The Rann-Thanagar War (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) by Dave Gibbons

Countdown to Infinite Crisis #4

by Dave Gibbons

Don't miss this thrilling new trade paperback that collects the 6-issue miniseries that helped set the stage for INFINITE CRISIS!

The planet Rann was taken from its solar system, hidden for its own protection. But when the danger passed, it was placed in a different system. Now threatening Thanagar's very existence, Rann tries to maintain peace and save the populations of two worlds. A religious fanatic, though, aspires to something else: power. And to achieve it, she's willing to sacrifice as many people and as many worlds as necessary!

Standing in her way are the greatest champions from across the universe: Adam Strange, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Green Lantern, the Omega Men, L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Darkstars. Alliances are forged, friendships tested, and the balance of galactic power will be redefined before the conflict is over!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything". He also was an artist for the UK anthology 2000 AD, for which he contributed a large body of work from its first issue in 1977.

Gibbons broke into British comics by working on horror and action titles for both DC Thomson and IPC. When the science-fiction anthology title 2000 AD was set up in the mid-1970s, Gibbons contributed artwork to the first issue, Prog 01 (February 1977), and went on to draw the first 24 installments of Harlem Heroes, one of the founding (and pre-Judge Dredd) strips. Mid-way through the comic's first year he began illustrating Dan Dare, a cherished project for Gibbons who had been a fan of the original series. Also working on early feature Ro-Busters, Gibbons became one of the most prolific of 2000 AD's earliest creators, contributing artwork to 108 of the first 131 Progs/issues. He returned to the pages of "the Galaxy's Greatest Comic" in the early 1980s to create Rogue Trooper with writer Gerry Finley-Day and produce an acclaimed early run on that feature, before handing it over to a succession of other artists. He also illustrated a handful of Tharg's Future Shocks shorts, primarily with author Alan Moore. Gibbons departed from 2000 AD briefly in the late 1970s/early 1980s to became the lead artist on Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly, for which magazine he drew the main comic strip from issue #1 until #69, missing only four issues during that time.

He is best known in the US for collaborating with Alan Moore on the 12-issue limited series Watchmen, now one of the best-selling graphic novels of all time, and the only one to feature on Time's "Top 100 Novels" list. From the start of the 1990s, Gibbons began to focus as much on writing and inking as on drawing, contributing to a number of different titles and issues from a variety of companies. Particular highlights included, in 1990, Gibbons writing the three-issue World's Finest miniseries for artist Steve Rude and DC, while drawing Give Me Liberty for writer Frank Miller and Dark Horse Comics. He penned the first Batman Vs. Predator crossover for artists Andy and Adam Kubert (Dec 1991 - Feb 1992), and inked Rick Veitch and Stephen R. Bissette for half of Alan Moore's 1963 Image Comics series.

Works other than comics include providing the background art for the 1994 computer game Beneath a Steel Sky and the cover to K, the 1996 debut album by psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. In 2007, he served as a consultant on the film Watchmen, which was adapted from the book, and released in March 2009. 2009's Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars Director's Cut for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms featured hand drawn art by Dave Gibbons.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

By far the weakest of the Infinite Crisis preludes. This one doesn't even have much to do with it. This is just nonstop fighting between a Thanagarian death cult and a bunch of alien races, mainly the Rannians. There's not much else in the way of a plot and there's not any resolution as this ends on a cliff hanger. Dave Gibbons has never been that skilled of a writer. I'd prefer he stick to drawing as he's a hell of an artist.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's my fault. I don't know much about any of the assorted Hawk people, or Adam Strange, or really anything in the DCU that's off Earth. Or maybe it was just a mediocre story. At any rate, this edition of Countdown to Infinite Crisis didn't do anything for me, and I'm not exactly sure how it's going to play into the larger story later. It's probably more a stroke of marketing savvy to tie it into the bigger crossover to increase readership, and sales. But it seems to me that it's a very skippable part of the Infinite Crisis storyline.

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

As part of the Countdown to Infinite Crisis: I read the comic books Rann-Thanagar War #1-6, Green Lantern Recharge #1-5, Superman #223 and Hawkman #46, that cover this so-so war in its entirety. 5 out of 12.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

My god, why is the dialogue so hard on the ears? Is it the stupid, dreamed-up-by-a-retarded-child mythology surrounding Rann & Thanagar? (I mean, who would even bother trying to rationlize the experience of an emotionally stunted tool with a wing harness and a friggin *mace*?)

