This is Post 290: Year of Anniversaries!

It's 2017 everybody & it's the Year of Anniversaries! Get Hyped!

*throws handfuls of confetti & glitter everywhere*

I bet 2 questions:
1. What is the Year of Anniversaries?
2. Why is is starting on the 15th of January?

I'll answer Question 2 first & the answer is: Because!

The answer to Question 1 is that there is a number of different things that all have anniversaries this year that are near & dear to my heart. There are 4 main things that are having anniversaries this year. I say 4 main ones because I keep finding out about more & more things that reach milestones this year that I'm not sure if i'll cover.

The Main Reason 25 years ago in 1992 I started to read Comic Books. I'll be turning 34 this year so there is a greater chunk of my life that I've devoted some engird to reading comic to then I have not. That is a lot of time. So... over the course of the rest of this year there will be a bunch of special posts (read as: there will actually be posts here on the blog) that will be devoted to things I've read over the last 25 years. Along with a bunch of new topics, I'll be revisiting a few older topics I've covered here on the Blog. I have not run out things to talk about in relation to Age of Ultron & Zero Hour!

The next 2 reasons are related to that first reason because without that first reason I wouldn't care about one of the other reasons & one reason wouldn't exist. 10 years ago, I started a blog. This blog in fact. Almost 300 post, a handful of them actually good & worth reading! What am I going to do for Post 300? I don't know, it's coming up really soon.

Reason 3? 20 years ago was 1997. That my dear readers was an awesome year for comics. Most people have a favorite time period of comics. a favorite age of comics: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Platinum, Dark, Other! But I've managed to pinpoint it down to about a year (I sometimes lump in the years on either side of it) & one company. I really like DC Comics circa 1997. Why? You'll have to wait for that post to find out why!

What is the fourth reason?   This a thing I've never talked about here on the blog: VHS. The year I started my blog is also the year that VHS died. At least the home video market died & I really liked VHS so to mark the 10th anniversary of it's passing I'm going to be talking about some of favorite tapes from my collection. A collection I started in 2009.

So... once again: it's the Year of Anniversaries! Get Hyped! Be back here later this month for the fist official post in this year long event!

Until then: Stay Jazzy Everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 289: The Coming (and Going) of Equinox!

As many may know I like the 1994 event comic from DC known as Zero Hour. In my many reading of the series there was always something that left a question: What’s the deal with Power Girl & her baby? 

She does not appear in the first issue of the series but appears in the every other issue of the series. She is not involved in any of main part of the action but she’s a subplot. A multi-year subplot as I’ve found out. Her baby even provides a nice little cold at the end of the series: within all this death there is new life!

Before we get back to Zero Hour we have to go back to 1986 to help set up our stage a bit. With the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the world where Power Girl was from Earth-2 was destroyed. She with a few other characters were brought over to Earth-1 to live. Along with that her history was drastically altered because DC wanted to make Superman the sole survivor of the Planet Krypton. No Krypto the Superdog, no Beppo the Supermonkey, no Phantom Zone prisoners, no Bottle City of Kandor, no Supergirl & definitely no Supergirl from another dimension!  Power Girl was ok to exist as a character,  just not one from Krypton. What did DC do? Where did Power Girl come from? 

The most logical of places: Atlantis! Power Girl’s backstory was a defendant of the Atlantean sorcerer Arion, a character who lived in Atlantis before it was sunk. How did Power Girl get to present day, mid 80’s DC: suspended animation. There was also something about her memories of being from Krypton were implanted. Why bring this up? It’ll be important later.

My search for what’s the deal with Power Girl’s baby started with her wikipedia entry & this 1 line:

During the 1994 Zero Hour event, Power Girl experiences a mystical pregnancy and gives birth to a son (supposedly named Equinox), who age rabidly. Finally disappears, and has never been mentioned again in the DCU.

For one thing she was pregnant before the events of Zero Hour, she becomes pregnant in Justice League International #52 which came out in July 1993, one year before Zero Hour came out. The only part of the pregnancy that happens in Zero Hour it’s self is she gives birth to the child in the final issue of Zero Hour. Everything else happened after Zero Hour was over.

So... do you want to see Power Girl get pregnant? Here you go!

Oh my! I'm suddenly mystically pregnant!

This is as close as I can tell where it happens from the issue where she first says she’s pregnant. So Sexy!

