"Zero Hour"
APPARITIONS FOUR
FIRST HOUR:
He sauntered down the sidewalk. It was early evening, getting darker, and there was a cool breeze like an eager hand. Passing an alley, he heard squelching noises and whimper. He kept walking.
Already, he'd seen (in his one hour since arriving - how that occurred, he wasn't sure) two murders, half a dozen rapes, and more homeless vagrants than he could remember. He smelled urine and pungent things he didn't recognize everywhere. The cry of sirens was ever present.
From what he'd gathered, this was the best part of the city. He turned a corner and passed a group of youths, the scent of tobacco hanging over them. They took one look at his military garb and scampered off like vermin. Continuing, he decided on one thing:
He liked this place much more than Krypton. Certainly much, much more than Earth.
It was another moment into his stroll that General Zod heard a struggling female voice, something he would have ignored (and recently had) if it wasn't for what she said.
"--At the scene in Washington, where a portion of the Crime Syndicate's battle with six unidentified superhumans has been tearing down the White House for the better part of an hour."
Zod followed the voice further, listening intently. He happened upon a cracked and fairly dusty window, behind which were heavy black bars, and even further back, a number of televisions. Each had the face of a young blonde woman on them. She spoke into a microphone.
"Reports say that the battle has been very back and forth between the Syndicate and - What does that say, Bob?" A male voice mumbled off-camera, and the woman curled her lip. "The Justice League...? What the Hell's our source on this?"
Zod leaned forward to study the flickering screens even more. Shapes appeared in the sky behind the reporter.
"Look - No, look, I honestly don't care who they are. We can't even definitely identify these people." The sky-shapes grew. "The last thing we need is another *BEEEP*ing group of maniacs keeping us like pets. I hope they butcher each other."
Zod looked closely, and soon the camera shifted to the background. "'Justice League'..." There were five of them. One stuck out most to him - The one in blue and red, an "S" on his chest.
"Who the *BEEEP* ever heard of that?"
By now the crowd could be heard making noise as the five joined in. Zod smiled, his feet already lifting off the ground. It couldn't be that hard to find them. And when he did...
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|
The World's Greatest Superheroes.....
"Zero Hour" APPARITIONS FOUR |
| JLA #6 - Hypertime | by Will Short |
|
Superman |
Atom |
Green Lantern |
Black Canary |
Firestorm |
Aquaman |
|
Flash |
Martian Manhunter |
Wonder Woman |
Red Tornado |
Plastic Man |
Batman |
SECOND HOUR:
A year in the past. Approximately. Of course, it was all running perpendicular, all occuring at the same time. This was especially apparent during the crisis in time known to some as "Zero Hour." Entropy was hungrily destroying away all times, all places. New York City was no more safe than anywhere else.
"There can't be any more than than three or four city blocks left!" Nightwing said to Warrior, making sure not to speak into the megaphone he'd been using to direct citizens off the streets, which were rife with literal rips in space-time. He knew the subways weren't any safer, but in situations like this, it was all just a man in a mask could do.
"True," Came a new voice, too coldly sure of itself to be welcome. "The rest or your world -- And universe is gone."
"Extant," Batman observed. He stood calmly next to Robin on top of a police car. Extant hovered near enough for Batman to feel the power, the chaotic, horrible power, eminating from him.
A white smile crossed the near-god's dark mask. "I can't even predict where the next fissure will open...Unfortunately for you."
And then it began, starting small and very deep inside him. It felt absently white, like parts of him were going missing, ripped into pain and finally, nonexistance. "No-- Pulling me aparrr--"
The feeling, before it faded along with the Batman, was something his body had a phantom recollection of. "Batman!" Robin and Nightwing approached the blue-white rift where their mentor had disentigrated. Nightwing tensed.
"My God..." They were distracted enough not to notice Extant, approaching Warrior already.
"Why?" said a voice that none of them could hear. It was just like Extant's. It was. He stood - Maskless as Hank Hall - With the Atom and Dove, away from the action, invisible to all but each other. Visitors from the present, if that time really existed. They watched their past play out before them.
