The cover is awesome. You got the Anti-Monitor and the Spectre facing off, standing in a swirling galaxy-like thing in a void. It gives the impression that these two are going to have an epic face-off. It makes sense because the Spectre is literally the Wrath of God. And then there's all the heroes and villains being scattered all over the place. It shows that for all the power they have, it's nothing to what the Spectre and the Anti-Monitor are going to bring into play here. It's a great cover, and you do get an idea of what's going to go down here. I love it so much.
"Death at the Dawn of Time"
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciler: George Perez
Inker: Jerry Ordway
Colorist: Anthony Tollin
Letterer: John Costanza
Editors: Len Wein, Robert Greenberger, Marv Wolfman
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano
The story begins with Psimon trying to use his powers to turn Lex Luthor's brain into mush. Psimon, being the suspicious type, had stayed behind while Luthor and Brainiac sent the other villains out to conquer Earths 4, X, and S. Psimon liked the idea, but he felt that he should be the one to pick up the pieces and rule. As such, he waited to strike. However, Psimon's plan had a fatal flaw.
Yup. Brainiac. "But wait," you may ask. "Didn't Psimon destroy him?" Well, yeah. Kind of. You see, Psimon did destroy the body Brainiac was using. But Brainiac himself is a disembodied consciousness, and is part of the awesome skull ship itself. As a result, he was able to build himself a new body while Psimon was busy trying to make Luthor's brains into mush. And with that, the robotic rogue is able to literally blow Psimon's brains out.
On Earth-1's prehistoric era, Anthro spots the same storm that the Balloon Buster and the WWII characters saw in the last issue. This, combined with his seeing the 31st-century city in issue 2, leaves the First Boy on Earth wondering if he is going crazy.
On Earth-4, in its New York City, Chemo just stares at the sea he poisoned. Despite him just being a living blob of chemicals, he feels a strange satisfaction. An enraged Negative Woman is able to wrap herself around the chemical vessel and shatter it. Aqualad desperately tries to get Tula to safety, despite knowing she's going to die. Black Adam is battling the Don Hall Dove and Robotman, but Kole stops him by turning him into crystal. In a nice character moment, the Hank Hall Hawk is about to smash the crystalline statue Black Adam has become, but Don is able to stop him.
On Earth-S, A group of villains including Dr. Sivana have the Marvel family bound and gagged and on ice as it were.
Heh heh, on ice. I am funny. They get attacked by the Martian Manhunter and Platinum of the Metal Men. The Ray Palmer Atom frees the Marvel Family, and Billy Batson transforms into the original Captain Marvel. On Earth-X, more heroes are trying to depose the ruling villains. Batman clobbers Calendar Man. Firestorm and Vixen take down Captain Cold and Icicle. Speedy brings down the Shaggy Man. Brainiac and Luthor are watching the battle, and Brainiac notes that the villains' unwillingness to work together is causing trouble for them. A disappinted Luthor was hoping they'd still have a better showing. They, as well as the heroes' human allies, discover a massive energy influx.
It's the Spectre, and he's basically here to tell the heroes and villains alike that they need to knock off the Super Smash Bros. antics. You see...the Anti-Monitor is still alive. He plans to go to the beginning of time, and alter time to prevent the forming of the Multiverse. I'm not sure how he's going to pull that off. The heroes and villains must join forces to stop them. Half of this combined force must go to the beginning of time so they can engage the Anti-Monitor. The other half must go to Oa, to do some history-changing of their own. Brainiac and Luthor consider this, and ultimately decide the Anti-Monitor is indeed the greater threat.
Over a hundred heroes and villains meet on Earth-1's Death Valley. The Lord of Time has provided his temporal transporter, the Legion brought their Time Bubbles, and Rip Hunter has his Time Sphere. Here we get a very nice moment with the Earth-2 Superman and his world's Lois Lane. Alex Luthor watches them as Lois and Superman converse for what might be the very last time. The group prepare to take a trip though time, but they find someone wanting to join them.
Yup, it's Superboy-Prime. Earth-1 Superman recognizes him as they met in DC Comics Presents #87 (November 1985). Superboy had vanished after the events of that comic. Prime himself says he's unsure of how he vanished, but he's here now, and his Earth is gone. I'll be frank here, I think the only reason why this guy was created was just so they could have Superboy appear in some way. Uncle Sam gives the assembled heroes and villains a speech.
