‘Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1’ Review (DC Comics)
Written by Mark Waid | Art by Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund | Published by DC Comics
Dark Crisis as an event has been a bit hit and miss, both the main series and the various spin-offs. It has, though, maintained a respectable entertainment level overall, and of course the end game of all this has been to bring back the Multiverse. I’ve always been a Multiverse fan, growing up reading comics in the late 1970s/ early 1980s when the JSA Earth-2 were two of my favourite things in comics (and still are). This book looks tailor-made for me, throw in the fact it’s written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund, classic DC creators all, and we should have a winner. Hopefully.
Let’s take a look.
The opening splash page is a doozy, with Barry Allen telling us ‘I’m looking for the man who murdered me’. He’s in the House of Heroes, the Space Between Universes, giving Kid Flash (and us) a history lesson. Barry has been charting the Multiverse, mapping it out, as a formerly finite Multiverse is now an infinite one again. The Anti-Monitor in the original Crisis intended himself to be the ruler of a single universe, and seemingly killed Barry to achieve that (Barry obviously got better). He’s still out there somewhere, and it’s time for a recon mission with our two speedsters….
This is of course a clever pretext by Waid for us to take a whirlwind tour of the new status quo. Look, there’s Earth-23, with President Superman, medieval Earth-118, Kingdom Come Earth-22, Dinosaur Earth-27, Earth-55 from DCeased, Earth-43 vampire world from Red Rain, the Tangent heroes of Earth-9, the Old West Earth-18, the odd Earth-162 where Batman and Superman have split into two beings, even Earth-33, where superheroes are all fictional. Waid showing us a very wide cross-section of Earth’s, drawn from all eras of DC’s history. Still no Anti-Monitor yet.
I spoke too soon. Earth-28, where heroes all wear mechanized suits, is under attack from the big man himself. Still, as long as Flash and Kid Flash keep low, they can get away safely. Nope, too late for that. Kid Flash gets himself trapped. Flash decides to unleash his biggest weapon, the ability to add infinite mass to himself by running as fast as he can possibly can, to try and free Kid Flash. The punch he unleashes is so powerful it knocks the Anti-Monitor through several universes (Stan Lee Earth-6, Crime Syndicate Earth-3, DC Bombshells Earth-24, the Freedom Fighters Earth-10, the Milestone Dakota heroes of Earth-93, Earth-41, and the Injustice Earth-49 for those keeping count). The punches keep coming… The Batman TV show Earth-66, the Earth-789 Earth based on the Christopher Reeve, Helen Slater, Michael Keaton films, The Charlton Comics Earth-4, the Pulp Heroes Earth-20, and finally the Atomic Knights Earth-17, where Barry’s luck runs out.
Barry starts to take quite the beating from Anti-Monitor, but don’t forget our story has two speedsters. Kid Flash is back, and he’s brought some multiversal friends with him. Heroes and heroines from many different worlds. They pile in, but he’s still too strong. Flash realises their best option is to open a dimensional rift and push him through it, using all the powers and abilities of both science and sorcery. It works. He’ll be back of course, but for now the heroes have won. The new Multiverse is safe, and full of sights and sounds ready to be explored. Not just by the heroes and villains, but by both us readers and DC creators. A whole new Multiverse to explore.
This was essentially a glorified travel guide, but Waid is a good enough writer to put enough meat on those bare bones and make this an entertaining read. Passing through those Earths gave us a little taster of things to come, and the Barry Allen notes at the end of the issue index all the known Earths. Would have liked to pop in on the Zoo Crew of Earth-26, but there’s always next time. There is still plenty of gaps in there too, so much more exploring to be done. The art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund was superb, but then we expect that from them. Beautiful clean line art, classically drawn characters, and layouts that made fleeting visits to each Earth interesting.
A must read for DC fans, or people wanting to understand the new status quo. There’s a long road ahead.
