I can't save this one for "The End" of the year? Aw, shoot.

Out in the garage I still have a small bin of orphan Build-a-Figure/Collect-n-Connect pieces, including several of Imperiex. Who we don't really see this time, except as a big ball of energy, at an increasingly crowded event in the DC Universe--even more crowded than this crossover event! From 2001, Action Comics #782, "Trial by Fire" Written by Joe Kelly, pencils by Kano, inks by Marlo Alquiza. (I didn't scan it, but there's a big "The End" on the cover!)

This was not-quite the big finish to the "Our Worlds At War" storyline, which is sadly probably best remembered for ending just before 9-11. So, there was some imagery of Luthor's wrecked twin towers that was just badly timed; and a lot of mourning for a bunch of characters who were killed over the course of OWaW: Aquaman, Hippolyta, Sam Lane, General Rock (if he was real) and the Kents...I think Steel and Guy Gardner both got it, too; but only some Superman regular antagonists like Massacre and Maxima stayed dead. (Justice for Maxima!) But, in this chapter, having flown through the sun to juice his powers up, Superman was headed at Imperiex like a bullet. Imperiex was already done, though, having been taken over by Brainiac-13. Back on earth, with General Zod seemingly there in an observer status, Lex Luthor was preparing to use his daughter Lena, to fire his LexCorp towers at Brainiac-13, but the computerized villain steals Lena away first, leaving Lex without a trigger for his weapon. Superman arrives, seemingly with nothing but death and destruction on his mind...

A bunch of events occur, only some of which maybe are seen in other comics: Wonder Woman helps Darkseid use Tempest (Aqualad!) and the Amazons to focus energy through Steel's "Entropy Aegis" armor, while Lex plugs Jimmy Olsen into his tower weapon. But, Imperiex appears to Superman, wanting him to destroy Warworld and Brainiac-13, so he would be released to return. Instead, Superman pushes Warworld back into position, while the Martian Manhunter co-ordinates the new plan with everyone: throwing Warworld, Brainiac-13, and Imperiex back to the big bang. Superman escapes back to the present with Lena, while Imperiex realizes the imperfection he always hated in the universe was actually himself.

With Lena seemingly de-aged back to a baby, Superman returns her to President Luthor, saying this was a second chance for him. (Which he'd doubtless blow, I have no idea what happened to that kid...) Darkseid returns home, since even Apokolips had suffered greatly giving cheap heat in battle against Imperiex. 

 I think they were trying to get across that Superman, being Superman, would have a better answer to Super-war than Super-murder; but I'm pretty sure if you get blowed up at the Big Bang you're still Super-Dead. Also, why don't we see the traditional giant hand you're not supposed to see, or Damage from Zero Hour there? The Big Bang is crowded in the DC Universe...We saw the wrap-up issue World's Finest: Our Worlds at War #1 like ten years back; but looking him up, about the only other thing Imperiex ever appeared in was the last season of the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon. With a simplified design; that outfit was busy.

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Like many workplaces, here you're the rookie until they hire someone new. Someone new younger than you.

We mentioned events that may have occurred here, approximately three hundred years ago in the first year of this blog; and I know I read everything out of order, but I still feel like Kyle has teamed-up in Superman's book a couple dozen times, so how is he still the rookie? From 2000, Superman #159, "Detour" Written by Jeph Loeb, pencils by Ed McGuinness (on earth) and Paul Pelletier (in space), inks by Cam Smith.

This was apparently immediately after that weird, weird stint where the Parasite had replaced Lois; as the reunited Clark and Lois enjoy each other's company, in a bathtub that appears to be the size of my living room. Almost immediately after that, Superman is going to take a quick lap of the solar system with Kyle--seriously about the "almost immediately," Supes still has chocolate or something on his face! And Lois visits Lex Luthor, with a thinly veiled threat: she knows at least some of what the Parasite knew, when he was...disguised as Lois and doing god knows what with Lex. I say "god knows what" because I don't want to!

Meanwhile, out in space, Pluto has disappeared! Superman can see, it's been moved out of orbit, apparently by Warworld. Before they can try to track it down, they are surprised by a crowd scene of generic space-god-types; like your Eternals, Inhumans, what have you. This time, it's "the chosen people of Almerac," the subjects of Maxima! Kyle remembers her being the JLA, an embarrassed Superman remembers her as a stalker. Which makes her slapping him out of the way a surprise! Kyle is left to face big strong type Massacre.

