Final Crisis

Info About Final Crisis:

"Final Crisis" is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely by J. G. Jones; artists Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy and Doug Mahnke later provided art for the series.^[1][2] It directly follows DC Universe #0 after the conclusion of the 51-issue Countdown to Final Crisis weekly limited series.^[3] Promotion about the limited series describes its story as "the day evil won". The series deals with alien villain Darkseid's plot to overthrow reality, and the subsequent death and corruption of various DC characters and their universe.

Publication history

Final Crisis came out of several ideas Grant Morrison had when he returned to DC Comics in 2003. Morrison said, "I pitched a huge crossover event called Hypercrisis, which didn’t happen for various reasons. Some of Hypercrisis went into Seven Soldiers, some went into All-Star Superman, some went into 52 and some of it found a home in Final Crisis."^[4] According to Grant Morrison, work finally began on Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, with the intention of the series being a thematic and literal sequel to Seven Soldiers and 52, two projects that Morrison was heavily involved in at the time.^[5]
References to Infinite Crisis as the "middle Crisis"^[6] gave readers the impression there would be at least one additional major follow-up to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. A May 2007 teaser poster confirmed this speculation with the tagline: "Heroes die. Legends live forever."
Final Crisis was preceded by Countdown, a year-long weekly series which was meant as a follow-up to 52. Halfway through, the series was renamed Countdown to Final Crisis. However, the artwork met with delays.^{[citation needed]} To keep the release on schedule, Countdown wrapped with issue #1 and its planned final issue (#0) was revamped as a 50 cent one-shot special called DC Universe #0. Besides hyping upcoming storylines such as "Batman R.I.P." and "Blackest Night," the issue was narrated by Barry Allen and featured Libra leading a group of super-villains in prayer for the "god of evil", Darkseid. The result is, as described by Morrison, that "we’re watching him fall back through the present, into the past of Seven Soldiers where he finally comes to rest in the body of 'Boss Dark Side’, the gangster from that story."^[5]
To help readers identify events pertinent to Final Crisis and other major DCU events as the crossover approached, a "Sightings" cover banner appeared on various DC comics as "signposts, marking important storybeats and moments throughout the DC Universe."^[7] The first such headers appeared on Justice League of America (vol. 2) #21 and Action Comics #866, respectively (the JLA issue featured Libra's return and his recruiting of the Human Flame).
The original intent was for Jones to pencil the whole series. Due to delays, however, Carlos Pacheco drew issues #4-6 with Jones, and issue 7 was drawn entirely by Doug Mahnke. Jones said that “Any problems completing the series are my own. I love Doug Mahnke’s art, and he would have probably been a better choice to draw this series in the first place.”^[8]
In addition to the core limited series the larger storyline includes a number of tie-ins, including one-shots and limited series.
The one-shots comprise "Requiem,"^[9] "Resist,"^[10] "Secret Files" and "Submit". Also "Rage of the Red Lanterns" is the start of a storyline of the same name, that picks up on events in "Green Lantern: Secret Origin" and continues in Green Lantern #36-38. It starts as a tie-in because, according to writer Geoff Johns, "events in Final Crisis have motivated the Guardians to proceed further with their attempted containment of the light".^[11]
The limited series comprise Superman Beyond (a two issue mini-series also written by Grant Morrison), Legion of 3 Worlds (a five-issue limited series focusing on the different incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes^[12]), Revelations (a five-issue limited series^[13]), and Rogues' Revenge (a three-issue mini-series focused on the Flash Rogues^[14]).