Now I have not read all of the bits & pieces involving the child so some of the info I have is a bit spotty in places. If you notice in the the line from the wikipedia entry about the child “supposedly named Equinox” that’s because Power Girl never names the child in the comics I’ve read.  She even makes mention that she could not name it for mysterious reasons. The child does not even get a name until it’s final & only cover appearance. 

Justice League America #108 from February 1996. Yes, the child was around for about 3 years.

The child is the blonde hippie looking guy on the cover. Who is he fighting? Scarabus, who kind of looks like an off model version of Tim Curry’s Devil character from the movie Legend. He is a demon from Atlantis! He wants to kill the baby. Why? Because it’s been fated that the baby will grow up to stop him from doing stuff. Bad Stuff!

He is also the “father” to Power Girl’s baby. How? Many Millenia ago, Arion & a bunch of other mages got together to hatch (no pun intended) a plan. One that would combine the power of light & darkness to create ultimate champion! Not sure what you have to combine to get the Ultimate Warrior. So… the mages took some genetic material from Scarabus & implanted it into the baby Power Girl to one day give birth to the baby. I don’t think it is ever said how the mages got Scarabus’ genes. There is one big problem with this? Power Girl isn’t Atlantean & never was. It was revealed in 2005 that she was never one & Arion (who was still alive millennia later) lied to her. BUT they (the readers, the writers & characters) that at the moment so he was a atlantean that gave birth to a magic rabidly baby.

For a few issues before 108, Power Girl is trying to protect her baby from Scarabus.  At the end of 107, Power Girl is unable to fight & that’s where the baby goes from toddler to full grown hippie looking adult. He ages up & appears fully dressed.

So they have a fight. Scarabus is all Darth Vader about this. The whole “Give into your dark side. Join me & we can rule side by side” thing. Equinox knows that fighting his father hand to hand will not work.

Equinox goes off & does some mediation. He recenters himself & then comes back to fight his father. His father runs at him. He notices that his son is not fighting him & he thinks the fight will be over soon with his being the winner. He is wrong. Equinox waves his staff/walking stick at his father which then turns Scarabus into flower petals. Fight over!

Florality! Equinox Wins!

Right after this happens, the next panel is a confused looking Wonder Woman (the Justice League is there. They don’t do much since Scarabus is too much for them). I think Wonder Woman’s expression is one that expresses how the reader feels also.

Equinox goes over to his mother & says that’s it’s time for her to get up. He thanks her for being his mom & the role she played in great circle of life. He says stuff that doesn’t make much sense (Destiny had come & you rose to it!) Power Girl, much like the reader, has no idea what is going on. He says some more cryptic things & then disappears. Literally. He fades into nothingness & is never seen ever again. He never even mention in any other comic ever. 

I'm outie 5000! Also, never speak of me ever again!

Do I feel better knowing what is the deal with Power Girl’s baby? Yes. No. Maybe.

That's it for tis installment of Comics are Weird! Until next time: Stay Jazzy everybody!

This is Entry 288: Batman Knightfail or The Audio Book is Better

A Look at Batman Knightfall

3 volumes. 1,932 pages. 30 dollars each.

That’s what you’ll be getting & spending (if you spend full price) on the “collected” editions of Batman: Knightfall series that DC put out in 2012, just in time for The Dark Knight Rises. A movie prominently featuring an altered version of main villain from Knightfall. Hmm… I wonder why they did that? 

Now one would assume that since this is being released by said company to originally produced the individual issues that everything would be included in said “collected” edition of the series. Right?

Right?

Right?

NOPE! The collection that is out there currently is the not worth the 90 dollars (depending on where you buy it). It’s really not. Volume 1, which is over 600 pages is missing 1 thing. 1 MAJOR thing: Jean-Paul Valley, the man who would become Batman. He does not feature at all in the 600 pages of this storyline. Well.. that’s not true. Jean-Paul does show up. I think he’s on page 76. The guy I think is Jean-Paul is doing the same thing (working out) I know is Jean-Paul is doing on page 192 (He stated by name on that page). He is next in the background of a panel on Page 347.  He is on page 353. Is seen for the first time in this volume in a costume in page 354 & 355. That costume is not his most recognizable costume & you don’t find out until over 50 pages later that Robin made him that costume. Jean-Paul shows up again in costume on pages 361 & 362. Jean-Paul is on Page 411 & 412. He’s on page 419. On page 421, is when Jean Paul assumes the male of the Batman & becomes Batman. He is in the majority of the rest of the series.