Uncharacteristically, Maxima seems less concerned with the fight, then making their connecting flight: she is leading her people's retreat to safety, via Boom Tube to join Darkseid's son. No, not the one you're thinking of. Or the other one. Or him either...it's Grayven. I'm positive I knew of him, and also positive I had completely forgotten about him until turning this page; but looking it up he really didn't have a ton of appearances. Maxima leaves Superman with a warning; that when Imperiex comes for earth, he may be surprised who he allies with then. Still, Superman is pleased to feel at the top of his game, for the first time in a while; while Kyle notes he never had a mentor, but he always had a friend to show him how it's done.

Ugh, I looked up Maxima as well: her new alliance does not play out well for her; and she deserved better. No spoilers, but she gets jobbed out in an upcoming event along with several other heroes, most of whom were back alive almost immediately after said event, but not her. Boo. Read more!

If it makes you feel better, like 90% of these guys came back.

It's like the expression, "It's all over but the crying," in that we're just in time for the crying. The conclusion to 2001's Our Worlds at War, World's Finest: Our Worlds at War #1, "Finale" Written by Jeph Loeb, art by Mike Wieringo, Doug Mahnke, Phil Jimenez, Mark Buckingham, Bill Sienkiewicz, Yvel Guichet, Pascual Ferry, Todd Nauck, Duncan Rouleau, Ed McGuinness, and more.

The captions this issue are mostly from General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address on April 19, 1951. It may seem an odd choice, but figure it was intended to give weight to the sacrifices of those lost in the storyline. Superman tries to get Batman to come to the memorials, but he was still searching for the missing Young Justice team. At the chasm in the ocean where Atlantis had been, a statue of Aquaman is erected as memorial, warning sign, and beacon all in one. Both Aquaman and Atlantis were officially M.I.A. but hopes were not high. In mourning, Flash asks Tempest if he's going to be the new Aquaman (since Wally had himself moved up when his mentor died) and Wonder Woman implies Aquaman could get lucky if he somehow returns.

The surviving old-timers of the Justice Society miss their lost Wonder Woman, Hippolyta. In Arlington Cemetery, Amanda Waller quietly buries the fallen Frank Rock. (Maybe, unless she doesn't.) On WarWorld, Supes and Wonder Woman honor Maxima and the Others, while grousing over Maxima's people now following Mongal. (That's not a typo.)

At the memorial for Strange Visitor, the lone turnout angrily accuses them of not knowing how he feels, since they've never lost anyone: Superman and Wonder Woman roll their eyes so hard I can still hear it. On the moon, Red Tornado is giving Batman the bad news: Young Justice ended up on Apokolips, but the kids are back shortly thereafter, dirty and looking beat. An unshaven Batman just looks glad he won't have to put another Robin uniform case in the Batcave.

At the funeral for General Sam Lane, President Luthor gives Lois a completely unwanted kiss on the cheek; and Clark Kent ducks out so Superman can make an appearance. Later, Supes and Lois visit the ruined remains of the Kent family farm, where the Kents are presumed dead? As well as Topeka, KA, apparently. The Kents would be back, although I'm not sure Topeka would, or Pluto, which disappeared early on in the crossover. DC does this sometimes: Coast City or Metropolis might get destroyed and then rebuilt and it's a big deal; but a real city like Montevideo, Uruguay gets it for shock value and is never mentioned again!

I had thought Superman had started wearing the black-replacing-yellow emblem after this, but hadn't by this issue.
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I think I still have an incomplete Imperiex figure...

Just added a tag for "Our Worlds at War," which does contain some posts only tangentially related to DC's 2001 crossover, since I haven't read anywhere near to the whole thing. Sadly, if it is remembered for anything, it's unfortunate timing, with the concluding chapters featuring scenes of terrible devastation and coming out right around 9/11/2001. It's also known for killing off a mess of characters that would return in relatively short order: Joe Kelly would get a JLA storyline out of bringing back Aquaman; but several allegedly dead characters like Guy Gardner or the Kents just returned with little acknowledgement of their "deaths."

Still, I picked up a couple back issues of OWaW, and do they hold up? Um...well; we'll start with Batman: Our Worlds at War #1, "Hidden Agenda" Written by Ed Brubaker, art by Stefano Gaudiano.

