#maaldor

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] Crisis on Infinite Earths, Issue 10: “Death at the Dawn of Time” (Monitos, the Hand of Oblivion)

[All images are owned by DC Comics, please don’t sue me]

PREVIOUSLY ON…

A being known as the Anti-Monitor has destroyed all but 5 of the universes in existence) with a single survivor on Earth-6 (Lady Quark) along for the ride). Those 5 (1 (Silver Age), 2 (Golden Age), 4 (acquired from Charleton), S (acquired from Fawcett after being sued into oblivion), and X (acquired from Quality)) are being held in limbo (and are merging into a single reality) away from the Anti-Monitor thanks to a being known as Lyla, assisted by a being known as Pariah and the sole survivor of Earth-3 (Alexander Luthor, who is made of matter and anti-matter).

Unfortunately, the process was unstable, meaning that time has merged (meaning mammoths and futuristic aliens are among modern skyscrapers) in the areas where the Earths are merged (which are called “Warp Zones”)

The Anti-Monitor has been quiet since his third attempt at destroying the multiverse failed (thanks to the sacrifices of Supergirl and Earth-1’s Flash)

Meanwhile, Brainiac and Earth-1’s Lex Luthor have drafted the villains of all 5 Earths and have taken over Earths 4, S, and X. The combined heroes of the 5 Earths have staged an assault to free the Earths while Brainiac and Luthor sit back on Brainiac’s ship and prepare to pick up the pieces while the heroes and villains kill each other.

However, Psimon didn’t join the battle, but stayed back and listened. Having heard the Master Plan, he thought it was a good one, only he should be the one in charge, so he destroyed Brainiac and prepares to do the same to Luthor!

Now, on with our story! If you would like to read this issue, it (along with the rest of the series) has been collected in graphic novel form and is available (or can be ordered) at your favorite comic shop, bookstore, or online retailer…or on Read Comic Online.

As Psimon uses his psychic powers to fry Luthor’s insides…

He is shot in his brain bubble (I’m surprised no one thought of this before) from behind by Brainiac, (wait, what?!) killing him instantly (psee ya later, Psimon!) It turns out Brainiac’s consciousness is linked to the ship and knew Psimon was there (and he didn’t do anything about it before then?) and constructed a new body for him after his first was destroyed (if he dealt with Psimon before then he wouldn’t have had to waste the resources) Luthor slaps himself on the back (quick recovery after nearly being Scannered [NSFW WARNING]) and gets on with the plan.

Speaking of the plan…

Casualties mount as the Doom Patrol’s Negative Woman destroys Chemo

…and the Teen Titans’ Kole turns Black Adam to crystal (who world have been shattered by the Doom Patrol’s Robotman if Kole’s teammate Dove hadn’t stepped in)

Earth-1′s Atom frees Billy Batson so he can speak his magic word to become Captain Marvel and begin to wipe the floor with those who held him captive (and why didn’t they kill him exactly?) And so on…

Until…

An energy surge unlike any other seen appears on every scanner across five Earths…

Then…

I had no idea the Spectre could do that!

Anyway, the Spectre tells the population of 5 Earths (kinda hard to ignore a giant white and green head over the entire skyline) that the Anti-Monitor has retreated to the dawn of time, where he intends on being the hand that Krona (remember him? All the way back in issue 7) saw, thus destroying all the other universes (how is this Plan D? I would think this would be Plan A) The Heroes decide to travel to the Dawn of Time to try to stop the Anti-Monitor, while the villains (despite protests) head to ancient Oa to stop Krona.

The assembled heroes and villains gather to make their respective time-jumps.

As they prepare, we see a touching good-bye between Kal-L and his wife, Earth-2′s Lois Lane.

Also joining late to the party is a third Superman (well, Superboy), who explains he’s the last survivor of Earth-Prime (which the footnotes explain was part of a one-shot comic. Gee, nice to see that we‘re creating even more characters for this series. I mean, with five universes’ worth of heroes and villains, isn’t it bloated enough?) Things are finally ready, and off they go.

…after an inspirational speech by the Freedom Fighters’ Uncle Sam.

On Oa, the villains work toward stopping Krona. Now, the reasonable thing to do would be to speak to Oa’s governing body and/or Krona to stop the experiment. However, these being villains, they attempt to raze Oa.

This goes as well as you’d expect.

However, Mirror Master (of Earth-1), Icicle (of Earth-2), and Maaldor (of Earth-1) reach Krona’s lab.

Unfortunately, they were too busy arguing who would destroy the lab that they missed that Krona showed up until they died by his hand.

Meanwhile, the heroes arrive at the Dawn of Time, prepared to enter the anti-matter universe, only to discover the Anti-Monitor waiting for them.

The more powerful heroes immediately attack…

…only to have their power absorbed by the Anti-Monitor (why didn’t he do that when Supergirl attacked three issues ago?) He intends to use that power to become the hand that Krona sees…

…only the Specter pushes back, aided by the mystical heroes.

Krona turns on the viewscreen in his lab to view the Dawn of Time…

and reality…

S H A T T E R S !

To be continued…?

