The Virtual Apimpment

Inifinite Crisis, you ask? I debated putting this off until tomorrow, since Number 2 comes out then, but I figured "What the hell?! I'm bored!"

I apologize in advance to all the girls reading this. But I'm a nerd, and god-willing, one day we all will be. Then I could get dates!

As some of you know, the DC Universe has been undergoing a Crisis. These pop up every so often, to undo/clarify/screwup the past few years of DC, and have every hero show up in every other comic, thereby increasing sales to compete with the Ultimate Wolverine and Harry Potter Team Up (in stores next week!).

So anyway, Infinite Crisis has been starting up all summer, and the heroes are in a very bad spot. Spoilers follow, so if you intend on reading anything Pre-Infinite Crisis #1 (as if!), you might not want to read on.



Several big events kicked off the Crisis:

In the pages of "Batman/Superman," we saw Kara Zor-El, Kal-El's cousin Supergirl land on Earth, in the remains of a Krypotnite meteor Luthor blamed Superman for bringing to Earth. Supergirl has been introduced in several incarnations, but the last time she was Supes' cousin was during Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 1985, where she died fighting the Anti-Monitor. Her reappearance (to us, the current heroes do not recall the events of her death) is a huge sign of bad things.

In the pages of "Countdown to Infinite Crisis," we saw a shadowy organization called Checkmate spying on the heroes. Preoccupied with other events, no one listened to Blue Beetle's warnings about Checkmate. He investigated, and found that within Checkmate, the OMAC Project had compete details on the lives of just about every hero in the DC Universe. Maxwell Lord, leader of OMAC, killed Blue Beetle to protect the Project.

In the pages of "The Return of Donna Troy," we saw the return of Wonder Girl, Donna Troy. This has some big mythological implication, but I don't know what the importance of this is...yet. But it's important somehow.

"Green Lantern: Rebirth" saw the ressurection of Hal Jordan, greatest of the Green Lanterns. He was responcible for the last Crisis in DC: Crisis in Time. In it, Mongul and Cyborg (one of the imitation Supermen after his death) destroyed Hal's home, Coast City. Hal went nuts, and killed many GLs, before becoming Paralax, and attempting to recreate the universe. He redeemed himself by sacrificing his life to reignite the Sun, saving Earth. The Green Lantern Corps has been destroyed since then, but with the return of Hal, it is being remade. Prior to his ressurection, Hal had been acting as the human host of The Spectre, the spirit of God's Wrath on the world. A human host held God's Wrath in check, and gave Spectre a sense of perspective. With Hal's ressurection, Spectre no longer has that perspective.

Finally, in "Identity Crisis," among a great murder mystery that I strongly suggest everyone read, it was revealed that a small group within the JLA had been mind-wiping villians. Aside from the ethical problems, and the fear that the villians would be pissed if they found out, it was also revealed that they had mind-wiped Batman when he caught them in the act. Being a detective, Bruce found out (again) that this occured, and quit the JLA. Always paranoid, he's used WayneTech's fortune to construct a satellitte called "Brother 1" to keep constant watch on every metahuman on Earth. Sound like the OMAC Project from earlier? Exactly. Checkmate obtained control of Batman's technology and seeks to control and kill every metahuman on Earth.

Because Batman and the JLA feel the other betrayed them, the entire JLA has dissolved. OMACs, robots programmed with knowledge from the Brother 1 satellite, are swarming the globe, attacking heroes. And Maxwell Lord uses the power of the OMACs to take control of Superman. Wonder Woman tries to fight him, and captures Maxwell and commands him to release Superman. He tells her that he will only be free when Maxwell is dead. And Wonder Woman snaps his neck, while the security cameras in the building capture everything. Within hours, the entire world witnesses as Wonder Woman kills a man. All of a sudden, metahumans look very dangerous.

Despite saving him, Superman disagrees with Diana's actions, so there is a split between the two. In amongst all this, there is a global conflict between the planets Rann and Thranagar, which have always had tense relations (think Athens and Sparta). Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner, and Killowog (all Green Lanterns) have been dispatched by the Guardians of the Universe to end the dispute. During the war, a space hole opens, which begins rearranging the universe (slowly and subtly). This is disasterous, as Oa, planet of the Guardians, has ALWAYS been the center of the Universe. Now, this space hole is.

The mind-wipes of the villians have worn off, and they are remembering what the heroes have done to the. Lex Luthor and Talia (daughter of Ra's al Ghul) have organized the villians, and reformed the Secret Society of Super Villians. Meanwhile, Spectre was manipulated by Elclipso, who convinced Spectre that since magic is supernatural, and God created nature, magic is against God's will. Spectre has been going apeshit on magicians ever since, and Spectre is one of the most powerful beings in the Universe. Not much can stand against him. While Eclipso's influence has ended, Spectre still feels that magic must die. He has just killed Shazam, the ancient wizard who aids Captain Marvel. Like so many of these paragraphs end, that is a terrible thing.

Interestingly, in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Spectre was aided by all the magicians of the DCU to destroy the Anti-Monitor. It seems like somene has gone out of his way to make sure the magicians aren't around to help Spectre this time...

Lastly, the JLA sattellite headquarters has been blown up, with Martian Manhunter onboard. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman arrived on the scene a few minutes later, to find out what happened. There's quite a disagreement, Superman angry with Wonder Woman committing murder, Batman angry that Superman is being a pussy, and Diana angry that the others don't realize they're at war. On Earth, Donna Troy (Wonder Girl) is taking most of the Teen Titans to fight something unspecified in space, Atlantis' magicians has attacted the attention of Spectre, and the Secret Society of Super Villians has possibly killed the Freedom Force (led by Uncle Sam).

So, who could possibly save the Earth? None other than refugees from the Crisis on Infinite Earths! Parallel Universe characters: Earth II Superman (who fought in World War 2), Earth Prime Superboy (the young Superman), and Earth III Lex Luthor Jr, the son of Lex from a parallel Earth where Lex fought the Crime Syndicate, evil versions of the JLA. They were the only survivors from parallel Earths that were destroyed in the Crisis in 1985. Thought to be gone, they have just left their Limbo to battle in the Crisis of 2005.



Damn, I should put so much work into studying.