pfeiffer@uwvax.UUCP (Phil Pfeiffer) (02/11/86)
Some time ago a contributor to net.comics mentioned that a summary of
the changes that the Crisis imposed on the DC Universe ought to be posted
to the net. I'm not best person to do this, but I feel I owe this group
a debt of gratitude. I'm only going to try to summarize the deaths and
what I know of the changes, because it's been years since I've read comics,
and I can't properly say what new characters the Crisis introduced.
I think we must assume any characters who died at any point in Crisis
before the recreation of time stayed dead afterward, Harbinger excepted.
Deaths:
-------
The Earth-III Crime Syndicate -- Power Ring, Ultraman, SuperWoman, Owlman,
Johnny Quick, et. al. -- and the heroic Earth-III Luthor wiped out when
their universe is destroyed by anti-matter. (Crisis #1)
The Losers (Sarge, Navajo Ace, Gunner, Captain Storm), Flower (of Easy
Company), killed by shadow demons (Crisis #3).
Nighthawk (a wild west hero), killed by shadow demons (Crisis #3).
Kid Psycho killed by shadow demons (Crisis #3).
The Monitor blown away by Harbinger (Crisis #4).
Supergirl totaled by the anti-Monitor. (Crisis #7)
Barry Allen, aka the Flash, dies wiping out the anti-Monitor's anti-matter
cannon. (Crisis #8)
Earth-II Luthor murdered by Braniac. (Crisis #9)
Nightshade, a Blue-Beetle-earth-whatever hero (?). (Crisis #9, p. 9)
Tula (Aquagirl), killed by villian-induced water pollution, and the polluter
(Chemo), in turn, destroyed by Negative Woman (Crisis #9/#10).
Psimon, top blown off by Braniac (Crisis #10).
Reported dead in passing: Starman, Immortal Man (Crisis #10).
Killed by shadow demons in Crisis #11:
The Dove, [of the Hawk and the Dove]
Lori Lemaris (Aquawoman?)
Robin-II
Kole
the Huntress
Prince Ra-Man
Clayface
Bandit
Green Arrow-II
Sunburst, presumably by shadow demons (Crisis #12).
The anti-Monitor totaled, finally, by Superman II. (Crisis #12).
Tomar-Re, one of the long-standing minor characters in the Green Lantern
series, himself a Green Lantern, is killed (described in GL #198, which I
haven't read).
About a third of the Green Lantern Corps is reported wiped out. (GL #200)
Changes:
--------
A new Earth-V (?) hero, Lady Quark, incorporated into the DC continuum
(you might not see much more of her, however). (Crisis #4).
A new, heroic, edition of Dr. Light, created by the Monitor. (Crisis #4).
Red Tornado "liberated" from robot body, reverting to elemental force;
robot body destroyed (irretrievably?). (Crisis #5, JLA crossover, Crisis #8)
The old Earth-whatever(?) Wildcat incapactitated saving a child; a woman of
Hispanic descent takes over for him. (Crisis #5/6)
A bunch of Earth-II characters and settings incorporated into the
reconstituted earth; probably the most important of the lot are Flash-II
(and Keystone City), Green Lantern-II, Dr. Fate, (another) Captain Atom
and the Blue Beetle. (Crisis #11)
Barry Allen's "Cosmic Treadmill" destroyed (Crisis #11).
Wally West takes over as the new Flash, with severely circumscribed powers
(Crisis #12)
Superboy of Earth-Prime, Alex Luthor, Superman II, and Lois II disappear
from the known DC universe (Crisis #12). (Ah, but will they return?...)
Wonder Woman of Earth-I returned to clay (Crisis #12).
Wonder Woman-II adopted by the gods of Olympus (Crisis #12).
Guardians give up their guardianship, and disappear off into the ozone with
the Zamorrans, to make new baby immortal guardians. (GL 200)
Unresolved Issues:
------------------
Steel teleported "to a place from which he will never return". (Crisis #9)
Hawkman-II reported near death after being ignited by Dr. Phosphorus.
(Crisis #9/#10).
What will DC do with the characters of Pariah and Harbinger now?
What happens to Star Sapphire, now that her patrons, the Zamorrans, are gone?
Will Solivar recover? (left unspecified in Crisis #11). (... should you care?)
=============================================
Some other points I'd like to raise:
1. Has anyone summarized ALL the characters who appeared in Crisis yet?
I was going to try, but I don't think I want to take the time [even
the Ambush Bug appears on a poster in Crisis #9, p. 13, and I've been
away too long to recognize the characters].
Better question: how many important DC characters didn't appear in
Crisis? Were there any? I know there was an issue of Ambush Bug dealing
with the characters who were absent (Inferior Five, Bat-Mite, et. al).
Was there anything ever said about the absence of the Bizarro worlds?
2. INCONSISTENCY? Crisis #1 and #2 features a female character, a vintage
WWII superheroine named Firebrand. There's a scene in Crisis #7, p. 17,
involving a similarly-costumed character named Firebrand; only, Firebrand
appears to be male. What's going on here?
3. The Marvel family heroes came off rather worse than one might expect,
failing to defend Brazil, failing to prevent the deaths of the Huntress
et al. ... I think Changeling's remarks about quitting if and when
kid Marvel, baby Marvel, and fetus Marvel showed up on the scene
summarized the series' attitude toward Golden Age excesses.