Now if you were just reading this collection without any other knowledge of who Jean-Paul is, I’d be wondering why this background character that just kind of shows up one day & continues to just hang around gets to be Batman.  This “collected” edition of the story is missing most of the Jean-Paul’s backstory. Where is that happening? That is being told in a book that is/was happening concurrent to the main Batman book at the time, in his own book: Batman Sword of Azrael! Before becoming Batman, Jean-Paul was another capped crusader Azrael. Jean-Paul is/was the latest in a long line of Azraels, who are “avenging angels” who works for the Order of St. Dumas. They got a fiery sword, looking all bad ass. Azrael is cool. The Order of St. Dumas has some cool fashion sense for the Avenging Angels’. The Jean-Paul version of Batman (which many people have referred to as the AzBats) shows up for the last 200 pages but you can see why I’d think that Jean-Paul really isn’t “in” volume one. When he actually “shows up”, the book is half the way over.

There might also be a reason why The Sword of Azrael is not including in the “collection”. Almost every issue has the Knightfall banner on the top that has a number associated with it. That’s so you know what order the issues fall in. That’s all find & dandy. The extra numbers on comics to tell you what order to read them in is such a 90’s DC thing. Superman did it too!  BUT…. that doesn’t explain why the seemingly pointless Catwoman interlude in Volume 3. There are few seemingly pointless interludes in the 1,932.

Now comes the point in the review where I explain what the second part of the title means…

As has been stated her on this blog in the past (see my Zero Hour retrospective) I started to read comics in 1991. I had gotten into Super Hero comics by 1993, which is the timeframe for Batman: Knightfall.  I always chuckle a bit at the part in Zero Hour when Batman & Superman met up & have a moment that’s basically “It’s a been a weird few years for us. You were dead & then came back, I had a back broken & the Batman identity was taken over for awhile by a nut job. Good thing we got all that taken care before this whole crisis in time thing happened.”

What is even more funny is Knightfall ended just shy of Zero Hour. The final issues of Knightfall were coming out at the same time as Zero Hour. Yes, Bruce Wayne was back as Batman but if Zero Hour been moved up a few months or there was a few months delay with Knightfall, The Jean-Paul Valley armored up AzBats could have been part of Zero Hour & would have then thrown off the whole “Zero Month” thing DC was doing.

But as made mention in the Zero Hour retrospective, I didn’t read Zero Hour at the time & I did not read Knightfall until I had gotten the “collected” edition for Christmas a few years back (yeah… this post has been a long time coming). I do have fond childhood memories of Knightfall. How can this be?

2 words: Audio Book!

In 1994, BBC Radio 1 (of all people) broadcast a full cast adaptation of the series. This “radio play” was later released on 2 audio cassettes that then later made it way to my local library. I don’t remember what year I first found the “radio play” or as the box proclaimed as an “audio drama”, but it was still when I was in elementary school. It was still during the 90’s.  Not sure what caused me to one day wander over to the audio book section of the library but I did & the world was better for it. Why? the audio book is Awesome!’

The cover to the "Audio
Book" collection I had as
a Kid.

The audiobook is fully in grained into my mind. There are characters that when I think about them or when I read comics with those character in them: they “sound” like how they do in the audio book. The way I want to pronounce the name “Shondra” comes from the way Bob Session as Bruce Wayne says in this audio book. This all comes from checking out of my local library for years on end. During the 90’s, my family had the habit of during the summer to go on road trips around the country. There needs to be something to pass the time. Your in luck, Young Brian: the audio book is 3 & half hours long! Armed with your handy dandy yellow “sports” Walkman, you’d listen to Batman as the hours past by in the back of the family Suburban. You didn’t need to read the comics, You had the audio book!

I wanna take a moment to talk about the voice cast. When people talk about actors who have played Batman over the years, I’m a bit saddened that Bob Sessions, who as far as I know only played the roles twice, is an awesome Batman/Bruce Wayne! I’ll put him up with there with Kevin Conroy as “people who have voiced Batman & are awesome at it”. Pretty much everyone in the cast is awesome! They got Michael Gough, Alfred from the Movies, to reprise his role. Kerry Shale does a great Joker. Shale also does the voice for Jean-Paul Valley & unless I told that, I wouldn’t have guessed that. Same goes for James Goode, who voices both Nightwing & Scarecrow but those voices don’t sound like they come from the same person. The sound design is also top notch! It’s everything young me wanted in an audio book.