"Why are we watching this?" He looked, sounded, uncomfortable.
Dove wasn't sure herself. She eyed the Atom, who didn't notice, so enticed by the past. "You're not watching," He said. "You're talking."
"Listen," Hall said, grabbing Ray's shoulder from behind, "I don't know why you're speaking like you have some sort of power in this situation. According to Dawn, we have destruction rampant on not just time, but all Hypertime - Something we need to--"
Ray spun his head back. "Something you yourself let out. And, from what Dove's said, that only the two of you united can fix."
There was enough command in Ray's words, much more than his teenage body suggested, that Hank let him go, still locked in a stare. "...Then..." The words wouldn't come. Atom turned away.
"Just watch."
Guy Gardner, Warrior, was already unconscious under the hands of Extant, and a barrage of heroes was in the vain process of avenging him. One was the original Green Arrow, who ground his teeth slightly as he set his weapon of choice. The man apparently behind it all was his target.
The twinge of his bow-string, and...
"No!" He cried, "Someone blasted him from behind -- I missed!"
There was a scream of energy from nowhere, engulfing Extant, his body aflame with pain. "Arghh! Who dares--?"
"I dare!" Waverider. A golden protector of time, riding the air, all chronal flames and of-the-moment heroics. He had appeared in the sky, bringing the assault with him. "And this is one Waverider you'll never kill!"
In tow, through the same portal, came the Atom. He looked older than the one observing on the sidelines, and he was, although this was his past. Ray noticed immeadiately, and so did Dove.
"Ray..." Dove was gentle, as always. She was almost in Ray's ear with softness. "Ray, you told me to trust you, and I have. But of all people, we don't have time for this. I know what it's like to have access to your past, maybe to change it, but....."
He wasn't responding. She knew if she could look into his eyes, she could convince him. Dove also knew that she could force him to leave with her. But that wasn't the way she did things.
"Ray...?"
The moment Ray Palmer remembered all too well was approaching. He turned fully around to face both Dove and Hank. "Here it comes, Hall. I want you to watch -- Very closely. And then...
"Then, we'll talk."
They watched.
THIRD HOUR:
The thing was, they'd never really been properly challenged before. Not really. A world where Evil was Good, and vice versa...They were simply the Crime Syndicate of Amerika, and that was enough. Until these people showed up.
Then again, the CSA wasn't sure whether to consider them a threat...
"Nghh!"
...Or yet another entertaining distraction.
Beads of sweat dripped down into J'onn J'onzz's eyes. He ignored them. His head slowly shifted to be taller, pointier. His body became more jagged and alien. This was his true form, where he could be most comfortable, and where his mind would be strongest. Still, it was struggling with another. He bared his teeth and grunted again.
Just open your weak little mind, Said the voice in his head, So I can see what you really are. The voice was inhumanly cold. J'onn could only assume it would sound the same coming out of this creature's mouth - The one grappling with him on top of the White House, overpowering him in mind and body. The Pale Martian.
It smiled in rows of needles. As much as J'onn tried, he couldn't help it. This was the most aggressive mind he'd ever encountered, and in a matter of seconds...
"Yes...A Green Martian. I thought I'd killed you all long ago," Said the Pale Martian. "I'll be sure to savor this last straggler." His body was like putty - Extremely dense putty that was covering J'onn's entire body, searching for every pore he had.
"J'onn!" Wonder Woman called out, cutting through the battle. A body jumped in her way, and she was ready to batter it before she really looked. "...Dinah?"
Black Canary stood between Diana and J'onn. "We've got bigger problems," She said.
"Dinah, he's in agony. Step aside and..."
"I've known J'onn a long time -- Even longer than you. Let him handle it, because I'm telling you that, right now, we've got bigger problems requiring you."
Diana peered over the Canary's shoulder and saw, with a wince, J'onn's struggling body wrapped totally in cream-colored scales. Then she looked around - And she realized: Firestorm and Kyle were battling the considerably more ruthless Power Ring. Johnny Quick had been captured and then burst free again from Superman, Red Tornado, and Wally, who were chasing him again. Aquaman, Batman, and Plastic Man were all taking turns either dealing with Owlman or helping the others.