Plot

Following the final battle of the New Gods, the spirit of the lord of evil, Darkseid, tumbles through time itself, coming to rest on Earth, where it, along with the spirits of the other evil gods of Apokolips, manifests itself in the body of a human being. Darkseid's "fall" has sundered reality, creating a singularity at the heart of creation, into which all of space and time are slowly being drawn, setting the stage for the evil god's final victory, to be claimed in his inevitable death. Through his agent Libra, he arranges for a huge army of super villains to be gathered, who capture and murder the Martian Manhunter as the opening salvo of the conflict. Coinciding with the Manhunter's death is the arrival on Earth of Nix Uotan, an exiled member of the cosmic Monitors, who has been sentenced to become human as punishment for failure in his duties.
Following the trail of a group of missing child prodigies, detective Dan Turpin discovers the dying body of Darkseid's son, Orion. The Justice League of America liaise with the Green Lantern Corps to investigate the murder, deducing the cause of death to be a bullet of Radion—a substance toxic to New Gods—fired backwards through time from the future. New God Granny Goodness, possessing the body of Green Lantern Kraken, stymies the investigation by framing Hal Jordan for the murder; when Batman deduces her true identity, she captures him and teleports him to Command D, a government bio-chemical weapons facility beneath the city of Blüdhaven that has also fallen under the control of Darkseid's minions. Slowly becoming aware of the threat the evil gods pose, Alan Scott enacts "Article X", a super hero draft, that readies Earth's metahuman forces for the coming war.
With Batman and Jordan removed from play, the New Gods continue to eliminate the greatest threats to Darkseid's plan. Wonder Woman is infected by the Morticoccous bacteria by a Desaad-possessed Mary Marvel while investigating Blüdhaven. Superman departs for the future in order to obtain a cure for Lois Lane when a bomb in the Daily Planet building mortally wounds her. The Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, is resurrected from within the Speed Force by powers unknown, but then races back in time alongside Wally West, attempting to outrun the Black Racer, the Death of the New Gods, and stop the bullet that will kill Orion.
Turpin's search for the missing children leads him to the Dark Side Club, where he is confronted by Darkseid's human host, Boss Dark Side. The evil god transfers his essence into Turpin's body and brings him to Command D, where the detective is subjected to bio-genetic restructuring to transform his body into a replica of Darkseid's original form. Concurrently, Darkseid's agents release the Anti-Life Equation through all of Earth's communications networks, spreading it across the entire planet. The two Flashes, having failed to prevent Orion's death, emerge from the time stream one month after the equation's release, and discover that the minds of nearly the entire population have fallen under Darkseid's control, with its super-human victims having been transformed into a military force of "Justifiers".
With the help of the Tattooed Man, the Super Young Team and former allies of the New Gods of New Genesis Shilo Norman and Sonny Sumo, the small cells of super heroes who have managed to resist the equation discover a possible salvation: a symbol from the alphabet of the New Gods that will break the equation's control over minds, which was gifted to the cave-boy Anthro by Metron in prehistoric times. Meanwhile, a huge battle erupts between the superheroes and the Justifiers in Blüdhaven, during which the equation-controlled Wonder Woman infects the heroes with Morticoccous, which strips the heroes of their powers. However, the loss of these troops is soon mitigated by the turning of Libra's Justifiers, control over whom is usurped by Lex Luthor and Doctor Sivana so they can help defeat Darkseid. These twists and turns are observed by Nix Uotan, whose powers and memories of his true nature are unlocked with the help of Metron and a mysterious ape-like figure in a robe.
Escaping confinement in Command D, Batman uses the radion bullet to mortally wound Darkseid, before the dark god uses his Omega Beams to kill Batman. Superman returns to the present and tears Command D apart to recover Batman's corpse, and faces off against Darkseid as the Flashes come racing into Blüdhaven, the Black Racer hot on their heels. As the heroes reach super-luminal velocity, time warps around the Flashes, creating the temporal eddy into which Darkseid fires the bullet, sending it back in time to kill Orion. Outpacing Omega Beams fired from the eyes of the humans in Darkseid's thrall, the Flashes lead both the beams and the Black Racer straight to Darkseid, finishing the job Batman had begun and bringing the touch of death to the god of evil. Simultaneously, The Ray traces the Metron symbol across the face of the Earth in beams of light, liberating all those under the equation's control; the freed Wonder Woman uses her lasso of truth to release Darkseid's consciousness from Turpin's body.
Although physically bested, Darkseid's dying essence is still dragging all of reality into nothingness along with it. Time and space break down as the effect worsens, until eventually, only Superman is left in the darkness at the end of creation, struggling to complete a copy of the "Miracle Machine," a wish-granting machine shown to him by Brainiac 5 during his trip to the future. Darkseid's essence re-emerges to claim the machine, but Superman destroys him for good by using the last of his super-powered breath to sing, countering the vibrational frequency of Darkseid's life-force.
With Darkseid's end, however, the evil behind evils emerges: Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor, fallen father of Nix Uotan, who waits at the end of all things to consume what remains. Superman uses the solar energy in his own cells to power the Miracle Machine, and makes a wish that is granted by the appearance of an army of Supermen from all across the multiverse, including one modeled on U.S. President Barack Obama.^[15] Nix Uotan joins the clash, using his Monitor powers to summon the Green Lantern Corps, the Zoo Crew, the Super Young Team, the armies of Heaven itself, and more for a final battle with Mandrakk that culminates in the Corps spearing him with a stake made of pure light and created by the combined energy of their rings. The heroes drag Earth out of the black hole that is Darkseid, and Nix Uotan returns to being human as the other Monitors cease to exist in accordance with the wish Superman had made: a wish for a happy ending.
In the distant past, Anthro dies of old age in a cave. His body is discovered by Bruce Wayne — not dead, but sent back in time by the Omega Beams—who picks up where Anthro left off, drawing a bat symbol on the cave wall.