Bluntly? It's like, if the X-Files and Independence Day were set in the same universe, yet Mulder still couldn't prove the alien conspiracy. Seriously, I know some writers and fans have problems going too sci-fi with Batman, for fear of the stories going straight-up 1950's-style nonsense; but it's playing too coy. Just like JLApe or Day of Judgment, this is a Batman crossover that barely crosses over, sticking closer to the Batman end of things. If you're looking for Batman vs. alien invasion, keep walking.

The first four pages of the book are two construction workers commuting to their job site, and arguing who's the better billionaire, Bruce Wayne, or President Lex Luthor. (And with those three words, this book is dated as hell for some of you...) Actually, the fourth page doesn't really count, since it's the workers getting blown up when they get to work. Later, then-Commissioner Akins gives the case file to Batman, since the Feds made the GCPD back off.

Shortly after starting the case, Batman discovers the Feds are trying to cover up a crashed spaceship in downtown Gotham. Which rrrrreally strikes me as something Batman would'a noticed: in 2001, this was Batman at his über-competent best; before mindwipe nonsense in Identity Crisis or building Brother Eye or whatever. I honestly think, the way Bats was written then, a crashing spaceship would've set off the seismographs in the Batcave or something, and Bats would've been there quicker than a pizza delivery. (This was post-No Man's Land, there's no way Batman wouldn't have seismographs!)

I'm not even sure why Luthor is bothering to cover up the aliens, for that matter: it's traditional, sure; but the general populace of the DC Universe had to be pretty aware of aliens. It may be in the hopes of salvaging something useful from the crashes, but figure Luthor probably could make more political hay from hyping up the "alien menace" that may or may not exist...

Moving on: Batman maintains he could jump into the Feds' investigation without them even seeing him, but that Luthor would know...somehow. That's not super-clear, but Bats decides to go to a Luthor reception to get some info. Bruce and Lucius Fox chat before Luthor's speech, and while they agree Luthor's a tool, Lucius wonders if it's a good idea to make an enemy out of him. For his part, Luthor makes a fear mongering speech about terror that I'm legitimately surprised predates 9/11; that also serves as a barely-veiled threat towards Bruce and Lucius. After the speech, Bruce roofies an attending NASA scientist, to pump him for information about the crash. (With a magic drug that the scientist won't remember later.)

Breaking into the crash site, Batman eavesdrops on Luthor and his men removing an alien corpse from the crash--the third such alien crash in as many weeks; all of them seemingly fleeing in blind terror from something. Luthor also mentions "the Metropolis project," which I thought was going to be Cadmus. Batman then knocks out one of Luthor's generals in his home, to steal more info, to give to Oracle, who surprisingly can't get much. Heading to Metropolis, Batman sees Talia, who was at the time working for Luthor; she sees him as well and leaves an ID card for him. In disguise, Batman finds surveillance on the short-term Superman supporting character Strange Visitor, as well as meta-human experiments, and notes for something called the Doomsday Contingency.

The next day, Batman confronts Luthor at the White House: while Batman knows everything, his proof is dicey at best, and Luthor's already had the general killed and framed as a scapegoat. Finally, Bruce Wayne visits his newspaper, the Daily Planet, to give some information to Clark Kent...

I didn't like this one as much as I thought I was going to, but it's not unreadable. It is a snapshot of some old DC continuity that was really of its time, though.
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This issue: Superman beats up a guy in a skirt...

I've read only a couple of issues from the crossover Our Worlds at War (and I think I blogged the Flash and Green Lantern's issues before) and had to look up on wikipedia who died in that one: Aquaman, but he came back. Guy Gardner, except that may have been a mistake, he was fine. Hippolyta? No, she came back too. OWaW couldn't even kill off the Kents or Lois Lane's dad.

Steel may have been considered dead, or merely MIA: he was trapped in some kind of Apokolips-built armor. Which leads to today's issue, the one-shot Superman versus Darkseid: Apokolips Now! Written by Mark Schultz, pencils by Mike McKone, inks by Marlo Alquiza and Cam Smith. Supes challenges Darkseid, one on one, for John Henry Iron's life. Darkseid doesn't buy it, thinking (or acting) like Superman is gunning for the throne of Apokolips.


After getting a Mother Box from Big Barda--who strikes me as one of the few heroes, who if you tell her this isn't her concern, don't get involved, she'll take you at your word and leave you to it then--Superman has the Eradicator, Superboy, Krypto, and a pair of Supergirls cover Apokolips so Darkseid's forces can't interfere. (Two Supergirls? This was from the very tail end of Peter David's Supergirl run, with the Linda Danvers/angel version and a Silver-agey version of Kara Zor-El.) Natasha Irons, John's niece, disobeys Supes and armors herself up so she can find her uncle.


