Broken Frontier

Let’s do the time warp again...

Whether it’s a coincidence or part of a greater plan the DCU has been plagued by time villains, temporal anomalies and alternate timelines over the last year. We’ve seen the villainous Time Stealers in Booster Gold, the Time Trapper’s manipulation of Superman’s continuity, kidnapped time-displaced soldiers fighting The War That Time Forgot and dystopic future timelines in Supergirl, Teen Titans and The All-New Atom. And that’s just the tiniest, teeniest tip of the iceberg.

Is there a pattern to this chronal chaos? Some of it does indeed point to the Bigger Picture. The Time Trapper is a major player in Final Crisis: The Legion of Three Worlds for example and the Time Stealers’ first appearance in the Lightning Saga arc marked out their importance to overarching storylines. Dan DiDio has himself implied in a DC Nation column that The War That Time Forgot will have greater significance in the months to come than we may otherwise have realised.

Does this all tie into the Final Crisis? Are Booster Gold's Time Hunters part of this mystery? Does the Crisis of the 30th Century play a part in these developments? Whatever the case you can guarantee we will be tracking events across the DCU timeline for you here each and every week at Broken Frontier.

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.

Across the Universe
(A rundown of the week’s releases)

The final issue of The All-New Atom #25 puts Ryan and Ray Palmer up against not one, but two versions of the time-thief Chronos.

A delusional Dark Knight struggles to come to terms with the events of last month in Batman #678.

In both the Golden Age and the Modern Age both the Dan Garrett and Jaime Reyes Blue Beetles take on the malevolent Dr. Mephistopheles. Check out Blue Beetle #28 for the full scoop.

Can Raven save herself and her friends from the power of the Medusa Mask? DC Special: Raven #5 has the answers.

The machinations of the Dark Side Club impact on the team in Infinity Inc. #11.

The Joker’s Asylum: Joker #1 is the first in a series of one-shots focusing on Batman’s Rogues.

Darwyn Cooke illustrates Jonah Hex #33 as the bounty hunter makes a trip to Canada and finds himself pursued by the Mounties.

With two teams out on missions Legion HQ is targeted by the Science Police in Legion of Super-Heroes #43.

Kate Spencer teams with Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes as the search for the missing women continues in Manhunter #32.

Nightwing #146 sees the conclusion to the Freefall arc as Talia and Dr. Kendall’s alliance comes to a crashing halt. Can Dick Grayson save the Mother of Champions from their clutches?

Religious fervor grips Rann as old and unexpected enemies group around the cosmic heroes in Rann-Thanagar Holy War #3.

After last month’s fill-in, Supergirl #32 resumes the storyline as Kara and Resurrection Man look to cure a young boy dying of cancer. But will their efforts have far-reaching ramifications?

It’s the return of Jose Delgado as Gangbuster in the pages of Trinity #5 and our trio of heroes take the fight to Konvikt.

There’s betrayal and new alliances as heroes from DC’s historical comics fight The War That Time Forgot #3.

The Bigger Picture
(All the developments, hints, clues and teasers for the overarching storylines)

A Crisis in Time? – Those looking for a sense of closure to recent events in the Mighty Mite’s book may be a little disappointed as The All-New Atom #25 leaves the readers with a plethora of Lost-style loose ends and startling revelations. Trying to unravel the final issue could probably take a column in itself! The pertinent points, though, are that Chronos and Lady Chronos (who was Ryan Choi’s first love Jia as we predicted here in ATDCU Week 4) have been manipulating Ryan’s life all along. The ultimate aim of this scheming remains a mystery but they considered Ryan a "tool" for their ends.

His correspondence/friendship with Ray Palmer was also a sham, concocted by the Chronoses (is that the plural of Chronos?). There’s no explanation of the Atom/Lady Chronos corpses locked in one final battle in the sub-atomic world the last few issues have taken place in either. Is this Ryan And Jia’s final fate? And Dwarf Star, one of the book’s recurring villains, turns out to be Lady Chronos’s son in a revelation that just has to be deliberately and teasingly casual. The issue ends with the promise of more Ryan Choi appearances in the near future. Let’s hope they tie up at least some of the loose threads... (The All-New Atom #25)

This week’s Supergirl is boldly announced as the issue where "a trust is broken" and "everything changes" but the interiors don’t appear at a first glance to match the reality-wrecking implications of the cover. However, Supergirl’s quest to return the young cancer patient she had befriended back to life with Resurrection Man’s blood may be the significant point in the timeline that leads to a dystopic DC Universe. Remember the recent Supergirl #27 where the Maid of Might travelled to a depressing alternate New Earth future caused by her meddling in mankind’s fate? Is she now following the path to that world? (Supergirl #31)

As alliances change and infighting within the two factions continues, the assembled soldiers fighting The War That Time Forgot begin to question their situation. No more than one soldier from any army across time has been taken and none can remember how they got to the island (with the probable exception of Lt. Carson). They speculate they have been timenapped by a superior intelligence – one that is greater than a single nation – possibly as some form of entertainment, as each combatant is an example of a superb and skilled soldier from their individual timelines.

