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Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4-0
Comics Cavalcade Archives: Crisis in Time
When all of his family and friends were killed by the attack of a super-villain, the once heroic Green Lantern went insane and became the immensely powerful Parallax. Hoping to save his loved ones, the mad Hal Jordan decided to recreate the universe by unraveling time. Now as realities and time lines converge, dinosaurs walk the Earth again, deceased heroes are resurrected, and half the population has suddenly vanished. With Parallax on the verge of success, Superman, Batman, Robin, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the rest of the world's heroes must find a way to stop their former comrade or cease to be as all existence ends.
160 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 1994
96 people are currently reading
326 people want to read
About the author
Dan Jurgens
2,245 books285 followersDan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 158 reviews
May 23, 2017
It’s time for another crisis!
This TPB edition collects “Showcase ‘94” #8-9 and “Zero Hour: Crisis in Time” #4-0 (No, it’s not a mistake, this particular title ran from #4 in countdown way until #0).
Creative Team:
Writer & Illustrator: Dan Jurgens
Additional Illustrators: Jerry Ordway & Frank Fosco
SPOILING COVER
In this era of social media where studios constantly bombard you with “news” about the incoming movies and TV episodes, where they clearly tell you who will appear and even key moments in the story, they ironically later are wondering why audience wasn’t impacted…
…hey, they didn’t give us a chance to be surprised!
And, unless you were so lucky to read this event when it was originally published in single comic books, well, with the dumb option of cover in the TPB, you won’t be able to be shocked at any level when you see the appearance of Hal Jordan in the climax of the story.
It’s not the ony time that DC made such spoiling cover, since in Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga, while the story is made to keep in secret the identity of the main villain, well, they opted to put Darkseid right in the cover. In that case, I had the luck of reading it on single comic books, so I was able to be surprised.
Here, I hadn’t the chance,…
…, first because I read it from the TPB with the spoiling cover, and also since while Monarch (a villain introduced in the previous DC Comics event Armageddon 2001 (published in 1991)), evolved into a new villain persona now named Extant, is the supposed main villain a good part of the story, but...
...due the spoiling cover, and since Hal Jordan went cuckoo in the Green Lantern event Emerald Twilight (published in 1994 (back then, when the word “Twilight” didn’t give you a bad taste of shinin’ vamps)), you must assume that (not so) good (anymore) ol’ Hal Jordan will appear sooner or later and in not good terms with the rest of DC characters.
RESET ALL CLOCKS!
In any case, Zero Hour, it a DC Comics crisis where the whole timeline is in peril, since dark forces are in progress to erase the current timeline to be replaced with one without some “mistakes” that the villain(s) consider unfair to be happened.
The Linear Men (you may know them as “Time Masters”, if you’re watching “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” TV Show) found out this and soon enough Rip Hunter and Waverider (where, here they are a muscled man and an energy human-shaped being, and not a skinny British guy and a ship) call for the help of DC Heroes to try to stop this crisis.
The event per se, isn’t that exciting to read (even less considering the spoiling cover),...
...BUT if you’re lucky to find some tie-in comic books of the event (and I don’t refer to the special issues with #0 on them, but the actual tie-in comic book issues published during the event), since many of them were quite awesome to read like Superboy #8, where Connor Kent version meets the original Superboy (teenager Kal-El); Batman #511, where a younger Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) appears before the time when The Joker left her paralyzed; Detective Comics #678, one of the best tie-ins featuring the situation that maybe Batman doesn’t know all the details of his parents’ murder; or Superman: The Man of Steel #37, where Superman faces zillions of Batman versions of the past.
This TPB edition collects “Showcase ‘94” #8-9 and “Zero Hour: Crisis in Time” #4-0 (No, it’s not a mistake, this particular title ran from #4 in countdown way until #0).
Creative Team:
Writer & Illustrator: Dan Jurgens
Additional Illustrators: Jerry Ordway & Frank Fosco
SPOILING COVER
In this era of social media where studios constantly bombard you with “news” about the incoming movies and TV episodes, where they clearly tell you who will appear and even key moments in the story, they ironically later are wondering why audience wasn’t impacted…
…hey, they didn’t give us a chance to be surprised!
And, unless you were so lucky to read this event when it was originally published in single comic books, well, with the dumb option of cover in the TPB, you won’t be able to be shocked at any level when you see the appearance of Hal Jordan in the climax of the story.
It’s not the ony time that DC made such spoiling cover, since in Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga, while the story is made to keep in secret the identity of the main villain, well, they opted to put Darkseid right in the cover. In that case, I had the luck of reading it on single comic books, so I was able to be surprised.
Here, I hadn’t the chance,…
…, first because I read it from the TPB with the spoiling cover, and also since while Monarch (a villain introduced in the previous DC Comics event Armageddon 2001 (published in 1991)), evolved into a new villain persona now named Extant, is the supposed main villain a good part of the story, but...
...due the spoiling cover, and since Hal Jordan went cuckoo in the Green Lantern event Emerald Twilight (published in 1994 (back then, when the word “Twilight” didn’t give you a bad taste of shinin’ vamps)), you must assume that (not so) good (anymore) ol’ Hal Jordan will appear sooner or later and in not good terms with the rest of DC characters.
RESET ALL CLOCKS!
In any case, Zero Hour, it a DC Comics crisis where the whole timeline is in peril, since dark forces are in progress to erase the current timeline to be replaced with one without some “mistakes” that the villain(s) consider unfair to be happened.
The Linear Men (you may know them as “Time Masters”, if you’re watching “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” TV Show) found out this and soon enough Rip Hunter and Waverider (where, here they are a muscled man and an energy human-shaped being, and not a skinny British guy and a ship) call for the help of DC Heroes to try to stop this crisis.
The event per se, isn’t that exciting to read (even less considering the spoiling cover),...
...BUT if you’re lucky to find some tie-in comic books of the event (and I don’t refer to the special issues with #0 on them, but the actual tie-in comic book issues published during the event), since many of them were quite awesome to read like Superboy #8, where Connor Kent version meets the original Superboy (teenager Kal-El); Batman #511, where a younger Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) appears before the time when The Joker left her paralyzed; Detective Comics #678, one of the best tie-ins featuring the situation that maybe Batman doesn’t know all the details of his parents’ murder; or Superman: The Man of Steel #37, where Superman faces zillions of Batman versions of the past.