Meanwhile, Superman quite simply whups Darkseid. By working his face, Supes blinds Darkseid, beating him until his eyes swell shut and taking the Omega Effect out of the equation. Supes offers to keep the fight under his hat, if he gets Steel; and the injured hero is recovered...although Nat seems to think she is going to be Steel, going forward.

The Superman 10-Cent Adventure and accompanying new direction was advertised in the back of this issue, so this was a bit of a reset. Still, I like Mike McKone's art; and this issue moves along even while rehashing Our Worlds of Whatnot...
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If you don't want to see Sgt. Rock punch out Solomon Grundy, I don't think we can be friends.

We just looked at some misinformation from Nick Fury, but that one's going to seem clear as day next to this one: from 2002, Suicide Squad #10, "Time Passages," although the cover title is better: "The Rock that Time Forgot!"

The death and life of Easy Company's Sgt. Rock is something of a debate: some people, including his creator Robert Kanigher, firmly take the position that Rock (and probably the rest of Easy) do not get out of World War II alive; dying in battle before the war ended. Others believe Rock survived, and went on to appear in Brave and the Bold, the Our Worlds at War crossover, and in this incarnation of the Suicide Squad. (Not unlike Hawkman's continuity, Crisis on Infinite Earths may not have helped here; Earth-1 and 2 versions of Rock may have made more sense.)

I don't have all the issues of this one, but accompanying Rock was his Easy Company compatriot, Bulldozer. Bulldozer was currently wheelchair-bound; but both he and Rock were in far better shape than eighty-year-old veterans should be. As a dinosaur movie (conveniently) plays in Bulldozer's apartment, he and Rock remember why...maybe.

In 1959, the ex-Sgt. Rock is receiving his third visit since his discharge from agencies trying to get him back to work. This time, although he never says his name, who he works for, or who's in charge, it appears to be King Faraday. Faraday comments on the comics and magazines on Rock's coffee table, noting that Rock doesn't care for super-heroes, and may have had either a minor scuffle or drag-out brawl with Wildcat. Rock claims that was blown out of proportion, but Faraday tells him, more than once: "You're a resource going to waste. You need purpose." Rock doesn't have much of an argument for that. I mean, can you see him joining a bowling league or something?

At Area 51, back in uniform, Rock catches up with an old friend:

Rock is unenthused that Bulldozer apparently threw his name around as a good prospect for the "Suicide Squad." Bulldozer apologizes, but he hadn't really expected them to drag Rock back in. Besides, Rock really is the best man for the job, as seen on the next page:

That "KERPLOP!" you just heard was the Rock-purists keeling over, but I would probably have read a book of Sgt. Rock fighting aliens, giant insects, and/or Solomon Grundy. (It isn't clear if these missions were before or after Rock signed back up. Possibly from during wartime, since Bulldozer's nose isn't broken, and it still is later this issue.)

Their next mission is to accompany Dr. Rip Hunter (apparently not calling himself Time Master as of yet) to the ever-popular Suicide Squad destination of Dinosaur Island. Hunter is going to try to close the temporal rift on the island; Rock and Bulldozer are there to keep him from being eaten by something straightaway.

By this point, Rock and Bulldozer have been shot at so many times and seen enough weird crap that they're less fazed about a time rip than that the doctor's name is Rip. Using the Time Sphere, they arrive in the late Jurassic era, where Bulldozer promptly throws up. In kind of a dick move that's probably right, Hunter makes Bulldozer clean up his puke, so it doesn't contaminate the timeline or something; and everyone knows raptors are like sharks for the smell of vomit, so...

Bulldozer ends up falling through the invisible time rift, and Rock goes in after him; which gets them back to the present the hard way, without any time spheres or protection or anything. Rip finds them when he returns, and takes the unconscious pair back to Area 51, where they eventually wake up. A visiting Faraday tells them nothing: are they OK? Was the rift closed? Without ever coming out and saying so, it's strongly implied, this incident kept Rock and Bulldozer from aging completely normally. Possibly.

This version of Suicide Squad would end with issue #12; with Bulldozer getting up from his wheelchair and walking away with Rock. Or, "Rock," as he unmasks, leaving behind a rubber face Mission: Impossible style. A caption reads, "Frank Rock died in 1945." But did he really, or is that the official version? Who was that masked man? Nemesis? Someone else? If Rock was Nemesis, who was Bulldozer? And if they weren't really Rock and Bulldozer, did that flashback really happen? And if it didn't, why make John Severin draw it?