Cover to the CD collection I have as an Adult

Eventually, when I’d go back to the library to look for Batman, he wasn’t there. This was most likely due to the fact that audio tapes were being phased out for CD’s. Years past but I never forgot about Knightfall. About 10 years ago, the “audio drama” was released on CD & It’s still awesome. It’s something I’ve listened to a few times on short car trips, which might because in my mind that’s where you listen to it: in the car, driving somewhere.

Now getting back to the book, what did I finally get out of reading the comics all these years later? I got to finally see what some of these characters only seen in 90’s Batman comics I had heard many times in my head looked like (Amygdala!). BUT that’s about it.  I felt let down by the rest. I felt like the story was lacking parts.  It does not include any of the Azrael backstory from Sword of Azrael (like the audio book does). Also in researching the book, the “collected” edition doesn’t not include a whole section of the Knightfall story.

There are 4 parts: Part 1 is Knightfall, which has 2 parts called Broken Bat & Who Rules the Night. Part 2 is Knightquest which has 2 parts called The Crusade & The Search. Part 3 is called KnightsEnd. Every trade paperback edition has left out the The Search part of Knightquest for some reason (The audio book included it). The “collected” edition does collection the 1st half of the Knightfall Aftermath called Prodigal, but does not include the 2nd part called Troika (The audio book does not include any of the aftermath). There is also a bunch of other comics that vaguely tie into the Knightfall but are not included.

so…. my final verdict is... well… I said It in the subtitle but thanks for reading the post. The Audio Book is Better. But that might just be nostalgia talking.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy Everybody!

- Brian

Zero Hour 20th Anniversary Fan Retrospective

The year is 1994. It started on a Saturday.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established. Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the right leg by Jeff Gillooly, ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. Harding is later banned from the sport of Figure Skating. Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty of "dismembering" her husband. China gets The Internet. Apple releases the first Macintosh computers with it's new PowerPC microprocessors. The largest High School arson happens somewhat ironically in Burnsville, Minnesota. Nelson Mendela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. John Wayne Gacy is executed. The O.J. Simpson murder trial starts. The Lion King is released. Microsoft announces that they will stop selling & supporting the MS-DOS operating system. It's revealed that former president Ronald Reagan has Alzheimers. Jeffrey Dahmer is beaten to death in prison. The Sistine Chapel is reopened to the public after a 10 year restoration. Martin Lawrence is banned for life from Saturday Night Live due to sexually explicit jokes. Star Trek: The Next Generation has it's series finale. The Independent Film Channel (IFC), Home & Garden Television (HGTV), the Game Show Network & DirecTV launch. The first Old Navy locations are opened in Northern California.

Harry Styles (of One Direction), Dakota Fanning, Moisés Arias (Rico from Hannah Montana) & Jake T. Austin (from Wizards of Waverly Place) are born. Kurt Cobain, Cesar Romero, Harry Nilsson, Telly Savalas, Dinah Shore, Jack Kirby, John Candy, Richard Nixon, George Peppard, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis & Peter Cushing all past away.

A very emo looking photo of me circa
the early 90's

I am 11 & am unaware that most of this was even going on. One thing I was a bit more aware of: Comics.  What was happening in comics in '94?  Scott Summers & Jean Grey got Married. Rick Jones & Marlo Chandler also got married (but not to Scott & Jean). The soon to be over long, confusing Clone Saga starts in the Spider-Man comics. The Phalanx Covenant starts in the X-Men comics & sets up the new status quo for that line of books. But that's all Marvel. What is happening over at their Distinguished Competition?

Bruce Wayne is back being Batman after the almost year & half long Knightfall saga. Bart Allen (also known as Impulse who goes to be Kid Flash & even the Flash for a short time) is introduced. Kyle Rayner is introduced & becomes Green Lantern. What else was DC doing? 

Oh yeah…. They spent most of the month of July & the first 2 weeks of August wiping out their entire comic book universe & replacing it with a slightly altered version. What did they call this annihilation? 

And my friends, it is AWESOME! Zero Hour will never be a “was” to me. This event was partly a sequel to last time they wiped out their entire comic book universe & replaced it with a slightly altered version in 1985's "Crisis on Infinite Earths".  Zero Hour's tagline was "Crisis in Time" after all.