November 1, 2024
It only took 9 years for DC to make enough continuity screwups after Crisis that Dan Jurgens felt the need to reset the DC universe again. His retcons attempts were misguided at best. In trying to "fix" Hawkman he screwed up the character so badly (turning him into this amalgamation of all the previous Hawkman incarnations plus a Hawkgod) that he sat fallow for 10+ years until Geoff Johns figured out how to fix him during his JSA run. Speaking of the JSA, Jurgens got rid of them too until David Goyer and James Robinson figured out a way to restore them to glory. Even with those missteps, this is still a solid event with Extant erasing time from both ends. I really liked the ending. This is best enjoyed with the other Zero Hour books DC has recently put out, Batman: Zero Hour, Superman: Zero Hour, and Justice League: Zero Hour. Jerry Ordway inks Dan Jurgens pencils giving them a noticeable texture and depth that I quite enjoyed.
March 20, 2019
Chaotic, needless, sometimes anticlimactic, but nonetheless adventurous. Fairly essential reading in DC event history.
Although beleaguered with 90s hyperbole dialog and convenient plotting, Zero Hour may be the earliest metafictional event in the DCU (perhaps more than Crisis), with characters discussing continuity and various versions of themselves.
The plot involves a silly, unknown super villain unleashing entropy across the multiverse. Several needed twists and character reveals (and additions) deepen this motivation and (at least attempt to) legitimize the antagonist’s actions. But as a follow up to the epic Crisis On Infinite Earths, which supposedly solved countless continuity errors, why was this crisis necessary at all? Thus began a history of convolution and misguided attempts to solve an increasingly complicated literary universe.
Although beleaguered with 90s hyperbole dialog and convenient plotting, Zero Hour may be the earliest metafictional event in the DCU (perhaps more than Crisis), with characters discussing continuity and various versions of themselves.
The plot involves a silly, unknown super villain unleashing entropy across the multiverse. Several needed twists and character reveals (and additions) deepen this motivation and (at least attempt to) legitimize the antagonist’s actions. But as a follow up to the epic Crisis On Infinite Earths, which supposedly solved countless continuity errors, why was this crisis necessary at all? Thus began a history of convolution and misguided attempts to solve an increasingly complicated literary universe.
April 28, 2024
I don't know how I even marginally enjoyed this as a kid.
I guess I kind of know. It was an overview of the DC Universe in the mid-90s, a way to be introduced to all these different characters with pretty decent art, Dan Jurgens is plenty good at storytelling, and seemingly cosmic battles. But the story was barely there, little more than an excuse for lineups and poses, with a marginally coherent science fiction time travel story indecipherable to any normal readers.
I mean, Extant looked cool. The surprise villain of Hal Jordan's Parallax has since been retconned into a better story. Overall, when compared to the 80s' Crisis on Infinite Earths it is a big failure in scope and relevance. While the former was 12 issues over the course of a year, it had a huge impact, while Zero Hour was five issues a week at just a month.
Unfortunately, Zero Hour started the trend of DC constantly reworking its continuity. What should have been the final say in the previous Crisis, turned into endless similar 'events' by the 21st century when they constantly changed the past and rebooted and changed their minds again...
That said, some of the crossovers for this one were nice and clever. In fact, the mid-90s was generally an excellent time at DC and having all the titles be issue "#0" was a good idea to retell origins and find new readers. I happened to love the Legion reboot afterwards, in particular. And the folded out timeline in the last issue was cool. DC having this specific mapped-out history was fun.
But all in all, what a meh and empty crossover.
I guess I kind of know. It was an overview of the DC Universe in the mid-90s, a way to be introduced to all these different characters with pretty decent art, Dan Jurgens is plenty good at storytelling, and seemingly cosmic battles. But the story was barely there, little more than an excuse for lineups and poses, with a marginally coherent science fiction time travel story indecipherable to any normal readers.
I mean, Extant looked cool. The surprise villain of Hal Jordan's Parallax has since been retconned into a better story. Overall, when compared to the 80s' Crisis on Infinite Earths it is a big failure in scope and relevance. While the former was 12 issues over the course of a year, it had a huge impact, while Zero Hour was five issues a week at just a month.
Unfortunately, Zero Hour started the trend of DC constantly reworking its continuity. What should have been the final say in the previous Crisis, turned into endless similar 'events' by the 21st century when they constantly changed the past and rebooted and changed their minds again...
That said, some of the crossovers for this one were nice and clever. In fact, the mid-90s was generally an excellent time at DC and having all the titles be issue "#0" was a good idea to retell origins and find new readers. I happened to love the Legion reboot afterwards, in particular. And the folded out timeline in the last issue was cool. DC having this specific mapped-out history was fun.
But all in all, what a meh and empty crossover.
September 15, 2023
After Crisis on Infinite Earths (COIE), all seemed well and organized in the DC Universe. However, after nine years, Dan Jurgens was given the opportunity to restart the Universe once things got all messed up again.
I've been reading a lot of modern DC books and all of them seem to reference COIE and/or Zero Hour: Crisis in Time one way or another, so I finally decided to check them both out.
COIE was definitely the more thought-out story, with Zero Hour using the "the worlds being destroyed from the last Crisis 9 years ago are finally catching up to us now" excuse, but I think Zero Hour was also easier to follow with less characters, meaning more time to focus on a main cast, and in turn, allowing us to feel something for them more.
It was also more fun, in my opinion. The 1990s were my favorite time-period for DC. We got Batman: Knightfall, the Death of Superman, Kingdom Come, DC: One Million, and many more great events/titles.
I'd recommend reading this for anyone looking to see Parallax, one of Green Lantern Hal Jordan's most important events in his life or anyone looking for a fun story set in the DC Universe. All that's required is maybe a little knowledge of COIE and DC Comics within the first few years of the 90s.
I've been reading a lot of modern DC books and all of them seem to reference COIE and/or Zero Hour: Crisis in Time one way or another, so I finally decided to check them both out.
COIE was definitely the more thought-out story, with Zero Hour using the "the worlds being destroyed from the last Crisis 9 years ago are finally catching up to us now" excuse, but I think Zero Hour was also easier to follow with less characters, meaning more time to focus on a main cast, and in turn, allowing us to feel something for them more.
It was also more fun, in my opinion. The 1990s were my favorite time-period for DC. We got Batman: Knightfall, the Death of Superman, Kingdom Come, DC: One Million, and many more great events/titles.
I'd recommend reading this for anyone looking to see Parallax, one of Green Lantern Hal Jordan's most important events in his life or anyone looking for a fun story set in the DC Universe. All that's required is maybe a little knowledge of COIE and DC Comics within the first few years of the 90s.
July 5, 2014
I don't know what was inside DC's mind when they published Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. They have "cleaned" the DC Universe during the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths, so Crisis in Time either finished the 9-year old Crisis crossover, retconning some series and ending others; or made its readers even more confused with the aftermath new universe.