Or us it Gibbons' writing that makes everything sound like something out of a bad high school play?

I'm skimming this book (to preserve some dignity and sense of self-respect for reading comics), and I'm only through the first two chapters.

Screw it - I just read Trebro's review and decided this isn't worth my Saturday afternoon. Signing off.

[Rylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this for the most part, it’s really well written and the art was great. I guess the issue is with me personally, I don’t know much about Rann or Thanagar outside of the cartoons, hell I barley know cosmic DC in general. So I was very lost with my lack of knowledge, but I’m sure someone who knows a lot about the characters featured in here will appreciate this story.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak link of the entire omnibus. A overly long space battle with mostly characters you probably don't know it care about. Cool to see Kyle there though.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Infinite Crisis and I am trying to read the side collections to that event. This is one of them. In this one, Thanagarians are living on Rann because their world is inhabitable. The Thanagarians want Rann for themselves.

My rating is probably more of a reflection on me. I am not the most versed in the DC universe but I am a completionist. I would like to read everything connected to Infinite Crisis. I will start with the positive first. The artwork is terrific whether it shows the scope of huge battles or the differences of characters. Also, I like the idea of a race living as refugees and trying to take that world. The problem for me was the characters. I know nothing about Adam Strange and very little about Hawkman and Hawkgirl. I do know the Green Lanterns but they are a minor character. Every other character was of no importance to me and without background information I never bonded with them. I did not care about anyone's situation. The big bad of this story was interesting but I had no clue about how fearsome he is.

My review might not be the best to make a decision whether to read this collection. This collection isn't meant for me but more for the serious DC fan. If you want to see some gorgeous artwork take a look at the pages inside this collection because the illustrations were incredible.

[Joni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. Un decálogo de todo lo que no tiene que pasar en un cómic. Diálogos aburridos, historia sin sentido, secuencia narrativa gráfica inentendible. Lleno de splash pages vomitadas de colores estrambóticos. De principio a fin leyendo de reojo cual tortura.

[Sookie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want my money back.

[Judah Radd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cool cosmic story. It reminds me of Marvel’s Annihilation event. The villain is a massive, Galactus like monster named Onimar Synn, and he was evil and scary. I dug him. Ivan Reis is an amazing artist.

My biggest issue was Dave Gibbons’ wooden writing. He just didn’t pack a lot of energy into his dialogue, and I felt like he missed some opportunities to capitalize on the drama.

Overall, this is pretty cool and definitely worth reading, but there are some lulls in the action that may bore you.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the story was so preposterous, it might have actually been good.

[Nate]

Excellent art by Ivan Reis cannot make up for awful writing by Dave Gibbons. Characters only talk to move the plot along and there’s endless fighting, leaving no room for the story to breathe. On top of that, Gibbons piles on character after character with little explanation as to why they're there. I'm a DC nerd, so I know these characters and their history (more or less), but imagine giving this to a non-DC reader. This is nothing less than continuity porn, a prime example of why people say it's hard to get into superhero comics.

[Marcin Rauf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mimo ze to wspolczesny komiks z ladnymi ilustracjami i wartka akcja to jest tak odlegly od ziemi i ich spraw jak tylko to mozliwe. Zero zaangazowania w wojne, ktora nam zaserwowano. Jak na taki welkoskalowy konflikt dzieje sie za szybko i za duzo jest rozwiazan z kapelusza. Koncowka sugeruje ze to nie
koniec ale jakos nie mam zaciecia do kolejnych odslon tego konfliku.

[Rihards Husko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two powerful alien races and all of their allies clash, while an ancient, dangerous deity regains his power. Rann-Thanagar War is an action-packed book that's gorgeous to look at, but isn't all that fun to actually read or all that memorable when you're done.

I'm sure at least part of my general disinterest in this book has to do with my complete lack of knowledge about any of the central characters here save Hawkgirl and Hawkman. Kilowogg and Kyle Rayner also make an appearance, and the two space cops are treated as a big deal, which is nice to see. There appears to be a lot of history to the races depicted and their conflict, but if that is true (likely), I'm missing out on it. There is little-to-no scaffolding for new readers, which I kind of respect, but I'd be lying if it didn't limit my enjoyment.