[dberl]

People like to go on about how it's easy for Superman to maintain his moral compass because his powers make him invulnerable, so he's never in any real personal danger but that kind of ignores the fact that lots of Silver Age and Bronze Age stories liked to introduce one off weirdos who were equal to or greater than Supes in terms of power. Just because they tended to look goofy and we all collectively agreed to forget them doesn't mean they don't exist...

Clark will never be afraid to stand up FOR anyone TO anyone. It’s just how he’s made.

[evilhorse]

At last, then, Maaldor the darklord shall have his vengeance!

[thecomicsnexus]

Death at the Dawn of Time!

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #10 JANUARY 1986 BY MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PEREZ, JERRY ORDWAY, ANTHONY TOLLIN, ROBERT GREENBERGER, LEN WEIN AND TOM MCCRAW (RECOLORED VERSION)

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

After destroying Brainiac's shell, Psimon turns his attention towards Lex Luthor. He plans on taking over the united villains after killing Luthor. What Psimon doesn't realize however is that Brainiac's consciousness is downloaded into the circuitry of his ship. He forges a new body for himself and blasts the top off of Psimon's crown with a beam of energy.

On Earth-One at the dawn of mankind, Anthro continues to see wild streaks of red lightning flashing across the sky. He ponders whether he should tell the rest of the tribe, but fears that they may find him crazy.

On Earth-Four, Chemo stands next to the ruins of the Statue of Liberty. All about him, the waters surrounding Manhattan island are bubbling with deadly poisonous fumes. Negative Woman flies about him, ensnaring the gigantic villain with bands of shadow energy. The bands constrict until they eventually succeed in destroying Chemo's artificial shell. In Manhattan, Black Adam fights up against Robotman and Dove. Kole of the New Teen Titans flies up behind him and turns his body into solid crystal. Robotman is prepared to shatter him, but Dove holds him back. Meanwhile, Cyborg and Celsius tackle Quakemaster.

Meanwhile, Aqualad races back to Atlantis carrying Aquagirl's body. He hands her over to the city's medical specialists, but there is nothing they can do. Aquagirl is dead.

In the frozen wastelands of Earth-S, Doctor Sivana, Doctor Cyber, Per Degaton, Houngan, Phobia, Despero, Deathbolt, Hector Hammond and Professor T.O. Morrow keep watch over the captured members of the Marvel Family. While Sivana is in the midst of gloating, the Martian Manhunter burrows through the ice and attacks them. He blasts at Deathbolt with his Martian vision. The Atom and Platinum of the Metal Men arrive to give him back-up. Phobia tries to use her powers on Platinum, but they fail, enabling the Atom enough time to loose the gag around Billy Batson's mouth. Billy shouts the magic word, "Shazam" and transforms into Captain Marvel.

On Earth-X , Batman and the original Atom fight up against Calendar Man while the Outsiders and Infinity, Inc. take on the Dummy. Hawkwoman and Tin fight Lightning Lord, and Firestorm and Vixen fight up against Captain Cold and Icicle. Green Arrow of Earth-Two assists Changeling and Mento in combating the Shaggy Man. Green Arrow defeats the Shaggy Man with an explosive-tipped arrow.

Suddenly, the Spectre makes his presence known across the five partially merged Earths. He warns all of the heroes that the Anti-Monitor is still alive and that he has retreated into the past to change the course of history at the dawn of time itself.

The heroes migrate to Earth-One to coordinate their efforts. They form their teams and develop a strategy using the time-traveling capabilities of the Time Masters, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Lord of Time. Flash (Jay Garrick) and Kid Flash are outfitted with converter technology to help bridge the gap. With the aid of Magno Lad, Cosmic Boy and Gold, the team creates a large magnetic conductor, which shunts the assemblage backwards in time.

Meanwhile, Lex Luthor and his allies travel backwards in time ten billion years to the planet Oa. They arrive on the fateful day when the scientist Krona is destined to witness the hand of creation and inadvertently create the Multiverse. They burst into his laboratory, but Krona is ready for them. He kills Icicle, Mirror Master and Maaldor.

At the dawn of time, the heroes face the Anti-Monitor. They channel all of their energy into him, but this only serves to make the Anti-Monitor more powerful. He requires their energy so that when Krona opens the doorway between the positive matter universe and the antimatter universe, the Anti-Monitor will then be able to obliterate the positive matter universe entirely.

The Spectre appears before the Anti-Monitor, channeling all of the mystical energy of Earth's most powerful sorcerers. He attacks the Anti-Monitor directly and their fight unleashes an explosion of energy, which appears to consume all reality.

NOTORIOUS DEATHS IN THIS ISSUE

The Multiverse

Earth-1

Earth-2

Earth-4

Earth-S

Earth-X

Earth-Prime

Mirror Master

Icicle

Maaldor

Aquagirl (Tula, confirmed dead)

REVIEW

This is it, ladies and gentlemen or whatever fits you best... the end of the multiverse!

Not a hoax, not an imaginary story, THE END.

Unfortunately, it is the end of Earth-1 as well, so out heroes will need to run against the clock to stay in existence.

