy that was a key aspect of the DC Universe from Crisis up through Flashpoint.

The one real problem that Crisis has rests in its crossovers into other titles. I feel like a good crossover allows the universe to feel cohesive, to allow other books to tie into it without impeding their progress, but adding an important story element to their progress that shows a wider world. With Crisis, the element that tied most books into it were the Red Skies. As the Anti-Monitor's antimatter waves approached a world, the skies would turn red. Many Crisis crossovers were simply a mention of the Red Skies, and then business as usual. While it didn't impede the progress of the books, it certainly didn't do anything to explore the event as it effected a series lead. And since then, a "Red Skies Crossover" has been a book that ties into something in only the most tangential way.

Legends, written by Len Wein and John Ostrander with art by John Byrne, released in 1986, was the first crossover and test of the new DC Universe. It seemed to have two purposes. Purpose one was to set up various new and revised concepts that would springboard out of it and define this new DC Universe. The second purpose was to set-up Darkseid as the preeminent villain of not just a corner of the DC Universe, but of the Universe as a whole. And it succeeded on both fronts.

The main plot of the series had Glorious Godfrey, one of Darkseid's Elite, posing as a news pundit on Earth, to stir up anti-hero sentiment, allowing Earth to be an easy target for Darkseid's eventual conquest. But Dr. Fate gathers a new Justice League (including Captain Marvel, now a part of the main DCU), Amanda Waller secretly debuts the Suicide Squad to destroy Darkseid's monster, Brimstone, and a new heroine (new to this universe anyway) Wonder Woman, appears, all allowing the heroes to prevail.

Legends succeeds not only as a good story, but as the crossover springboard for three of the most successful DC titles of the late 80s/early 90s: Wally West's series as The Flash, the "Bwah-ha-ha" Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League, and John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, all have their seeds planted right in the midst of this event. If for not any other reason than that, Legends is a winner.

1988 saw Millennium debut, written by Steve Englehart and with art by Joe Staton. The Guardians of the Universe, the alien race that created the Green Lantern Corps, have decided to leave this plain of existence, and before leaving arrive on Earth, saying a new generation of Guardians will be come this world, and asking its heroes to gather these new Guardians. What should be an easy task is complicated by the Manhunters, the robots who served as the Guardians' first intergalactic police force, who have learned of this and wish to stop the creation. As part of this plan, the Manhunters revealed they knew the identities of Earth's heroes and had spent years planting sleeper agents, some robots, some mind-controlled humans, and some willing collaborators, in the personal lives of all the heroes. Even with this, the heroes bested the Manhunters and saved the New Guardians.

Millennium's structure was much more strict than previous crossovers. The series ran eight weekly issues, and each book was flagged with Week 1, Week 2, etc. The accompanying week's crossovers were flagged with the similar weeks, and the story depended on the reader buying many of the accompanying crossover. The main mini-series was littered with footnotes to that week's crossover, making reading just the event mini-series frustrating.

And while this couldn't be known at the time, it had no discernible long term effects on the DC Universe. The New Guardians series folded after twelve issues, and most of the characters faded into obscurity, and those who had established pasts returned to them. Many of the Manhunters puppets who were important characters (Lana Lang, Jim Gordon) never really mentioned it again, and while Wally West was broken up by his father being one of their willing agents, it was eventually ignored as well.

Invasion!, written by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen and with art from Todd McFarlane and Bart Sears, was a different form than any of DC's previous crossovers. Instead of longer monthly stories, six to twelve issues, or weekly stories, 1989's Invasion! was three months in three massive, 80-page issues with no ads. The plot of the series is pretty self-explanatory from the title. A coalition of alien races invades Earth. The reasoning is that humans have the metagene, allowing them to develop powers and possibly become a dominant species in the galaxy. One of the cool aspects of the story is that it takes many of the alien races that were prominent in the Legion of Super-Heroes lore of the 30th century, like the Khunds and the Dominators (who instigated the invasion as a pretense to examine metahumans so they could breed them as soldiers for galactic domination), and introduces them into the modern DCU.