A lot happens in this book. It is very action-oriented and fast-paced, which I'd generally consider a strength, though it comes with its own problems here. Some issues the book keeps switching between 3 locations every few pages. The locations are supposed to be different, but they kind of look the same (red, ravaged by destruction) and have the same conflict going on (space dudes vs. winged space dudes). I don't necessarily have the longest of attention spans, but I honestly had a hard time distinguishing between the different war-torn planets or what that meant for the overall plot.

The main antagonist is a boring I-will-consume-all-existence-for-power type deals and is just incredibly dull. There is an over-abundance of techno-babble. There are some decent character moments, but hardly anyone in the cast really stood out as a personality to me.

Rann-Thanagar War is a busy book. There is magical metal and ancient gods, and teleportation devices, and a dude in a jetpack. Ivan Reis' pencils are beautiful. Storylines are continued from before, and left to be resolved later. A lot of *stuff* happens and there are some neat twists, yet I had a hard time caring about any of it, unfortunately.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rann-Thangar War. Definitely the weakest of the Infinite Crisis preludes; in short, it's a muddy, momentum-less book. That problem begins with the book's intro, which info-dumps a pile of confusing information from Adam Strange: Planet Heist. From there we get a rather wonderful gathering of DC's cosmic characters, but they all just seem to be fighting endless fights with no feeling of progress. After six issues of this, the story anticlimaxes, sacrificing any conclusion upon the altar of Infinite Crisis. [2/5].

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one's not my bag to start with, but I tried to be open-minded. Even so, it's jumbled and messy, with too many cuts and too much going on to make it feel epic at the expense of story.

[Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the title says Rann-Thanagar War, it really should be called Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Hawkwoman and Adam Strange. This book is branded as a lead in to the DC Comics Infinite Crisis event although the Infinite Crisis bit doesn't kick in until the very end (isn't that always the way?) But make no mistake about it, this book is mainly about Hawkman and Adam Strange, with the big bad being a villain from the JSA restart that was curated by the likes of James Robinson, David Goyer and eventually Geoff Johns, who was on Green Lantern when Dave Gibbons (mostly known to me as being the artist on Alan Moore's masterpiece, Watchmen) was writing Green Lantern Corps after co-writing Recharge with Johns. My complaint about those Gibbons penned Corps trades was a lack of Kyle Rayner, who is my favorite Green Lantern. He is the token Green Lantern for the most part in these pages, being ordered to stay out of the Rann-Thanagar conflict by his bosses, the Guardians of the Universe (of course, you know how that will go.) Eventually, in his sub-plot he runs into Vril Dox's L.E.G.I.O.N. and by extension the minor DC hero Captain Comet, who also becomes part of the story. (Eventually, Infinite Crisis goes toward explaining Kyle's absence from the Corps, continued in the Ion miniseries, until the Sinestro Corps War .) Of course, eventually Kyle and Captain Comet will become intertwined with the Hawkman/Adam Strange part of the story, because of course it will.

One of the big things I always fear with these "cosmic" stories (either from Marvel or DC) is that they often turn out to be really difficult to execute. I think this largely because often time really great space epics involve a dedication to character in order for the plot to really work. I don't know if we would hold the original Star Wars trilogy in such high regard had we not related to Luke Skywalker and his crew. The prequel trilogy essentially fails because Anakin comes off as a whiny, entitled brat. When comics publishers come up with these sorts of things, the easy thing for creative teams to do is to just rely on the established history of the characters involved. This is why something like The Infinity Gauntlet works while The Black Vortex doesn't--in the former Jim Starlin made Thanos' motivations the major part of the narrative--before Infinity Gauntlet we didn't really know the depths of Thanos' nihilism and it leads to a great story. Meanwhile, The Black Vortex runs with "it's the Guardians! It's the X-Men! You know you want to read it." The problem is there's nothing there to dig into. This is the problem with Rann-Thanagar War at its core--I've always envisioned Adam Strange as somewhat of a throwaway character, kind of like a poor man's Hal Jordan. But the history of Hawkman is so unbelievably convoluted (even in its attempts to fix it made it even more convoluted) and as a result we are left thinking the only reason the Hawks are involved is because the spurious connection to Thanagar. Having read many of the post Zero Hour Hawkman stories, I'm not certain that Katar Hol even every existed. But if Gibbons was going to make him the focus along with super-hero cutout Adam Strange, the reason needs to be more than the fact that one of the planets is the Hawk planet and the villain happens to have appeared in JSA.