Format:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Crisis#Format

Aftermath:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Crisis#Aftermath


Extracts Taken From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Crisis

More Info: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Crisis - http://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-Grant-Morrison/dp/140122282X

Infinite Crisis

Info About Infinite Crisis:

"Infinite Crisis" is a 2005–2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, and a number of tie-in books. The main miniseries debuted in October 2005, and each issue was released with two variant covers: one by Pérez, and one by Jim Lee and Sandra Hope.
The series storyline was a sequel to DC's 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths. It revisited characters and concepts from that earlier Crisis, including the existence of DC's Multiverse. Some of the characters featured were alternate versions of comic icons such as an alternate Superman named Kal-L, who came from a parallel universe called Earth-Two. A major theme was the nature of heroism, contrasting the often dark and conflicted modern-day heroes with memories of "lighter" and ostensibly more noble and collegial heroes of American comic books' earlier days.
Infinite Crisis #1 was ranked first in the top 300 comics for October 2005 with pre-order sales of 249,265. This was almost double the second ranked comic House of M #7 which had pre-order sales of 134,429.^[1] Infinite Crisis #2 was also the top seller in top 300 comics for November 2005 with pre-order sales of 207,564.^[2]

Overview

The plot begins when, in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kal-L (the Superman of pre-Crisis Earth-Two), the Superboy of Earth Prime, Alexander Luthor, Jr. of pre-Crisis Earth-Three, and Lois Lane Kent of pre-Crisis Earth-Two voluntarily sequestered themselves in "paradise". DC officially began leading up to the new Crisis with a one-shot issue Countdown to Infinite Crisis, followed by four six-issue limited series that tied into and culminated in Infinite Crisis.
Once the Crisis was completed, DC used the One Year Later event to move the narratives of most of its DC Universe series forward by one year. The weekly series 52 began publication in May 2006, and depicts some of the events which occurred between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later.
In June 2008, a third and Final Crisis began a run, set immediately following the conclusion of the 51-issue Countdown to Final Crisis. This Crisis has thus been referred to in DC continuity as the "middle 'Crisis'".

Publication history

Lead-ups

Infinite Crisis was announced in March 2005. The event was kicked off with the release of Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Countdown to Infinite Crisis was followed by four six-issue limited series: The OMAC Project, Rann–Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance, and Villains United, as well as a four-part limited series DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy. These first four limited series each had a special tie-in issue, released at monthly intervals during the Infinite Crisis event.

Tie-ins

As with many large-scale comic crossovers, Infinite Crisis featured a large number of tie-ins. Before the event was announced, books such as Adam Strange and Identity Crisis were being described as part of bigger plans. After Countdown, several books were identified as tie-ins to the four mini-series. Thus, although Infinite Crisis itself is only seven issues long, its plot elements appeared in dozens of publications.
Some of these books were of direct and major importance, such as the Superman "Sacrifice" and JLA "Crisis of Conscience" storylines, the latter of which ended with the Justice League's lunar Watchtower being destroyed, leading directly into Infinite Crisis #1.

