Dark Crisis #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[DragonPiece]

Also, after 6 issues of Infinite Frontier, 6 issues of JLI, and 1 issue of JL to set this story up, there's no reason why issue #1 didn't start with a bang.

What did we learn about Pariah in all of those other books? That he wants to destroy the multi-verse.

What did we learn about him in issue #1? That he wants to destroy the multi-verse.

Wake me up when he finally does something new.

People (perhaps yourself) would have complained if Williamson completely skipped over people reacting to the JL death and all the immediate fallout from that, so I'm confused why you expected a first issue to not establish the current climate of the DCU in reagrds to everyone's emotions and to just skipover to some big battle. Anyways, by the end of the issue the titans academy literally gets attacked and several titans, both new and old, are possibly dead. How is that not a bang?

[lefthanded]

You can't hit a grand slam until people get on base...It seems like everyone wants a grand slam every issue...Hell, It took me reading Final Crisis a few times and then reading Rikdad before I saw the whole picture.

The lead-off to an event should be at least a triple, if not a home run (with aspirations to a grand slam). Publishers want readers to buy their event books, in addition to potential tie-ins. How do you get readers to buy your event? By saying it is earth-shattering, by saying that it is a must read. In essence, a home run.

This issue is a double at best (some would argue it is just a bunt, with there being little plot progression). That is okay for a regular issue, or even the kickoff to a story arc. But that is not how you want to start a capital E 'Event.

The first issue of an Event should (1) explain the new status quo or at least suggest about a mystery of the status quo, (2) set up our POV characters for the event, and (3) get us excited to see what the next issues to see the challenges/mystery the heroes need to overcome. Sure, you could argue that this is the basic setup for any new story arc, but it is especially important for an Event.

This issue does show (1) Status Quo is that Justice League is dead so new heroes need to step it up, (2) Superman Jon Kent is our POV character for the event, and (3) Pariah is going to destroy the multiverse and our heroes need to stop him.

Ultimately, (3) is so uninteresting that it makes (1) and (2) not worth it at all. (3) is not even connected at all to our new heroes so there is no personal stakes there either. If the issue ended with that attack on Titans tower, that has more personal stakes. Pacing and where you place your reveals, matter.

Even (1) is poorly setup, as characters in-comic are stating that the new status quo is pointless (Justice League is not dead; even though readers know the cash cows are not dead forever, having in-universe characters make that point makes it worse).

[BatmanJones]

People (perhaps yourself) would have complained if Williamson completely skipped over people reacting to the JL death and all the immediate fallout from that, so I'm confused why you expected a first issue to not establish the current climate of the DCU in reagrds to everyone's emotions and to just skipover to some big battle. Anyways, by the end of the issue the titans academy literally gets attacked and several titans, both new and old, are possibly dead. How is that not a bang?

The entire JL possibly being dead comprises the cover of about 5% of every issue of JL that ever was. It's not a bang. It's a car backfiring.

IF was the road to JLI, JLI was the road to JL #75, JL #75 was the road to FCBD, FCBD was the road to The Road to Dark Crisis, Dark Crisis #1 was the setup for the next 6 issues and everyone has known for months the JL is not dead but is scattered to Black Mercy-ish planets/universes--a thing that was announced today like it was some kind of surprise.

This event has been in 'leading up to' mode for over a year and nothing has happened.

I hope I'm wrong and that Williamson will wind up writing the first truly interesting story of his career but all signs point the other way. He's had about one interesting idea/conversation/whatever per issue or per mini and he begins every interview by spoiling that one morsel of something interesting.

I'm going to read this because I'm a DC fanatic so I'm going dark on anything that might spoil those tiny kernels of at least something but boy has this been disappointing so far. And I've had it with the defense of "but this is only the first issue." It isn't. We've had one 'road to' this story after another.