All of this said, this is not a total disaster like The Black Vortex. However, when the impetus for writing a miniseries is to push a different miniseries, you likely aren't going to get the best story, since of course you can put a writer's name on the book--editorial is still running the show. And we usually, we know how that's going to turn out before we even turn to page 1.

[Hugh Pfabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars given, but it should probably be more like 3 1/2 (if Goodreads allowed us to do that).

This is a quick read, even at 6 issues, and it's fun mainly because of all of the cosmic characters.
We've got the Earth-based Hawks, we have Shayera (RIP Hawkworld and Katar Hol, personal favorites, but at least we see half of that pairing), we have a couple of Green Lanterns (Kyle and Kilowog), we have Adam Strange, we have L.E.G.I.O.N. (just a little bit), and we have Captain Comet, who I always love to see. If we'd had a certain Daxamite, it would all be there for me.

* See spoiler at bottom for one big gripe

I've never been a fan of this ongoing conceit of having Rann and Thanagar always at war, but at least it lets me see these characters.

That said, the story feels incomplete. This doesn't feel like its own series or miniseries. It plays so directly off of previous events, in fact being directly based on some major ones that are mentioned in passing, and then it ends so inconclusively, that it just isn't quite satisfying as its own story. I feel like you need to collect a good few other books (and not all have been put together into trades) to really get a full story.

Still, it's decently written (nice to see Dave Gibbons handling cosmic characters, only wish there'd been more GLC), the art is gorgeous (not as good as the Adam Strange mini that came before it, but still reminiscent of that level), and it's a fun read.

Find it for cheap and enjoy it with some popcorn.



* SPOILER

The killing of Shayera feels so rushed, and thoroughly unnecessary. It feels almost like there was a mandate to kill of any remaining references to Hawkworld and that part of the Hawks' background, and clear the way for a totally different take on Thanagar, more in line with what we've seen in recent years.
Very disappointing to have a character that some of us came to care for deeply in the 90s and early 2000s killed off so quickly and unneccesarily.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the DC space heroes more than the Marvel space heroes, so I was really excited when DC's third Crisis arc focused so much on Adam Strange, Hawkman, the Green Lanterns and other space faring cultures.
First I want to point out the cons of this TPB. This is actually part two of a multi-arc story. "Adam Strange : Planet Heist" is part one, and while reading it first is recommended, this book does fill you in on what happened. The worst part is that while the main story in this issue does have a conclusion, it leaves the overall story at a cliffhanger moment and does not explain that the rest can be read in the 2-part Rann/Thanagar Holy War TPBs. For me this is a minor problem because I want to read all the books anyway. For a more casual or less stoked reader, this might be a real "screw DC and their piss-poor way of printing TPBs" moment (I have had a few of those myself).

To me there is more than enough good stuff to make up for the bad stuff. The art is excellent. The story is never dull; it moves forward at breakneck speed, but I never felt like it skipped over or left things out, and it did not leave me behind as the reader. The story has a large cast of interesting characters, many of who get very little face-time in the DCU, but I never felt lost or confused as to who-was-who and what they were doing. Large cast books often get lost in themselves, but this book never felt like that.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, well…It happened, anyway…

In the run-up to Infinite Crisis DC launched a number of miniseries that set up problems all over the place. Rann and Thanagar are probably more relevant, today, for the pastiche in Saga than anything that’s been done with them in the years since. Rann is the periodic home of Adam Strange (recently the star of Tom King’s Strange Adventures) while Thanagar is the home of the alien version of Hawkman. Rann-Thanagar War tosses them and other space-based characters (L.E.G.I.O.N., a staple of the ‘90s but all but vanished in recent years; Captain Comet, who dies in the pages of 52; Tigorr of the Omega Men, later featured in what remains one of my favorite Tom King comics; a version of Starman; and Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Kilowog) into a generalized conflict of warring civilizations that never really settles into much of an actual story.

