Justiniano

This is a weird book, and by itself, it doesn't really work. It has a followup to each of the Countdown to Infinite Crisis miniseries (Day of Vengeance, Rann-Thanagar War, The OMAC Project, and Villains United), showing what its characters were doing during Infinite Crisis itself. These could have been tacked on to the ends of each Countdown trade, or even better, included in Infinite Crisis itself as they comprise somewhat important parts of its story, showing how the Spectre is brought under control, how the space heroes fight the rift in the Polaris Galaxy, and most importantly, what the heck was going on with that worldwide prison break. By themselves, they're just kinda weird little stories that don't mean anything. Or rather, parts of stories.

In "The Ninth Age of Magic," a group of over thirty magic users draws the Seven Deadly Sins out of Gotham after the explosion of the Rock of Eternity. It's pretty perfunctory: one by one a member of Shadowpact finds and confronts a Sin. Its real interest is in the gaps it plugs, not in it as a story. "Hands of Fate" has a similar problem: adding all the heroes recruited by Wonder Girl to the already-overcrowded space hero group doesn't make these people more interesting. Alan Scott's daughter Jade, who hadn't even been in the story before, is killed off for some reason.

Thankfully, the last two stories are the best. "The Lazarus Protocol" is the least "essential" to Infinite Crisis: Sasha Bordeaux leads a group to finally defeat Brother Eye after it crashes to Earth, but reading Infinite Crisis, you would just assume it was destroyed in the crash itself. But it brings Sasha's story (begun in The OMAC Project) to a nice conclusion, as she learns how to be her own person-- and a hero-- outside the confines of Checkmate, making it the best and most pointful story in the book.

Finally, there's "A Hero Dies But One": the Secret Six try to find their place in the world and Oracle and the Martian Manhunter draw together every hero they can to combat the global prison break. It's not a hugely complicated story, but it is fun. Simone, as always, has a talent for groups and a talent for humor.

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This is the first of the "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" collections, chronologically speaking, collecting two storylines, "Lightning Strikes Twice" and the eponymous "Day of Vengeance." It opens with a two-page overview of "The Nature of Magic," which tries to organize what is known about DC's magical universe, from sources as disparate as Green Lantern, the Fourth World, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Captain Marvel, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, and even Lucifer. I'm not sure it needs to be done, nor that this all actually adds up to anything, but I guess I applaud them for trying.

"Lightning Strikes Twice" is a Superman story, involving the attempt of Eclipso (who I recall from 1992's crossover event Eclipso: The Darkness Within, of which I read the Justice League Europe and Green Arrow chapters) to possess a new host, ideally Superman-- meanwhile Captain Marvel tries to help out despite the increasing difficulties of his mentor, the wizard Shazam. There's probably a good story to be written about Superman's struggle with anger, but this isn't it. It's a perfunctory, typical superhero possession story, and I didn't find that writer Judd Winick nor artists Ian Churchill and Norm Rapmund did anything interesting with it.

Part of this story picks up ramifications from Green Lantern: Rebirth, which I haven't read, but I know that Hal Jordan ceases to be the host of the Spectre; the Spectre turns up at the end of "Lightning Strikes Twice" without a host, aimless and guideless. This causes Eclipso to get an idea, and in "Day of Vengeance," it has persuaded the Spectre that all magic is contrary to God's Law and must be destroyed. With the Spectre on a rampage, it's up to an impromptu team of magic users to stop it, most of which I had never heard of: Blue Devil (I remember him from Crisis on Infinite Earths), Enchantress (nope), Nightmaster (nope again), Nightshade (still nope), Detective Chimp (I know the name, but nothing else), and Ragman (certainly not).

It makes for a decent superhero story: group of disparate heroes have to work together, discovering they have purpose in the process. It's not very interesting (an ongoing about this team picked up from Day of Vengeance, but I won't be reading it), but it's interesting enough. Each character narrates a different issue in turn, and some of these were more successful than others; obviously Detective Chimp is the best narrator, whereas many of the other characters could have been anyone. Captain Marvel plays a big role again, but I was very surprised to see Birds of Prey's Black Alice pop up here; I hadn't known she'd had any impact outside of her own book.

When this story does succeed (aside from all scenes featuring Detective Chimp), it's when it gives you the feeling of scale of what it would mean for the Spectre to be on a rampage against magic through every dimension. When Ragman and Enchantress are in a mystical forest early on, there's this great, unexpected page turn when you see the Spectre fighting Blackbrian Thorn, and the combatants just tower over our heroes. It's moments like this that make a magic-based story distinct from every other superhero story (seriously, most magic blasts could be heat rays for all it matters), and there's not quite enough of them in "Day of Vengeance," but where do they turn up (there's another good one where the Enchantress taps the universe's magic users for power to help Captain Marvel) they really sell this as something different, something bigger.

Now, what does all this have to do with the brewing Infinite Crisis? To be honest, I have little idea and I'm not hooked enough to care yet, either. But ever onwards we plunge.

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