[Menacer]

I’d be a lot more impressed with wanting to destroy and replace the multiverse if they ever did anything with said multiverse

Williamson has specifically stated this is not the point of his crisis.

There won't be any rearranging of Multiverse. Comments like this are presumptuous and cringy.

The point of the event is to examine legacy. Not a big upturn of or rearranging of continuity.

He's stated he's doing exactly what u want. Doing something with this universe

[blunt_eastwood]

And I've had it with the defense of "but this is only the first issue." It isn't. We've had one 'road to' this story after another.

There's been so many "roads to" Dark Crisis, I had to use Google Maps to find issue #1.

[Frontier]

The entire JL possibly being dead comprises the cover of about 5% of every issue of JL that ever was. It's not a bang. It's a car backfiring.

IF was the road to JLI, JLI was the road to JL #75, JL #75 was the road to FCBD, FCBD was the road to The Road to Dark Crisis, Dark Crisis #1 was the setup for the next 6 issues and everyone has known for months the JL is not dead but is scattered to Black Mercy-ish planets/universes--a thing that was announced today like it was some kind of surprise.

This event has been in 'leading up to' mode for over a year and nothing has happened.

I hope I'm wrong and that Williamson will wind up writing the first truly interesting story of his career but all signs point the other way. He's had about one interesting idea/conversation/whatever per issue or per mini and he begins every interview by spoiling that one morsel of something interesting.

I'm going to read this because I'm a DC fanatic so I'm going dark on anything that might spoil those tiny kernels of at least something but boy has this been disappointing so far. And I've had it with the defense of "but this is only the first issue." It isn't. We've had one 'road to' this story after another.

Maybe it's better to think of it less as a "leading to" and more just a stepping stone in an ongoing story.

[Refrax5]

I've read all the events and crisis's since coie...

I'm not suprised those on this forum aren't connecting... I find this forum dramatically slanted towards dc comics of decades past and not so interested In anything since new52... so no suprise...

As for dc fandom at large the event has been a huge seller. Consistently taking top spot on comixology top 10 sales lists.

So fans are interested in the event. Williamson is a top seller in general.

This forum is a small sample of a generally negative minded group towards modern DC...

Regardless anyone here is allowed to dislike it.

I'm certainly enjoying it and have the entire event and all the one shots and tie ins on my pull list.

I'm usually the opposite actually. I'm pretty positive towards a lot of stuff and I don't hate this, but I just find it very bland. I'm not hooked. I want to be, but I'm not. It's nice to see Hal again.

[Captain Nostalgia]

I enjoyed it (despite not being a fan of having another Superman around)

I like the idea of the supervillains going in for the kill on the Titans, because I think logically that would be the first place they would hit if the JLA was thought to be dead.

[gambit2051]

So what you are saying is that they ARE listening to us! We always say we are tired of multiple title crossovers for each yearly event. Here we have 3 titles carrying the whole event, with a couple of lead-ins. Not too bad.

I honestly LOVE this idea over the other one...where Execs did not believe the sales numbers warrant more coverage...sigh.

[j9ac9k]

I don't get why Hal treated Wally like that. Why would he ask about the League after encountering him teaming-up with Jon? That made it seem like he doesn't consider Wally as being on the League's level.

Aside from some bad acting by the artist giving Hal that exaggerated "wtf?" face, my take is that he initially assumed it was Clark and Barry fighting Cobra, because this kinda thing is exactly where you'd expect the League to be.(his first line was him thinking he was talking to Clark and Barry) So he was surprised that it was Jon and Wally instead. I didn't see any disrespect at all.

[Refrax5]

Aside from some bad acting by the artist giving Hal that exaggerated "wtf?" face, my take is that he initially assumed it was Clark and Barry fighting Cobra, because this kinda thing is exactly where you'd expect the League to be.(his first line was him thinking he was talking to Clark and Barry) So he was surprised that it was Jon and Wally instead. I didn't see any disrespect at all.