There are many elements in Zero Hour which are similar to Infinite Crisis. The good thing is that the former is less cluttered with characters. It is easier to follow. Considering that this is only a 5-issue series, Zero Hour didn't suffer the repetitiveness problem of Infinite Crisis. I liked the story and the pacing.
By the way, what happened to Darkseid?
There are many elements in Zero Hour which are similar to Infinite Crisis. The good thing is that the former is less cluttered with characters. It is easier to follow. Considering that this is only a 5-issue series, Zero Hour didn't suffer the repetitiveness problem of Infinite Crisis. I liked the story and the pacing.
By the way, what happened to Darkseid?
May 3, 2024
I loved ZERO HOUR when it first came out, but it just does not hold up....
December 22, 2011
It took DC five years to get around to this follow up to Crisis on Infinite Earths, trying to clean up the many loose ends left behind. It isn't nearly as successful as Crisis was. The story is frankly a bit of a mess, and the art is unquestionably a product of the 90s, especially with that horrible color palette. I also had to laugh at the shameless advertising at the end of the trade. Apparently, it was rushed to print in time to promote the Zero Month events that immediately followed the crossover. Nowhere near a must read, for anything.
March 28, 2024
Zero Hour is another "Crisis" story. Written by Dan Jurgens with artwork done by Frank Fosco.
Apparently, the former Hero known as Hawk has become the villain Extant. He is trying to recreate the multiverse and this is causing a Crisis. With timelines crossing over and heroes dying, the remaining heroes must band together to try to prevent a catastrophe. But, there is more than Extant behind the events, as we run into Hal Jordan possessed by Parallax. The epic final battle with the heroes and Parallax will cause the birth of a multiverse.
This was another attempt to correct the weird timelines of comics. This one was good, though never rising to the levels of "Crisis on Infinite Earths". The artwork is also rather 90s with the long hair and weird outfits, but still not bad. Overall, a cool comic.
Apparently, the former Hero known as Hawk has become the villain Extant. He is trying to recreate the multiverse and this is causing a Crisis. With timelines crossing over and heroes dying, the remaining heroes must band together to try to prevent a catastrophe. But, there is more than Extant behind the events, as we run into Hal Jordan possessed by Parallax. The epic final battle with the heroes and Parallax will cause the birth of a multiverse.
This was another attempt to correct the weird timelines of comics. This one was good, though never rising to the levels of "Crisis on Infinite Earths". The artwork is also rather 90s with the long hair and weird outfits, but still not bad. Overall, a cool comic.
June 7, 2020
Otro evento DC de los 90 que se lee rápido pero que deja sabor a poco. Eso sí, se disfrutan los dibujos de Ordway y por eso solo le doy una estrella más
April 24, 2011
I am continuing my read, where available in TPB, of DC Comics various event series. I remember when this originally came out writer Dan Jurgens said this was, in part, a response to everything the company had mucked up in its timeline since the Wolfman/Perez Crisis series. Give Jurgens credit in that he does a yeoman's job of trying to get the timeline back in a nice little row. On top of that he does set events up for the continuing series that were spun out of these. Some D list characters were introduced that we hardly saw again (Alpha Centurion). A bonus is the timeline appended to the end of the series. Series such as this are not about characterization, but big screen spectacle and this is a good, but not great entry in the series event field.
October 26, 2023
Part of my Batman and Superman comic book reread project. (And watch out; I'm not posting spoiler tags here.)
What the fuck? Man, this shit was weak.
But first, a word from our sponsors. Here's an ad from these books:
That movie might be better than this story. I can't say for sure, for I've never been able to make it through the whole thing because it sucks ass, but so did Zero Hour. The story has some good bones, but the execution blows like Jaws.
Sucky, sucky for a dime.
Fifteen cents for overtime.
But that doesn't mean it hadn't any redeeming qualities, and let's get them out of the way first (it won't take long). The artwork was good. If you're well immersed in the DCverse (which I'm not; I'm all about Supes and Bats), then scenes like the one where everyone answers Superman's call could give you an orgasm.
And check out the covers!
They countdown from four to zero, and see how they get lighter with each one until at the end there's nothing? Neato! And at the end of the final issue you get a pretty sweet, fold-out DC timeline.
I'm afraid that takes care of the pro column. On to the story and its attendant problems.
The gist of it is Hal Jordan got his panties in a bunch when the Cyborg and Mongul destroyed coast city, so he got some new powers, decided to destroy the entire universe, space, time, and alternate dimensions, starting at both the end and beginning of time, and moving like a pincer attack to 1994 Earth time, and then remake everything in his image, and we'd have a universe where people don't die senseless deaths... Does anyone else see the flaw in this logic?
Anyway, he succeeds in destroying everything over the course of the first four issues, but fails in the remake in issue five because... well, I can't explain it. There was too much scientific, physics mumbo-jumbo. Waverider shows up with some yahoos from our timeline and other alternate realities, does some technical power bullshit, channeling this and that from everyone through some kid, and... well, hell if I know what happened. It was something, I'm sure. Then the big bang happens, and he puts the people back at the precise nanosecond that they left fifteen billion years later so the entropy destruction won't go on and on in an eternal loop, but he's unable to save Hal... Why he wants to is beyond me to explain. Sure, he used to be a good guy, but he just committed... well, I don't know. It's beyond genocide, or galaxy-cide, or any other kind of cide I can think of. What's the term for destroying all existence? Fuck if I know. Anyway, Green Arrow was Hal's BFF once upon a when, and even though he helped stop Hal, he gets upset that Hal is gone, breaks his bow, shakes his fist at the heavens, and howls, and the end.
It bears repeating: What the fuck?! None of this makes any sense. Where did Green Lantern get such phenomenal cosmic powers? (It's probably explained in some comics I don't have. Lord, I hope he didn't get them from a genie in a lamp). Who are all these extra superheroes? Why should I care that they're biting the dust left and right? This thing was just way to busy, and that's a problem with the other couple of DC crossover events I've read. Everybody in the DCverse gets together to fight some super emergency, and every other panel they're like "oh no, this isn't working, whatever shall we do, the horror, the horror." Then someone else is like "well, I'll show em, and here's how," then they get their clocks cleaned. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
And why they think they're going to be able to do anything confuses me also. I mean, they're fighting the goddam Nothing from The Neverending Story. Do they not have that book in the DC universe? Did nobody ever read it? The Flash figures if he runs away from it real fast, then turns around, and runs towards it, creating a sonic boom in the process, then cranks it up so he's faster than the speed of light, then the time destruction will simply stop, or reverse poof, or something when he runs into it...
Hey, I don't make the news; I'm just reporting it. Needless to say, this doesn't work and when the Flash runs into the end-of-all-existence nothingness... You guessed it. He not only expires, he winks out of existence.
