Random Happenstance

Half the series was in the dollar bin for half price--making them cheaper than when I bought them originally! But I still hesitated picking them up again. From 1988, Millennium #5, "In" Written by Steve Englehart, layouts by Joe Staton, finishes by Ian Gibson. 

Hoo, boy. Millennium was DC's big crossover event for the year, tying into a ton of books. It was an eight-issue, weekly series, which was new to U.S. readers. Plotwise, this extended from recent events in Englehart's Green Lantern run: the Guardians of the Universe had left this dimension with their female counterparts, the Zamarons; but a pair of them return to earth on a mission to create new immortals. For Englehart, this is more spiritual, about enlightenment, rather than mere evolution; so a solid chunk of this issue is the Guardian and the Zamaron explaining the basics of how the universe worked to their New Guardian candidates. Not in a fun way, either, like trying to see the giant hand creating the universe; but more like college kids trying to get 'deep.' Whee...

Meanwhile, earth's heroes are celebrating, since Batman (with some other heroes, in their own books) took down a Manhunter base: the robots had infiltrated earth, with agents in just about everybody's supporting casts, since they were bitter at the Guardians replacing them with the Green Lantern Corps. Which was literally a gazillion years ago, like this post! Brainwave Jr. of Infinity Inc. couldn't telepathically find more than a few Manhunter agents still on earth, so it's party time! Even though the Outsiders just lost Metamorpho, then get called away to Abyssia. Black Lightning comments they have to prove to themselves the Outsiders weren't finished, but they were headed for their last issue.

Wonder Woman gets teleported away, mid-conversation with Arisia, probably back to whatever her book was doing pre-crossover. In another piece of continuity of the time, Firestorm has a conversation with Guy Gardner: both were somewhat brain damaged at the time, so it's played for laughs: ha-ha, they're simple! Then, Aquaman and Aqualad show up to ruin the party: they had fought the Manhunters under the sea, and recovered a flying saucer; which prompts everyone to remember, oh yeah, wasn't there still a planet full of those things? (I'm not exactly sure where that took place: Aquaman didn't have a book at the time...Teen Titans Spotlight #18 of all places, so Aqualad probably got top billing for once!) Hal knew where the Manhunters' planet was, even if it was cloaked, and the heroes begin organizing an expedition there. While on said planet, the captured Harbinger is rescued by a great Green Lantern with a short term: Driq! He was dead as hell, but his ring kept him going...possibly whether he wanted to or not. (He and my boy Flodo Span were introduced pretty late in GLC but would die before the series wrapped.)

This does set up a pretty good issue of Justice League International, though; as Dr. Fate arrives to transport a bunch to the Manhunters' world. (Although, I was honestly just saddened by Blue Beetle on the last page, thinking he wasn't sad not to be going on the space mission. Pre-Crisis, he would've shoved his way up front and clamored to go!) So this wasn't the worst issue of the series: I think it really starts to trail off towards the end, and not much came out of it. (Technically, Ostrander's Manhunter maybe owes a bit to it; but not much, and I love that series much more.)

Although, I just had to look this up: one of the New Guardian candidates was an older white guy from Apartheid-era South Africa, and very obviously going to be a dick: he was a dead ringer for the diplomat bad guy from Lethal Weapon 2, but that was almost two years later.