Editorial planning

DC Comics executive editor Dan DiDio stated that Infinite Crisis was being hinted at in various stories for two years prior to its launch, starting with the "death" of Donna Troy.^[3] The leadup was mostly understated until the release of the Adam Strange limited series in 2004, at which point industry press began to report that DC was planning a very large event, mentioning the titles Teen Titans, The Flash, and JSA, all written by Geoff Johns.^{[citation needed]}
With Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Infinite Crisis began to visibly affect DC's editorial policy. Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison moved into editorial positions in addition to their writing duties, respectively to coordinate coherence of the DC Universe and to handle reimaginings of several characters.^{[citation needed]} Mark Waid signed an exclusive contract with DC, receiving a similar editorial role. DC replaced its official decades-old logo (the "DC bullet") with a new one (the "DC spin") that debuted on the first issue of DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy.
Aside from marking a major editorial shift within DC Comics, Infinite Crisis was a return to large company-wide crossovers of a sort that had been uncommon since the downturn of the comic industry in the 1990s.

Plot

The story begins in the wake of the four lead-in limited series, with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman feuding, the JLA Watchtower destroyed, and the heroes of the world all facing a variety of menaces. Over this backdrop, Kal-L (the Earth-Two Superman), along with Earth-Two's Lois Lane, Earth-Three's Alexander Luthor, and Superboy-Prime escape from the pocket universe where they had been left at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths.^[4] Kal-L seeks out his cousin, Power Girl, also a survivor of Earth-Two. Believing Lois' health will improve on her native world, he hopes to replace the current Earth with Earth-Two, which he considers perfect.^[5][6]
Kal-L tries to enlist Batman's support, stating that the Post-Crisis Earth's inherent "bad" nature caused Batman's recent mistrust and hostility. Batman refuses and tries to use his Kryptonite Ring, but as this is not native to Kal-L's Universe it fails and is destroyed by heat vision. Afterward, Batman learns Superboy-Prime destroyed the JLA Watchtower.^[7]
Alexander reveals to Power Girl that he and Superboy-Prime had been leaving their "paradise" for some time, manipulating events to help create an inter-dimensional tuning fork. Using the Anti-Monitor's remains and captured heroes and villains specifically attuned to former universes (Power Girl among them after Superboy-Prime knocks her out), Alex restores Earth-Two, un-populated except for the Earth-Two heroes transported there.^[8]
Superboy-Prime attacks Conner Kent, this world's Superboy. Multiple super-teams intervene. Superboy-Prime accidentally kills several heroes before the Flashes and Kid Flash force him into the Speed Force, assisted by the speedsters already within it. Jay Garrick, the only speedster left behind, says the Speed Force is now gone.^[8][9]
Seeking to create a perfect world, Alexander restores many alternate Earths. The Earth-Two Lois dies, and an aggrieved Kal-L and the younger Superman Kal-El fight until Wonder Woman separates them.^[10][11][12] Bart Allen (wearing Barry Allen's costume and aged to adulthood) emerges from the Speed Force, warning that he and the other speedsters were unable to hold Superboy-Prime, who returns wearing Anti-Monitor inspired armor that stores yellow sun radiation to empower him, making him even stronger.
Batman's strike force destroys Brother Eye, a satellite AI created by Batman that had gone rogue and begun transforming civilians into nano-infused robots. Alexander selects and merges alternate Earths, trying to create a "perfect" world, until Firestorm blocks his efforts. Conner, Nightwing, and Wonder Girl release the Tower's prisoners.^[13][14] Fighting each other, Conner and Superboy-Prime collide with the tower, destroying it. The multiple Earths recombine into a "New Earth" as Conner dies in Wonder Girl's arms. Power Girl soon arrives and asks Kal-El what happened to Lois. The answer causes her to break down prompting her to ask Kal-L why.
He answers her simply, telling her it was because he chose the wrong Superboy to condemn and the wrong Superboy to condone.
When a horde of supervillains attack Metropolis,^[15] heroes, current and retired, fly off to the rescue. They are joined by the National Guard. The battle results in multiple deaths on both sides, including many by Superboy-Prime himself, who kills villains and heroes alike. During the battle, Superboy-Prime takes off to destroy Oa, planning to collapse the Universe, and recreate it with himself as the only superhero. Superboy-Prime breaks through a 300-mile thick wall of willpower created by the Green Lantern Corps, and then kills thirty-two Green Lanterns before Kal-L and Kal-El carry him toward Krypton's remains, now essentially a huge cloud of kryptonite. Flying through Krypton's red sun, Rao, destroys Superboy-Prime's armor and causes all three Kryptonians' powers to diminish. Falling to the sentient planet (and Green Lantern Corps member) Mogo, they fight. Kal-El finally knocks Superboy-Prime out and the older Superman Kal-L dies of his injuries in the arms of his cousin, Power Girl.
Back on Earth, Batman, struggling with Superboy's death and Nightwing's severe injuries sustained during the Metropolis battle, contemplates shooting Alex. Batman is discouraged by Wonder Woman. Alex manages to escape.^[16]
Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman later meet up in Gotham. Wonder Woman plans to find out who she is. Batman plans a similar journey of self-discovery, revisiting the training of his youth, this time with Dick Grayson, now healthier, and Tim Drake joining him. Superman retires from superheroics until his powers return.^[17]
Hiding in an alley in Gotham City and making new plans, Alexander Luthor is found by Lex Luthor and the Joker. The Joker deforms him by spraying acid onto his face, then electrifies it, and finally kills Alexander by shooting him as Lex mocks him for making the mistake of not letting the Joker play in the Secret Society.
The Green Lantern Corps imprison Superboy-Prime inside a red Sun-Eater. The series ends with him carving an S into his chest with his bare hands and declaring that he has escaped from worse prisons than this.^[18]