While the well known heroes of the DC Universe do figure into this event, a lot of time is spent with minor characters and with establishing the new cosmic status quo of the DCU. We meet the characters who will form L.E.G.I.O.N., the cosmic police force for hire fronted by Vril Dox II, Brainiac's son, we get some time with Adam Strange, and we meet the Blasters, a team of metahumans captured by the Dominators, including Snapper Carr, former sidekick to the Justice League, DC's answer to Rick Jones.

One of the most important aspects of the series was the dropping of a Gene Bomb, a bomb meant to effect anyone with the metagene and eventually kill them. Alien and non-methuman heroes were able to find the Dominators cure, but not before the bomb effected many heroes. Animal Man and Fire both had their powers effected, and many new metahumans had their powers awakened, including Maxwell Lord, then the Justice League International's manager/leader/manipulator. This allowed for ramifications that spilled out of the series, and while many were the longest of term, did play a part in the canvas of the DC Universe.

Now, I have done my best to always keep to my creed about only writing about comics I like, and not bashing comics. But this is a historical piece, and I'm trying to not leave anything out. I already made it clear that I thought Millennium was lackluster, but it has nothing on War of the Gods. Published in 1991 as part of a celebration of Wonder Woman's 50th anniversary that never really materialized like Superman or Batman's, War of the Gods had a decent core concept: Circe instigates a war between the Greek and Roman gods, and encourages other pantheons to attack, so she can claim the powers of the gods and do something nebulous with it, partially kill the Earth goddess, Gaea, partially become the greatest goddess ever. It's not really clear. This is partially because of  arguments between editorial and series creator George Perez, and partially because of the format of the series.

War of the Gods actually was a more intense reading experience than Millennium because it wasn't just crossovers week by week, but all 20+ crossovers and the core mini were individually numbered, so you were supposed to read the whole crossover in specific order. Unfortunately, due to delays, the parts were often released out of order, and the mini-series stands poorly on its own, with no lasting ramifications at all, and remains only one of two of these events never collected in trade. Of course, it had one great crossover, Suicide Squad #58, where a Black Adam led Squad attacks Circe's fortress. Having recruited everyone who would join, the team includes The Writer, Grant Morrison's in comic avatar who became trapped in the comic world after writing himself in at the end of his Animal Man run, and who has a typewriter strapped to him that allows him to affect reality as he writes. Unfortunately, he suffers writers block during the invasion and is torn apart by Circe's beast men. It's pretty great.

DC took the first of its multi-year breaks in between crossovers after War of the Gods, and it wasn't for three years in 1994 until another happened. Zero Hour saw time collapsing, with nothingness moving from the beginning and end of time towards today. Dan Jurgens held the reigns as writer and artist, and put out some of the best art of his career in a sprawling tale that was designed to clean up some of the messes that were created by Crisis, problems like the Justice Society's age or the weird inconsistencies with Hawkman's background. It also established the new big bad of the DC Universe: Parallax, the corrupted and maddened version of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, who had taken the powers of the Guardians after killing them and was trying to rewrite time to suit his will. He did wind up destroying everything (another big win for the heroes), but a new Big Bang was caused by the hero Damage and time restarted. This allowed streamlining of backstories again, and setting up a firm timeline that lasted for about as long as firm timelines in comics ever do.

Zero Hour was the first of these DC event minis I read as it came out, and I have some find recollections of it. It was a bit awkward at times, like any story involving time travel and similar things are, but it did flow. The crossovers featured heroes running into alternate timeline versions of themselves and versions from the past, and some of these crossovers were excellent. The issue of Batman had him meet a Batgirl never shot by the Joker, Kon-El Superboy met the pre-Crisis Clark Kent Superboy, and Tim Drake Robin met a young Dick Grayson Robin, for instance. The rewritten timeline did make some serious changes, including the first complete reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes, which alienated some older Legion fans but streamlined some very very messy continuity involving multiple version of the Legion.