All this and they still weren't quite winning. So many of them, and...
Wonder Woman remembered the flash that had brought them here. She remembered the unplanned attack that had come before, and that feeling, just that everything was going over the top. It was building in her again.
J'onn was choking - She could hear it. They didn't even know where the Atom was. Arthur took a cold dart in the neck from Owlman's gun. He grabbed it blindly, a trickle of blood running down his neck.
"No!" She cried, and Dinah nodded.
"Eleven of us, and look what's happening - We're just hitting them. We need someone to make war plans, Diana."
Again Wonder Woman looked at J'onn. Things had changed. He too was shifting, now a great long dragon-thing whose spiked back was encompassing the puddle of Pale Martian.
"...Okay. Let's do it," She said, distracted and unaware that the Canary was looking into the sky under the veil of he hand.
"Quick, then," Said Dinah. She pointed to the three bodies descending from the sky, "Because it looks like we've got more company." Wonder Woman recognized the bodies - Ultraman, Superwoman, and Ocean Master. Three she had helped defeat earlier, bringing their enemies to a full seven.
"Hera..."
CRASH
There was a noise that rumbled the entire White House roof. General Zod, his eyes flaming red, rose from his landing site. "Kal-El," He said calmly, "I would have words with you."
"What the Hell, man?" The Flash said, circling around Johnny Quick to dodge a lightspeed punch. "What else?" The newly arrived CSA members had already landed and were going straight to work. The roof became more crowded and chaotic than ever.
That feeling in Diana, in her stomach and in her muscles, grew worse.
And then there were giant eyes in the sky staring down on them. They were the Anti-Moniter's, his boxy gloves held out to encompass them all. There were more eyes behind his, larger and numerous. A skeleton in a Flash costume ran by over and over again. A young Justice Society looked around, wondering just where or when they were. Diana had a twin - Maybe two or three. Black Canary found that her super power, her canary cry, had returned, as had her original costume. She might've felt embarassed if she could remember how to control her powerful voice.
It was real. There were Green Lanterns, oh so many of them, from all across the stars. Power Girl was Superman's cousin. The Batman stalked Jack the Ripper in London's past. All those Hawkmen...
And it wasn't imaginary. None of it. It was all real, all at once. A White Wall pushed pieces of existence into one tiny space and it all existed at once. It was far too small a space.
The cracks formed. And then reality broke.
FOURTH HOUR:
A long time ago -- It seemed like forever ago -- Hank Hall considered himself a good guy. Not a great guy, but a decent, good guy who tried to do the right thing. That was before his other half was taken away. With her gone, he was incomplete...And then came all the badness: Future selves. The chaos and destruction. But by this point Hank had found his other half again, and ever since, he had been feeling more and more balanced. Reliving his past from the third person, feelings long lost returned.
Hall watched the joy he had took in removing the heroes one by one. In the pain and suffering he caused, throughout the eras. He remembered that all of time was erased with his help, and only born again without it. And it was going to happen again.
He realized the time was approaching soon, the one moment he assumed Ray was here for. Hall looked over to him, but the Atom was engrossed. He was going to act, Hall knew. He was going to try to change his own past while the rest of time fell.
"Good shot, Ryder!" Said the Atom of the past. "But from here on out we have to do whatever it takes to put this guy away!" Hall looked from the scene back to Ray again hurriedly. Ray watched himself shrink and enter what he had assumed was the ear of Extant.
"Well?" Hall said, grabbing his shoulder. "Aren't you going to do something?" Ray simply pointed forward and cringed as a tiny, muffled scream sliced the air.
"Yearrghh!" It was Ray's voice from a year ago, coming from Extant's head. "Energy -- Ripping through me!" The miniature body of the Atom fell out into the air and hovered there as it writhed in agony, aflame with...
"Chronal energy!" Said Extant. "Chronal energy I know turn upon you, little man!" And it all played out as they remembered it. The Atom regressed to a teenager, worse if Waverider hadn't interfered. And Hall watched it as closely as Ray, noticing things he never had before.
