DC Universe #0 Annotations

DC UNIVERSE #0

Let There Be Lightning

DC Comics, June 2008, Color, 32pgs, $0.50

Written by GRANT MORRISON & GEOFF JOHNS; Art by GEORGE PEREZ, TONY DANIEL, J.G. JONES, AARON LOPRESTI, IVAN REIS, PHILIP TAN and CARLOS PANCHECO; Cover by GEORGE PEREZ

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ANNOTATIONS

Page 1 - The first page was rewritten from the preview included in the 2008 NYCC program. In the preview the caption reads "I am... everything.". This seems to allude to Morrison’s long-held ambition to make the DC universe sentient.

The black background of the captions slowly turns to red as the story progresses.

Its pretty universally accepted that the narrator is the newly resurrected Barry Allen, the second Flash, though some of the framing sequence seems to fit better with Morrison’s idea of Darkseid’s Fall from the Heavens. Perhaps the nameless narrator of the issue is both Darksied and the Flash, reflecting the extreme light and dark sides of the DC universe; certainly the colouring of the captions seems to support this.

Barry Allen, the 'classic' version of Flash, first appeared in 1956’s Showcase #4, kick starting comic books' Silver Age in the process. He died in 1986’s Crisis On Infinite Earths #8 and, a rarity in comics, stayed dead, at least for a while…

Page 2 - Clockwise from top left we have Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Aquaman, the Flash (Barry Allen), Batman and the Martian Manhunter, the Justice League of America as they originally appeared in 1960’s The Brave And The Bold #28. They’re leaving their original headquarters, the Secret Sanctuary, in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. Morrison wrote the secret origin of said headquarters in 'Ghosts of Stone' from 1990’s Secret Origins #46

Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Elongated Man and Zatanna all joined the original JLA shortly after their formation

Page 3 - "The barriers between parallel universes bleed": This is a reference to "The Bleed,", Warren Ellis’ multiversal model of the Wildstorm universe, a part of the DC universe since 52.

The red/black dichotomy of Morrison’s Batman RIP makes the transition to the universe at large. "The skies drip red”: Ultra-Menstrum, as the Bleed is referred to in Superman Beyond, is, in essence, life. The Anti-Life Equation is the black, symbolizing a spiritual if not physical death: total submission, futility and loss of the self.

The red skies denote a Crisis in the DC universe, as per the original Crisis On Infinite Earths.

The Anti-Life Equation features heavily in Final Crisis, as it did in Morrison’s earlier Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle. Originally mentioned in Jack Kirby’s Forever People series, it has played a part in most stories involving Kirby’s Fourth World since then.

Page 4 - A ready reader of DC’s previous crises. Panel one shows the original Crisis On Infinite Earths, Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s granddaddy of the company-wide crossover, where all of DC Comics infinite parallel Earths were concertinaed into one New Earth. Crisis also gave DC a chance to integrate their acquisitions from other comic book publishers into their mainstream continuity.

The figure looming large in the background is series villain, the Anti-Monitor. In the foreground from top left are sometime Justice League member Elongated Man; the Golden Age Superman, by then established as living on an Earth separate from the ‘real’ Superman; obscure Teen Titan Kole; Quality Comics’ Black Condor; Dr. Light II and Pariah, both created especially for Crisis On Infinite Earths; Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel; King of the Seven Seas Aquaman; the Doom Patrol’s Tempest; Charlton Comics’ Captain Atom; Harbinger, another character created for the series; Power Girl, a parallel Earth Supergirl whose back story never really recovered from the revisions of Crisis; Fawcett’s Mary Marvel, and the Silver Age Hawkman.

Panel two is a Phil Jimenez image of Superman Prime, the renamed-due-to-ongoing-legal-battles Superboy of Earth Prime, Earth Prime being ‘our’ world. Its from Jiminez and Geoff Johns’ 2005 sequel to Crisis On Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis.

Panel three is Darkseid, the antagonist of the final part of the ‘trilogy’, Final Crisis.

Page 5-7 - Scripted by Geoff Johns, these pages bridge the gap between the Legion of Super Heroes appearances in the JLA/JSA crossover, The Lightning Saga, and Johns’ own Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes arc in Action Comics. They set the stage for Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, which, when the dust settled and the final issue was eventually published, had very little to do with Final Crisis proper.

Page 8 - Batman, created by Bob Kane and an uncredited Bill Finger, first appeared in 1938’s Detective Comics #27. His arch-nemesis the Joker was created by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger and Bob Kane and first appeared in 1940’s Batman #1. The Joker is seen here imprisoned in Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, about which Grant Morrison wrote a graphic novel in 1989. This scene occurs before the events of Batman #677

A homage to the opening scene of Alan Morre and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke , the Joker here is Morrison’s Clown at Midnight rather than the purple suited Clown Prince of Crime seen in basically every contemporary Joker appearance that’s not written by Morrison.

The three following pages are an important part of Morrison’s 'Batman R.I.P.' and were included in the hardcover collection of that story. At the risk of reading too much into the cards the Joker holds, the ace of clubs traditionally represents desire for knowledge, i.e. Batman’s obsessive quest to find the identity of the Black Glove.

The eight of diamonds traditionally represents material power, i.e the limitless resources of both Bruce Wayne and the Black Glove organisation.

Page 9 - The Black Glove was the mystery villain in Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. arc and much of Morrison's subsequent Batman run. Read more about him on the Batman Annotations pages here (Sorry! Link will be updated as soon as they're done)

The eight of hearts traditionally represents the decentering force of love, i.e. Jezebel Jet and her betrayal of Bruce to the Black Glove. In Batman #677, Batman, in his obsessive search for a pattern in the Joker/Black Glove’s madness, theorises that the 8, ace, 8, ace pattern is also an alphabetical cipher: H.A.H.A.

Page 10 - The dead man's hand is two aces, two eights and a wild card, here, of course, the Joker. The aces and eights are traditionally all black, but this fits Morrison’s red/black symbolic scheme better.

The ace of spades is traditionally known as the death card, and also represents an initiation into mysteries, i.e. Batman’s apparent death at the hands of Darkseid in Final Crisis #6

Page 11-13 - A teaser for Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman, specifically the Rise of the Olympian arc. If these pages aren’t written uncredited by Simone herself then Morrison or Johns is doing an excellent approximation of her style.

Page 14-16 - A Geoff John’s scripted teaser for his multi-coloured Lantern Corps storyline that led into Blackest Night and, beyond that, Brightest Day.

Page 17-18 - A flashback to Crisis On Infinite Earths #10, with the evil Anti-Monitor battling God’s Spirit of Vengeance, The Spectre, for the fate of the multiverse. This is the original Spectre, created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Bailey in More Fun Comics #52 from 1940. He was killed off and replaced by Hal Jordan, formerly (and currently) Green Lantern, for a short while in the early noughties.

Page 19 - Crispus Allen, the third Spectre, was created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough and first appeared as a civilian cop in Detective Comics #742 in 2000. He became the Spectre in 2005’s Infinite Crisis #4. Carr D'Angelo is named after the co-owner (with Geoff Johns) of Earth 2 Comics.

Page 20 - Darkseid’s Fall from the heavens after his victory in the New Gods final battle, as not related in Countdown to Final Crisis and Death of the New Gods. Three dimensional representations of two-dimensional planes, suggesting an interaction between the real and comic-book worlds, recall similar images in Morrison's Seven Soldiers Of Victory project, specifically from the Zatanna and Mister Miracle series’.

Page 21 - "A runner poised on the line": a pretty heavy-handed hint that the narrator is the Flash.