I would say the dialogue comes straight from a B movie, but it wasn't that glamorous. This was straight-to-cable C movie, get-me-a-spot-on-Mystery-Science-Theater-3000 shit if ever I saw it, complete with Waverider giving us the patented Jessica Fletcher Murder, She Wrote sum-up at the end. And what the fuck. I'll lay the whole thing on you right here and now, because some shit you just gotta read for yourself to believe it. (Parenthetical inserts are mine.)
Yes, that was my assessment. Then Power Girl...
...Exactly. Anyway, Power Girl is pregnant throughout this, and I guess is destroyed with everyone else in her entropy spot, then is back again with everyone else when it's reversed, but while she's in labor (with Wonder Woman acting as midwife while everything around her goes to shit), her in-utero baby projects a force field that protects them both from... something. I can't remember, and I'm not going to seek out that page. And that's the end of that. No explanation for what's going on with the baby's powers, though it might be explained later in another comic book. However, after Waverider's explanation, old Flash (not the younger one who supersonic about-faced into his own entropy fissure; alternate timelines and realities, remember?) laments his permanently dead friends and asks "Is that all this was about? Death?" Then Wonder Woman says "I think Power Girl has different feelings about that."
Cue the twit in three, two, one... go.
Power Girl: "I went into labor in the midst of a crisis, and by the time it was over, I had given birth to this beautiful baby boy! This is the ultimate victory - Life! We should feel great!"
We can only hope this little speech was brought on by fentanyl she was given during the delivery.
I remember liking this the first time I read it in high screwl, so I must've been on something myself... (Or maybe it impressed me more since I was in the target audience then.) I thought it was odd that I remembered very little about it, but now it makes sense; this is worth forgetting.
However, I do remember I had my own theory about why there were so many alternate timelines that needed resetting. It was all Phil Connors' fault. (That dude from Groundhog Day.) Every time he woke up on February second, a new alternate reality was started, and that's why we have Batgirl getting paralyzed in our where and when while she was whole in another; the Joker didn't get her in the other timeline. Somebody with too much time on his hands figured Phil lived Groundhog Day 12,395 times, so that means we have 12,395 parallel universes. Waverider could've saved everybody a whole lot of time and bother if he'd just killed Phil on February first before he got to Punxsutawney, but he's a bloody hero, and heroes don't do that shit. I don't care if it still wouldn't solve Parallax's dilemma, and he still would've tried to reset everything. At least you'd have the alternate universe part taken care of, and the good guys wouldn't have had to fight all those other wannabes from the dimensions next door.
Don't look at me like that! That theory and the proposed solution, in spite of the absurdities, still make more sense than the story in Zero Hour, and it would probably be more exciting to read.
I have spoken.
What the fuck? Man, this shit was weak.
But first, a word from our sponsors. Here's an ad from these books:
That movie might be better than this story. I can't say for sure, for I've never been able to make it through the whole thing because it sucks ass, but so did Zero Hour. The story has some good bones, but the execution blows like Jaws.
Sucky, sucky for a dime.
Fifteen cents for overtime.
But that doesn't mean it hadn't any redeeming qualities, and let's get them out of the way first (it won't take long). The artwork was good. If you're well immersed in the DCverse (which I'm not; I'm all about Supes and Bats), then scenes like the one where everyone answers Superman's call could give you an orgasm.
And check out the covers!
They countdown from four to zero, and see how they get lighter with each one until at the end there's nothing? Neato! And at the end of the final issue you get a pretty sweet, fold-out DC timeline.
I'm afraid that takes care of the pro column. On to the story and its attendant problems.
The gist of it is Hal Jordan got his panties in a bunch when the Cyborg and Mongul destroyed coast city, so he got some new powers, decided to destroy the entire universe, space, time, and alternate dimensions, starting at both the end and beginning of time, and moving like a pincer attack to 1994 Earth time, and then remake everything in his image, and we'd have a universe where people don't die senseless deaths... Does anyone else see the flaw in this logic?
Anyway, he succeeds in destroying everything over the course of the first four issues, but fails in the remake in issue five because... well, I can't explain it. There was too much scientific, physics mumbo-jumbo. Waverider shows up with some yahoos from our timeline and other alternate realities, does some technical power bullshit, channeling this and that from everyone through some kid, and... well, hell if I know what happened. It was something, I'm sure. Then the big bang happens, and he puts the people back at the precise nanosecond that they left fifteen billion years later so the entropy destruction won't go on and on in an eternal loop, but he's unable to save Hal... Why he wants to is beyond me to explain. Sure, he used to be a good guy, but he just committed... well, I don't know. It's beyond genocide, or galaxy-cide, or any other kind of cide I can think of. What's the term for destroying all existence? Fuck if I know. Anyway, Green Arrow was Hal's BFF once upon a when, and even though he helped stop Hal, he gets upset that Hal is gone, breaks his bow, shakes his fist at the heavens, and howls, and the end.
It bears repeating: What the fuck?! None of this makes any sense. Where did Green Lantern get such phenomenal cosmic powers? (It's probably explained in some comics I don't have. Lord, I hope he didn't get them from a genie in a lamp). Who are all these extra superheroes? Why should I care that they're biting the dust left and right? This thing was just way to busy, and that's a problem with the other couple of DC crossover events I've read. Everybody in the DCverse gets together to fight some super emergency, and every other panel they're like "oh no, this isn't working, whatever shall we do, the horror, the horror." Then someone else is like "well, I'll show em, and here's how," then they get their clocks cleaned. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
And why they think they're going to be able to do anything confuses me also. I mean, they're fighting the goddam Nothing from The Neverending Story. Do they not have that book in the DC universe? Did nobody ever read it? The Flash figures if he runs away from it real fast, then turns around, and runs towards it, creating a sonic boom in the process, then cranks it up so he's faster than the speed of light, then the time destruction will simply stop, or reverse poof, or something when he runs into it...
Hey, I don't make the news; I'm just reporting it. Needless to say, this doesn't work and when the Flash runs into the end-of-all-existence nothingness... You guessed it. He not only expires, he winks out of existence.
I would say the dialogue comes straight from a B movie, but it wasn't that glamorous. This was straight-to-cable C movie, get-me-a-spot-on-Mystery-Science-Theater-3000 shit if ever I saw it, complete with Waverider giving us the patented Jessica Fletcher Murder, She Wrote sum-up at the end. And what the fuck. I'll lay the whole thing on you right here and now, because some shit you just gotta read for yourself to believe it. (Parenthetical inserts are mine.)