The blank look in his eyes as he did the deed. How intent and simply evil his voice had sounded as he tried to take a man's life. When he had done it, Hall hadn't given it any thought. But looking at it then, he couldn't help but feel something. Something...He wanted so very much to turn to Dove, but he didn't feel like he could.
"Why...?" He asked Ray again, more faintly. Ray looked at him. The events going on around them seemed trivial, just background noise. "Why didn't you do something?"
"Because then I'd be just as bad as you," Ray said, and then gestured back over his shoulder, "or Hal. It's not my place to change any of this. That's the one thing you learn from things like Zero Hour. And you might not have seen what I wanted you to." Ray looked deeply into Hank. "Did you?" He knew what Ray meant to show him. He nodded. Dove came in closer, touching Hall for the first time in too long.
"Hank...?" He hung his head.
"...I feel it. I feel guilty."
"Then do something about what you've started now," Ray insisted. "It won't make what you did then right...But everything can be saved if you'll drop the act and join her. Look," He pointed. "You two were meant to be together. And that's the only way you can stop Hypertime from ending, right? So do it."
Hank still hung his head. The guilt was strong, since he hadn't felt it in so long. But something warm was there too, and he realized it had been growing since Dove came. The balance was returning. He looked up finally and nodded. "Okay. I'll do it."
"Thank you, Hank," Dove said. She took both his hands and looked into his eyes.
"You don't know how long...I've wanted to join you again..." Hank said. She simply nodded, like she knew everything he could possibly say, so he stopped. "What do I do?"
"You'll know when we get there," Dove said. "But first...You have to take the next step." He was going to ask, then let her finish. "For us to be reunited you have to become what I have -- The next step up. And to do that, you have to shed mortal flesh. You have to die." There was fear in Hank's eyes. Death hadn't crossed his mind since he had become what he was. Seeing her, Dawn, and touching her made the words easier. He closed his eyes.
"I want you to do it, then." Ray looked away. It was too personal to watch. Dove reached out her hand, sparkling and wonderful, and touched Hank's head. All the layers that had built up -- He could feel them melting away right down to his core. Hank Hall met peace. When the soft burning subsided, a man and then a bird rose in his place. It was a hawk.
FIFTH HOUR:
Princess Diana looked around her. She was surrounded by friends and heroes. She had to consider them her soldiers. Some were still unaffected by the chaos slowly enveloping everything: Aquaman. J'onn. Firestorm. Green Lantern. Flash. The others had...Changed. They weren't any help as more than just General Zod, more than the Crime Syndicate came in. There were threats Diana had never heard of, never even imagined. She stared into it all and spoke to her semicircle. "Everyone ready?" They had to be. Diana held her lasso so tight it almost hurt. "Then stay together and focus. Keep order at all costs."
They moved as a single unit, but it was hard to find what was easily defined as a threat. Even the CSA had changed. Everything was popping in and out, shifting. But they had to do it. So they did. They spotted Batman first, having settled into a nice identity as Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Kyle approached him as his remaining friends fought off the hordes.
"Listen man," He said, finding the will behind the opposing ring indominable. Familiar, driven eyes stared back at him from behind a cowel. "...Yeah. Don't you think you need more black in the costume?" He just needed to buy Diana time -- That's all. Just...
A golden circle entered through the green shield and tightened on the should-be Batman. "No way you could be a better GL than me, Bats. I mean -- Yellow? Come on."
"Remember yourself," Wonder Woman stated calmly. The green-and-black dissolved into grey-and-black. Batman was released from the lasso and took his own personal second. Without a word he joined them. There were more.
Pushing through a flight of Parademons, they found Plastic Lad, founding member of the Legion of Superheroes, and returned him to normal. A fishnet-wearing, screaming Black Canary became herself again. The wind elemental that thought itself a man named Holland was again the Red Tornado. And an aging farmer, suspenders and all, took up the legend of Superman once more.
"...Thank you, Diana," He said, stepping out of the lasso.
