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 time and some space as we dive into the mess that is “Zero Hour: A Crisis In Time”.
Written by Dan Jurgens and others
Illustrated by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway and others
Colored by Gregory Wright and others
Lettered by Gaspar Saladino and others
First things first, I wanted to establish the format that I’d be recapping this omnibus in. From what I’ve read thus far, the narrative throughline of the omnibus is mostly centered in the core crossover and some other tie-ins, leaving only a light mark on all the other books. With that in mind, I want to view this more as a recap of the macro DC universe at the publishing time of “Zero Hour”, looking at how these books tell their own stories. At the same time, however, I will be rating each one on how much relevance I perceive them to have to the throughline “Zero Hour” story, plus how much they hold up as individual stories, with a Zero Hour Score. Let’s dive in!
Foreword, December 2017
Written by Dan Jurgens
The foreword sheds light on a lot of the inner workings and planning of this event. Jurgens goes through his initial development of the pitch for “Zero Hour”, and how it appeared to stem from his inner fan’s desire to make sense of the sliding timeline of comics post-Crisis. He says “Time wasn’t unfolding equally throughout the DCU…”, touching on the fact that while heroes from the Golden Age like the Justice Society were aged somewhat appropriately, there were some jarring contrasts like the older age of Green Arrow versus the relative youth of Batman and Superman. Jurgens wanted the series to be a weekly five-part series so that it didn’t engulf the wider universe for as long a time as “Crisis On Infinite Earths” did. What I found really interesting, however, is that Jurgens didn’t want the tie-in books to feel directly connected to the core narrative. Rather, it was meant to be a line-wide event that gave creators the chance to fix any problematic or discordant continuity. In this sense, “Zero Hour” achieves what it sets out to do, with the omnibus representing not one singular story, but a dramatic re-centering of the status quo for multiple stories.
One other short takeaway from this is that this project was grueling for Jurgens! He reflects (allegedly jokingly) to “Zero Hour” as “…the project that almost broke me”. KC Carlson, the book’s editor, gave Jurgens the challenge of writing and drawing all five issues of the core event PLUS two “Superman” tie-in issues. This, including planning the entire macro event on paper, was all to be completed and shipped for a publication span of merely six weeks. It’s a grim reminder of how much work is put into weekly comics and how much is expected from creators. Admittedly, this was at a time when the industry was still feeling the early nineties economic boom, but the whole situation still rings true today with a much smaller reward on the line for creators.
Showcase ’94 #8-9
Written by Dan Jurgens
Illustrated by Frank Fosco and Ken Branch
Colored by Stuart Chaifetz
Lettered by Richard Starkings
This two-part story seems to serve more as an interlude than a prelude, bridging throughline between the previous event “Armageddon 2000” and “Zero Crisis”. I don’t know a whole bunch about the former, but from what I’ve researched, all the readers need to know is that the story’s villain Monarch is the former hero Hawk AKA Hank Hall (thanks to a late-game character change in planning “Armageddon 2000”, it’s a fascinating look at comics editorial at the time and worth looking into if you haven’t!). The point of this “Showcase” story seems to be Jurgens wanting to salvage this character and develop the idea of Hank Hall as a villain into a more credible concept. The idea at play here is that fate seems to be constantly blessing Extant with good luck in his new villainous path, which in theory works as a relatable motive.
Continued belowHank’s identity from Monarch into our front cover villain Extant, due to a late psychic merging with former partner Dove. Waverider, a time-centric character from “Armageddon 2000”, and Linear Man, a Cable knock-off, are trying to stop Extant but inevitably fail. The story doesn’t give them room to feel like distinct characters but there’s some interesting pathos present with Waverider that I hope is built on later. The art here is serviceable, Fosco does some fun effects with afterimages to convey a time-rippling effect, but suffers in drawing perspectives that don’t make the page look flat and hieroglyphics. Branch’s inks are a saving grace and give the comic a sense of richness, and Chaifetz’s colors give a sixties-psychedelia to the whole story which is a lot of fun.
Zero Hour Score: 6.0 – Relevant to know how Extant came to be but doesn’t really set up any other plot for the incoming event.
Outsiders #11
Written by Mike W. Barr
Illustrated by Paul Pelletier and Robert Campanella
Colored by Stuart Chaifetz
Lettered by Kevin Cunningham
Look at that stellar creative team! Not only do we have original “Outsiders” creator Mike W. Barr here, but also early Paul Pelletier, whose work I’ve been a fan of in things like “War Of Kings”. Outside of this, however, there’s very little in this issue that is familiar to me, but the lineup is pretty intriguing. This is the first tie-in issue of the omnibus, and as far as I can tell, it has no connection to the “Zero Hour” narrative despite having the event’s logo on the cover. What’s between the covers, however, is pure nineties DC comics nonsense and I’m all for it, compelled to the point that I want to go and read more of this team’s iteration. Eradicator is in this team (yes, the fake Superman robot, you know the one) and has the potential to snap into a full-blown villain at any time. There’s a vampire cult which is led by a bare-chested, Freddie Mercury-esque bad boy named Roderick who is wildly camp and entertaining. There are familiar faces like Katana and Geo-Force, with the former acting as the insecure leader of this iteration and having an adopted ward who I almost thought was her lover. Pelletier goes hard in this issue, with some great splash pages of human bleeding factories, silky smooth action enhanced by Campanella’s inks, and expressive character acting making for some soapy drama. Chaifetz appears in this book too and brings the same level of eye-blazing primary colors that really sells how ridiculous and chaotic this issue is.
Zero Hour Score: 6.0 – It really only has the logo on the cover and a tease on the last page, but don’t let that stop you from looking into this series!
That’s all that we’ll be looking at this week, but stay tuned for next time when we look at some classic nineties Bat-nonsense, Mark Waid “Flash” comics, and the very first issue of the event of the season! Stay tuned, folks.