Future warrior Akisha may not be all she seems though and could be working for whoever brought the various soldiers to the island. Part of me would like to go trawling through my old copies of Weird War Tales to see if Akisha is an all-new character or has made a one-shot appearance somewhere in that anthology series. Hey if Brian Azzarello could bring back the Primate Patrol in Tales of the Unexpected then anything’s possible... (The War That Time Forgot #3)

The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul – Talia’s scheme to protect herself against her father by using the super-birthing powers of the Mother of Champions to build an army of super-powered operatives ends in failure. (Did I really just type that sentence?) Her ally Dr. Creighton Kendall turns against her but dies in battle with Nightwing shortly after. The Mother of Champions of is freed with the one child she has given birth to who won’t age to death within a matter of hours. (Nightwing #146)

Batman R.I.P. – An apparently delusional Bruce Wayne embarks on a dream-like spiritual quest around the streets of Gotham that ends with him taking on the mantle of the SuperMan-Batman of Planet X (Zur En Arrh). For more on that part of Batman’s past check out the Continuity Corner in ATDCU Week 3 . Dr. Hurt and the Club of Villains continue their campaign, taking out Nightwing and falsely imprisoning him in Arkham Asylum. Hurt is now sporting the "Batman" costume that Thomas Wayne once wore to a masquerade ball as his "super-villain" attire. (Batman #678)

In Blackest Night... – Talia Al Ghul’s use of the corpses of fallen metahumans in her experiments leads to new legislation that recognises the corpses of the super-powered are potential lethal weapons. The solution is to bury them in a vault under the JLA’s Hall of Justice. With the membership of the Black Lantern Corps in 2009 rumored to be comprised of deceased DC characters does anyone else see that the League could be about to place a decomposing time bomb under their feet? (Nightwing #146)

The Dark Side Club – Infinity Inc.’s nemesis Dr. Bud Fogel is revealed as the human form of Desaad who kidnaps various cast members as part of his experiments with the intention of luring the whole of the team to his labs ready for next month’s denouement... (Infinity Inc. #11)

Mystery in Space – The Church of the Eternal Light Corporation (remember them from Starlin’s Mystery In Space series last year?) take steps to bring about the resurrection of the malevolent Synnar (the Big Bad from Starlin’s 1998 Hardcore Station miniseries). The recent chronal anomalies on Rann are a by-product of the ELC’s temporal experiments that may be behind Synnar’s return. While Rann is in the grip of religious devotion to Lady Styx the Thanagarians are apparently being brainwashed to support the ELC, reigniting the enmity between the alien races. And in deep space Lady Styx’s fleet has Starman’s Throneworld in their sights... (Rann-Thanagar Holy War #3)

The Tenth Age of Magic – Raven destroys the late Psycho-Pirate’s Medusa Mask seeking to end its influence forever. However, at the Praxis Research and Development Labs, computer scans of the mask still retain its mystical power... (DC Special: Raven #5)

The Trinity – The mysterious entity that branded Wonder Woman last week is revealed as a thrall of Morgaine Le Fay. The demonic creatures that rescued Tarot from the gang members are of the same species/type so we can speculate that Le Fay is protecting her as part of her future plans. Tarot herself is more obviously defining events and characters by her cards as each week goes by (she describes Z-list super-villains Throttle, Blindside and Whiteout as "Minor Arcana" for example). (Trinity #5)

The Mystery of the Legion – In the midst of the Legion’s current adventures Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl are approached by four mysterious figures in what could be a time sphere. The unseen characters mention that their time here is fleeting and that "we pass this when but once". They need the two Legionnaires for a perilous mission. Val Armorr and Luornu Durgo were the two Legion members whose Classic Legion counterparts both featured in (and died in) the pages of Countdown to Final Crisis . Does this tie into that and are they possibly being recruited by other members of the three Legions to play a part in Final Crisis: The Legion of Three Worlds? (Legion of Super-Heroes #43)

Continuity Corner
(The whys and wherefores of some of this week's characters and events)

Joker’s Asylum: The Joker #1: Joking Apart

As the villains of Gotham get their own one-shots this month let’s remember that the Clown Prince of Crime is no stranger to his own solo series. One of those curious 1970s oddities The Joker ran for just nine issues between 1975 and 1976 and pitted Batman’s arch-foe against an eclectic bunch of heroes and villains. These included the Royal Flush Gang, Two-Face, the Creeper, Lex Luthor, Green Arrow, Catwoman, the Scarecrow and (sort of) Sherlock Holmes. In 2001 the Joker also starred in the six-issue Joker: Last Laugh miniseries that was the launching pad for a company-wide crossover. Believing himself dying, the Joker planned out his nefarious final revenge on the denizens of the DC Universe. While the 70s run is fun in a camp, not to be taken too seriously kinda way, its successor is one of the weaker DC mega-events and probably only of interest to Joker completists.