"So what now?" Said Firestorm. "Look at this place. It's..." He looked around. "Place" was stretching it. It seemed like it was improving slightly, and he could hardly take it all in at once. "What are we gonna do?"
"What are we gonna do," Flash said quielty. "Weren't you ever a member..."
"Yeah, I was. Before you." Firestorm had flown down into his face, which Wally was accepting more than gladly. "In fact, I took on the League myself. You've been giving me crap this whole time, and I'll be glad to show you--"
"Dude! Wally -- Ronnie." Kyle forced a green, bald referee to seperate the two. "C'mon, this isn't the time or the place." Firestorm fought the creation. The flame on top of his head was spreading, his body all red.
"I..." He stepped back. "...Not again..." Firestorm errupted in an inhuman scream as his body recalled the atomic flame that created him. The scene around them pitched in response.
"Can anyone tell me what's going on?" Plastic Man asked, his brain about to pop the veins on his forehead. Someone answered him.
"The chaos is forcing its way through to the order that's challenging it. Fighting among yourselves, these different...Versions. It's striking at you directly." That voice, best-suited for lecture halls, if a little young. The Atom landed on J'onn's shoulder.
"You're back," The Martian said. "You sounds like you can help." Ray shook his head.
"No. But they can." He pointed straight up.
Two birds soared overhead - One a true beast of a raptor, the other, a graceful stream of virgin feathers. Both seemed as large as the sun, which wasn't there. The sky they flew against was a gradient that faded from the purest blinding white to a blue, like the sea, and finally to the black of night, dotted with white stars and the planetary gems of deep space. All the things around them were dissappearing - All the twisted mirror images. Firestorm was again himself, and found that he and the League were almost the only things left. The White House was gone.
"What..." The Canary started, then stopped. The sight was irresistable, as it was all that existed besides the twelve heroes. They all watched.
The birds circled in ripples that became ever smaller. At the center of their chase was an image, if you could call it that, more like a ghost. It was a hand. Not the hand of a man or anything that could be defined, like a god, because it was just too massive. But the birds were bigger.
At the palm of the hand there swirled an ethereal swell of mist, which at a closer look was a collection of spheres and dots and rings, which ended up being an entire galaxy. The birds descended on the hand, and its contents, and taking a portion into each of their great beaks, they consumed it whole. No trace was left. Balance was returned, and they could feel it in their bones that whatever it was - The White Wall, Evil, Entropy - Had subsided.
The canvas of space became the night sky overlooking Washington, D.C. - The right one. The birds were two figures, male and female, floating before the entire Justice League. Hawk and Dove looked down on them as if to say, "Good luck. Don't screw this one up." And only the Atom could really understand that much, anyway.
When their bodies became less than there and their eyes blinked goodbyes, Black Canary lurched forward with a red face. "No! You people, you always get away!" Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked tired. "In the middle of it all you decide you've changed your mind, you were wrong and...You killed heroes, dammit! Real people with families and friends and - And histories."
Hawk, who seemed very beautiful to her (and made her all the more frustrated for it), peered down at her with twinkling eyes. She looked close to tears, of rage or remorse or some combination. Wonder Woman tried to reatin her, but only so much. She kept on.
"Now we're just going to let you go? After all you've done?" Hawk didn't have the answer. Dinah turned to her friends, hands outthrust.
"What the Hell kind of justice is that?" She looked first to Batman. As always his face only told as much as he spoke. He said nothing. She passed over Wonder Woman to land on Atom. Tiny, on the Flash's shoulder, he knew what she was asking, and to whom.
"Dinah," He said, almost apologetically, "Things are different. I know it's hard, but that isn't him, really. Not anymore."
The Canary took her time to return to Hawk. He'd descended to almost her level, which allowed her to truly feel his presence. Dove looked on in approval.
"What does that mean?" Dinah asked.
Hawk's voice had an echo to it. "Extant is dead. I died to saveeverything, and when I did, that part of me was burned away, as was Hank Hall. All that is left is this - Hawk. I'm not the same person...not even a person."
