Folks, you’ve heard about it whispered in the corners of DC fandom. You’ve been confused at the odd reference to it in those “modern comics” you devour week after week. What in the darned heck is “Zero Hour”? Why is it called that? Why is it numbered backward? Who is Extant and should I really care? Well, wonder no more, gentle readers. Not only will I be recapping all five issues of the titled event comic, but I will also be reviewing the whole damned thing. Yes, every official lead-up and questionably connected tie-in that DC Comics has chosen to fill up their hefty omnibus tome that haunts the corner of my writing desk. Come with me on this journey through time and more time and some space as we dive into the mess that is “Zero Hour: A Crisis In Time”.
Written by Jeffrey Jensen, Phil Jimenez, Karl Kesel, David Michelinie, and Dan Jurgens
Illustrated by Nigel Tully, Andrew Pepoy, Rus Sever, Dan Davis, Peter Krause, Jackson Guice, Denis Rodier, Dan Jurgens, and Jerry Ordway
Colored by Adrienne Roy, Glenn Whitmore, and Gregory Wright
Lettered by Albert De Guzman, Bill Oakley, and Gaspar SaladinoAlan Scott and Jay Garrick make a fateful decision in the wake of the annihilation of fellow Justice Society members–one that will hopefully turn the tide of battle. Plus, various heroes battle the unmasked Extant and a possessed group of Team Titans!
Team Titans #24
Written by Jeffrey Jensen and Phil Jimenez
Illustrated by Nigel Tully, Andrew Pepoy, Rus Sever, and Dan Davis
Colored by Adrienne Roy
Lettered by Albert De Guzman
This comic… is kind of a nightmare. But let’s look at the high points. From the top, we’ve got a pretty gorgeous Terry Dodson cover with Terra hunting down not one, but two dinosaurs with a net. We’ve also got the silhouetted appearance of Monarch, the form Extant used to take, cackling in the shadows as they talk about how the Titans are all a part of their grand tapestry. I’m not quite sure how he’s here at the same time Extant is floating around, but “Zero Hour” basically means no rules, so I’ll run with it. From here, I’m completely lost. This team is packed with superheroes I have never heard of, and this issue does little to remedy that. We have two BIPOC members of the team whose whole personalities are shown to me as reacting to some casual time-displaced racism. We have a kinda horny Gundam pilot, a Korean Hawk-type hero who speaks like Wolverine, and a super-couple composed of a glowing blue energy man and someone called Mirage, the latter of whom I know literally nothing about except that she’s pregnant. There are a few recognizable faces like Aqualad and Terra, but their personalities are reduced to powersets with faces attached.
So what’s present in terms of an actual plot? It’s a “Zero Hour” tie-in, which is really the long and short of it. Every scene here is too many heroes that I can’t tell apart, running into a different time anomaly and only partially resolving it. It gets to the point where it feels like a history lesson, with scenes of protestors from different eras, to a Studio 54 cameo for no plot-serving reason. The art team doesn’t fare too much better here. The large ensemble of artists really shows as there’s not a lot of visual continuity page to page. There’s some decent action with chunkier characters, like the Gundam-type hero, because the thick inking makes it feel weighty, but that makes a lot of the smaller characters feel awkward. There’s also a sense of laziness throughout, noticeable with objects like Battalion’s gun, which looks like a series of shiny rectangles stacked on top of each other. The real kicker, though? None of these character lines or story beats are picked up or mentioned in the main plot, aside from the fact that the Team Titans are present and ready to be brainwashed by the bad guy.
Zero Hour Score: 2.5 – An issue that has almost no bearing on the plot that was also genuinely hard to read.
Continued belowThe Adventures Of Superman #518
Written by Karl Kesel
Illustrated by Peter Krause and Jackson Guice
Colored by Glenn Whitmore
Lettered by Albert De Guzman
These nineties “Superman” books are turning out to be very reliable! The cover to this issue salutes the great comics tradition of having a doppelganger steal the cover of our titular character, with someone named Alpha Centurion running Superman’s city! Kesel has a clear voice for Clark, as he is spirited away to an alternate timeline by a thunderbolt, and decides to investigate their Daily Planet saying “This is a job for — Clark Kent!”. However, Kesel’s Superman does feel a little green here. Even knowing he’s on an alternate Earth, he grabs Lois in for a kiss without realizing she doesn’t know him. Admittedly, the fallout is hilarious, with Krause drawing a sickeningly embarrassed Clark, with his mouth bent in worry and hunched over in shame. Alpha Centurion’s debut onto the page is dynamic and fun a few pages later, with Superman being cut off and embarrassed once again. Krause and Guice render Centurion with immense physicality and Whitmore brings him to life with rich blues and yellows. The two battle against a Bloody Mary, who has a terrific design that feels more reminiscent of eighties Marvel, complete with a billowing cape, an eye-patch, and a sword hand. Superman regains some grace at the end of the battle, stopping Mary and talking down to her like a disappointed Dad.