Manhunter #32: No Man Escapes the Manhunters…

The puppy that Iron Munro (or Iron Munroe as they bizarrely persist in misspelling his name in Manhunter) gives to Kate "Manhunter" Spencer’s son/his grandson is named Thor. This was also the name of the canine sidekick of the original Golden Age Manhunter Dan Richards. In Secret Origins #22 (Jan 1988) it was revealed that Thor was an android whose mission was to keep tabs on Richards for the Cult of the Manhunters. And the current puppy version of Thor would also appear to be a construct with much the same agenda. But who is behind this surveillance…?

For a book that went to such pains in its first year or two to distance itself from past Manhunter continuity, including the violent deaths of every previous Manhunter bar Mark Shaw and the tearing apart of the continuity of the late 80s Ostrander/Yale Manhunter run, this nod to the past is a most interesting development.

Batman #678: The Many Worlds of the Batman

Those intrigued by the Black Casebook entries on the first page of this month’s Batman will probably have realised that there must be some significance to the fact that they all involved aliens or other planets. Panel 2 depicts the case of "The Rainbow Creature" from Batman #134 (Sep 1960). Panel 3’s "Robin Dies at Dawn" comes from Batman #156 (June 1963) and I would hazard a guess here and say panel 4 is "Prisoners of Three Worlds" from Batman #153 (February 1963).

Manhunter #32: Is There a Doctor in the Big House?

Manhunter’s investigation of the missing women on the Mexican border leads her to the Vesetech Corporation and their experimental division, overseen by a new, female version of the Crime Doctor. The original Crime Doctor was a Batman villain who made a handful of appearances over the decades distinguished mainly by their sporadic nature and the character’s ever-changing personality and motivation. This changed from appearance to appearance depending on who was writing him!

A prototype version debuted way back in Detective Comics #77 (July 1943) but the first appearance of the character we associate with the name in the more contemporary DCU would be Detective Comics #494 (Jan 1980), wherein the bored Dr. Thorne took to crime as a frivolous diversion. This Crime Doctor would never kill and his felonious activities were merely for the thrill of it. Having accidentally learnt Batman’s true identity he refused to divulge the truth to crime boss Sterling Silversmith who poisoned him with quicksilver, destroying his mind.

After a brief "blink and you’ll miss it" appearance in Crisis On Infinite Earths (where his vegetative state had been mysteriously cured) he returned to the post-Crisis reality with a new and totally villainous persona in Detective Comics #579. In some of his most recent appearances he got nastier and nastier having been involved in organ-trafficking in JSA #59 (May 2004) and acting as the Society’s torturer in Villains United!. His past was later retconned to show he had always been a psychopathic killer – whatever vague morality he was masking in that Detective #494-495 two-parter long since swept away.

Most recently in Birds of Prey #s 92-95 his reward for defecting from the Society was having Prometheus sicced on his young daughter as revenge. Realizing the terms of Prometheus’s mission were that his daughter was murdered in front of him, Thorne chose to slit his own throat, removing the need to kill her. This last noble act, which ironically hearkened back to the skewed morality of his earliest modern day appearance, would be overshadowed by later events. The young Bethany Thorne was last seen being taken under the wing of the assassin known as Lady Shiva...

Trading Places

There are currently four volumes of Manhunter trade paperbacks available from DC with this one being the most recent. Those wanting to investigate the Birds of Prey/Crime Doctor arc can do so in the trade paperback Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch.

Fanboy Moment of the Week

So much to choose to choose from this week from that one-panel appearance of the original Batwoman to the Golden Age Blue Beetle "teaming- up" with Jaime Reyes even to this week’s DC Nation Ambush Bug page. But the winner hands down has to the first issue of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! #1. This is what a Captain Marvel comic should be: whimsical all-ages fun that’s 100% angst-free! Quite, quite delightful. The Trials of Shazam! is already a distant memory. Now if only DC had thrown caution to the wind and said, Johnny DC book or not, that this takes place on the new Earth-5...

That's it for another week. Until then feel free to post corrections, criticisms and commentary on the Broken Frontier ATDCU message board thread here. See you in seven days and, as ever, thanks for reading!