"But you were! Don't give me some sort of New Age crap! Hank Hall was Hawk."
"And he's dead. Dinah," He said, more gently than ever, "I still remember doing those things - Every one of them. And what Extant, or Hank Hall, would have never told you is that they felt grief over it."
He leaned in very close. Normally Dinah would have broken someone's bones by this point. But she let him, sniffing his musky aroma. He whispered.
"Please...Tell them. The families of the Justice Society, their friends. Tell them I'm sorry. And when you do, believe that it's true."
He touched her forehead, just barely. Dinah still hurt, but it felt like someone had at least tended the wound. Hawk pulled back, up into the air next to Dove. One last look at the Atom, one that stuck with him, and they faded into a pair of birds that fled, dissapearing in the night.
"...Is everyone alright? Everyone here?" Superman finally asked. He sounded as tired as everyone looked. There was a general agreement. "Then, if no one has a problem...Let's go home. If anyone can think of anything we need to take care of, let's do it now, but...I know we have a lot to think about. People we'd like to see. Are there any objections?"
There were none.
"Okay. Regular monitor duty is in as of tonight, then. I hope everyone sleeps well."
The mild chatter started up. Some were leaving, some were standing alone...The Flash and Atom were talking.
"...Where'd you go, Ray?" Wally asked, holding his friend in his palm. "We were worried."
Ray searched for something that he wasn't sure of and decided he didn't want to find it. "I was just...Out there. Unconscious, you know, until all of that happened."
"Really? Lucky." Wally flashed a smile and Ray forced one back. "Need a lift home?"
"...Yeah. Thanks." Ray Palmer, the Atom - Physicist and one of the world's greatest intellects - Reclined into the soft material of the Flash's costume. His head hurt, and didn't feel like it would stop anytime soon.
SIXTH HOUR:
*Sir? We have a visual on Zod.*
"He survived, then?"
*Yes sir. He looks like he's taken a beating, but he's leaving the scene on foot and - Yes, the JLA hasn't noticed.*
Below the helicopter, on the ground below, a deep voice exclaimed lightly, "I'm alive."
"Don't give them the chance. Sedate and retrieve him immeadiately."
*But sir, he's--*
"You have Kryptonite-tipped darts. Obviously he's not all there if he's not flying, or at least paranoid. I've had Sandra set up a hotel room for him. She'll send you the address and room information."
*What if he...You know, wakes up?*
"That's why I pay you people. Handle it."
*...Of course, Mister Luthor.*
"I'm sending the information now. L.L. out."
A loud click rang through the office. Someone leaned back in his chair, looking over a golden city through his yards-wide window. It was his. Almost all his. He spoke as if to someone invisible, clearly like the sheen on his bald head or on the purple armor hidden somewhere in the room.
"Soon."
SEVENTH HOUR:
"This..." Ultraman looked back down at his feet and began pacing again. "Can anyone tell me what today was?"
His six-member captive audience sat around the table. They remembered only sketches of what had happened, but the important parts were there: Justice League. Owlman broke the silence. "An embarassment?"
Ultraman stopped at the center and looked up. His eyes had a tiny glare of red. "Yes," He said, and his voice raised as he continued. "Today was an embarassment." A screen shattered under his fist. The chairs the others sat on were uncomfortable but they clung to them for dear life.
"Now," Said Ultraman, "Let me tell you why today's embarassment was so bad." He walked over to a window, large enough that the moonscape and a planet could be seen. "This little place? This one right here?" He said, pointing. "The people there fear us. Why? Because we're the most powerful beings alive."
"Apparently not..." Superwoman let out under her breath. Ultraman shot a look her way and she shrank further into the chair. He continued, taking them all into his sight.
"Fear is power - Power is fear. And when we are taken apart by some 'Justice League'," And he hit the window only hard enough to crack it, doing so more with each syllable, "They. Fear. Us. Less!"
Ultraman left the battered window and went over to the table, each of his steps felt by the others. He sat in the head seat and put his head down on his hands, looking at the table's surface. The reflection he saw reminded him of someone he'd met earlier today. He realized he had a horrible migraine, his first ever.