Dave Gibbons is best known as the artist of Watchmen, but he’s also been a writer of comics; I know that side of his talents better in his relaunching of Green Lantern Corps soon after. I’m pretty sure in the follow-up special, Jade is killed off, and the material feeds into storylines within 52.

But there’s really not much to see here except an effort to use all these characters in the same story.

[Clay Bartel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Countdown to Infinite Crisis has around 10 books in the collection and I have absolutely loved reading these stories, especially OMAC Project.

Since reading Infinite Crisis a few years ago and feeling on the one hand that I enjoyed it, but on the other hand, lost and confused and not really getting the full impact...

Like reading the last page of a famous novel, it leaves you feeling bit empty...

Infinite Crisis was a good story but it's a mistake to read it without at least first reading OMAC Project...

Well my used book store had 6 of the dozen or so Countdown books and I bought them all.

Like I said OMAC is genuinely brilliant, Superman Sacrifice is one I'm in the middle of reading and really loving it unfold...

Rann-Thanagar War was quite bizarre for me to read, I didn't understand the history of these planets and was confused by what was happening and who was who... I also wasn't sure how it tied to Infinite Crisis... but it has been years since I read that so maybe there are references to Rann-Thanagar War that I forgot...

It'll be worth rereading sometime in the future once I get through the whole Countdown and Crisis itself...

For now I'm sort of scratching my head with this one...

[Matthieu Savignac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ce fut long...

Je ne sais pas trop quoi penser de cette mini-série. C'est beau, c'est vraiment très beau, Ivan Reis est comme toujours impeccable dans son style (des corps parfaits, peut-être un peu trop sexualisés pour certains — et une mise en scène très cinématographique), mais je vais être franc... je n'ai rien compris.
Je n'ai pas suivi la série Adam Strange à l'époque et je n'ai aucune idée de qui sont les personnages principaux, ou les antagonistes, ou même les histoires des planètes, des guerres, des conflits, des...

Bon sang, c'est un bordel sans nom, ça tire, ça tape, ça castagne, ça meurt, ça explose.

Mais qu'est-ce que c'est long et fastidieux pour finalement... rien ?

Bref, une série qui n'a aucun intérêt, à part pour les quelques fans des personnages principaux, car même au sein de Infinite Crisis, aucun détail n'est réellement utile.

On oublie.

[Rebecca Kane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I fear my rating for this book suffered for my lack of really advanced knowledge of the Rannians and Thanagarians and their histories. Though I’ve recently read a chunk of Adam Strange stories including the 2004 series that was the lead-in to this event, it was not enough to help me navigate every detail. I grasped most of the general plot, but even so it remained rather boring at best, and hard to follow otherwise. That said, it’s seriously gorgeous to look at.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was boring, bland, lifeless, and unsurprisingly convoluted by DC editorial. What could be a space opera style book is just random indistinguishable aliens fighting, defeating their foe in seconds, and then being left with a bizarre cliffhanger. Dave Gibbons doesn't do his best work here as everything was a cliche. Only bright spot was the art by Ivan Reis. Overall, this was pretty terrible.

[Saravanan Mani · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the other crisis tie-ins were standalone pieces that set up a bigger event, this beautifully drawn mini-series starts and ends abruptly. You need a lot of background lore for this. I liked the politics and intrigue and it would have been better if it were about characters that were more established.

[Jake Fortier · Rating 2 out of 5]

My main problem with this book is that it has no room to breathe. We’re thrown right into the deep end of the story without some much needed character introductions. On top of that what we do get is told to us instead of being shown. The only reason it gets 2 stars is due to Ivan Reis’ great art.

[Andrew Seaton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Glad that’s over.

All of these books suffer from the problem of prequels to a series they need their one prequels to make any sense. With for example Villains United, it’s Identity Crisis, which I happen to like.

This one was just unsalvageable.

[Lavell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Artwork: Very nice story: Ok The main character that died was a no-body Yes, its sad to treat it as such but she was a minor character.very minor. The story was ok, seen it before and with better storytelling.

[Zachary King · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really rather terrible. Characters come and go with no real purpose, and the plotting is tragically muddled. By far the worst of the “Countdown to Infinite Crisis” lead-in series. Everyone involved has done much better work elsewhere.

[Beau · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story felt incomplete. There was also far too much going on and too many characters, combined with the fast pace of the story it was confusing a lot of the time. Book was alright, but had the potential to be way better.