Waverider: "It seems an explanation is in order. By taking advantage of various timestream anomalies, Parallax (Hal Jordan) was able to destroy time-- and all reality. I moved a handful of heroes to vanishing point. Though we were outside of time, everything we experienced was real. We defeated Parallax and Extant (sidekicktoolvillain), restarting our own big bang..."
Captain Marvel: "Holy moley!" (The letterer and artist must've fucked up by not giving this line to Robin.)
Waverider: "...letting nature guide it, not someone like Parallax. Time naturally fell into the pattern we remember... with subtle differences. But parallax and the entropy fissures still existed. We defeated him before he could destroy all of reality, causing an infinite loop in time. We were the last anomalies in time. We had to reenter the timestream - effectively 'healing' it - and close the loop. People - like Batman - who 'died' in the fissures will only remember a momentary flash of light. Those who died by other means, or outside of time, will, unfortunately, remain... dead. Like the young GL."
Yes, that was my assessment. Then Power Girl...
...Exactly. Anyway, Power Girl is pregnant throughout this, and I guess is destroyed with everyone else in her entropy spot, then is back again with everyone else when it's reversed, but while she's in labor (with Wonder Woman acting as midwife while everything around her goes to shit), her in-utero baby projects a force field that protects them both from... something. I can't remember, and I'm not going to seek out that page. And that's the end of that. No explanation for what's going on with the baby's powers, though it might be explained later in another comic book. However, after Waverider's explanation, old Flash (not the younger one who supersonic about-faced into his own entropy fissure; alternate timelines and realities, remember?) laments his permanently dead friends and asks "Is that all this was about? Death?" Then Wonder Woman says "I think Power Girl has different feelings about that."
Cue the twit in three, two, one... go.
Power Girl: "I went into labor in the midst of a crisis, and by the time it was over, I had given birth to this beautiful baby boy! This is the ultimate victory - Life! We should feel great!"
We can only hope this little speech was brought on by fentanyl she was given during the delivery.
I remember liking this the first time I read it in high screwl, so I must've been on something myself... (Or maybe it impressed me more since I was in the target audience then.) I thought it was odd that I remembered very little about it, but now it makes sense; this is worth forgetting.
However, I do remember I had my own theory about why there were so many alternate timelines that needed resetting. It was all Phil Connors' fault. (That dude from Groundhog Day.) Every time he woke up on February second, a new alternate reality was started, and that's why we have Batgirl getting paralyzed in our where and when while she was whole in another; the Joker didn't get her in the other timeline. Somebody with too much time on his hands figured Phil lived Groundhog Day 12,395 times, so that means we have 12,395 parallel universes. Waverider could've saved everybody a whole lot of time and bother if he'd just killed Phil on February first before he got to Punxsutawney, but he's a bloody hero, and heroes don't do that shit. I don't care if it still wouldn't solve Parallax's dilemma, and he still would've tried to reset everything. At least you'd have the alternate universe part taken care of, and the good guys wouldn't have had to fight all those other wannabes from the dimensions next door.
Don't look at me like that! That theory and the proposed solution, in spite of the absurdities, still make more sense than the story in Zero Hour, and it would probably be more exciting to read.
I have spoken.
February 23, 2021
This...was phenomenal!
A desperate attempt to reverse the tragedies made post-crisis in a VERY unique way, in the FIRST countdown, that will be copied numerous times in '00s.
+ By far the best GL crossover in this stupid volume!
A desperate attempt to reverse the tragedies made post-crisis in a VERY unique way, in the FIRST countdown, that will be copied numerous times in '00s.
+ By far the best GL crossover in this stupid volume!
January 26, 2017
I might be the odd one out here, cause I enjoyed this a lot. Sure it has some issues, like adding random characters turning up into panels that weren't in the previous ones. But I love Hal Jordan, even as a bad guy I guess. To tell you the truth I think Hal was right in what he was trying to accomplish. A universe without the loss of year's of battles, sounds good right? Well maybe I'm just a little loose in the head?
Anyway I would love to get a collected version of this story with all the crossover issues, but alas this seems to be one of the most hated events DC ever done. So I won't expect that anytime soon.
If you enjoyed Crisis on Infinite Earths, then you might like this. While not being as lengthy and epic as the predecessor, it's still enjoyable at least.
Anyway I would love to get a collected version of this story with all the crossover issues, but alas this seems to be one of the most hated events DC ever done. So I won't expect that anytime soon.
If you enjoyed Crisis on Infinite Earths, then you might like this. While not being as lengthy and epic as the predecessor, it's still enjoyable at least.
September 4, 2014
Bit of a tough act trying to follow up Crisis on Infinite Earths, but DC attempted that about a decade later. Unfortunately, I feel the story lacks a great deal of time tension and suspense of Crisis and feels muddled at times. It also had the enviable task of following up on huge arcs such as the Return of Superman, Knightfall, the "Return" of Barry Allen and the Fall of Hal Jordan. Really a tough act, and this handles it in a so-so fashion. I recommend it to more hard-core fans but don't pay too much for it. I don't feel cheated at all having gotten each issue for 99 cents on a recent digital sale.
September 15, 2020
I haven't read this story since it first came out, but it still holds up pretty good. Jurgens is definitely a better writer today than in 1994, as some of the plot points get a bit confusing. Still, even though a lot of the story's action takes place in other series, this is an enjoyable step back in time (snicker) to the mid-90s DCU.
Jurgens has always been a great artist, but inked by Jerry Ordway? Perfection.
Jurgens has always been a great artist, but inked by Jerry Ordway? Perfection.
July 11, 2020
Second part of my re-reading of the DC crisis events in order. The « intermediate crisis ». Zero Hour (1994)
Set not long after the death and return of Superman, and Knightfall. Coast City has been destroyed by Cyborg Superman. Hal Jordan went crazy, turning into Parallax and destroying the Green Lantern Corps. Kyle Rainer is now the sole Green Lantern.
Crisis on Infinite Earths erased the multiverse but, as long as you have time travelers, you end up with multiple timelines, and continuity mishaps. Nine years after the first event, DC had to clean house once again.
Monarch is Hank Hall gone crazy. Waverider has erased a whole timeline to get rid of him but he’s still there, trying to seize control of the future. Then, time starts folding unto itself. The first crisis is still sending ripples throughout the universe, and alternate versions of characters pop up in the present. Time for Superman and Metron to unite the most heroes possible to try and fight entropy itself, but the chaos in the time stream worsens.
This still reads well today, but doesn’t rival in scope with the original crisis. There are deaths, of course. The JSA, notably, starts feeling its real age. However, entropy won’t be denied and the universe is rebooted once again.
Zero Hour was followed by Zero Month. Every series got a #0, getting the reader up to date on characters origins and status quo in the new timeline. Except for Booster Gold, who got his #0 in 2008 because, well, he’s Booster Gold.