Hardcover revisions

The hardcover collecting all seven issues of Infinite Crisis included changes in coloring, as well as, more significantly, alterations in dialogue, most of which relate to hints to the re-emergence of the DC Multiverse.^[27][28] Also changed is the two-page spread near the end of the book, where a new George Pérez image is substituted. Four additional pages of art by Phil Jimenez were added. An interview section included as an afterword explains the reasoning behind some of these alterations.


Extracts Taken From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Crisis

More Info: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Infinite_Crisis - https://youtu.be/hrhEM4WRxUc

Crise de Identidade (II)

Info About Identity Crisis:

Identity Crisis is a seven-issue comic book limited series published by DC Comics from June to December in 2004. It was created by writer Brad Meltzer and the artistic team of penciler Rags Morales and inker Michael Bair.

Publication history

One of DC's top-selling series, the first issue was released in June 2004 and was ranked first in comic book sales for that period with pre-order sales of 163,111.^[1] The second issue saw a decline in sales and ranked third in comic book sales in July 2004 period with pre-order sales of 129,852.^[2] The story also adheres to the continuity changes introduced by Crisis on Infinite Earths, as heroine Wonder Woman was retconned out of the pre-Crisis JLA. In all further references to the JLA's pre-Crisis adventures, including its origin story and the Secret Society incident, Wonder Woman is replaced by Black Canary. Following "Infinite Crisis", however, Wonder Woman is restored as a founding member.
One of the major plot threads — the breakdown of relationships within the Justice League of America — is examined in the storyline "Crisis of Conscience" in JLA #115-119 (August–December 2005). The mini-series is followed by the crossover event "Infinite Crisis".