As far as I can tell the two main reasons for Zero Hour:

A. To clean up some of the messes caused by aforementioned Crisis on Infinite Earths. As DC gradually rolled out the new versions of characters, some of the old (Pre-Crisis) versions were still being featured in their books several months to a year later. These old versions were interacting with the new versions of characters. Zero Hour attempted to help clean up the history of a number of characters like Hawkman (his New/Post-Crisis version didn't show up until 1989 but a "Hawkman" had been used in comics during 1986, 1987 & 1988) and the Legion of Super-Heroes (LSH), the teenage super heroes from various planets in the 30th Century. The LSH's history had to been drastically changed due to the events of the first Crisis. Their inspiration (Superman's adventures as Superboy) didn't exist in continuity anymore. Their history has been kind of messed up ever since. The LSH have been rebooted at least a half a dozen time (pretty much ever decade since has had at least 1 reboot of the LSH). There had had also been a number of other retcons (Retroactive Continuity) made to help fix the problems that had popped up in DC's comics over the almost decade in-between the two events.

B. Zero Hour was there to realign DC’s personal timeline. It's heroes were getting old. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman & others had been around for about 50 years. They had decades of adventures behind them & yet still were only be in their 30's somehow. Zero Hour comes into attempt to fix that problem by condensing the universe! DC had already pretty much thrown out their heroes’ adventures from the 40's & 50's by saying that their heroes had started out in the 1960's. But that was still 30 years worth of time! So Zero Hour rejiggers the timeline to have their heroes have only been around for "about 10 years".

SIDE NOTE: This is twice as long as the Heroes have been around after DC once more wiped out their entire comic book universe & replaced it with a slightly altered version in an event known as The New 52. Even this time scale is murky given various conflicting bits of information in regards to The New 52.

So… in the comic book it self: what is Zero Hour exactly about?   Time is unraveling at both ends. The past & the future are slowly disappearing. Massively old character characters like Vandal Savage (he started out life a caveman): GONE! People from the future in the present like Booster Gold (originally from the 25th century) & Bart Allen (originally from the 30th century): GONE!  There is a wave of white "nothingness" slowly making it's way through time (This is similar to the waves of Anti-Matter that destroyed various alternate realties in the first Crisis). Also, the walls between the various realities are breaking down allowing people to more easily cross between them. Yes, even though Crisis on Infinite Earths had "done away" with the Multiverse, it was still there 9 years later. As seen in a bunch of other books after this one: the Multiverse never left, it was just harder to travel between. The people of the DCU just plain forgot about the existence of the multiverse until certain events reminded them that it was there (how much of a multiverse is actually there has fluctuated widely over the years). This eating of time from both end was seemingly being controlled by a character called Extant, a character who part of an earlier time traveling themed series called Armageddon 2001 (from 1991). But Extant was just the harbinger of the man in charge: The villain known as Parallax who in a snazzy new costume was also SPOILERS ON A NOW 20 YEAR OLD SERIES: Hal Jordan the Green Lantern!!!!!!!!!

Hal Jordan revealed as Parallax & the man
behind the events of Zero Hour in
Zero Hour #1

Hal had become overcome with grief & gone a bit cray cray over the destruction of his hometown: Coast City. This happened as part of the aftermath of  "The Death of Superman" storyline which ran from October 1992 to October 1993. Hal's road to crazy town was mostly told in "Emerald Twilight" a storyline in his own book which came out earlier in 1994. Yes, Zero Hour is a follow up to a lot of things partly due to the trend in the 90’s comics to have them connected to each other (gotta read & buy them all!).  How did Hal become Parallax? Hal went on a killing spree of pretty much anyone connected to the Green Lantern Corps. He took all their powers, the power from the Central Power Battery on OA (which he also destroyed) & had a bit of a Highlander moment. Once there was only one Green Lantern: He had enough power to do what he wanted.

What was that? Go to Disneyland? no. Drive cross country rediscovering America one person at a time? already did that. Solve all the world’s problems? well… sort of. He sets about trying to destroy THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! Why? So he can remake it again but this time his hometown back in place & everyone one who was living there won't be all dead & stuff. As nice as that sounds, the Heroes are having none of this! They try to stop him but MORE SPOILERS ON A NOW 20 YEAR OLD SERIES:  Hal does end up erasing the whole universe on August 2nd, 3:32 pm (most likely eastern standard time). This highly specific time of day was revealed in a DC “house ad” for the series which showed up in DC’s books 3 weeks after the destruction happened. August 2nd is also the day when the 2nd to the last issue of the event came out & when Hal’s destruction is presented. Why the ad came out so late I’m not sure.