Spinning out of the end of Zero Hour was DC's first Zero Month, where all titles were numbered zero. Some of the books (Batman, Superman, Flash) retold origins with minor changes. Others (Hawkman, Green Lantern) established new status quos. Six new series launched with these zero issues, and while five didn't amount to much, the sixth, one with some of the most direct fallout from Zero Hour, was Starman, which I have written about at length, and was a resounding success. This also marks the first of three crossovers that form the spine of Hal Jordan's corruption and resurrection arc, and arc that would eventually lead to Geoff Johns's hit Green Lantern franchise.

Underworld Unleashed, from 1995 with writer Mark Waid and artist Howard Porter, was another story that was a great idea in theory. A new demonic character, Neron, appeared offering supervillains augmented and improved powers at the cost of their souls. Many took it, thus creating new versions of many B- and C-list villains. The heroes eventually travel to Hell to stop Neron, and it's only through the innocence and nobility of Captain Marvel, and the cleverness of the Trickster, James Jesse, who Neron had taken on as his adviser and who betrayed him, that Neron did not win,

Waid has said in interviews and the afterward to the trade of the series that he doesn't like Underworld. He thinks it was a hamfisted attempt to gussy up villains from an earlier time. Right or wrong, next to none of the augmented villains stayed augmented. With the exception of Blockbuster and Charaxes (who was once Killer Moth), all the Batman villains reverted shortly to classic forms. Neron, who seemed poised to become a major villain across the DCU, would pop up only occasionally, and never as more than a demonic footnote, never earning the cred of his Marvel counterpart, Mephisto. James Robinson did use the fallout of Underworld in Starman, not just the villain he revitalized in his crossover, Dr. Phosphorus,  but revealing a couple of deals undisclosed at the time that played a major part in the series' climax. But with that notable exception, Underworld remains one of the forgotten crossovers.

Final Night, from writer Karl Kesel and with art by Stuart Immonen in 1996, was the second of the crossovers featuring Hal Jordan.  The Sun Eater, this big traveling cloud of gas (picture any evil entity from the original Star Trek series and you’ll get the picture) comes along and, well, eats the sun.  With Earth dying, the heroes do their best to destroy the Sun Eater and reignite the sun.  In the end, it is Hal Jordan, in what was to be his last redemptive gesture, who sacrificed himself and brought the sun back.

The series would be worth it alone for Immonen's gorgeous art, and seeing him draw the entire DC Universe, along with the amazing climax, where Jordan ignites the sun while reciting the Green Lantern oath. The crossovers were mostly small, showing the heroes dealing with the effects of the missing sun. Some writers were able to even easily fit that aspect into their existing story, weaving the tapestry of the event into the series. An especially good one was Hitman #8, where hitman Tommy Monaghan and his fellow hitters gather at their local bar, Nonnan's, and reflect on their brushes with death. It's a very small story, and shows Garth Ennis's strength with those little character beats after a series of issues that were just tons of mindless, and fun, violence.

With the exception of Hal Jordan's death, the ramifications to the DCU were small on this one. A squad of Legionnaires, displaced in time, met the post-Zero Hour version of Ferro Lad, a longtime pre-Crisis member, who survived where his pre-Crisis counterpart died fighting a Sun Eater. The loss of the sun also caused the solar powered Superman to lose his powers, which led to a reconciliation with the currently estranged Lois Lane and their marriage, and the eventual debut of the electric blue Superman. So from that we see that not all crossover effects are good.

