‘Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7’ Review
Written by Joshua Williamson | Art by Various | Published by DC Comics
So here we are, the rather arbitrarily chosen issue number seven, the final part of the mini-series we were told would shatter everything we knew about previously shattered universes and multiverses. Overall it’s been consistently decent, but has lacked that certain something to make it essential. It seems at times Williamson is trying his hardest to make all this grand and important, but yet not quite having enough puff to get to the top of that hill. Still, they say endings are the hardest part of any story, so let’s see if a home run can still be scored.
We start with a theme that Williamson has been threading through the entire series, the co-existence of the big and small at the same time. While a battle rages in the real world between the Darkness-possessed Slade Wilson and his Dark Army, and the Justice League and their allies, another more personal battle is taking place. Nightwing and Deathstroke are having their own more personal mental battle, both trying to persuade the other to change their view. Slade wants it all burned to the ground as it’s not worth saving, Dick disagrees. Something’s got to give.
In the real world the heroes realise that they need to fight on two fronts. Firstly, defeat Slade and his army, but more importantly somehow stabilise the fracturing Multiverse. Luckily, they now have their own ace-in-the-hole, the female Dr. Light. It’s been discovered that just as Pariah was able to connect to the dark in the Multiverse, she can connect to the light. As the Flash family push themselves to the limit to try and repair the connections between the Multiverse and the infinite earths, possible victory comes in the shape of possibly the least expected hero. Black Adam. He pushes his powers to their limit and shares them among all the heroes, managing to push the Darkness out of Deathstroke. That’s the good news. The bad news? The Darkness has found a new host in Dick Grayson. Can Nightwing fight off its pull, or will he be corrupted like Pariah and Deathstroke were?
At least the cosmic stuff is going well. The Flashes and Dr Light have combined their powers to push the Darkness back across the Multiverse, freeing the Dark Army from its influence. They are celebrating their victory, not realising that Nightwing is possessed by the Darkness, currently fighting his own very personal battle. That detail may not be realised for some time yet. In the immediate, things start to return to normal. Red skies give way to blue ones,, families reunite, heroes return. It’s the dawn for the new DC Multiverse.
It seems DC weren’t lying in that a lot of what’s old is new again. The Justice Society are back, Jim Corrigan is The Spectre, Darkseid is back on Apokolips, all the villains are back doing their normal thing. Justice League Incarnate protects the Multiverse, Dr Light and The Flash are happy to explore it. There is still the feeling of the passing of the torch though, as even Batman tells Nightwing only he could have contained the darkness within himself to help them win. He, therefore, should be the one to lead a new Justice League going forward. Although there is always a place for the old guard, the impetus has to come from the younger, legacy heroes.
Dark Crisis was, when all is said and done, always about family and about legacy. In both a negative and positive sense. The legacy heroes did much of the heavy lifting in the initial fight against Pariah, who himself just wanted to restore his own family. Deathstoke wanted to destroy his world to stop any more children suffering, a heroic purpose in his own, warped mind. Nightwing wanted to inspire a whole new group of young heroes. It was a symbolic battle of positive and negative forces in the DC Universe. Williamson did a great job pulling all these threads together, a pretty tough job considering. Strong characterisation shone throughout. The artwork was superb throughout, it was always a visually interesting book, Sampere only needing a hand with deadlines on the last issues. Lovely stuff.
Will DC soar to new heights with their ‘new’ Multiverse, or will we back in Crisis mode again in a few short years? Only time will tell.
And sales.