The ad that mentions the date & time
when the DCU was destroyed

Hal may have erased the universe but is stopped from creating his new universe (That's Jim Shooter's job!). It’s on August 9th when a slightly altered version of the DCU is put back in it’s place & no one seems notices the changes. This is basically what happened in Zero Hour & I have glossed over a whole bunch of things. They were important things but not to the story’s larger picture.

But as I said I'm 11 & I know none of this. I didn't even read Zero Hour when it came out. I didn't have access to it. Little 11 year old me didn't know of any comic book stores in my area. I didn't even know such a thing existed (give me a few years & I will). I had just gotten into super hero comics the year prior. I had been reading comics since the Summer of  '91. In 1994, I was mainly getting my comics from the magazine department at grocery stores mostly, book stores & odd locations like Sam's Club (Wal-Mart’s version of Costco). These places were not selling the limited series, just a few of the monthly books (or in Sam’s Club’s case: selling packs of comics from the past year or so back). In the random DC comics, I'd see the ads for those series so I knew they existed, I just wasn't sure how to get them (Maybe I was just going to the wrong grocery store?). Years past & these unknown comics fade into the background. My thoughts moved on to other comics. At the time comics weren't as big a part of my life as they are now & my not knowing there was such a thing as "back issue bins”: I didn't go looking for them to find out what they were. Even when I did become aware of these things, Zero Hour wasn't on my mind. I had probably forgotten all about it. Some of my first back issue bin purchases were for early 90’s Disney comics.

The nifty looking fold out timeline that set up the new
DC timeline which was included in the final
issue of Zero Hour

More years pass, I dive deeper & deeper into comics. About a decade after I started to read comics, I start to obsess over then. This is partly due to the fact that A. I got my 1st job which mean I had money & B. I knew of a few local stores so I had greater access to both past & current comics. I would say over half of my comic book collection has been purchased in the last decade or so. As I'd search these back issue bins, I'd pick up books that interested me (a guiding principal I still follow). There would be scattered books from this era of comics. I would see ads for things.  Things I had probably glossed over, forgotten about or just never seen. There were cool things. Interesting things.  Things I should search out for. In comics from this period of time, there would be a reoccurring phrase. An ad here, a mention there. This sparked something. What was this "Zero Hour" that I keep seeing?

My first "answer" to what it might be was a tie in issue to the series: Shadow of The Bat #31. There on the top of the cover with it's exploding clock of an O in Zero (It wasn't until few years later that I even realized that was even to be an exploding clock).  The cover was different then the other Batman comics in the bin around them. It looked like one from the 40's or something but it was from 1994. I bought it to find out what it was all about. I read it & it was AWESOME!

SIDE NOTE: I'm a big fan of time travel & alternate reality stories, two things that heavy factor into Zero Hour. Even more so in the tie in issues. The first series that truly followed was Marvel's What If , an anthology series revealing the various alternate takes on the events of their universe. Oddly enough some of my first issue of the series were some of the last from the second volume.

For awhile this one issue was all I had that was Zero Hour. I'd pick up other comics that had ads for the series but no Zero Hour. Each “new” Ad I’d find made me more interested in the series. As the years went on I’d pick up scattered other tie in books. Almost all of these tie in books tell you nothing of the main series or even connect to each other. Without the main series to be it's spine, they were only one off alternate reality tales for me. They might as well be listed as just Elseworld tales.

SIDENOTE: The annuals from Summer 1994 were all Elseworld themed & one of the first DC books are really gravitated to was the Superman Elseworld annual. But that is a story for another day.

Cover to the collected edition

As I got more into comics, I had started to attend comic book conventions. At the time I didn't have a big local convention (like I do now) but there were various small conventions I could go to. As I got more into comics, I would come prepared with a list. A list of "I want to read you!" books. As the years past, no Zero Hour. Zero Hour was never really on my list but it was there in there back of my mind. I couldn't even order a copy of the collected edition. It was listed DC Comics’ website but was taunting me with 3 little words: OUT OF PRINT. It had existed at one time but existed no more. Happily there is currently a collected edition once more in print & I have purchased it partly on principal. From what I can tell it is essentially the exact same collected edition as before just with some cosmetic changes (different logo, new barcode, etc.). 

