IN THE HEART OF HELL, the fallen angel Asmodel
suffers at the hand of Neron, who was once his partner in a war against
Heaven. Since before the world's creation, Asmodel was the exalted
king-angel of the heavenly army known as the Bull Host. But when he
turned against the Creator, Asmodel fell from grace. As our story
begins, Asmodel is trapped in Hell, suffering at Neron's hand and
thinking only of revenge against Neron, the Creator, and Zauriel, the
angel who once thwarted his rebellious plans.
The Demon known as Etrigan offers Asmodel a deal that will ensure his
freedom; if he agrees to let the Demon rule over Hell, Etrigan will free
Asmodel and give him the power he needs to destroy Heaven itself.
The power in question is the power of the Spectre. The Spectre is the
Creator's agent of vengeance on Earth, created to mete out justice
wherever it's needed. Until recently, the Spectre's wrathful ways had
been curbed by the spirit's fusion with Jim Corrgian, a mortal whose
murdered spirit was assigned the task of hosting the Spectre's essence.
But recent events involving the JLA have freed Corrigan from his duties,
and the Spectre is now without a soul to anchor it to this plane of
existence.
Etrigan summons the Spectre to Asmodel's prison, and tricks the
spirit into fusing with Asmodel. Enjoying his new near-omnipotent power,
Asmodel freezes Hell over and sends its demons and condemned to the land
of the living, setting the stage for the final confrontation.
The heroes rally to fight the appearance of demons on Earth, not to
mention Asmodel's plans to destroy everything created by the Creator.
They split their forces into three teams to wage war on three fronts.
While one contingent stays on Earth to battle Asmodel/Spectre on this
plane, another team ascends to Heaven to convince the now happily
deceased Jim Corrigan to return to Earth and reclaim the Spectre's
powers from the fallen angel. A third team marches into Hell itself to
find a way to restart the Hellfire.
All looks lost when Corrigan refuses to join the battle, but the
heroes find a soul in Limbo eager for a chance at redemption. He is Hal
Jordan, former Green Lantern and renegade hero (see
Zero
Hour) who ultimately gave his life to protect the Earth (see
Final
Night). During the course of his battle, he gains the mantle of
the Spectre, thus driving Asmodel's spirit out of the Spectre and saving
the day.
COMPLETE AND UTTER CRAP. With all due respect
to the amount of work that went into creating this mini-series, reading
it all in one sitting was almost too painful to bear. It was almost
enough to make me believe those guys in high school were right all along
-- maybe I have been wasting my time reading comics. I mean, if
this is the best that DC can do, why even bother trying to defend my
choice of reading material?
In no particular order, here's a list of reasons why I wanted to
gouge out my eyeballs after reading this crossover:
- I'm really tired of comic-book writers dancing around the whole
heaven/hell thing. Not all of them miss the mark -- Neil Gaiman's Sandman,
for example, has done an incredible job depicting hell and its
inhabitants -- but on the whole, comic-book writers chicken out when it
comes to using heaven and hell in their plotlines. Let's stop this
"Creator" crap; either we're dealing with God, or we're not
(I'm not a religious person, but this pussyfooting around names is
really irritating).
- I didn't mind it much in
Underworld
Unleashed, since Neron is supposedly someone who can take many
forms, but let's stop dressing up angels and devils in superhero
costumes with capes and chest symbols. They deserve a little more
imagination than that.
- This series would have been the perfect opportunity for the heroes
to explore their faith as they deal with the rising of the dead, or for
the ordinary people in the DC Universe to show us how this conflict
influences their spiritual beliefs. Alas, no; straight superheroics is
all we get. Big villain comes, heroes band together, everyone starts
punching. Yawn.
- Related to that point, can anyone else figure out what the hell
Asmodel/Spectre is trying to do on Earth? He just erupts from the
ground, waits for the heroes to assemble, and then does his thing. He
even gives the "Sentinels of Magic" (shudder) time to undo his
nasty work before the final whomping. Not the brightest of villains, is
he?
- Then again, no one in this series is operating on all cylinders.
It's like watching a high-school rendition of a Thornton Wilder play;
not once do any of the characters do or say anything remotely
interesting, staying true to stereotype right to the end.
- Can we please establish a rule somewhere that DEAD. MEANS.
DEAD. Comic writers are infamous for bringing back characters that
readers thought were dead, but I think this is the first time they've
brought back a hero that was certified DOA. They even had a big
expensive book covering his funeral, for crying out loud. But hey, he's
back and brooding as the "new" Spectre ("Run down to your
local store for issue #1 right now!"). So basically they're saying
to readers, "We can kill whoever we want, make a big deal out of
his death, and then bring him back and charge you more money to see his
resurrection because you'll buy whatever we tell you is hot." I
don't know about you, but that's not the kind of attitude I care to
support.
- I'm a big fan of DC's supernatural heroes. I always felt that DC
had a leg up on the competition because it had a number of interesting
characters that went beyond the standard long-underwear stuff.
Unfortunately, this series marks the beginning of the "Sentinels of
Magic," which I can only dread is a new comic book featuring a team
of supernatural adventurers, complete with secret headquarters and
signaling devices ("Neron is robbing souls again! Mystics
assemble!").
On top of all that, the dialogue is inane, the artwork is less than
spectacular, and THEY BROUGHT BACK HAL FRIGGIN' JORDAN!!!
Sorry, I don't usually lose control like that, but I can only hope
that this series serves as a wakeup call to all those comic fans who
haven't yet figured out that someone at DC really doesn't give a damn
about the stories they produce. And as long as us suckers keep buying
whatever books they tell us to buy, this is the kind of garbage we can
expect.
I'm more than willing to entertain reasons why this series is worth
reading, as long as someone can answer this question: Aside from
plugging upcoming comics and pushing up sales of the smaller titles, can
anyone give one good reason why this story exists?