Back into confession mode: If War of the Gods was bad, it was at least not as bad as Genesis, the next year's (1997) crossover from writer John Byrne and artist Ron Wagner. In all truth, I have no idea what exactly was going on in Genesis.  I’ve read it twice now, and I still don’t quite get it.  The energy wave that created everything is collapsing back on itself and all the energy in the universe is stopping and everything is going to end.  And the New Gods are involved.  Maybe some of the issues it tied into made the totality of the story make more sense, but I guess I don’t have those, so it all seemed more than a bit of a muddle, and the less said about it, the better. By the end, Highfather died and was replaced by Takion as ruler of New Genesis, but he got better. Beside that, it had no ramifications and its crossovers effected no book aside from the New Gods related ones. genesis is the other of the event never released as a trade.

One Million, written by Grant Morrison and with art by Val Semeiks (1998),  is one of my favorites of all the crossovers. Heroes from the 853^rd century (when, if they still are being published, DC comics will hit issue one million) arrive to celebrate the return of  the original Superman and the heroes old and new get caught up in the machinations of Vandal Savage and the sentient artificial sun, Solaris. 

It’s one of those crazy ideas that only Grant Morrison could come up with and execute, and as he was involved in plotting nearly every issue the series tied into (with the exception of the particularly funny issue of Hitman), it created a great cohesion of you read every issue.  Beautifully, though, you don’t feel like you have to read everything either, as seems to be a concern when EVERYTHING is written by the same guy.  There are some excellent moments in both the core mini and the tie-ins, these wild, high concept ideas that Grant Morrison is the master of. It ties in with a lot of the concepts he was exploring in Justice League at the time.

The Justice Legion A of the 853rd Century are characters that have popped up occasionally since then, including in Morrison's seminal All Star Superman, along with Solaris, who is a purely Morrison character. There's a great amount of design work, creating all these new versions of classic heroes and concepts. But it's really a story about heroism and inspiration, themes that Morrison loves, and are at the heart of superhero comics. It's also nice that, while the ramifications aren't major, it's such a good story that it doesn't matter. That love letter to the self-contained tales of the Silver Age stands on its own, and works best that way.

And that's it for this first part. Next Friday starts with a mostly forgotten crossover written by a guy who would later become the man who defined the DCU of the 00s, and the crossovers of the 21st century. See you then.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/28

Arkham Manor #4
Story: Gerry Duggan
Art: Shawn Crystal

The mystery murderer in Arkham takes a backseat to the menace of the Joker/Clayface monster "Clownface" in the new issue of Arkahm Manor. Batman is still in his identity as inmate Jack Shaw, and has to deal with the Clownface without burning this new identity and without any of his trademark gadgets. I like stories where Batman has to operate on wits alone, and so this speaks to something in me, and having him work with Mr. Freeze makes perfect sense. Gerry Duggan writes a good Freeze, one more in line with the more homicidal and emotional version in the New 52. The issue has much more action than the previous ones, less mystery and more punches, which is fine with me in this case. There are some nice character beats mixed in, with Batman finding one of the crooks he beat pretty badly in issue one, an emotional lapse I was uncomfortable with, and Batman feeling empathy and remorse for that beating this issue worked for me; a Batman who relishes beating on criminals is a step too close to the Punisher in my book. I still think Duggan's Batman could use a little work; as clever as he was in defeating Clownface, I can't picture him not being clever enough to find a way to keep Freeze from escaping, or just shrugging his shoulders and saying that is the lesser of two evils. Batman finds a way to stop both evils. It's what he does. We do get a nice character moment out of Freeze in that moment, though, so I guess it's a writer's choice moment. We also get the escape of Sybil Silverlock, a plot point I see playing out in future issue's of Gotham Academy, so I'm glad to see that plot moving forward, and more on Gotham Academy shortly. The issue ends with both a return to the over arching Arkham killer plot, and hints that Jeremiah Arkham is slipping again. Jeremiah has never been the most stable guy, and if this book was surviving the upcoming DC cull, which it isn't, I could see this playing out further. With only two issues and a special left, it's sad to see this book hitting it's stride, mixing black comedy, superheroics, and a touch of horror, just for it to end. But I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Batman #38
Story: Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV
Art: Greg Capullo & Sam Keith