Suicide Squad #10, written by Keith Giffen, art by John Severin (flashbacks) and Paco Medina and Joe Sanchez (present). The letters page implies Severin stepped in to help out; and I don't know if Giffen wrote the flashback specifically for Severin or not...I want to guess, not; since I would've gone all-out guns-a'blazing action then. Oh, and nice Mark Texeira cover as well.
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Death! Learn to love it...her...him...whatever.

Until it comes, no one really knows what Death is like. Oh, a lot of people think she's kind and funny and very, very 90's...

Some people are afraid of Death, and find her cold and disturbing...

Um...sometimes more disturbing than others.

Maybe it's different for everybody...

Yes, in the land of Skartaris, even Death is a hot, scantily clad babe.

During their search for Morgan's daughter, Travis and Shakira run across a dinosaur--sort of a fat, orange raptor-thing, I guess. His handy .44 automag puts a good sized hole in Dino's head, but it still runs over both of them.

Travis wakes up to Death, who isn't there for him just yet.

Leading Shakira away, Morgan pulls himself up and gives chase, into hell. Kind of a budget hell, really: looks like they spray-painted the "Abandon hope" spiel on the wooden gate in. Past the demon puppeteer, Morgan's greeted by all those he's killed...no, just three or four guys he's killed. Sigh. Man, if Grell had gone the same route as the Balder issue of Thor, that would've put this issue over the top.

Facing Death, Morgan offers to take Shakira's place, but Death doesn't want to lose one of her best hitters. She offers Morgan a trade: ten years off his life, for the chance to save Shakira. Morgan accepts, and Death brands him good:

After hacking up a couple trolls, and a tentacle from nowhere, Morgan carries Shakira out of hell, then passes out. When he wakes up, Shakira is fine and worried about him. It was all just a dream...

Or was it?

Well, I'm not sure it ever came up again, so yeah, it was. Or maybe Morgan gave up fatty foods and smoking and got those ten years back. From Warlord #46, "X" Written and illustrated by Mike Grell, inks by Romeo Tanghal.

Death of the Endless from Death: The Time of Your Life #2, written by Neil Gaiman, pencilled by Chris Bachalo, inks (and some pencils) by Mark Buckingham, more inks by Mark Pennington. This was the only issue with this Death I could find, and I damn well had to dig for it. Figure the rest were lent out, borrowed, or swiped.

Marvel Death from Deadpool #32, "The End of the End, or, Happy Entrails to You..." The last issue written by Joe Kelly, art by David Brewer, Perrotta, Mahlstedt, R.Ramos, and more. A little rushed, and not as strong on the art front as the book usually was; but Kelly had to wrap it up in a hurry.

The Black Racer from Flash: Our Worlds at War #1, "Time on Target" Written by Geoff Johns, pencils by Angel Unzueta, inks by Jose Marzan Jr. Kirby's Racer looks a little better with a more monochrome design, but it's still a bit of a tough sell. The New Gods have had worse redesigns, though: their post-Kirby 70's outfits are across-the-board terrible. Place your bets on the Black Racer being the only surviving New God: I'd say that's about a 20-to-1 shot...

Balder tells how he fought his way out of Hel in Thor #360, "Into the Valley of Death!" Art and story by Walt Simonson. If you haven't read the Simonson era Thor's, let me assure you: get them now, and enjoy them for years. I was actually thinking this was shown in a different issue when I wrote it up, but there you go. Read more!

Sure, Kyle replaces the whole stupid planet, and you anti-Pluto ingrates don't appreciate it.

From Green Lantern: Our Worlds at War #1, "The Past's Face-Power's Future" Written by Judd Winick, pencils by Dale Eaglesham, inks by Rodney Ramos and Rob Leigh. This wasn't quite the comic I was thinking of: I was pretty sure there was a Superman issue, setting up the Our Worlds at War crossover, where the heroes realize Pluto is missing; and the general reaction is, meh. Just like to the rest of this crossover! This was from August 2001, and I'm not sure how, but I pretty much dodged the OWaW draft from DC Comics. I fished this issue out of a quarter box some time back.