The two return to Centurion’s bachelor pad, replete with a neat pool named the Aquavitae that restores him to full health. From here, we get a peek at his origins, which are almost beat for beat a rehash of Valiant’s X-O Manowar character who debuted a few years earlier. Centurion’s from ancient Rome, but was beamed up by aliens, given superhero powers, but dumped back on modern-day Earth instead of his own time. The twist, of course, is that this is a DC Comics Superman-type character, so he isn’t as prone to berserker rages as Manowar is, and is endlessly more endearing. His relationship with Lois, in which he treats her like Roman royalty, adds a lot to his natural charm. The two reconcile their differences before Superman takes his new friend to the Zero Hour frontlines. This kind of inter-industry riffing is a tonne of fun!
Zero Hour Score: 7.0 – Adds a new character to the forefront of the event and works as another fun side-story for our Man of Steel.
Zero Hour #2
Written by Dan Jurgens
Illustrated by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway
Colored by Gregory Wright
Lettered by Gaspar Saladino
We got another core event issue, readers, and so soon too (Note: I switched the order of this and “Action Comics” #703 around because the latter references the former)! The first big reveal we get here is a little disorienting, coming off last week’s reveal that Extant has Waverider’s face. Our cackling villain explains that he is allegedly a fusion of not only Monarch, Hawk, and Dove, but also Waverider! What the darned heck does that mean, I hear you ask? It occurs a little later in the issue, but for the sake of clarity, I will tell you, dear reader! A past version of Extant, presumably from some point after the first issue, catches up with Waverider and catches him off guard. Extant punches his fist into Waverider and converts him into energy (somehow?!?) and absorbs it all, gaining mastery over time. The weird cherry on top of this situation is that this past version of Extant goes to meet with the present version of Extant to be absorbed, only… that means Extant wouldn’t have had time-manipulation/travel powers until now? Don’t break your brain over it, readers, just accept that this is “Zero Hour”, baby, and anything goes!
The main narrative cracks open with this double-pager, which shows Jurgens’ versatility in rendering both massive group shots and cleaner action shots. However, it seems that fatigue is starting to show from Jurgens’ being overworked (see part 1 for more details!), with some panels having the bare minimum, totally flat composition against no background, almost like a shopping catalog. This doesn’t occur throughout the whole issue, however. There’s a great shot of the JSA reeling from their losses against Extant, the perspective landing at our fallen heroes on the ground as Ordway uses great feathery inks to render the worry and sadness in their friends looking on from above. We get a pretty big story moment here as Starman, Green Lantern, and Flash all hang up their capes to go and aid the injured instead. It definitely feels like the death of the dream, the grim new anti-hero reality killing off the idealistic golden age. There’s a whole fight scene next at the Entropy point with a brainwashed version of the Team Titans, which I care about just as much as I did the “Team Titans” issue discussed earlier. Our heroes manage to save reality with bombastic superhero flair, tossing Metron’s Mobius Chair into the Entropy rift and blowing it up, making the rift collapse on itself. This seemingly stops Extant from meddling with time, with the heroes regrouping and discussing the events of the issue. But wait! A new player steps onto the scene on the last page and reopens the rift! Thank God, I was worried the event was over and I wouldn’t get to talk about “Zero Hour” anymore!
Continued belowZero Hour Score: 7.5 – Packed with a whole bunch of convoluted nonsense that you will either eat up or glaze over at. There’s still a whole bunch of good moments and solid art in this issue, however!
Action Comics #703
Written by David Michelinie
Illustrated by Jackson Guice and Denis Rodier
Colored by Glenn Whitmore
Lettered by Bill Oakley
Holy mackerel, there was a lot of Superman comics in the nineties. This issue has such a confident opening, though! If you’re not drawn in immediately by men in army helicopters gunning down a giant monologuing Starro, why are you reading superhero comics? The next page uses great page composition, with one of the helicopters being knocked out of the sky before a lithe yet powerful Superman slams into one of Starro’s flailing limbs (weirdly, Superman seems to ignore the helicopter, which feels a little out of character, but I’ll forgive it because he’s got a lot going on right now!). Our golden boy returns to the Daily Planet and reassures Lois in a great intimate moment rendered by Guice and Rodier, mentioning that everything’s okay now that they’ve stopped the “chronal deterioration in the future”. Despite this, our story almost immediately features a chronal rift that swallows Superman up and dumps him into an alternate timeline for his latest side-story.
This time around, we’re planted in an especially grim timeline when Superman was killed in the rocket that delivered him as a baby. Supes meets some younger versions of his Ma and Pa Kent, who are initially suspicious of him and leave him chained up, accidentally next to Kryptonite. Whitmore colors this with a fun glow that, next to the pastel farm palette, makes this feel like an echo of the classic Silver Age stories. Ma and Pa are kidnapped by a local gangster, Superman goes to save them, they reconcile but are swallowed up by the timestream. It’s very by-the-book at this point in the crossover, even though it’s still technically solid. It does give Guice and Rodier a good excuse to have Superman trash a whole bunch of pulpy 1950s robots, which Rodier uses rich, melty inks to give a sense of sheen. Ultimately, Superman is sapped away before he can even return to his Earth, which seems to lead into the next core narrative story. Michelinie ends this issue in a big way, however, fading to white over two pages with a defiant love monologue from Lois.
Moving stuff!
Zero Hour Score: 7.2 – The story feels a little formulaic at this point but hits some emotional notes, and has a solid art team.