Is there any more I can say about "Endgame" that I haven't in the first few parts to indicate how exciting this story is for me? Well, I guess I'll try. Scott Snyder has built a very nice corner of the Batman universe for himself over the course of his run on this book, and he calls back to it in a story that if it were his last with Batman, would serve as a perfect coda. Joker's plan continues to roll out, and every new step makes it more macabre. Using Jim Gordon as a pawn in his attack on Batman is well within the Joker's usual psychosis, and it delivers the emotional gut punch to Batman, and makes for a perfectly eerie visual that Capullo runs with in a Jokerized Gordon. Getting Julia Pennyworth out of the Batcave and aiding Batman is something I hope we get more of in this story and the future of the Bat books; she's a capable, competent agent, and I like how she plays off Batman. Speaking of capable and competent agents, it was nice to see Batman getting in touch with Dick Grayson; Snyder writes their rapport perfectly, and how he clearly cares about Batman is something I miss. Dick's horror when Batman tells him Joker knows Batman's identity is tangible. Having Batman hunt down the doctor who helped Joker create the new Joker virus is a logical step, and I was a bit shocked to see it was Paul Dekker, better known as Crazy Quilt (OK, probably not better known as anything. Crazy Quilt is about as D-list a villain as you can get). The only connection to his pre-New 52 identity is the quilt he has wrapped around him, one matching the pattern as his old costume. This new version of Dekker is a scientist, one obsessed with immortality, and he continues to propagate the story Gordon discovered and that Julia reinforces with her own research, the the Joker is an immortal. I like how Snyder ties Vandal Savage and Ra's al Ghul together with Joker in this immortality, and creates a single mythological point in the DC Universe where all immortality springs from. Whether or not that's true, though, we'll have to wait and see. And speaking of waiting and seeing, that last page of the main story is a real kicker, and something that ties all of Snyder's run together. For a story where the Joker doesn't appear for more than a few panels, his presence and madness permeate the whole story; like Dracula in Stoker's novel, the Joker doesn't need to be present for him to cast a long shadow. This month's back up is a soldier who was part of the squad injured during "Zero Year" (another nice call back to earlier in the run), who believes Batman is actually a military program of numerous super soldier. As crazy ideas go, it's not the wildest, but the extent to which it's taken is what makes it nuts. And when you're drawing a story from the point of view of someone not quite in touch with reality, there are few artists better than Sam Keith, whose style always seems a bit out of line with reality.

Gotham Academy #4
Story: Becky Cloonan & Brenden Fletcher
Art: Karl Kerschel

The mysteries at Gotham Academy are starting to unfold, and Olive Silverlock is up to her neck in it. After the encounter with something in the North Hall last issue, we start the issue with a shell shocked Olive and her frenemy Pomeline, trying to figure out what they saw. But soon, Olive is called before the headmaster who delivers veiled threats, and we get another cameo from Olive's mysterious benefactor, Bruce Wayne. Olive and her friend/sidekick, Maps (who continues to be my favorite part of the book, this buzzing, energetic geek girl), continue their investigation into the school's mysteries, now focusing on the symbols etched into the stones around the school. Their good cop/bad cop interrogation of outsider kid Eric is charming and hilarious. And as the mystery of ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot comes to a conclusion, new mysteries open as Olive discovers the secret passages throughout the school. The cast is an ensemble, and while Olive and Maps get the most face time this issue, we still get hints of others. The couple scenes with Pomeline continue to develop her beyond the stereotypical mean girl, and her hipster boyfriend Heathcliff gets a great scene with Olive. It's a testament to Karl Kerschel's skill that Kyle, Olive's sort of ex and Maps's brother, appears in one silent panel and we still get a good impression of what's going on in his head. There's also the matter of the mysterious blonde haired boy who seems to know far more about Olive's lost summer than she does, but we can't expect answers to everything in one issue. We also meet another member of the Academy staff, and it's another wonderful Easter egg for long time Batman fans. Along with Aunt Harriet and Bookworm from the classic 60s Batman series, the matron of the girl's dorm and librarian respectively, we now meet Simon Trent, drama teacher, who was the actor who played Batman's boyhood hero, the Grey Ghost, in Batman: The Animated Series. Speaking of B:TAS, we get an appearance from Killer Croc this issue, whose design is very much reminiscent of the design from the seminal series. It seems answers are coming about Olive's mother as well, but I'm sure that even with those answers, there will be plenty more questions coming up in Gotham Academy. With it's large and diverse cast, it's plots that feel like classic teen mysteries mixed in with Gotham's usual sense of dread, and love letters to classic Batman, this is a book that has all the charms to be a breakout hit.