I don't you about you, but I feel motivated. And with that, it's time to do some time-travelin'. The Metal Men's Gold has connected himself to the time machines. All the electrokinetic characters blast him with their lightning, with the Metal Men's Gold focusing it into the time machines. The Lord of Time takes his spaceship with a bunch of super-villains on it and heads off to ten billion years in the past. Jay Garrick and Wally West start running around the time machines as all the characters with magnetic powers fire off their abilities. With that, the big assemblage to the dawn of time. Brainiac observes this and notes that the chances of this plan working are very low.
In Atlantis, Garth managed to get Tula to help, but the prognosis is...she's gone. Aqualad collapses into Mera's arms in grief. Superman is pushing his way through the time stream, Alex Luthor in tow. He had never been able to reach the dawn of time under his own power, but thanks to the additional push of electromagnetic energy, he's able to reach it. At the right moment, Alex Luthor uses his own powers and opens the door to the antimatter universe. And once they arrive, the group are face to face with the Anti-Monitor himself.
He also has Pariah, who screams at the assembled heroes to flee. But then he also yells at them to destroy him. Make up your mind, man. He tells them not to worry about him, as he deserves his fate. The Anti-Monitor mocks this, saying that Pariah did not awaken him. All the former scientist did was inadvertently give the Anti-Monitor an opportunity to gain some extra power. This shocks Lady Quark, as she had been understandably angry at Pariah for the deaths of her family and world. Pariah is understandably surprised, too. He had been carrying around all this guilt for something that was not his fault. The heroes attack the antimatter-powered menace, firing various energies and hitting with mighty blows.
The scene then shifts to the past on the planet Oa. The villains rampage through a city, trying to get to Krona. A group of ancient Oans watch this and wonder why they're attacking. One senses that they want to help. Despite this, the Oans prioritize their property, and use their power to knock out the rampaging villains. Three villains manage to make it to Krona's lab, where they find the screen where he'll view the beginning of the universe: Mirror Master, Icicle, and Maaldor. The three end up arguing over which one gets to destroy it. Their arguing distracts them, allowing Krona to ambush and kill them.
Meanwhile, things are not going well for the heroes at the dawn of time. The Anti-Monitor wrecks them, saying that he wanted them to follow him here. He starts to drain their life energies, as he expended his own to get here. He plans to alter time by having his hand be the one Krona sees when he peers into the origins of the universe. The hand that destroys his and all the positive universes once and for all. Pariah pleads for someone to stop him, but nobody can. Well, nobody except one.
The Spectre grips the Anti-Monitor's hand and some weird...tug-of-war thing happens, I have no idea. The Spectre is boosted by the sorcerers of the DCU, their magicks flowing into him. They have to contain the Anti-Monitor, as killing him would doom their fellow heroes. Him having their energies and all. Jennifer Morgan notices a window in the air, and they realized the villains failed to stop Krona from doing his experiment. Dr. Fate believes all is lost, but the Spectre absolutely refuses to give up. He demands more power, and the story ends with everything...shattering like glass dropped from a great height.
There is something I must point out. Throughout the issue, Lyla is hanging out somewhere, presumably on Earth-1, making recordings in a 80s-futuristic recorder in black-and-white strips. This segment is called the Monitor Tapes, and it's basically a supplemental info dump, Lyla talking about various other things out of focus in the main story, like the heroic deaths of the Prince Gavyn Starman and Tommy Tomorrow rescuing the population of fourteen worlds.
This issue was perfectly fine. My one big complaint was the whole thing with the Spectre and the Anti-Monitor. What exactly were they doing? Was it some kind of cosmic tug of war or something? I don't get it. There are some great points. I enjoyed the moment with the Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane. That was very nice. It was also a surprise to see the villains fail to prevent Krona's experiment. I also had a chuckle seeing Psimon's attempt at a coup fall flat on its face. I still would look at this as an issue that stands better when read as part of the whole storyline than on its own.
Speaking of the Spectre...next time, in the spirit of Halloween, we'll take a look at the embodiment of God's Wrath during the start of one of his solo series...
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