A few years ago, I was at a small local comic show. It was held in an elementary school gym. As I roamed around the room, I looked at the various comics for sale. I came to one table, there were various comics laid out. Among them was Zero Hour. The complete series with some related promotional items.  They were priced at slightly above cover price per issue but I didn't really care: I was going to buy the series! I think if I remember right the guy at the table gave me the promo stuff for free. About a year after that, I found the series again at a thrift store for a quarter an issue. At that low of a price, I bought it just to have it. So now I own 2 sets of the series.  Interesting I now have both versions that that were put out. 1 set for the direct market (i.e. The comic book store) & the other one was for the newsstand, where I started my journey into comics.

Also in the last few years I gotten a few more promotional items from the series (even an in store display kit). I have 1 of my copies of the final issue signed by writer/artist of the series Dan Jurgens.  I have pretty much every major tie-in issues. There a number of more minor tie-in issues that I don't own. Why? Partly because they a bit harder to find and/or they might not interest me. I have found that as a get to the less big name titles the "alternate reality" stories get less & less cool or just weren't really there at all. There are about a handful of issues I don't own. I probably won't getting them.  My Zero Hour collection will most likely always remain unfinished but I don’t know. I’d probably still buy anything Zero Hour related item that I don’t own (only if it’s priced reasonably). I also own a number of the “Zero Month” comics which came out directly after Zero Hour & help set up the new status quo. My interest in the series has even driven me to have the series logo printed on to a shirt because I wanted to have a Zero Hour t-shirt!

By this point, I have now covered a few basic questions in regards to Zero Hour but one remains: Why? Why Zero Hour? What is it about this event comic from 1994 that I didn’t even read when it came out that I’ve become so attached to. The series is far from the greatest thing ever. I know that. I am not completely blind to that fact. When I read it I can clearly see problems with it. Part of the reason why I’m not doing a review of the series is I don’t think I’d have much to say about. At times it can be quite boring. Plus if we got right down to it: I find the tie in issues a lot more interesting then the main series it’s self. 

The trio of ads that heralded the coming of Zero Hour

So… why do I like Zero Hour so much? It basically comes down to a few things, the biggest one might be is Nostalgia. This is a series from about a year into my reading of Super Hero comics. When I started to read DC comics, there were certain comics that I was more drawn to then others. Zero Hour has that look & feel I was drawn to. This is due to the fact that when I look back on those early DC comics, a name kept popping up: Dan Jurgens. I didn't know this at the time but he was all over those early DC comics that I have fond memories for. He was part of the 1st event comic I ever read: The Death of Superman. He was there at the start of my readership & his art became ingrained in my mind. For me there is just something about Dan Jurgens’ art that I really like. Not sure why I do but I do. Dan Jurgens has also done a number of time travel centric stories for DC, a story concept that I have already said that I really enjoy. 

Basically why do I like Zero Hour?  It’s a book that came out in a time period I have fond memories for, involves story concepts I really enjoy & is by creators I enjoy (There is no mistaking that Artist Jerry Ordway inked the series). As far as I know DC comics will not be doing anything to commemorate this milestone. When I’ve tried to do search for “DC Zero Hour 20th Anniversary” online I get little to no search results. They could have easily made another printing of the collected edition of the series, made it a hard cover, slapped “20th Anniversary edition” on the cover, maybe gotten Dan Jurgen to do a forward for the collection & called it good.  A new, better cover would have been cool but that might of been stretching it. People would have bought it.  I would have. I know a few other people would have too.  I guess they are just saving up for the 30th anniversary hard cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths next year (which would make the 4th collected version for the series).

It’s also really hard to find anything Zero Hour related on the Internet. If I wanted things about the Crisis events on either side of Zero Hour I’d be fine.  I have a greater selection of Zero Hour imagery in my personal collection then Google has.  You can see evidence that yes Zero Hour existed but not much else. This was partly my reason wanting to do this highly personal retrospective. Someone needed to mark this milestone so why not me? Plus, there just needs to be more stuff about Zero Hour on the internet because I think it’s awesome & being a white male between the ages of 18 & 35: the internet should cater to my needs!

Long Live Zero Hour!