Folks, we’ve reached the end. The REAL end. The Zero Hour. We’re at the end of the crossover after ten long weeks! We’ve seen time distortions, so many damn fade-to-whites, we’ve seen a cackling maniac clad in red try to prove to an older generation that he’s better than them, and then had said-maniac replaced by another, this time clad in green. But we’re at the close, dear readers. Hold my hand as we dive into this massive, murky crossover and see how it sticks the landing.
Written by Dan Jurgens, Ron Marz, Tom Joyner, and Mark Waid
Illustrated by Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Darryl Banks, Romeo Tanghal, Bill Marimon, Don Hillsman, Mike Wieringo, and Jose Marzan, Jr.
Colored by Gregory Wright, Steve Mattson, Buzz Setzer, and Gina Going
Lettered by Gaspar Saladino, Albert de Guzman, and Bob PinahaThe end is here! As entropy continues to erase history itself, various heroes battle the godlike Parallax and his allies in order to prevent him from recreating a new and “improved” universe. The shape of the DC Universe is changed for years to come following this climatic battle!
A reminder that I’m scoring these comics based on their relationship to the core event, with my patented Zero Hour Score (Series relevance + individual merit)!
Zero Hour #0
Written by Dan Jurgens
Illustrated by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway
Colored by Gregory Wright
Lettered by Gaspar Saladino
Okay, let’s get one thing out of the way here: the shift from Extant to Parallax as the main villain is not a clean one. In this issue, Extant loses just about all of his agency, independence, and most of his screen-time, and is retconned into having worked for Parallax all along. Having said that, I think there is an interesting metaphor that can be read here. I mentioned some weeks ago that Extant felt like the nineties-Image Comics style superhero, beating down oldies like the JSA with the same bravado that Image did in momentarily taking over DC and Marvel in popularity. If we build from that, Parallax feels like a stand-in for corporate interference, almost like Dan Jurgens is creating a metaphor for his own crossover story functioning as its own villain. Hear me out.
Parallax has the veneer of a guy we’re all familiar with, the original Green Lantern Hal Jordan, representing old-school DC comics. He uses this as a facade to capture the minds of all who’ve known him as a hero, and convince them that he’s recreating the world to make it good again. This is DC Comics pitching “Zero Hour” to readers as the crossover that will refresh the publishing line for the better. But Parallax fails to consider the souls within the universe and the ethics of his actions, only seeing things on a macro scale. Almost like how DC Comics pushed Jurgens into producing nearly ten parts of this crossover to be published within the span of just over a month. They were only considering the impact the crossover would have on sales and reviews, and not the people actually creating the stories and thrusting the universe forwards. In the story, Parallax has even roped former-baddie Extant into his ranks, which could also be read as DC Comics’ purchasing of Wildstorm Studios, beating one of the Image Comics prodigals Jim Lee into obedience (though this buyout occurred after this story’s publication).
Ultimately, Parallax doesn’t get his way and the universe is saved with a few small wrinkles. But outside the pages, Dan Jurgens completes “Zero Hour”. The new lineup of books is refreshed and ultimately well-received, but the fact remains that creating this comic was the task that Jurgens will years later refer to as “the project that almost broke [him]”. In this way, “Zero Hour” is reframed as a comic that can be read as a battle for creator control and resisting corporate influence, which adds a level of appreciation from me.
Let’s get back into the real nitty-gritty analysis, however! On a technical level and as a final issue, “Zero Hour” #0 does fall somewhat short. The art feels a little less polished overall likely for the reasons stated above, but Jurgens and Ordway still have some cracking splashes up their sleeves like this one with the Spectre entering the fray:
Continued below
Jurgens and Ordway also really ramp up how much Parallax just looks like a huge creep, which pairs nicely with the corporate metaphor posited. Storywise, we get into some kinda neat ad-lib logic to solve the situation, as Waverider gets all the energy user heroes available to soak up Parallax’s chronal energy, re-direct it into Waverider, who will then distill it into so much kinetic energy for teenage newcomer Damage, causing him to re-create the Big Bang (?!?!?) and let time re-settle itself naturally. If that all sounded appealing to you and not at all chaotic, you’ll likely enjoy this ending, as Jurgens and co really lean hard into the superhero cosmic silliness. There are still a few dangling or unsatisfyingly resolved plot threads, however, like Extant basically just buggering off like a smarmy teenager at the end, Power Girl having her hugely-hyped baby that has no narrative importance, and an ending so abrupt you might trip over. But these are balanced out with some genuine moments too. Green Arrow having to deliver the final blow to Hal feels emotionally resonant considering their decades-old relationship, and Spectre showing up to help feels huge and gratifying. In this way, “Zero Hour” #0 ends with a few stumbles, not quite sticking the landing, but doing it with passion and endearing bravado regardless.
Zero Hour Score: 7.5 – The end of an era, folks, clumsy though it may have been. Let’s explore the aftermath.