One small detail that I have been thinking since Superboy Prime was introduced, is about why Earth-Prime is never mentioned when they say only five earths survived. Well, my guess is they forgot about it (as it was technically, not a real earth). But the problem was that they actually needed a Superboy (every DC character needs to be in this story, and Superboy became Superman). The solution was to introduce a new Superboy, this time from the readers’ earth.

I can understand the reasons not to include that Earth in the crisis. If that earth dies... who is reading the story?

This issue had more deaths than usual, and the stakes are very high, and our heroes are totally screwed from the get-go.

Even if they succeeded in preventing the incident in Oa, the multiverse would have never be born, so the battle was always going to be half a victory at best.

Wally West is finally becoming a sacrificing hero as well. The stakes are very high for him. He knows he will die if he runs fast, but how can he refuse saving existence?

Perez pencils in the “tapes of the Monitor” are very hard to print, so that is another reason to buy the hardcover (personally I like the 1998 version, but I recently bought the one that came a few years ago that includes the History of the DCU, it’s good, but the slipcase from 1998 includes a poster).

Perez already tried this on New Teen Titans (Terror of Trigon) but there the coloring was also present. But it is hard to guess if it was harder to print with color separation.

To be continued

[evilhorse]

Your kind makes me ill, Maaldor

[evilhorse]

Mayhap I did you an unknowing compliment in believing you as capable as the male mortal to do combat with me!

[evilhorse]

Put your bravado where your mouth is!

[evilhorse]

That is the most foolish of assumptions!

[fancoloredglasses]

Crisis Issue 10 “Death at the Dawn of Time” (AKA “Monitos, the Hand of Oblivion”)

(Thanks to DC Entertainment)

To recap: The Monitor has fled (taking the lives of Supergirl and Earth-1′s Flash with him), leaving 3 out of the remaining 5 Earths ripe for conquest by the assembled villains of all 5 Earths, led by Brainiac and Lex Luthor. The unsubjugated heroes of those same Earths fight to liberate the Earths as Psimon destroys Brainiac’s body and is preparing to do the same to Luthor.

As Psimon uses his psychic powers to fry Luthor’s insides...

(Thanks to DC Database)

He was shot in his brain bubble (I’m surprised no one thought of this before) from behind by Brainiac, (wait, what?!) killing him instantly (psee ya later, Psimon!) It turns out Brainiac’s conciousness is linked to the ship and knew Psimon was there (and he didn’t do anything about it before then?) and constructed a new body for him after his first was destroyed. (if he dealt with Psimon before then he wouldn’t have had to waste the resources) Luthor slaps himself on the back (quick recovery after nearly being Scannered [NSFW WARNING]) and gets on with the plan.

Speaking of the plan...

Casualties mount as the Doom Patrol’s Negative Woman destroys Chemo and the Teen Titans’ Kole turns Black Adam to crystal (and world have been shattered by the Doom Patrol’s Robotman if Kole’s teammate Dove hadn’t stepped in). Earth-1′s Atom frees Billy Batson so he can speak his magic word to become Captain Marvel and begin to wipe the floor with those who held him captive (and why didn’t they kill him exactly?). And so on...

Until...

An energy surge unlike any other seen appears on every scanner across five Earths...

Then...

(Thanks to Crisis on Earth Prime)

...I had no idea the Spectre could do that!

Anyway, the Spectre tells the population of 5 Earths (kinda hard to ignore a giant white and green head over the entire skyline) that the Anti-Monitor has retreated to the dawn of time, where he intends on being the hand that Krona (remember him? All the way back in issue 7) saw, thus destroying all the other universes (how is this Plan D? I would think this would be Plan A). The Heroes decide to travel to the Dawn of Time to try to stop the Anti-Monitor, while the villains (despite protests) head to ancient Oa to stop Krona.

The assembled heroes and villains gather to make their respective time-jumps. As they prepare, we see a touching good-bye between Kal-L and his wife, Earth-2′s Lois Lane. Also joining late to the party is a third Superman (well, Superboy), who explains he’s the last survivor of Earth-Prime (which the footnotes explain was part of a one-shot comic. Gee, nice to see that we aren’t creating even more characters for this series. I mean, with five universes’ worth of heroes and villains, isn’t it bloated enough?) Things are finally ready, and off they go!

On Oa, the villains work toward stopping Krona. Now, the reasonable thing to do would be to speak to Oa’s governing body and/or Krona to stop the experiment. However, these being villains they attempt to raze Oa. This goes as well as you’d expect. However, Mirror Master (of Earth-1), Icicle (of Earth-2), and Maaldor (of Earth-1) reach Krona’s lab. Unfortunately, they were too busy arguing who would destroy the lab that the missed that Krona showed up until they died by his hand.

Meanwhile, the heroes arrive at the Dawn of Time, prepared to enter the anti-matter universe, only to discover the Anti-Monitor waiting for them. The more powerful heroes immediately attack, only to have their power absorbed by the Anti-Monitor (why didn’t he do that when Supergirl attacked three issues ago?). He intends to use that power to become the hand that Krona sees, only the Specter pushes back, aided by the mystical heroes.

Krona turns on the viewscreen in his lab to view the Dawn of Time...

and reality...

S H A T T E R S !

To be continued...?