DC will later introduce the concept of Hypertime, a tree branching to into alternate realities and even elseworlds, basically allowing creators to use or invent whatever they want, and make it real or not when need arises.
Of course, this led to more complications that will lead into Infinite Crisis, considered as the real second part of the « crisis trilogy ».
But, before that, if memory serves, the infamous Identity Crisis deserves a reread.
Set not long after the death and return of Superman, and Knightfall. Coast City has been destroyed by Cyborg Superman. Hal Jordan went crazy, turning into Parallax and destroying the Green Lantern Corps. Kyle Rainer is now the sole Green Lantern.
Crisis on Infinite Earths erased the multiverse but, as long as you have time travelers, you end up with multiple timelines, and continuity mishaps. Nine years after the first event, DC had to clean house once again.
Monarch is Hank Hall gone crazy. Waverider has erased a whole timeline to get rid of him but he’s still there, trying to seize control of the future. Then, time starts folding unto itself. The first crisis is still sending ripples throughout the universe, and alternate versions of characters pop up in the present. Time for Superman and Metron to unite the most heroes possible to try and fight entropy itself, but the chaos in the time stream worsens.
This still reads well today, but doesn’t rival in scope with the original crisis. There are deaths, of course. The JSA, notably, starts feeling its real age. However, entropy won’t be denied and the universe is rebooted once again.
Zero Hour was followed by Zero Month. Every series got a #0, getting the reader up to date on characters origins and status quo in the new timeline. Except for Booster Gold, who got his #0 in 2008 because, well, he’s Booster Gold.
DC will later introduce the concept of Hypertime, a tree branching to into alternate realities and even elseworlds, basically allowing creators to use or invent whatever they want, and make it real or not when need arises.
Of course, this led to more complications that will lead into Infinite Crisis, considered as the real second part of the « crisis trilogy ».
But, before that, if memory serves, the infamous Identity Crisis deserves a reread.
December 12, 2018
Yet another DC Comics crossover crisis event that didn't hold up well over time. Essentially a re-hash of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" series of the 80's, but this time, with 90's sensibility and flair! Day-glo costumes everywhere, some people are randomly cyborgs, and there are characters thankfully long-forgotten who pose dramatically or deliver a line or two before disappearing. (Seriously, who are these characters? Anima? Alpha Centurion? Team Titans?!?) The final part of the arc is actually worth reading, but requires wading through embarrassing nonsensical and meaningless events before the conclusion. Even the Meaningful Heroic Sacrifices are quickly forgotten -- at one point, a significant death results in a blank look of dull surprise and the unintentionally comic comment, "not again..." While most of the characters and comics launched by this event were dismal failures, it did result in the wonderful "Starman" series, which finally showed proper respect to the Golden Age heroes who are treated as little more than sacrificial victims in "Zero Hour."
August 22, 2023
As a kid, I acquired (haphazardly) and read a random assortment of Zero Hour tie-in issues, but I never actually read the event miniseries itself until now. It deserves its reputation. The plot is almost impossible to follow, as so much of it plays out in those various line-wide tie-ins. The artwork (Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway, two of DC's best and brightest) is sometimes excellent, always competent, and often visually incoherent. The layouts on several pages are narratively confusing, to say the least.
A fun survey of a forgotten era for staunch DC fans, but Zero Hour is not a singular read, taken out of a (much) broader context, that I would recommend to any novice comics enthusiasts.
A fun survey of a forgotten era for staunch DC fans, but Zero Hour is not a singular read, taken out of a (much) broader context, that I would recommend to any novice comics enthusiasts.
September 23, 2023
Chrises on Infinite Earths
I read this issue by issue and I have to confess…I started backwards. I then read it in the proper order, and it made more sense…kind of.
Read for a really pretty book without a lot of substance.
I read this issue by issue and I have to confess…I started backwards. I then read it in the proper order, and it made more sense…kind of.
Read for a really pretty book without a lot of substance.
April 10, 2023
Collector's Set de etiqueta dorada.
November 17, 2021
Zero Hour tries to recreate the stakes and emotional punch of Crisis on Infinite Earths in less than half the time and without set characters to anchor the story. There are a few moments that work well revolving around Guy Gardner, Oliver Queen, and a few others. The art by Jurgens and Ordway is great, though there isn't a page that made me stop and think "that's gorgeous." I enjoyed the event more when Parallax finally showed up (not a spoiler, he's on the cover), but as an antagonist he appears far too late to make much of an impact. When the book allows itself time to explore how people process the end of the world, the material is elevated enough to be passable.
The biggest problem with the book is it isn't long enough to justify the scale of the story it's telling. Moments come and go without much breathing room for the characters or audience to process any emotion. I'm sure the tie-ins help a bit, but the event itself should be contained enough for the casual reader to experience the story. At times it feels like major events are happening just because the book needs them to, instead of there being any logical reason. Extant and Waverider seem to be the characters with the most "screentime," and since I mostly found them boring that didn't help things.
If you want to check out this event, by all means do. Green Lantern fans might find the last two issues particularly noteworthy. Personally, I think most people can get away with reading a summary and skipping over it. You really aren't missing much.
The biggest problem with the book is it isn't long enough to justify the scale of the story it's telling. Moments come and go without much breathing room for the characters or audience to process any emotion. I'm sure the tie-ins help a bit, but the event itself should be contained enough for the casual reader to experience the story. At times it feels like major events are happening just because the book needs them to, instead of there being any logical reason. Extant and Waverider seem to be the characters with the most "screentime," and since I mostly found them boring that didn't help things.
If you want to check out this event, by all means do. Green Lantern fans might find the last two issues particularly noteworthy. Personally, I think most people can get away with reading a summary and skipping over it. You really aren't missing much.
October 11, 2024
Reread as part of a Green Lantern read-through in 2024.
Usually, when I reread a book, I tend to like it a bit more as I have a better grasp of characters and I don't need the plot to be a surprise. In this case, though, I feel like two stars is a generous rating for a book that throws a ton of mostly forgettable characters against the wall and calls it a Crisis. This is a poorly told story that, apart from Hal Jordan becoming Parallax, has no real consequence, as any adjustments made by this crisis will be undone by the next crisis. Also, the dialogue is a slog and a half.
*********************************
I read this as part of my read-through of Mark Waid's The Flash by Mark Waid: Book Three. And it's an outlier. Technically, its events do heavily influence the story, buuuuuut you can happily skip it and just leave the events between volumes three and four of The Flash By Mark Waid to your imagination, and probably have imagined a better story.