Gotham by Midnight #3
Story: Ray Fawkes
Art: Ben Templesmith

While the first two issues of Gotham by Midnight were enjoyable, they felt like they suffered from a case of first-issue-itis, a condition where exposition abounds, although they did better about having stuff happen around the exposition, so that was a point in their favor. This third issue, though, feels like a home run, versus the solid grounds rule double of the previous two. With the mystery of what dark is rising in Gotham firmly established, we see Jim Corrigan and his partner called to a Gotham hospital to investigate a girl who seems to be demonstrating signs of smallpox. While this doesn't sound mystical, we soon see the girl has an autonomous shadow, like a very malignant version of Peter Pan's shadow, and that the shadow is what is carrying the disease. I like the new dynamic for Jim Corrigan. I didn't read his appearances in Phantom Stranger, so I don't know if this was established there, but this Corrigan seems much less inclined to let the Spectre, the angel of vengeance he houses, get full reign, something that is understandable if the Spectre is always like he is like when he was released in Batman: Eternal; collateral damage isn't something the Spectre seems to care about. We got some more time with Szandor Tarr, the team's resident scientist, who for some reason jumped out at me as one of those quirky characters I tend to like. The spotlight of this issue falls on Corrigan's partner, Lisa Drake. I liked the flashback's to Sister Justine's past last issue, and I'm glad to see Drake get hers this issue. It looks like we'll be getting flashbacks tied into each issue's A-Plot as a regular occurrence in the style of Lost and Arrow, which I like as a way to get backstory out there without tons of exposition. I didn't see the twist of what Drake is coming, and it's not something I want to spoil in this review, but I also like that she used her brain to defeat the shadow demon and didn't rely on her gift/curse. There are comics like Justice League Dark that are superhero comics with trappings of horror; my problem with early issues of Constantine was that they had that vibe as well, while I thought they should be different. Gotham by Midnight is a horror comic with some superhero aspects just sort of thrown in for flavor. Gotham is a city that lends itself to horror, and now those threatened by the mystical in Gotham have the hero's they deserve.

Harley Quinn #14
Story: Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Chad Hardin

There are certain characters that would have an issue titled "A Day in the Life," and would give you exactly what you'd expect. Then there are characters like Harley Quinn, where any day in their life is so screwy you get nothing that you'd expect. Harley's been burning the candle at every end you can imagine between being landlady to a building of bizarre characters while holding down a job as a psychiatrist and one in an illegal roller derby, and this issue all that collides. Between one the exo-suits of the egg man who lives in her building running amok, a broken water heater, reports and patients, and a derby bout, there aren't enough hours in the day for Harley. Oh, and she has her first real date in ages lined up. If you've never read Harley Quinn, this issue does a great job of both throwing you in the deep end and letting you know everything you need to know to get the fullest experience out of this issue. We see Harley in and out of costume, and we see exactly what kind of person she is. The Harley we get from Conner and Palmiotti is much more akin to her classic personality, and less in line with the more deranged version from the recent Suicide Squad series. Harley will chase after muggers who steal from a little old lady, but will still tie up an annoying S&M enthusiast at the nursing home she works at, and then save the life of another old lady whose oxygen tank was stolen, the latest in a series of thefts at the nursing home that are a plot point that seems to be building towards something. And she is still haunted by her past with the Joker, as we see from her nightmares. By issue's end, everything has gone completely wrong: she missed her bout, lost her date, and still has problems at her homestead. This is all done with a ton of humor, something artist Chad Hardin captures beautifully. If Amanda Conner herself can't be drawing this comic, Hardin is an excellent choice. If you're looking for a madcap comedy that is deeply comedy driven, you should definitely be reading Harley Quinn, and this is a great jumping on point.