"...So, uh," Power Ring said after a silence, his voice quivering slightly. "So what do we do?" Ultraman didn't look up. Ocean Master slid his hook across the table as he cleared his throat, and it made a little noise that made Ultraman flinch.
"Did you see how many of them there were? Nine? Ten?" Asked the blonde man. Owlman quickly interjected.
"Eleven."
"Eleven," Ocean Master said. "And if they're a true League, there are likely more. There are seven of us."
"Sowhatman? We'relikethescariest...Scariest mother -- M-muh..." Johnny Quick's veins looked like tiny chords under his suit.
"There are others," Ocean Master said. "What do you think, Ultraman? A membership drive. A bigger Syndic--"
"Wait. Shut up." Ultraman lifted his head and smiled. His headache was already fading. "I just had an idea...
"A membership drive. A bigger Syndicate."
NEXT ISSUE: The name Faust returns to Justice League history! A small team led by Batman has to handle the threat while dealing with each other and the forced addition of a new member. Friday the Thirteenth is bad even for Batman in "Unlucky Numbers".
So. Was I the only one confused by any of that? No? Okay, good. Just making sure. Anyway, since it's my last issue (for now) answering letters for Will, we better go ahead and get to our only one for the time being, coming in from a fellow named Steve Crosby, the only man alive who gets to tell Batman what to do. This posted on the JLU message board:
And finally, because it hasn't recieved the accolades it deserves, Will Short's JLA #5. I loved every scene that featured Hank Hall and the second Dove. The constant shifting of Hank into his incarnations of Hawk, Monarch, and Extant, were well done, and Dove's part in trying to stop his current rampage of chaos was very cool. I especially loved the revelation of what became of Don Hall. Considering that this Agent of Order was killed at the moment of all-time chaos and change, you just knew it wouldn't have been as clean-cut as it had seemed.
And yes, the JLA faces off against their counterparts, and there are evil versions of Martian Manhunter and Aquaman! This was my only complaint about Morrison's JLA: Earth 2, and I'm glad to see that Will remedied it as brillaintly as he did. Alas, the mere fact that there is an alternate world brings us to the one flaw I found in this story, and even I am hesitant to call it a flaw, considering all the terrific storytelling that's coming of it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Hypertime exists in JLU continuity. At least, I think the Kindom storyline occured after JLA #4. But it doesn't matter, because it looks like Will is going to destroy it anyway, in an event that has been dubbed "The Fourth Crisis."
One question Will, what was the second Crisis? I'm thinking Armageddon 2001, because Hank Hall was the villain; and because it involved time travel and alternate futures. Still, it'd be nice if you made this clear in the next issue. I'm not a fan of multiple timelines that constantly interact, and hopefully Will makes Hypertime a one-shot deal. Other than that, I will very much enjoy this storyline. The JLA face the only team that can equal them, Hank Hall is forced to confront the deaths of both his partners, and the Atom is the only man who can prevent the end of all existance. Yeah, you heard me right.
Keep up the good work Will. You're a great editor, web-master, and writer. You've again reminded me why I agreed to join here, and why it's always a pleasure to be working with you.
Sounds like you're really sucking up, Steve. Great job (Kidding man, kidding...Please, God, don't get Batman on me)! Will appreciates all of your comments, and says about the Crises (multiple for crisis): "There have now been four seperate crises in time. The first was Crisis on Infinite Earths. The second occured in the pages of ANIMAL MAN during most of Gran Morrison's wonderful run, #1-26, and was very well-done and understated. The third was Zero Hour, and now, the fourth has come and gone. Keep in mind that the other three Crises had some lasting effect on continuity...Sometimes, it just took a while for them to catch up."
...And that's all he gave me. Creepy, huh? Will was real glad to hear from you Steve, and he hopes you liked the ending to this storyline, which has finally reached an ending. My run here as lettercol host has finally ended too, and so has this issue's JLA MAIL ROOM. I had fun guys...And I hope the next guy in line gets a little more to work with than I did!
Peace.