Green Lantern #0
Written by Ron Marz
Illustrated by Darryl Banks and Romeo Tanghal
Colored by Steve Mattson,
Lettered by Albert de Guzman
This might have been my favorite issue of the bunch as it feels like a better resolution to the hastily introduced Parallax arc than “Zero Hour” #0 did. Marz takes Parallax (who for those not in the know, is former-Green Lantern Hal Jordan!) and Kyle Rayner, the current Green Lantern, and thrusts them into a timestream to battle each other, making the stakes much more personal and interesting. Hal is still holding onto his ideals as Parallax and believes he can make a better universe, though you can tell he’s reeling from his defeat in the last issue through his waning dialogue. Kyle has become much more of a realist and tries to push home the point that you can’t just erase trauma, that you have to live with it and grow from it, which is a really potent and enduring message I’m surprised to find from a comic of this era. Banks and Tanghal do a great job bringing this to light as a fun Lantern fight, with Hal relying purely on energy blasts whilst Kyle uses his powers to create a mech suit, showing the disillusionment in the former versus the idealism in the latter. Hal finds his old friend Kilowog’s skull and almost has a Hamlet moment, making Kyle feel sorry for him and pass the Lantern ring back to him. Unfortunately, this immediately corrupts Hal, and Banks and Tanghal get a great visual storytelling moment as Kyle throws the skull back to Hal, who this time destroys it without a second thought, proving his descent into madness. Steve Mattson gets a great moment as the fight escalates with Kyle overloading the Oan battery, illuminating Tanghal’s shadowy inks with rich greens and an apocalyptic orange.
Ultimately, Kyle wins both the physical and philosophical discourse and sails away from the wreckage of the planet with full resolve and confidence in his heart, bringing Hal’s tragic story as Parallax to a temporary close and giving our new Green Lantern a well-deserved push into the limelight (pun not intended).
Zero Hour Score: 9.0 – A great epilogue to a storyline that felt haphazardly tacked on to the main event.
Damage #0
Written by Tom Joyner
Illustrated by Bill Marimon and Don Hillsman
Colored by Buzz Setzer
Lettered by Bob Pinaha
Remember how I said back in “Zero Hour” #0 that Damage had become the literal spark for the Big Bang? Well, this issue attempts to deal with the fallout of that and how it changes Damage as a person and does so to varying degrees of success. Our protagonist is basically dropped right back where the last issue of his book left off, where no one knows what events have just transpired. That’s right, folks, Damage gets to be emo before it was cool and have a “No one understands me!” moment. In the context of Big Bang event, this feels totally warranted, as we see Damage rage out of control against a man who may or may not be his father, to the point of blowing up again like a nuclear bomb and almost killing him. Weirdly enough, however, the “Zero Hour” event isn’t referenced by Damage too much, with Joyner instead choosing to base the rage from events occurring in the “Damage” series’ main narrative. Even if I was following the series to this point, I still feel like none of these events had as much scale as Damage becoming the literal spark that ignited the existence of the known universe (Am I the only one that feels like this is a huge deal being downplayed?). The art here is pretty solid, with Marimon and Hillsman delivering the same kind of blockbuster action that made the prior issue work so well for me. The high emotions that Damage is experiencing are highlighted well by Marimon’s exaggerated facial expressions. The book comes to a logical conclusion towards the end, however, with Damage turning himself into the authorities after realizing he went too far, and his maybe-Dad Munro somehow surviving a superhero-powered explosion at point-blank range.
Continued belowZero Hour Score: 6.2 – Deals with some of the aftereffects of the main event but not in a meaningful enough way.
The Flash #0
Written by Mark Waid
Illustrated by Mike Wieringo and Jose Marzan, Jr.
Colored by Gina Going
Lettered by Gaspar Saladino
It’s those good-good Waid and Wieringo “Flash” comics, baby! Cast your minds back many weeks ago, dear readers. Remember how to kick this event off as a legitimate, box-ticking DC Comics Crisis, Wally West was killed off just like his predecessor? Scratch that, he’s totally fine! It does cheapen that plot beat somewhat but c’mon, folks… you know he wasn’t really going anywhere. What exactly happens to Wally isn’t totally clear, but he’s essentially sent into some kind of Speed Force-created “A Christmas Carol” scenario where he gets to revisit key points in his life. This is the platonic ideal of the Zero Issue: to give potential new readers a refresher to the character whilst also adding new context for him. Wieringo and Marzan, Jr. do a great job at conveying how delightful it must be to be a speedster. Not only do they have a great mastery for bodies tearing across the land at superhuman speed, but they also manage to make each character look like they’re having a ball, which is totally infectious to read.
As you can tell, Going does a great job handling early digital coloring, using soft gradients and highlights on the bright reds of the Flash costume to just make it pop off the page and look shiny and special. The main point of this issue, however, is to reveal to readers that the unknown man who served as Wally’s driving influence through life from a young age was actually… himself! His time-traveling form manages to stay corporeal enough to give a heartfelt pep-talk to baby Wally, and it really reinvigorates the character with a sense of heroic purpose.
Zero Hour Score: 8.0 – It may have cheapened his death, but this was a great re-introduction for the fan-favorite speedster.
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That’s the main event covered, folks! But as you may know from being avid superhero comic readers, it is Never The End! Tune back in next week for a look at a few more zero issues, tie-in epilogues, and some final thoughts on the events as a whole.