Multiversity Guidebook #1
Story: Grant Morrison
Art: Various

Grant Morrison is a writer who can take something simple and twist it around into something you don't expect. Here, he take the typical guidebook and crafts a narrative comic around it, creating stories within stories in the way the readers have come to expect out of Morrison. More akin to DCs Secret Files and Origins of the 90s, this isn't simply pages after page of each of the fifty two universes, although that's in here too. It mixes the narrative around Earths- 42, 51, and the comic books that tie the worlds together. Earth-42 is the home of the Little League, childlike versions of the DC heroes, and ones who are attacked by the legion of Sivanas from the previous Multiversity story, "Thunderworld," before the Batman of the radioactive Earth-17 arrives on his grail hunt. Morrison makes the Atomic Knights of that dystopian world more akin to the Knights of the Round Table, which is one of those Morrisonian tropes that seems perfectly logical when you read it. Pretty soon Li'l Batman has opened a comic that gives him a view of Earth-51, the Jack Kirby Earth created out of the end of Final Crisis, where Kamandi finds caves that have a history of the multiverse on them. This elegant bit of story lays out how all the Crises that have affected DC continuity exist in one continuum, a love letter to DC history. We do get the breakdown of the 52 Earths (or 45, as seven are mystery Earths), and the issue ends with the more details of the menace of the Gentry and the Empty Hand that they serve. The Empty Hand is something DC fans can recognize from the past, as nearly everything in this issue nods to past stories. Morrison loves DC Comics, loves it's history, and this series is him telling us why. Mix in Marcus To's art on the top level Batmans narrative, Paolo Siqueira's on the Kamandi narrative, and a murderers'  row of artists on the guidebook pages, you have a comic that speaks to everything we love about superhero comics.

The Unwritten: Apocalypse #12
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Peter Gross

Bidding goodbye to a long-running series you've been reading since the beginning is a part of being a comic book fan. I've done it before, and I'll do it again. But The Unwritten is a special case. It's a book I went into super psyched for, and came out of even more psyched for. There was never a lag, never a wasted moment. This final issue ties up the story in a neat bow without seeming pat. The way that all the worlds are saved, how Leviathan (the great beast of story, not the DC terrorist organization or the Marvel Cold War Soviet Hydra-analogue) is healed, it's all a perfect, elegant solution that stared you right in the face from issue one of the current volume but only on second reading. It's a tragic ending, like most endings to long term Vertigo series are, but every character gets the end they deserve, or have earned. A heroic death for a man who never viewed himself as a hero is a good death. And some characters have learned something about themselves. I will say the Pauly Bruckner gets to return to Willowbrook Wood, and Wilson Taylor, like Roland Deschain at the end of Stephen King's Dark Tower, sets out on a journey he's made before in a way he never would have before the last journey. Tommy does finally face down Pullman and Madame Rausch, the (pun intended) puppet master behind everything that has gone before. And we get to see the fates of pretty much every important character from the book's long history. More than any other comic, this final issue is appropriately meta, and if you've read the series, you know that is a high complement.  I'm planning a longer retrospective piece on The Unwritten timed to post around the time the final trade is released, and this isn't an issue new readers can just jump into, but take it from me, this is a comic that is well worth the time to read.