Savior Complex
Jeff Hersch and Thomas Pound Writers
Will Robson Art
Alex Sinclair Colors
Tom Napolitano Letters
Kim Jacinto Cover
Bryan Hitch and Hi-Fi Variant Cover
Andrew Marino Editor
Katie Kubert Senior Editor
Special thanks to Kim Roberto and Richard Flores
Our main cover features Magog, the villain originally created for Mark Waid’s and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come series. He’s been quietly lurking in the shadows of all these Earth-Prime books, and now here he is sitting in a throne on the cover of the series finale. It’s an OK cover, but slightly misleading. This throne-chair pose suggests to me that the villain has already conquered the world (or at least a small part of it). But nothing like that happens here.
This variant cover I found at dc.fandom.com does a much better job of showing what this issue’s actually about. I love the idea of Impulse and XS running around Magog so quickly that it looks like there’s dozens of them. I’m not the biggest fan of this style, though. Bart and Nora look bland and uninspiring.
Our story begins in Central City in the year 2049, where a mysterious figure in a green cloak is spying on Bart and Nora in their house. Bart is watching TV upside down, complaining about how bored he is waiting for Chester Ruck to light the “Impulse signal,” which doesn’t exist. Nora is busy working on an article for the Citizen, stressing about making her deadline because for some reason she’s incapable of writing at super speed. Bart has no such hang-ups with his homework, though, which accounts for his boredom. He suggests that his sister clear her head with a little crime-fighting, then quickly amends that to “big crime-fighting” as the news reports the attack of a large monster named Bloodwork.
Bart thinks it’s “crash” that they’ll be able to save Keystone City and he immediately throws on his Impulse outfit. As usual, Nora puts the brakes on Bart’s fun. She points out that their dad and Jay Garrick have classified Bloodwork as a Level 5 villain, which means they’re not ready to take him on. Bart complains about this “superhero-hierarchy politics,” but Nora stays firm on her stance, especially when the news reports that Martian Manhunter is battling Bloodwork. Nora does, however, suggest they find other ways to help, and right on cue, she gets an alert of a jewelry store robbery. Bart complains that the robber looks like a Level -10 baddie, but he agrees to help.
Turns out, Bart was right. The robber is just a normal guy with a gun and a ski mask. And as soon as the robber sees Impulse and XS, he immediately surrenders, saying he knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the two of them. Bart whines that this was a waste of time, saying he wants to do something big to prove that they’re ready to take on major villains. As fate would have it, Bart’s wish is immediately granted by the arrival of Magog.
Bart mocks Magog’s ridiculous outfit and predicts he can’t be more than a Level 4 villain. But Nora is wary of the destruction he’s causing and suggests they call in some help. Bart ignores her, and is immediately struck down by Magog, who calls him a fraud whose death will act as a beacon to the guiltiest heroes. Bart’s lucky that Magog is so long-winded because his little speech gave XS enough time to rescue her little brother. But she does a bad job of getting the two of them to safety, as they’re both blasted from behind by Magog’s staff.
Suddenly, Supergirl arrives to save the day. And yes, she does still go by Supergirl, even though she’s probably in her 40s by this point. Anyway, Bart suggests they help her, even though he’s forced to admit that Magog nearly killed him. Nora suggests they instead head to S.T.A.R. Labs to try to pick up some intel on this villain. When Supergirl says that’s a good idea, Bart decides to go along with it.
Bart and Nora meet up with Chester, who’s quite baffled by Magog’s technology. He also says there’s an unusual amount of cosmic energy causing interference, which may explain why he’s been unable to contact Barry, Wally or Jay. Bart realizes this means they’re Supergirl’s only backup, which he calls the “total opposite of schway.” Chester reports that several other cities are also under attack, and even though those cities have their own heroes, Bart and Nora decide to try to help them, just in case these attacks are related to Magog’s appearance.
They decide to first head to Star City, where they are shocked to see that Evil Eye has somehow broken out of Iron Heights. Evil Eye has hypnotized a large crowd into attacking the new Green Arrow (daughter of the original), and he’s delivering a monologue very similar to Magog’s. Impulse and XS quickly pull Green Arrow out of the mob and explain to her that they believe Magog has freed Evil Eye. Green Arrow is surprised that they chose to help her instead of defend their own city, but she welcomes their help anyway.
As Impulse and XS start subduing the crowd, Nora begins to wonder whether Green Arrow had a point about ignoring the rule of avoiding high-level villains. Green Arrow, meanwhile, manages to cover Evil Eye’s face with a claw-like arrow. But as soon as she pulls him down, Green Arrow mysteriously vanishes in a cloud of green smoke. Evil Eye regroups and begins mocking Impulse and XS for showing fear. Acting instinctively, Impulse clears a path through the crowd and XS uses a lightning whip to slam Evil Eye into a wall, knocking him out. Bart’s pleased that worked, but says they really should communicate better next time. Nora tries to tell Chester that Green Arrow vanished, but he doesn’t answer. However, Nora does receive a message from the new Atom (Ryan Choi), who is bizarrely announcing that the superheroes will no longer protect the people.
Impulse and XS race to Coast City to try to talk some sense into the Atom. When they get close enough, Bart realizes that his eyes are the wrong color. The real Atom suddenly shows up and punches the imposter, who turns out to be Clayface — from the past, for some reason. Clayface says Magog made him promise not to eat anyone, but he believes Magog will be too busy focusing on the carnage in Gotham to notice. The Atom calls out to Impulse and XS to help as he’s being slowly devoured, but our bewildered heroes have no idea what to do until the Atom tells them to pretend they’re in pottery class. So the speedsters zoom straight into Clayface, causing him to explode. But then the Atom also abruptly disappears in a cloud of smoke. Believing this to be Magog’s doing, the siblings decide to race to Gotham to try to protect Batwoman.
Our heroes find a Gotham on fire, with a crowd of people burning Batman merchandise and also … aliens? But they don’t seem to be doing anything? Anyway, Batwoman asks the speedsters what took them so long and Impulse jokes that they ran into traffic is Des Moines. XS wonders why so many people are listening to Magog’s anti-hero message, and Batwoman postulates that there are thousands of people who are scared and silent, who only need to be inspired by the heroes. Her inspirational speech is cut shot by the arrival of a Superman wearing a black suit. Batwoman suddenly vanishes in the green smoke and the black-suited Superman mocks Impulse and XS for being too cowardly to take on Magog themselves. When he says it sounds like Supergirl is losing, Bart and Nora race back to Central City.
Bart and Nora reach Supergirl just as she’s blasted hard into a wall. They beg her to tell them what to do, but all she manages to say is “You’ll know.” before she also disappears in green smoke. Bart confesses to his sister that he’s scared, saying if they fight him, they’ll die. Nora gets an idea, though, and leads Bart out to Smallville, where they find the real Superman, who has oddly decided to do some night-time farming. Bart and Nora tell Clark all about Magog and the disappearing heroes, which leads to Bart desperately ripping open Clark’s shirt … only to find he’s not wearing anything underneath it. Bart sheepishly asks everyone to pretend that didn’t happen, while Nora begs for Superman’s help.
But Clark refuses. He tells a long, boring story about the first time he battled Lex Luthor and lost, then concludes by telling Bart and Nora they’re stronger than they think. Bart and Nora thank Clark, then head off, not noticing the mysterious green-cloaked figure watching them from a distance.
The speedsters race back to S.T.A.R. Labs to take stock of their situation. Bart feels rather hopeless, but Nora is surprisingly filled with inspiration, saying that maybe the only reason they’ve never taken on a big bad like Magog was because they didn’t believe in themselves. Bart reminds her that they could die, but Nora promises to not let him die if he doesn’t let her die. Bart agrees, even though he’s still scared, and the two of them take off to confront Magog once more.
Magog calls them children, to which Impulse calls him “Poopy Ram-Head.” XS then attacks Magog’s legs, while Impulse punches him in the face. But the villain is quickly back on his feet, knocking down the speedsters with another blast from his lance. Bruised and bloodied, Impulse and XS still manage to rise to their feet, which even impresses Magog. Our heroes get in a couple of more hits, before Magog decides to call in some reinforcements.
At the push of a button on his glove, Clayface, Evil Eye, that alternate Superman and those random aliens teleport next to Magog. He explains that he traversed space and time to find people who shared his beliefs, and Bart warns him that messing with the timeline is a big no-no. Magog explains that his goal is to inspire humanity to save itself, since he was — repeatedly — let down by superheroes. His family died in a fire while Supergirl was busy stopping a crashing train nearby. Later, Magog’s laboratory was destroyed during a Martian Manhunter fight against a random villain. Deciding to drown his sorrows over becoming “collateral damage,” Magog just happened to be caught in the middle of a fight between the Flash and the Reverse-Flash.
Despite being outnumbered (and completely unfazed by that lengthy origin story), Impulse and XS resolve to keep battling Magog. It’s at this point that we finally realize the mysterious stranger is the Spectre, who has finally decided that Impulse and XS are ready and worthy. He returns all the heroes he stole away, plus several others, including Wally West, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Hawkgirl and a few others. Supergirl asks the speedsters what’s the plan, and Bart responds with the vague, “follow our lead!”
As our heroes brawl, Chester suddenly comes through on the comm-link. He also recently reappeared, and has quickly learned that even though Magog is a Level 52 villain, all his power comes from his lance. So Bart uses himself as bait, luring Magog into another killing strike pose like he attempted when they first met. But this time, XS grabs the lance and vibrates it at super speed, easily destroying the source of Magog’s power.
Magog is electrocuted(?) and collapses, while Bart and Nora lecture him on the importance of heart and never giving up. The rest of the heroes easily capture all the other villains and send them back to where they belong … except for the evil Superman, who mysteriously disappeared once Magog went down. Supergirl congratulates Bart and Nora, but declines Bart’s invitation to a pizza party. Bart then reminds Nora about her newspaper article, and she hastily takes off.
Supergirl, meanwhile, flies to the Hall of Justice, where she meets up with Clark, Barry, Wally and Jay. Barry is watching video of his children in action, saying it was very difficult for him to not interfere, as the Spectre instructed. He asks the Spectre if he’ll finally explain why they had to rig up that big test for his kids, but the Spectre (who used to be the original Green Arrow) only mysteriously says that he was helping Bart and Nora prepare for what’s coming.
There’s a backup story involving the Flash’s old tech guy, Cisco, but Impulse isn’t involved, so I’ll skip it.
Well, that was certainly something. I really got my hopes up after that last Earth-Prime issue was such a beautiful callback to classic Impulse comics. But this issue had a different creative team and none of the same magic. The art was totally fine — I’ll give it that. But the story was just off. It tried to pay homage to Kingdom Come, but it didn’t do the work of properly setting up that idea. It tried to be the ultimate team-up book of all the CW heroes, but it didn’t give any of them enough time or anything of consequence to do. And it tried to be a coming-of-age story for Bart and Nora, but it messed that up, too.
Bart and Nora seemed to be written much younger than they actually are. Bart’s in college. Nora’s graduated. Why are they calling bad guys “poopy heads”? Why are they so scared to take on Magog? Didn’t these writers know about their battles against Godspeed? Or maybe Godspeed was just a Level 4 villain?
And this brings up another gripe of mine. I hate, hate, hate arbitrary power classifications! I hated it X-Men: Last Stand. I hated it in Phantom Menace. And I really hate it here. Especially at the end, when Chester said Magog was Level 52. I hope that was a typo, because otherwise that number is completely nonsensical. Heck, even just calling him a Level 5 villain is nonsensical. Who makes this list and what determines a higher ranking? Eh, forget it. Let’s move on to the Spectre’s big plan.
What was the Spectre trying to accomplish, exactly? He wanted to put Bart and Nora in a no-win situation where they would be forced to defy their father’s orders? Just so they’d realize how courageous they could be? I just don’t see it. Maybe if this story was a bit more focused, and didn’t jump around so much, or waste so many pages on redundant “inspirational” dialogue, then maybe this plot could have worked. Actually, it should have worked. But it couldn’t be a coming-of-age story and an ultimate team-up at the same time. It needed to focus on one or the other. Because both ideas kind of contradict each other, much to the detriment of the entire story.
I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up about this. I hate the CW Flash. I guess I just let my hopes get up after the last issue was such a pleasant surprise. And speaking of high hopes, next time I’ll cover something I was looking forward to for a long time, Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1.