I didn't read it as disrespect either, but didn't Hal find out about the League dying in Road to Dark Crisis already?

[BohemiaDrinker]

Huh.

Discussion of the issue devolved into criticizing people who liked it or didn't like it for whatever quite fast, huh?

Anyway, now that I have more time: I liked it because it delivered what it promised. It said "hey, legacy characters" and it's full of them. Some of the criticisms here I found valid: for what is supposed to be more of a low key event instead of yet another restructuring of the universe, the set up to it was sort of all over the place (even if I liked the comics themselves).

Now, for Jon looking for Yara and Jace and so many others, personally I thought it was very much in-character and thematically adequate. For all his strengths of character, Jon is very naive and excitable. He suddenly, and with very little experience, is thrust into the role of the greatest superhero on Earth. This is no Wally West (seasoned veteran) taking over Barry, nor is it Kyle Rayner taking over Jordan (because the rest of the world was pretty much ok then and he had the room to breathe). Jon has this gigantic weight on his shoulders on top of feeling the need to prove himself. In his mind, these newcomers that are as green as him must be feeling the same way. Clark (in his best renditions, at least) would have done the same.

Other than that, the only thing I want from this event is for the new guys to show they measure up. Dan Didio is now long gone and all that BS about "the real Flash", "the real Green Lantern" and such is, hopefully, gone with him. Let Wally and Dick be the big deals they are, etc, etc.

[HsssH]

You can't hit a grand slam until people get on base...It seems like everyone wants a grand slam every issue...Hell, It took me reading Final Crisis a few times and then reading Rikdad before I saw the whole picture.

Final Crisis definitely does get confusing as it starts going, but I think that first issue was rather simple and effective.

Williamson has specifically stated this is not the point of his crisis.

There won't be any rearranging of Multiverse. Comments like this are presumptuous and cringy.

The point of the event is to examine legacy. Not a big upturn of or rearranging of continuity.

He's stated he's doing exactly what u want. Doing something with this universe

So maybe he shouldn't introduce a villain that wants to destroy multiverse?

[DragonPiece]

The entire JL possibly being dead comprises the cover of about 5% of every issue of JL that ever was. It's not a bang. It's a car backfiring.

IF was the road to JLI, JLI was the road to JL #75, JL #75 was the road to FCBD, FCBD was the road to The Road to Dark Crisis, Dark Crisis #1 was the setup for the next 6 issues and everyone has known for months the JL is not dead but is scattered to Black Mercy-ish planets/universes--a thing that was announced today like it was some kind of surprise.

This event has been in 'leading up to' mode for over a year and nothing has happened.

I hope I'm wrong and that Williamson will wind up writing the first truly interesting story of his career but all signs point the other way. He's had about one interesting idea/conversation/whatever per issue or per mini and he begins every interview by spoiling that one morsel of something interesting.

I'm going to read this because I'm a DC fanatic so I'm going dark on anything that might spoil those tiny kernels of at least something but boy has this been disappointing so far. And I've had it with the defense of "but this is only the first issue." It isn't. We've had one 'road to' this story after another.

I mean, even most of the people in this thread act like they haven't been reading DC the past few months and that they are laspsed readers, so isn't it smart on DC's part to provide setup for those behind on the books? Again, there have been deaths in the issue so why do you keep saying nothing happened?

[Johnny]

I didn't read it as disrespect either, but didn't Hal find out about the League dying in Road to Dark Crisis already?

He did but here it says he was "on vacation" the whole time and this is supposedly the first time he's back on Earth and has no idea what happened to the League, even though in RTDS he comes back because of pursuing a dangerous alien creature and nothing about any vacations. Not to mention him being stationed on Earth the entire time since this "Infinite Frontier" business started and he's been shown with the League sporadically since. Yet you have 3 plot holes back to back to back. All this shows me is they simply don't care what this character has been up to, otherwise they would've paid even the slightest bit of attention to his recent continuity.