Is Zero Hour Any Good?

[Timothy Hunter]

When I was analyzing the lot of comics that I bought at my local comic book store, I realized that I accidentally purchased issue 4 of the DC Comics event Zero Hour a Crisis in Time I must've accidentally picked it up when I was taking a dumpster dive through the used comics bins. Anyway, it made me realize, that in spite of all the hundreds (thousands?) of comics that I have read to this point, it never occured to me to read Zero Hour, despite it having a momentous effect on the DC Universe. It launched James Robinson's Starman and it forever ruined the Legion of Superheroes, from my perspective. The little accident that I had this day has given me a newfound interest in this series.

So my question is to you: Is Zero Hour any good? Should I collect the rest of the issues

[MajorHoy]

So my question is to you: Is Zero Hour any good? Should I collect the rest of the issues

Well, whether it's "good" or not can be debated. In some ways it had its merits, in other ways it wasn't.
Your mileage may vary, especially reading it for the first time all these years later.

Part of its purpose was to try and deal with a lot of the problems/ contradictions/ confusion that occurred in almost ten years (at that point) since CoIE. So whether you like their solution(s) or not may dictate how much you like it. As to if you should buy the rest of the issues, depends on how cheaply you can get them.

Don't forget, though, that the issue numbering goes in reverse for this series; so #4 is the first issue while #0 is the end of the story.

[Buried Alien]

Other than the fact that Hal Jordan was cast as the main villain, ZERO HOUR always struck me as the poor man's, budget, abridged version of COIE.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Timothy Hunter]

Don't forget, though, that the issue numbering goes in reverse for this series; so #4 is the first issue while #0 is the end of the story.

Thanks. That's interesting. It seems that Zero Hour predates the more recent Countdown to the concept of having a finite series depict reversed numbering. I'm honestly baffled how I didn't know this.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I liked Zero Hour especially because it appeared that certain pre-Crisis stuff was going to be brought back like the Clark Kent Superboy.

The series is fun enough, and it does feature the next chapter in the stories of Hank Hall (as Extant) and Hal Jordan (as Parallax) following both Armageddon 2001 and Emerald Twilight.

Hal's story continues in The Final Night event (1996), which was also good. The main adversary was the Legion's Sun Eater. Hal is redeemed in this story. The next chapter for Hal was the Day of Judgment event from 1999 where Hal becomes the new Spectre. Then, of course, comes 2004's Green Lantern Rebirth mini.

Hank Hall's story continues in some crappy Armageddon minis with him fighting Captain Atom that nobody cares about.

In general, I've found that DC's company events from the 80s and 90s are generally good reads -- War of the Gods (1991), Bloodlines (1993), and Genesis (1997) are widely considered exceptions and ok to avoid -- although Bloodlines did introduce Hitman.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Not really, no.

Infinite Crisis, despite being compromised because of editorial and legal wrangling beyond Johns's control, is a much worthier sequel to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths compared to Zero Hour in that the story was better, the villains were more interesting, and there was a real additive nature to the continuity reshuffle.

[DrNewGod]

I was not a fan. The only thing I enjoyed out of it was the introduction of The Alpha Centurion, who I found fascinating a character that DC never used to his full potential.

[MajorHoy]

But don't forget, the Zero Hour event also brought back the original Lady Blackhawk (Zinda).



Though if memory serves me right, that occurred in the Guy Gardner: Warrior #24 issue that was tied-in to Zero Hour.

[theoneandonly]

it is a epic containing such immortal gems as:
Guy: who the hell are you supposed to be kid?
Kyle: Green Lantern
the first historic meeting of two green Lantern greats!!!

Batgirl: Your bloody nights are over joker!
Joker: Batgirl? Is this some kind of joke?
the irony and shade in this moment is supreme.

Superman: No you have gone too far this time Hal!
Guess emerald twilight wasn't far enough.

Bat Girl: I just can't stand and let him kill a innocent child.
but killing the whole universe is fine.

Joking apart it's not particularly good or bad but middling imo.

[Lee Stone]

For me, it was the stopgap cornerstone that marked the end of the post-Crisis boom.
When reality ceased to exist and the panels went blank, the DC Universe no longer existed for me.

I remember phasing out of the DC Universe after Zero Hour and moving to Vertigo and Dark Horse at the time.

Don't think I came back until Nightwing got his first ongoing a few years later.

[DrNewGod]

For me, it was the stopgap cornerstone that marked the end of the post-Crisis boom.
When reality ceased to exist and the panels went blank, the DC Universe no longer existed for me.

I remember phasing out of the DC Universe after Zero Hour and moving to Vertigo and Dark Horse at the time.

Don't think I came back until Nightwing got his first ongoing a few years later.

That's an interesting take on it. Looking back, I too felt that "My DC" was gone at that point, and I found my patience for and interest in what followed steadily waned.

[Zero Hunter]

My biggest disapointment with Zero Hour was its Legion of Super Heroes tie ins. DC knew they were rebooting the Legion and instead of going out with a crazy balls to the wall epic they put out a pretty sad finale. They could have literally done anything they wanted. Killed characters, destroyed worlds, have final showdowns in epic battles. They did none of that and instead let that last year of the 5 Years Latter ... era limped out with one poor story after the other. Most writers dream of the chance to do whatever they want with a classic franchise with out having to worry about what comes next, and yet no one at DC was smart enough to take advantage of it and let a writer run wild. I can not imagine any writer who was a fan of the Legion passing up the chance if DC had come up to them and said you have 12-18 issues (between the Legion and Legionnaries books) to tell the biggest most epic Legion tale they wanted with nothing off limits. It still boggles my mind all these years latter that DC was not smart enough to do this.