Zero Hour isn't terrible. It's just a Crisis Of Infinite Exposition. Every character needs to announce what they're doing and why they're doing it or it doesn't make any sense. It's one of those time-travel multiverse stories that would require a flowchart and brain tumor to fully appreciate. It's silly and unnecessary and includes every DC character who ever sneezed. But if you're into the DC Crisis book, it's right in line with them.
Usually, when I reread a book, I tend to like it a bit more as I have a better grasp of characters and I don't need the plot to be a surprise. In this case, though, I feel like two stars is a generous rating for a book that throws a ton of mostly forgettable characters against the wall and calls it a Crisis. This is a poorly told story that, apart from Hal Jordan becoming Parallax, has no real consequence, as any adjustments made by this crisis will be undone by the next crisis. Also, the dialogue is a slog and a half.
*********************************
I read this as part of my read-through of Mark Waid's The Flash by Mark Waid: Book Three. And it's an outlier. Technically, its events do heavily influence the story, buuuuuut you can happily skip it and just leave the events between volumes three and four of The Flash By Mark Waid to your imagination, and probably have imagined a better story.
Zero Hour isn't terrible. It's just a Crisis Of Infinite Exposition. Every character needs to announce what they're doing and why they're doing it or it doesn't make any sense. It's one of those time-travel multiverse stories that would require a flowchart and brain tumor to fully appreciate. It's silly and unnecessary and includes every DC character who ever sneezed. But if you're into the DC Crisis book, it's right in line with them.
November 16, 2015
Collects Zero Hour: Crisis in Time issues #4, #3, #2, #1, and #0 (the issues were produced in reverse order as the event is counting down to something), and Showcase '94 issues #8-9
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" came out in 1985, and it reshaped the DC Comics Universe. Nine years later, in 1994, DC decided to clean up their continuity again (but to a lesser extent than in the original "Crisis") with "Zero Hour." This is a time travel-heavy story in which all the heroes have to team together to stop the total destruction of the timeline.
As one issue closed, and the next started, there were definitely things that happened in between that I missed. It seems that the tie-in issues are likely required reading to get the most out of this experiences. Characters would often reference events that did not take place in this collection, but seemingly happened moments ago.
SPOILER-FILLED THOUGHTS:
-I have heard about this story before, so I knew what to expect when it came to Parallax, but I'm not sure how evil he is here. He seems like a hero that has lost his way instead of an insane, evil villain. It isn't made obvious in these pages, but the end result for Hal Jordan after this event is that he will become the new Spectre. This is alluded to, but not made explicit.
-Booster Gold's role in this story wasn't as big as it should have been.
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" came out in 1985, and it reshaped the DC Comics Universe. Nine years later, in 1994, DC decided to clean up their continuity again (but to a lesser extent than in the original "Crisis") with "Zero Hour." This is a time travel-heavy story in which all the heroes have to team together to stop the total destruction of the timeline.
As one issue closed, and the next started, there were definitely things that happened in between that I missed. It seems that the tie-in issues are likely required reading to get the most out of this experiences. Characters would often reference events that did not take place in this collection, but seemingly happened moments ago.
SPOILER-FILLED THOUGHTS:
-I have heard about this story before, so I knew what to expect when it came to Parallax, but I'm not sure how evil he is here. He seems like a hero that has lost his way instead of an insane, evil villain. It isn't made obvious in these pages, but the end result for Hal Jordan after this event is that he will become the new Spectre. This is alluded to, but not made explicit.
-Booster Gold's role in this story wasn't as big as it should have been.
June 16, 2010
Reprints Zero Hour #4-0. Earth finds itself being consumed by fissures in time and all of reality is threatened. Zero Hour is kind of confusing at points. Much like the original Crisis, the series is very dense and a lot seems to happen in a very short area. Unlike many of the other series currently being written, this series is very independent of the tie-ins that occurred during "Zero Hour". This is helpful in that it can be read as a stand-alone, and I wish that both DC and Marvel would return to a format that a majority of their massive crossovers seem to retain some sense of logic in the contained series.
June 13, 2013
This was an intriguing story. To a degree it is quite enjoyable. I really only have a couple of caveats. One is that the reader does have to possess a certain degree of familiarity with the DC Universe to be able to make sense of the book. Secondly when these stories were originally published they were contained in a mini-series of the same title. However a number of issues of DC's regular titles had stories that tied into the main story. These are not included in this volume. I suspect some of my confusion at times might have been alleviated had they been included. Still for the DC comic fan this is a book that he or she will want on their bookshelves.
January 12, 2013
A huge anti-climax of a series. Everything I hated about what they did to Hal Jordan, combined with an attitude that they could follow up on "Crisis on Infinite Earths" in such a half-baked manner...comes together to produce an absolutely forgettable mini-series. At the time, I was beginning to think that DC didn't have a clue what to do with its marvelous universe...
October 29, 2015
Fun DC time-travel shenanigans in high four-color style. Enjoyable, but suffers slightly from the density of background information you need to understand some of the sequences. Recommended for comic-book fans.
July 15, 2018
Mid-90s DC event Zero Hour: Crisis in Time is available in a new deluxe edition that highlights what an odd beast it’s always been.
Chronal anomalies begin popping up around various heroes, who discover that the time-based villain Extant (once the hero Hawk) is tampering with the time stream, causing it to unravel (and threatening all of existence, of course). Extant is working for Parallax, a/k/a Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who lost his mind after his city was destroyed. Hal intends to “re-start time” and “fix” the things that he deemed to be wrong. A band of heroes, including some of his closest friends, escape the destruction and thwart Hal, resulting in alterations to the DC timeline.
Zero Hour is interesting in that it’s very much a “middle ground” series for DC. It’s not like it’s ever been forgotten (it affected DC’s line for years), but it’s not one of the first stories most fans think of, either. It’s unlikely to be cited as anyone’s favorite saga, but it also doesn’t engender the kind of reader scorn that bombs like Millennium or Armageddon 2001 still do. It matters, to some extent, but it’s not exactly a top priority.
By 1994, DC wasn’t even a decade removed from the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths when it found its continuity already badly mucked up again. In part, that was a result of the success of Crisis and the years of creative renewals of various characters that followed. But proceeding without a firm post-Crisis plan and giving wide reign to various character remodels left DC in a tricky spot. Crisis had already badly compromised the histories of some fan favorites (Power Girl, Donna Troy), who endured years of retcons and abandoned attempts to fit them into the post-Crisis mythology. Other changes had already crippled some franchises (All-Star Squadron never recovered from the upending of its original premise), while hobbling others (Legion of Super-Heroes never quite filled the gaping hole that the erasure of Superboy and Supergirl had left in its central concept). With various other anomalies and continuity problems having quickly accreted, DC turned to writer/artist Dan Jurgens, then one of the company’s top creators, to “clean up” matters with a quick event series that would help straighten out the new timeline and “fix” various issues.