Kyle is musing recent odd events in his superhero career, like the fairy tale queen in JLA and Effigy in his own book; when he gets a call from Superman. So, instead of spending the afternoon with girlfriend/new GL Jade, Kyle has to go replace the missing Pluto. This is one of those science things that seems reasonable enough in comics, but would you really have to replace Pluto if some aliens stole it? Would it mess up gravity and the orbits of the planets if it was gone? I don't really think so, but I admit that's a guess. I'm curious, but I don't want to do the math. Like Captain Kirk: I don't want or need a degree in astrophysics, I just want Spock to tell me, hit the high notes.

(Sidebar: I'm sure someone's pointed this out before, but it just struck me how immature Captain Kirk is, yet we all really want to be him. We all want Spock to take care of our science and math. Taking care of the ship, Scotty. Driving, Sulu. Medical, McCoy. Hell, Kirk doesn't even have to answer the phone or make his own calls, he's got Uhura all over that. All Kirk has to do is give orders, watch the big screen, and bag green women. That's oversimplifying to make a point, and I love Star Trek like kids love Christmas, so just a thought.)

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See, this is why Batman puts you at the kids' table, Kyle.

To be honest, Kyle looks like he's having a ton of fun: he makes a batch of ring-generated space cowboys to herd "a quarter of an asteroid belt" into a placeholder for Pluto. Wait, I'm not sure where he found the asteroids, but wouldn't moving them from the belt between Mars and Jupiter affect gravity more than the loss of Pluto?

Also, I don't know what those asteroids are made out of, but suppose they were iron ore, or something else that future man might conceivably need? I can picture that exhibit at the Space Museum: "...and, with the loss of a small planet's worth of iron ore, Earth was several space cruisers short, and Antares conquered and held the planet for 300 years. Even today, Green Lanterns are still outlawed on Earth, and the name 'Kyle' is still one of the worst of schoolyard insults."

Anyway, GL also doesn't seem to be working especially hard to move all that rock. But, once done, he doesn't get a lot of time to enjoy his handiwork. The long dead Sinestro calls Kyle out, "Leave before I am forced to remove you." Kyle is suprised: "Surprised at how much you remind me of Mr. Spock. But with a real severe tan."

Of course, the two start in on each other with their rings, and you would think Sinestro would have the handicap: Kyle's ring works on yellow, Hal's didn't. Kyle knows Sinestro's A-list, and wants to show he can beat him, then worry about what he's doing there later. Sinestro thinks Kyle is a poser: "Jordan was a selected member of the Corps! What are you?"

The fight starts to go badly for Kyle, when he realizes Sinestro's energy doesn't feel like ring created constructs. Then Kyle starts to ramp up his power--the start of his initial transformation to Ion--and rallies over Sinestro. Just in time for Superman to tell him to stop. Kyle doesn't buy it, probably because he shouldn't be able to hear Superman talk in space, eh? Or maybe he's just too mad to quit.

Then Ganthet, then-last of the Guardians, shows up to tell Kyle to stop. The fake Superman and presumably fake Sinestro have disappeared, and Ganthet tells Kyle answers will be revealed later, and to go home. With everyone gone, Kyle leaves; unaware that Pluto is still there, tricked out into the new Warworld or something. I don't know who the 'big bad' for this one was, he looks like Brainiac 13. Robot in biker shorts, ooh, scary.

Jade comes home to find Kyle waiting for her, and they talk about what happened out in space. Kyle also shows her that his powers are growing or changing: he reads a closed book on his bookshelf via ring, then creates several Kyle-constructs. He's starting to worry that his power is getting too much, but Jade knows Kyle's just too good to go bad. I never had a problem with Jade: like all-too-many characters, she could be written really well, or completely wrong. But, luckily I was able to find this issue, for a little memorial to Pluto, which will always be a planet, in my heart. Sniff!

Again, I didn't read a lot of Our Worlds at War. I know a lot of characters like Guy Gardner and Aquaman were supposedly killed in it, but got better pretty easily; while others like Hippolyta (Wonder Woman's mom) was killed and stayed dead. (And maybe just her, in this crossover.) DC does that sometimes: killing off characters, figuring no one wants them anymore, then having to backtrack to fix it. Or just ignoring the death entirely. For example, the Mark Shaw Manhunter and the Creeper were both 'killed' in Eclipso: the Manhunter was a sub, and Creeper got better. If you can think of any others, let me know!

(Also, I'm splitting this post between today and the first part 'tomorrow', partly because of the pictures, but also because I may be busy tomorrow. Have a good weekend!)

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