Plot summary

Sue Dibny, the wife of superhero Elongated Man, is murdered in their apartment, apparently dying of burns (the Elongated Man was at the time on a stakeout, during which a minor character called Bolt is shot and wounded by criminals). The DC superhero community rallies to find the murderer, with villain Doctor Light being the prime suspect. Green Arrow reveals to the Flash (Wally West) and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) that Light once raped Sue Dibny in the JLA satellite headquarters. To ensure this could not happen again, League members at that time — Atom (Ray Palmer), Black Canary, Hawkman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and a very reluctant Flash (Barry Allen) — allowed the sorceress Zatanna to mind-wipe the villain and alter his personality.
Further discussion reveals that a mind wipe was also done on at least one other occasion: When the Secret Society of Super Villains (the Wizard, Floronic Man, Star Sapphire, Reverse-Flash, and Blockbuster) captures JLA members Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Zatanna and Black Canary (pre-Crisis it was Wonder Woman rather than the Canary) and switched bodies with the heroes, allowing the villains to learn their secret identities by casually removing the heroes' masks. Although the heroes defeated the villains, Zatanna once again erased the villains' memories of the incident and their knowledge of the secret identities^[3] (Green Arrow's words imply that they have done this on other occasions when their secret identities were threatened by magic or other means).
The heroes locate Light, who has hired the mercenary Deathstroke to protect him. During the battle, Light regains his memory and, enraged by the violation, uses his formerly lost powers to escape. Although questioned by Superman, Wally West continues to protect the heroes and their secret. Atom finds his ex-wife, Jean Loring, hanging from a door, bound, blindfolded and gagged, and revives her just in time. A death threat is then sent to Superman's wife, Lois Lane. Flash Rogues gallery villain Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness) is hired by third-rate villain the Calculator (on behalf of the real killer) to assassinate Jack Drake, father of Robin, Tim Drake. Jack finds a gun and a note warning him of the impending attempt on his life, and fatally shoots Boomerang who also kills him. Tim Drake witnesses this and is comforted by partner Batman, who confiscates the note before the authorities or the media can learn of its existence.
While questioning of several villains by the heroes, former League member Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) is stabbed through the chest with the sword of the Shining Knight by the villain the Shadow Thief. Firestorm's nuclear powers reach critical mass and he detonates in the atmosphere.
Wally West questions Green Arrow again after accidentally seeing a snapshot of the battle on the Satellite in Light's mind, which reveals that Batman was also present. Green Arrow confesses that Batman disapproved of the attempted mind-wipe and also had his memory of the incident removed. Batman uses his detective skills to find the hideout of the Calculator, but discovers the villain anticipated this and abandoned it. The autopsy of Sue Dibny's body by Doctor Mid-Nite and Mister Terrific, members of the Justice Society, reveals Dibny was killed by an infarction in her brain. A microscopic scan of Dibny's brain reveals tiny footprints as a clue to the cause of the infarction.
Doctor Mid-Nite and Mister Terrific realize, as does Batman in the course of his own investigation, that Dibny was murdered by an assassin with access to the shrinking technology of the Atom (the technology allows the ability to shrink to subatomic size). Almost simultaneously, Palmer learns that his estranged wife, Jean Loring, is aware of the note sent to Jack Drake (which had been kept secret) and deduces she is the killer. Loring claims she did not mean to kill Sue, and it was not her intention for Jack Drake to be killed, arguing that she sent the note and gun so he could protect himself. Loring states that she undertook the plan (including faking the attempt on her own life) in order to bring Ray back into her life. Palmer says that she is insane, and Loring is committed to Arkham Asylum and kept under heavy medication. In the final scene with the Justice League, Wally West is awkward in the presence of Batman, who is suspicious of his behavior.

Aftermath

The ramifications of this story are depicted in the title Flash, as the hero's Rogues band together at the funeral of Boomerang,^[4] a one-shot "Countdown to Infinite Crisis", as well as one of its tie-ins, The OMAC Project, and the title JLA, which reveals that Batman remembered the events in question at some point after. Batman's suspicions lead him to create the Brother MK I satellite to monitor superhumans, which is an important factor in the subsequent crossover storyline "Infinite Crisis".^[5]

Reception

According to Publishers Weekly, "This seven-issue miniseries by bestselling author Meltzer (The Zero Game) was both wildly popular and reviled."^[6] Fan criticism of the series focused on the treatment of Sue Dibny and the retroactive insertion of dark and sexual elements into League history.^[7] Other critics, however, defended this same trait.^[8]
Dominic Organ from Comics Bulletin was critical of the artwork, stating it was "incredibly spotty in places," inconsistent and "at times it is downright ugly." Organ, however, was impressed with some artwork, especially the panel of Batman racing back to Tim's apartment where he noted, "The fear is palpable and all over Batman's face, a single panel that will stick with me for some time I am sure." He also praised the story, claiming that the stand-out was "the human tragedy of it all."^[9]

Collected editions

DC Comics reprinted the Identity Crisis mini-series in April 2005 with recolored covers.^[11] A hardcover collection (ISBN 1-4012-0688-3) was printed in September 2005, with bonus features including a commentary by Meltzer and Morales; the creative team citing favorite moments, and a look at Morales' sketchbook.^[12]
A paperback collection (ISBN 1-4012-0458-9) was released on August 16, 2006. The paperback collection ranked third in the top 100 graphic novels for the August 2006 period with pre-order sales of 7746.^[13]
DC Comics announced that the Absolute Edition of Identity Crisis will be released on October 12, 2011.^[14]


Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Crisis_(DC_Comics)

More Info: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis - http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Crisis-Brad-Meltzer/dp/1401204589

Crise de Identidade

( http://loja.publico.pt/products.php?product=Super%252dHer%C3%B3is-DC-COMICS-%252d-Liga-da-Justi%C3%A7a%3A--Crise-de-Identidade-vol-1---- )

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Crisis_(DC_Comics) )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_1 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_2 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_3 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_4 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_5 )

( http://loja.publico.pt/products.php?product=Super%252dHer%C3%B3is-DC-COMICS-%252d-Liga-da-Justi%C3%A7a%3A--Crise-de-Identidade-vol-2--- )

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Crisis_(DC_Comics) )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_6 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Identity_Crisis_Vol_1_7 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Flash_Vol_2_214 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Flash_Vol_2_215 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Flash_Vol_2_216 )

( http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Flash_Vol_2_217 )

Zero Hora (II)

Parallax (Hal Jordan, center), about to recreate the DC Universe in his image. Also pictured (clockwise from upper left): Time Trapper, Metron of the New Gods, Extant, the Spectre, and Superman. Art by George Pérez, from Green Lantern Gallery #1

Info About This Great Comics Event:

"Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!" is a five-issue comic book limited series and crossover storyline published by DC Comics in 1994. In it, the former hero Hal Jordan, who had until then been a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, mad with grief after the destruction of his home town of Coast City (during the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline) and having obtained immense power as Parallax, attempted to destroy, and then remake, the DC Universe. The crossover involved almost every DC Universe monthly series published at the time. The issues of the series itself were numbered in reverse order, beginning with issue #4 and ending with #0 (i.e., Counting Down To Zero). The series was written and penciled by Dan Jurgens, with inks by Jerry Ordway.^[1] This series is noted for its motif of the DC Universe gradually "fading out" as events reached their climax.

Background

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! was intended by DC as a belated follow-up to their landmark limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, and was indeed subtitled "(A) Crisis in Time!". It promised to do for the inconsistent future timelines of the DC Universe what Crisis had done for its parallel worlds: unify them into a new one.
This event served as an opportunity to reconcile some of the problems left unaddressed by Crisis and other problems that had been unintentionally caused by it. In particular, the revised characters of the post-Crisis universe had been rolled out gradually, with DC continuing to feature the old versions until the new versions were launched, some of them a year or several after the first wave of revised characters were published (i.e., The Man of Steel, Wonder Woman vol. 2, Batman: Year One). The character of Hawkman was one of the most problematic, since the revised version did not first appear until 1989. This raised the question of what version of Hawkman had been seen since 1986 (he had been retconned to be both the Golden Age Hawkman and a Thanagarian spy). The Legion of Super-Heroes faced similar problems with the eliminations of Superboy and Supergirl from DC continuity (Mon-El, a character with similar powers, had been recast as Valor to take Superboy's place as the Legion's inspiration and most powerful member). These and other retcons were not always well received by readers and often introduced new problems.
The Sandman: Worlds' End is loosely connected with Zero Hour, as can be seen from the Sandman annotations.^[2]

Plot

The story begins when characters from alternate realities such as Alpha Centurion, an alternate version of Batgirl, and Triumph suddenly started appearing in the main DC Universe, to everybody's confusion; this happens because time is being somehow "compressed." Then a wave of "nothingness" is seen moving from the end of time to its beginning, erasing entire historical ages in the process (an effect similar to the anti-matter wave that destroyed many universes in Crisis on Infinite Earths).
The apparent villain of the story presented in the miniseries was a character named Extant, formerly Hawk of the duo Hawk and Dove (and a onetime Teen Titan). Extant had acquired temporal powers, using them to unravel the DC Universe's timeline. In a confrontation with members of the Justice Society of America, Extant aged several of them (removing the effect that had kept these heroes of the 1940s vital into the 1990s), leaving them either feeble or dead. However, the true power behind the destruction of the universe — caused by temporal rifts of entropy — turned out to be Hal Jordan, who had been widely regarded as the most distinguished Green Lantern in history. Calling himself Parallax, Jordan had gone insane, and was now trying to remake the universe, undoing the events which had caused his breakdown and his own murderous actions following it. The collective efforts of the other superheroes managed to stop Jordan/Parallax from imposing his vision of a new universe, and the timeline was recreated anew, albeit with subtle differences compared to the previous one, after the young hero Damage, with help from the other heroes, triggered a new Big Bang. Jordan survived Green Arrow shooting an arrow into his heart though.
This "blanking out/recreation" of the DC Universe was reflected in many of the tie-in issues; near the end of several of the tie-ins, the world began to disappear, and the last page of the book (or in some cases, several pages) had been left blank.