4. I didn't like the offhanded way that the new Flash's powers were defined
in Crisis #12. Do you suppose that the people at DC felt that the Flash
stories would be better if their new Flash had severely circumscribed
speed limitations?
5. I thought that Darkseid was bumped off by Desaad in a recent DC miniseries.
If so, how do the events of Crisis fit into the DC time continuum?
--------------------
"You see, I like to remember the past because those were better times than
now. I mean, I'd rather live in the past than today, wouldn't you? I mean,
nothing's ever certain anymore. Nothing's ever predictable like it used to
be. These days ... y-you just never know who's going to die ... ... and
who's going to live."
--
-- Phil Pfeiffer
...!{harvard,ihnp4,seismo,topaz}!uwvax!pfeiffer
(608) 263-7308ins_akaa@jhunix.UUCP (Ken Arromdee) (02/13/86)
About Ambush Bug: Ambush Bug appears, NOT on a poster, in the Swamp Thing crossover, in the Monitor's satellite. (You can always try to rationalize it by saying it's Changeling taking the form of Ambush Bug) The "unresolved" subplot about Steel is resolved in Justice League, where he's sent into the far future and encounters the Lord of Time, who (I gather) is an old JLA villain. Steel does manage to return to the present. Other changes: In All-Star Squadron, Commander Steel (the new Steel's uncle) goes to Earth-1, and is missing for 40 years, until he appears in Justice League as the villain in the final JLA/JSA crossover, a few weeks later... The Freedom Fighters all go to Earth-X, where they'll stay until JLA #107-108. The female Firebrand is Danette Reilly, sister of the male firebrand (Rod Reilly). The female Firebrand first appeared in costume in All-Star Squadron #5 and has fire-related powers (similar to the Human Torch) that her brother does not. -- "We are going to give a little something, a few little years more, to socialism, because socialism is defunct. It dies all by iself. The bad thing is that socialism, being a victim of its... Did I say socialism?" -Fidel Castro Kenneth Arromdee BITNET: G46I4701 at JHUVM and INS_AKAA at JHUVMS CSNET: ins_akaa@jhunix.CSNET ARPA: ins_akaa%jhunix@hopkins.ARPA UUCP: ...allegra!hopkins!jhunix!ins_akaa
boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (02/25/86)
> From: uwvax!pfeiffer (Phil Pfeiffer) One general comment and one specific comment--- General: Eclipse is distributing for Independent Comics a series of indexes by Murray Ward to DC Comics, similar to George Olshevsky's Marvel Comics indexes. So far, there have been ones for the Teen Titans (5 issues) and the Doom Patrol (2 issues). Next month, they'll be doing a one-issue index to the Crisis series which will presumably include a definitive cross-reference to all of the CRISIS crossovers. Judging by previous indexes, each issue-entry (presumably) will include a description of the major events of that given issue. Specific: > I thought that Darkseid was bumped off by Desaad in a recent DC miniseries. > If so, how do the events of Crisis fit into the DC time continuum? I don't recall that Desaad ever bumped off Darkseid. 'Seid is a difficult man to kill. It should also be noted that the two previous and the one forthcoming SUPER POWERS mini-series *do not* fit into the regular DC continuity, as they are basicly just tie-ins to the Super Powers series of action figures (have you noticed that if they're for girls, they're called "dolls" and if for boys, "action figures"?) and the SUPER FRIENDS cartoon series. As for CRISIS, it's hard to say where it "fits in". With some comics (eg. INFINITY, INC. and TEEN TITANS), it's obvious which issues are pre-Crisis and which are post-Crisis. Some new series (eg. BOOSTER GOLD and BLUE BEETLE) are definitely post-Crisis. The current Superman stories are said to be pre-Crisis, buying time until Byrne's Superman comes on the scene. This last still leaves some problems where DC COMICS PRESENTS is concerned. The Superman of DCCP (and JLA #250, for that matter) is obviously still the same pre-Crisis Supes, but if so, how can he team up with Captain Atom or an obviously post-Crisis Lady Quark, Pariah, and Harbinger? I'm beginning to wonder how well DC has thought out these things. I hope that once Byrne's Superman gets off the ground, that they'll start taking this Earth-Only bit to heart and *not* refer to *anything* or *anybody* from before the Crisis. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM
boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (02/25/86)
> From: jhunix!ins_akaa (Ken Arromdee) > About Ambush Bug: Ambush Bug appears, NOT on a poster, in the Swamp Thing > crossover, in the Monitor's satellite. (You can always try to rationalize > it by saying it's Changeling taking the form of Ambush Bug) Why? While the Ambush Bug stories in ACTION COMICS, the DCCP issue with Kobra, the mini-series, and the Stocking Stuffer are reasonably obviously not part of "normal" DC continuity, ol' A.B. is definitely part of the DC Universe. His first two adventures in DCCP (his first story, against Superman and the new Doom Patrol and the escapade with the Superman and the Legion of Substitute Heroes), as well as his appearance in SUPERGIRL seemed pretty straightforwardly part of regular DC continuity. Of course, since in this post-CRISIS DC universe, those stories didn't necessarily happen (especially the Supergirl story)... --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM