Book Four
Geoff Johns – Writer
George Pérez – Pencils
Scott Koblish – Inker
Hi-Fi – Colorist
Nick Napolitano – Letters
Adam Schlagman – Asst. Editor
Eddie Berganza – Editor
Cover: George Pérez & Tom Smith
Silver Cover: George Pérez & Hi-Fi
Our main cover features the adult Brainiac 5. But unlike the past two covers of this miniseries, we don't get small images of the other two Brainiac 5s here. Instead, we get an exciting glimpse of the figure that has been contained inside Brainiac 5's lightning rod since Justice League of America #10. I love that Pérez chose to highlight the plot of Bart Allen's return rather than displaying the other versions of Brainiac 5. I also enjoy this cover a lot more than the others Pérez did in this style, confirming my suspicion that it was the coloring job of those previous covers that I didn't like.
I do not own the variant cover of this issue (this was the lone installment I was able to find the main cover for at my local comic shop), so I took this image from MyComicShop.com. Unfortunately, I think Pérez tried to cram too much action into this tiny space. It is nice to see Bart and Jenni in action, but I can't quite tell what they're supposed to be doing amidst all this chaos.
Our story begins in the present day in Metropolis. Starman, a mentally ill Legionnaire, who was left behind in the 21st Century, enters a graveyard in Metropolis in the middle of the night and begins digging up the grave of someone named Kent. This is a crucial element of the third stage of Brainiac 5's plan. Back in the 31st Century, the battle against the Legion of Super-Villains continues in the streets of Metropolis, while the Legion Headquarters is engulfed in lightning heralding the arrival of our beloved Bart.
Bart immediately begins pounding on Superboy-Prime, mocking him for being so scared by the return of the fastest boy alive, Kid Flash. Prime retaliates with some blasts of heat vision, but he's unable to hit Bart, and is unable to prevent himself from stuttering as he says Bart got "old and dumber," became the Flash and was killed by the Rogues. Bart joyfully dodges Prime's attacks and says the Rogues tried — he guesses. Jenni is so excited to see her cousin again, she runs right through Superboy-Prime and gives Bart a big hug. Bart says it's nice to be "lightning out of a bottle" and he quotes the Genie from Disney's Aladdin about having "phenomenal cosmic power," but "itty-bitty living space." Superboy-Prime interrupts this touching reunion by shouting, "Dodge this, Impuke!" But Bart holds his ground and confidently says, "You first," as the various lightning-wielders blast Prime from behind.
With Prime momentarily immobilized, Kid Flash and XS begin racing around him to push him up with a whirlwind. Adult Brainiac 5 explains to the others what just happened, while Bart tries to answer Jenni's questions. Brainy says they have just reconstituted a part of Barry Allen's grandson. Bart tells Jenni that he "kinda" died. He starts explaining by going back to his first fight against Superboy-Prime, where Bart became entangled in the Speed Force. Brainy says Bart's aging was once again accelerated artificially at that point. Bart says he remembers the exact moment the Rogues attacked and he lost his speed. But then it was like an out-of-body experience, as the lightning pulled his spirit away, Bart saw the adult part of him die.
Adult Brainiac 5 theorizes that if he hadn't sent a team of Legionnaires back in time to bottle up Bart's youth, then regardless of the Rogues' attack, Bart would have died within a month of old age. The younger Brainiac 5s joke about how this means the adult part of Bart was like a cancer — as it is with everyone. Adult Brainy doesn't appreciate the joke, and he goes on to explain that he knew to prepare for this because Dream Girl saw a vision of Bart Allen's return and Superboy-Prime's attack.
Bart and Jenni's whirlwind manages to lift Prime up and out of the Legion Headquarters, and Bart tells Jenni he's never felt so fast before. Jenni says she also feels the surge in the Speed Force, and she asks Bart what he thinks it means. Bart hopefully suggests that Max Mercury is running right next to him. Prime shouts that when he gets his hands on Bart, he's toast. Bart retorts, "With jelly," and he and Jenni take the fight outside. Adult Brainiac 5 says Kid Flash, XS and the Legion will keep Prime unfocused for the moment, giving him time to attend to the third and final stage of his plan.
Sodam Yat hits Prime with a big blast of Green Lantern energy, and Bart follows that up with a whirlwind around Prime's head to take away his air. Prime can only whine, "S-stop, Speed J-jerks —" Bart then becomes distracted by the arrival of Superman, which he thinks is pretty cool. Superman is surprised to see Bart and asks if this is a result of time travel, but Lightning Lad explains that Brainiac 5 has apparently brought Kid Flash back from the dead. Superman then turns his attention to Prime, once again asking him what his parents would say to all the destruction he's caused. Prime says it doesn't matter, since his parents are dead. Superman says that even thought they're dead, they're still watching. Suddenly, an enormous purple fist reaches down from the sky and grabs Superman, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. Other Legionnaires recognizes this as the Time Trapper, but they're unable to rescue their teammates before the fist disappears.
The Time Trapper took those four crucial heroes to the end of time to "witness the fall of the Superman dynasty." But nobody left behind knows that, and a magical powered hero named Kinetix attacks Superboy-Prime, demanding to know where the Time-Trapper took those four. Kid Flash tries to warn Kinetix that Prime isn't vulnerable to magic, but he's too late, and Prime kills her with a blast of heat vision. This is third Legionnaire that Prime has personally killed, and he's met with a swift, passionate response from our heroes. One of the Element Lads turns all the rocks around Prime into kryptonite, and to the surprise of Prime and Bart, the kryptonite actually hurts Prime — a lot. Prime swiftly kills Element Lad by throwing a kryptonite rock through his heart, and Cosmic King quickly heals Prime by converting the kryptonite radiation in him into yellow sunlight.
The evil sorcerer Mordru then receives a vision of the future, and he warns Prime that the Legionnaires are going to win unless he destroys Superman's Fortress of Solitude right now. So Prime immediately flies toward the North Pole, which Bart notices and calls out for everyone to follow him north. Meanwhile, the three Brainiac 5s (and a couple of other Legionnaires) are impatiently waiting for the three Legionnaires to return from the past. Adult Brainiac 5 claims they're late, but Other Brainiac 5 says the adult's internal clock is running fast because he's panicking. He tries to call the moment the time-travelers will return, but he's also too soon. But Our Brainiac 5 is able to correctly anticipate the exact moment the time sphere returns and Polar Boy presents them with a fresh strand of Lex Luthor's hair. Our Brainy asks what the hair is for, and Adult Brainy asks if he's ever read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Other Brainy decries that as a book for children, and Our Brainy complains that it's incomplete — he apparently followed it step-by-step with little success. Adult Brainy laments that his younger doppelgängers are missing the point — that with the right amount of genius and a touch of perceived insanity, science can conquer anything.
Luckily, Superboy-Prime's ego prevented him from flying straight to the Fortress, as he insisted on blasting another massive "S" into the ground with his heat vision — a fact picked up by Bart, while he and Jenni were following Prime. This diversion gives Sodam Yat time to catch up and put a helmet over Prime's eyes. Inside the Fortress, Adult Brainiac 5 explains that he had Starman bury a Kryptonian Chrysalis here a thousand years ago. He has Light Lass pull it out of the ice, and he says this is the same device that regenerated Superman after his battle with Doomsday. But whereas the chamber took only a few months to heal Superman from those wounds, in this case, the healing process has taken over a thousand years, and it still isn't complete. Adult Brainiac 5 inserts the Lex Luthor hair into the Chrysalis, saying this fresh human D.N.A. will finish the other half of the healing. But now he needs to carefully select the correct crystal to complete the process. Other Brainiac 5 insists he can choose the right one, citing his experience with Supergirl, but Adult Brainy warns "Baby Brainiac" that if he so much as taps the wrong crystal, he'll trigger a complete meltdown.
