Broken Frontier

From the claustrophobic corridors of Stryker’s Island prison to the outer reaches of reality and beyond... our second helping of ATDCU covers everything from urban adventurers to the latest entry in the DCU-shaking Final Crisis. But whether it’s street-level conspiracies or universe-altering crossovers you’re interested in please, please, please remember our Spoiler Warning: Read no further if you’ve not had your DC fix this week and don’t want to read about key story elements.

Underworld Unleashed

In Vigilante #2 our eponymous anti-hero is still investigating the Presidential campaign bombings seen in DC Universe: Decisions #s 1-4. Having secured his incarceration in the same prison as a potential informer Vigilante fails to stop the similarly unforgiving criminal-killer the Electrocutioner from murdering his target before he can fully spill the beans. One unexpected nugget of information is gained, however, in the accusation that Jericho’s partner in the political terrorism is none other than Nightwing. The use of the Electrocutioner gives the new Vigilante book a nice symmetry with the original Adrian Chase version an if you’re a fan of the Titans make note that Vigilante #s 1-2 are important reading as a prelude to the upcoming "Deathtrap" crossover.

Following on from his defeat at Geo-Force’s hands in DC Universe: Last Will and Testament #1 Slade Wilson is imprisoned at Belle Reve Prison, the one-time home base of the Suicide Squad, when Faces of Evil: Deathstroke #1 begins. Faking a terminal condition, Deathstroke engineers a meeting with his daughter Rose, otherwise known as the Teen Titans’ Ravager, in order to provoke her into a confrontation. Slade’s reasoning is that to ensure Rose never becomes like him he must make her truly hate him and everything he stands for. By story’s end he has succeeded and is free once again but the cycle looks set to begin once more when he takes a young homeless girl under his wing.

There are interesting parallels here with Deathstroke’s former partner David Cain and events in the recent Batgirl miniseries. But where Cain was quite upfront about the corruption of his charges Wilson is still, somewhat ironically given the conclusion of this issue, aspiring to a delusional sense of noble concern for his family. Perhaps, given her sense of betrayal on all fronts, it’s unsurprising that Rose is hanging out in the shadowy recesses of the Dark Side Club over in Terror Titans at the moment.

Blackest Night

The Rage of the Red Lanterns continues apace in Green Lantern #37 as RL Atrocitus makes further disturbing predictions about the Green Lantern Corps – specifically Hal Jordan going renegade once more. Interesting to note here that the Blue Lanterns have also made (apparently) conflicting claims about Hal Jordan’s future, claiming he will eventually lead their Corps. When Sinestro takes the life of Red Lantern (and former Green Lantern Corps member) Laira, Hal’s anger is so great that her ring chooses him as a worthy successor Perhaps Hal’s potential as a member of so many of the spectrum’s ring-wielding armies is the link that will eventually bring all the Corps together at story’s end? Maybe that’s why he’s considered the greatest Lantern of all...?

Elsewhen in the Lantern mythos, at some presumed indeterminate point in the near past, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and the Phantom Stranger are still embroiled in the battle against the planet-destroying consciousness known as Purge. The Brave and the Bold #21 is the penultimate chapter in the story of the heroes’ struggle against the cosmic entity that believes that physical existence and sin are inextricably entwined and the only way to enlightenment is through corporeal death.

Infinite Crises

In Trinity #34 the control of the Chaos Rifts, and thus the control of reality, is still the objective of the heroes of the J.S.I. and the villainous forces of Morgaine Le Fey on a restructured New Earth. In the absence of the Trinity the world may still be in a state of cosmic upheaval but over on "Earth-Krona", where the Big Three DC icons have been inserted into the timeline as deities, things have not gone much better. This issue we learn how the Death of Superman arc played out on this world.

And finally the major release of the week has to be the much-discussed Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #2. Firstly, on a timeline front, we now know that between here and his return in Final Crisis #6 the Man of Steel takes part in the Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds book. Secondly, let’s be brutally honest here... given that some commentators have already written annotations on this issue that amount to thousands of words, a couple of paragraphs from myself are going to be of transparently little value in unlocking the complexities of what amounts to a challenging allegorical analysis of the creative process.

On the surface level we learn that the legendary Monitor Dax Novu and Mandrakk the Dark Monitor are, in fact, one and the same, feeding off the Bleed and the Multiverse. By fusing the matter/anti-matter existences of Superman/Ultraman Captain Adam is able to send the two Men of Steel into a "higher dimension" where, inhabiting Dax Novu’s Superman Thought-Robot they are able to end Mandrakk’s threat and his corruption of the other Monitors into vampiric, Bleed-feeding creatures. Superman’s reward is a sample of the Bleed which he uses to save Lois (following her injuries from events depicted earlier in Final Crisis). Ultraman, however, subsequently falls fully under Mandrakk’s influence. It remains to be seen whether the Anti-matter Superman, Mandrakk and his Monitor ally Ogama return in the finale to Final Crisis next week but I wouldn't bet against it!

Somewhere in amongst all this is, I am sure, a telling metatextual commentary on the relationship of both readers and creators to the DC Universe, its concepts and characters and vice versa. However, with a similar cheeky wink to the one Clark Kent gives the audience on the penultimate page of this issue I shall take a couple of steps back from this one and allow us all to draw our own conclusions as to who represents whom and what is a metaphor for what here. For a meticulous breakdown of both the issue’s events and its themes, and some insightful discussion, you could do far worse than check out the detailed notes and discussion here.

Next week we witness the end of the Final Crisis. Join us then as the next chapter of the DCU begins. Thanks for reading!