Aftermath

DC published a fold-out timeline inside the back cover of Zero Hour #0 which identified various events and key stories which were part of its newly singular timeline, and when they occurred. Although fixed dates were given for the debut of historical characters such as the JSA, the debut of the post-Crisis Superman was presented as "10 years ago" and subsequent dates were expressed the same way, suggesting that the calendar years of these events were fluid and relative to the present rather than fixed, as a way to keep the characters at roughly their present ages.
The Legion of Super-Heroes continuity was completely rebooted following Zero Hour, and the various Hawkman characters were merged into one (even though, contrary to the storyline's purpose, this created new sets of contradictions and confusions). Each ongoing series at the time was given an opportunity to retell (or clarify) the origin of its hero(es) to establish the official version in this revised continuity, in a "#0" issue published in the subsequent weeks after Zero Hour. They resumed their previous numbering or went on to #1, for new series, the following month. Several series took new directions following Zero Hour; for example, new teams were formed in the Justice League books, Oliver Queen's son Connor Hawke was introduced in Green Arrow, and Guy "Warrior" Gardner discovered an alien heritage which gave him different powers.
A major part of Batman's origin was retconned after the events in Zero Hour. In this version, Batman never caught or confronted the killer of his parents (thus rendering Batman: Year Two non-canonical), and more importantly, Batman was thought of as being an urban legend. Also, Catwoman was not a prostitute, but rather lived in the low rentals area of Gotham. Finally, contributing to a plot point not fully explored in Batman: Year Three, Dick Grayson was legally adopted by Wayne.
But this "warm reboot" did not solve all continuity matters and in fact actually created other continuity problems— the fold-out timeline included Armageddon a story that required the supposedly eliminated alternate timelines to even work, Matrix Supergirl who required an artificially created alternate timeline still existed, and "Who is Hawkman?" actually became less clear. For those and other reasons, DC later introduced a variation of the pre-Crisis concept of the Multiverse, in the form of Hypertime. In the end, this more ecumenical solution did not satisfy DC editors either, inevitably leading to the Infinite Crisis event in 2005, which revived and brought back several pre-Crisis concepts.
Zero Hour also served to launch or end several ongoing series. A few of these were dictated by the changes in continuity that came out of the story, but most happened simply because it provided a convenient marketing opportunity to start new series. However, each of the new series (save for Starman) were canceled after a couple of years, due to poor sales. The critical success of Starman was a turning point for DC's editors and how they viewed DC's Golden Age characters and their ongoing story potential, starting a trend reflected in a small family of books set in the present but reflective of the past, such as Starman's successor title, JSA.

Zero Month

"Zero Month" immediately followed with every DC Universe title published being numbered issue "#0", and featuring the slogan, "The Beginning of Tomorrow!". DC have since repeated this idea with The New 52's "Zero Month", a year after the start of the initiative.

Booster Gold #0 (2008)

In 2008, fourteen years later, an issue of Booster Gold vol. 2 was published as "Booster Gold #0", and was announced as an official Zero Hour tie-in by DC Comics. The issue used the same cover style as previous tie-ins to the event, referring to the "Crisis in Time" and using the semi-metallic "fifth color" ink used on the original Zero Hour issues. Like the other tie-in issues, Booster's origin was explained as part of the adventure in the issue. The cover was a homage to Zero Hour #4, with Ted Kord's mask replacing Wally West's, alternate Blue Beetles replacing the alternate Hawkmen, and the heroes around the edges replaced by Booster in the center.^[3]

Collected editions

The series has been collected into a trade paperback titled Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (ISBN 1-56389-184-0).


Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Hour:_Crisis_in_Time

More Info: https://sites.google.com/site/theannotateddcproject/annotations/zero-hour - http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Zero_Hour