Jurgens has always been a superhero classicist and he devised a story that was pure “comic book logic.” Using Hal as the central villain was an effective emotional gut punch that gave long-time fans some investment in the outcome (even if seeing Hal go full-on villain distressed many readers). The central plot wasn’t necessarily easy to track, but it more or less worked. And the book did its job, at least for a little while. DC came out with a reconciled timeline of about a decade or so, allowing it to dial back the aging on certain characters (and dispensing with others where that wasn’t so easy to accomplish).
But long-term, Zero Hour caused as many issues as it fixed. It would be a good decade before Geoff Johns would figure out how to redeem Hal. The solution to the tangled Hawkman situation only seemed to make that character’s insane, divergent twists and turns even more incomprehensible. The Legion basically called it a day on the original concept and did a hard reboot, which managed a few years of success, but in the long run engendered more confusion and fan unrest.
Zero Hour also trafficked in the ‘90s editorial team’s disregard for, if not outright hostility toward, their original heroes, the Justice Society. Those legacy characters were either killed off indiscriminately or put out to pasture, with new “edgy” takes on a lot of those concepts (The Man Called Fate, anyone?) flooding into DC’s continuity (most of which, save for the new Starman, failed to make much of an impact and faded quickly).
Basically, Zero Hour proved to be a stop-gap and would itself be “corrected” a decade later by the more successful Johns-penned Infinite Crisis. Indeed, it would fall to Johns to unravel many of the “solutions” that Zero Hour foisted on DC’s line.
Art-wise, Jurgens took his usual approach, clean and classic, nicely complemented by veteran inker Jerry Ordway. It wasn’t innovative, but it moved the action along effectively and clearly communicated the story’s actions. The major drawback looking at it nearly a quarter century later wasn’t really Jurgens’ fault, but was a product of the era. Many of the costume re-designs were absolutely hideous, as various characters were “edged up” to try to emulate the style of the then-successful Image books. Many of those designs were so atrocious that even solid craftsmen like Jurgens and Ordway couldn’t do much with them.
And that gets to the heart of Zero Hour so many years later. It really feels tied to its time in a way that many of DC’s best event stories don’t. Looking at it so many years later, it’s rather easy to peg it as a product of the gonzo comic book environment of the mid-90s.
As an artifact, Zero Hour is worth a read at some point, but is distinctly mid-pack in the canon of DC’s major event series.
Chronal anomalies begin popping up around various heroes, who discover that the time-based villain Extant (once the hero Hawk) is tampering with the time stream, causing it to unravel (and threatening all of existence, of course). Extant is working for Parallax, a/k/a Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who lost his mind after his city was destroyed. Hal intends to “re-start time” and “fix” the things that he deemed to be wrong. A band of heroes, including some of his closest friends, escape the destruction and thwart Hal, resulting in alterations to the DC timeline.
Zero Hour is interesting in that it’s very much a “middle ground” series for DC. It’s not like it’s ever been forgotten (it affected DC’s line for years), but it’s not one of the first stories most fans think of, either. It’s unlikely to be cited as anyone’s favorite saga, but it also doesn’t engender the kind of reader scorn that bombs like Millennium or Armageddon 2001 still do. It matters, to some extent, but it’s not exactly a top priority.
By 1994, DC wasn’t even a decade removed from the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths when it found its continuity already badly mucked up again. In part, that was a result of the success of Crisis and the years of creative renewals of various characters that followed. But proceeding without a firm post-Crisis plan and giving wide reign to various character remodels left DC in a tricky spot. Crisis had already badly compromised the histories of some fan favorites (Power Girl, Donna Troy), who endured years of retcons and abandoned attempts to fit them into the post-Crisis mythology. Other changes had already crippled some franchises (All-Star Squadron never recovered from the upending of its original premise), while hobbling others (Legion of Super-Heroes never quite filled the gaping hole that the erasure of Superboy and Supergirl had left in its central concept). With various other anomalies and continuity problems having quickly accreted, DC turned to writer/artist Dan Jurgens, then one of the company’s top creators, to “clean up” matters with a quick event series that would help straighten out the new timeline and “fix” various issues.
Jurgens has always been a superhero classicist and he devised a story that was pure “comic book logic.” Using Hal as the central villain was an effective emotional gut punch that gave long-time fans some investment in the outcome (even if seeing Hal go full-on villain distressed many readers). The central plot wasn’t necessarily easy to track, but it more or less worked. And the book did its job, at least for a little while. DC came out with a reconciled timeline of about a decade or so, allowing it to dial back the aging on certain characters (and dispensing with others where that wasn’t so easy to accomplish).
But long-term, Zero Hour caused as many issues as it fixed. It would be a good decade before Geoff Johns would figure out how to redeem Hal. The solution to the tangled Hawkman situation only seemed to make that character’s insane, divergent twists and turns even more incomprehensible. The Legion basically called it a day on the original concept and did a hard reboot, which managed a few years of success, but in the long run engendered more confusion and fan unrest.
Zero Hour also trafficked in the ‘90s editorial team’s disregard for, if not outright hostility toward, their original heroes, the Justice Society. Those legacy characters were either killed off indiscriminately or put out to pasture, with new “edgy” takes on a lot of those concepts (The Man Called Fate, anyone?) flooding into DC’s continuity (most of which, save for the new Starman, failed to make much of an impact and faded quickly).
Basically, Zero Hour proved to be a stop-gap and would itself be “corrected” a decade later by the more successful Johns-penned Infinite Crisis. Indeed, it would fall to Johns to unravel many of the “solutions” that Zero Hour foisted on DC’s line.
Art-wise, Jurgens took his usual approach, clean and classic, nicely complemented by veteran inker Jerry Ordway. It wasn’t innovative, but it moved the action along effectively and clearly communicated the story’s actions. The major drawback looking at it nearly a quarter century later wasn’t really Jurgens’ fault, but was a product of the era. Many of the costume re-designs were absolutely hideous, as various characters were “edged up” to try to emulate the style of the then-successful Image books. Many of those designs were so atrocious that even solid craftsmen like Jurgens and Ordway couldn’t do much with them.
And that gets to the heart of Zero Hour so many years later. It really feels tied to its time in a way that many of DC’s best event stories don’t. Looking at it so many years later, it’s rather easy to peg it as a product of the gonzo comic book environment of the mid-90s.
As an artifact, Zero Hour is worth a read at some point, but is distinctly mid-pack in the canon of DC’s major event series.
April 5, 2016
You really have to keep your wits about it.. a lot of things happening here at Zero Hour.. But all in all a good read (no COIE though ;))
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