But while they were arguing, Superboy-Prime broke free from Sodam Yat and threw all the nearby heroes (including Kid Flash and XS) through the ice and into the cavern under the Fortress, causing a minor collapse that conveniently knocks out the Brainiac 5s, but leaves Polar Boy, Dawnstar and Wildfire still standing. Polar Boy heads out to hold off Prime, which he tries to do by freezing every drop of water in Prime's blood. But that doesn't slow him down long, and Prime is just about to kill Polar Boy before Sun Boy arrives in the nick of time. Inside the cavern, Dawnstar and Wildfire finally express their love for each other, which somehow sparks Dawnstar's power to find the right path and choose the correct crystal. Bart is naturally the first one to recover from being knocked out, and once he sees what's happening, he excitedly exclaims, "NO WAY."
Superboy-Prime says he'll surrender to Sun Boy and Polar Boy, but then knocks them down by clapping his hands at super speed. As he laughs at how he was "totally being sarcastic," Dawnstar and Wildfire join the fight outside. Wildfire tells Prime he's in for it now, since they just got another Superman on their team. Prime looks up and weakly says, "Not him too." And on a big, two-page spread, Conner Kent punches Prime, while telling Wildfire to call him Superboy.
Superman sees this from the end of time, and he proudly tells the Time-Trapper that even though he doesn't know how or why Superboy and Kid Flash are back, he knows that with them fighting alongside the Legions of three worlds, Superboy-Prime doesn't stand a chance. He begins attacking the Time-Trapper, and rips off his cloak while Conner rips off Prime's shirt. In a neat, split image, we see that Time-Trapper really is an older version of Superboy-Prime, and he confidently tells Superman that even though Conner is back, the Legion is destined to lose.
What a terrific issue. Bart is back and is leading the charge against one of the most powerful beings in the universe. And now his old friend, Superboy, is back! The drama of choosing the right crystal was kind of lame, but Superboy's return was still pretty exciting. And the way he was brought back makes enough sense for me — let Kryptonian technology work on him for a thousand years, then add some fresh human D.N.A. at the end to complete the process. Bart's return, though, is a little more complicated.
Ultimately, this feels like Geoff Johns wanting to have his cake and eat it, too. He wanted Bart back, but not as the adult version nobody really liked, nor as his original Impulse version that Johns never really liked. So he used some convenient comic book science to say Brainiac 5 "bottled up" Bart's youth, letting his "adult self" die. This really doesn't make any sense. And the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. It especially becomes confusing when Bart says he remembers that final battle and being killed. Does this mean he remembers the whole year he spent as a 20-year-old? Does he remember drinking alcohol and having sex and all that stuff? Is Bart essentially an adult trapped in the body of a teenager now? These are questions that will never properly be answered. And that might be primarily because Bart's sudden aging from 16 to 20 was never properly explained to begin with. So, I guess all we can really do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Kid Flash is back, for better or worse.
Despite that, this is another incredible issue in this miniseries. Tremendous artwork. Great action. And I absolutely love watching the three Brainiac 5s bicker among themselves. Now let's check out the new ads:
Nothing hits harder than vengeance! The Spirit on DVD and Blu-Ray.
War. Perfected. KillZone 3 on PlayStation 3.
The fate of the world is in your hands. Dragonball Evolution on PSP.
Do you have an eye for design? If you're an aspiring graphic designer, this is your chance ... 2009 Design Scholarship Challenge.
DC Nation talks about the upcoming Wednesday Comics, which we will be taking a peak at before too long.
A five-page preview of The Last Days of Animal Man.
Beware of the darkest waters ... Vampirates: Black Heart.
Next time, we'll begin another massive miniseries that just couldn't wait for this one to end — Flash: Rebirth #1.
No comments:
Post a Comment