We're coming up on a full year of 80-Page Thursdays, even though I'm writing this in March. Actually, I'm behind schedule, since it took me a while to find these issues again: from 1989, Invasion! Book One, The Alien Alliance. Plot and breakdowns by Keith Giffen, script by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Todd McFarlane, inks by P. Craig Russell, Al Gordon, Joe Rubinstein, and Todd McFarlane. I love this book, to be honest. It's the rare comic I enjoy, even though there's all sorts of things in it that I don't necessarily care for.
The titular alliance is several alien races, mostly from Legion of Super-Heroes continuity or the Omega Men, led by the Dominators. Although they first appeared in Adventure Comics #361, this was the first time I saw them, and the Doms had been redesigned slightly to make them more inhuman and emphasize their disc caste-markings and their teeth. I always thought they had a very Mars Attacks! feel, although that could just be me. (It really comes through in some of the house ads as well.)
Experimenting on captured humans, the Dominators are concerned about the unpredictability of humans and human genetics. Already, earth had given rise to multiple super-powered beings (and reams of alien and alien-powered defenders, but ignore that...) and the collected aliens worry about potential armies of them. Again, never mind there's really not that many supers on earth, and you can't put three of them in the same room without two trying to beat each other up...
With their allies--the Khunds, Durlans, G'il Dishpan and observers the Daxamites from Legion comics; the Thanagarians of Hawkman (who, as a race, are generally more dickish than Carter) and the Citadel, the Psions, and Okaarans from Omega Men (And possibly Teen Titans, maybe.) the Doms already have the ball rolling. Depowered Green Lanterns are hunted down, to prevent them speaking on earth's behalf. Darkseid is approached, and while he doesn't join, he does tell the Alliance to do what they like to earth, but not to destroy it, since he's still looking for the Anti-Life Equation. Doom Patrol villain Garguax is evicted from his strategic position on the dark side of the moon.
To keep Rann safe, Adam Strange is forced to surrender himself, hoping he'll be able to warn earth when the zeta-beam wears off. Strange is taken to the Starlag, a giant prison satellite build by the Citadel for dissidents, political prisoners, and test subjects. He briefly manages to escape to earth, only to find the Khunds have an advance station at his return point. Strange's former cellmate, Garryn Bek, is then celled up with a seemingly emotionless Coluan, Vril Dox. Meanwhile, the Omega Men are attacked by the Durlans, and captured after several casualties. And a lone low-caste Dominator wonders if maybe the human genetic anomaly couldn't just be neutralized, as the Invasion begins...
As a beachhead, Australia is taken in short order. Somewhat disturbingly for the alliance, the Daxamites develop super-powers in earth's atmosphere; although as observers they don't seem intent on doing anything, unless they get orders from their homeworld. The alliance also isn't sure what to make of the JLA's teleport tubes--technology seemingly far beyond the earthlings. And elsewhere, the Lords of Order tell the Spectre if he or earth's mystic heroes get involved, Chaos may ally with the aliens...
At Belle Reve prison, Amanda Waller is ordered to bench the Suicide Squad, as the President waits to see what the aliens do. She doesn't listen...and the Dominators make their demand: they will spare earth, if the humans surrender their super-heroes. The next day, the headlines at the Daily Planet tell the story: "Earth to Invaders: Drop Dead!"
Despite building on years of continuity of some of DC's less popular books, Invasion! is still pretty accessible. (Aside from the Thanagarians, I knew of the Khunds and Daxamites going in, but the rest were new to me.) This issue is almost all set-up, and although we see a few familiar faces like Adam Strange and Perry White, there isn't a main hero in the story yet. The plotline with the humans experimented on by the Dominators, the Blasters; goes nowhere. I've never read an issue of L.E.G.I.O.N. either; but still plenty to like here.
2 comments:
Well, DC had random hobos with psychic powers by the mid-90s. I mean, other alien species have might and terrifying powers (IE, half the Legion of Superheroes), but most of them are easily accounted for in planning. I mean, you meet a Tharrian, wear thermal underwear. Meet a Coluan, you're going to feel like an idiot. Nice and basic.
Take a human, you have a 12% chance he's going to get insane superhuman abilities out of nowhere. That's more than 1/10 odds of having a routine abduction turn into a superhero origin story and your face getting wrecked. Heck, like a fourth of the Legion of Superheroes is earthborn.
And that's ignoring the Batman Factor. If I was an alien in the DCU? Yeah, I'd panic.
When I looked at that first image, introducing all the alien races, all I could think of was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The alien group is called the Dominion. They have shapeshifters (like Odo's race), observers who look mostly humanoid (the Vorta) and the green-skinned scientist guys with the facial ridges and the "science and sadism" thing (Cardassians?) and the Okaara (the Jem'hadar?)
I haven't even seen much of the laters episodes or seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but it all just seems kind of familiar...
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