"Master" of Time And Reality
The hands of creation warned of a lurking threat that needed people to stand against it in this fresh new reality at the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal and while we've jumped into the future for the next two months, it seems that Generations Shattered will be our big connection to what the new Multiverse looks like and to show us how it's different than any Multiverse or timeline continuity that has come before it. Let's jump into this issue and see if our heroes can combat this "lurking threat" and stop our heroes and everything in existence from being wiped out before they ever really got a chance to live. Let's check it out.
Time is being erased. A chronal storm is raging throughout all of history and creating what Kamandi calls a "Goneness". For whatever reason, as the "Goneness" is about to take out the era of the Great Disaster, an aged Booster Gold shows up with a liquid metal, gauntlet, time machine version of Skeets and decides to save Kamandi, even though it seems that his original intent to be in this era was different entirely, but because of him saving the Last Boy on Earth, Booster is injured and appoints Kamandi to finish what he supposedly began in finding an army of heroes to defend against the "Goneness" and stop whoever is behind this erasure of time.
So with that quest given to him, Kamandi goes throughout time recruiting heroes to help him save all of time and space and that's the majority of this issue. Kamandi collects Superboy from the Legion of Super-Heroes (original Clark Kent Superboy), Steel, Booster Gold, Dr. Light (Kimiyo Hoshi), Starfire, Sinestro as a Green Lantern, and finally Batman from 1939. The interesting thing about these recruits besides them being picked up in our real-time from when they would have appeared in comics is the fact that Kamandi seems to pick everyone up at the beginning of their superhero career, making everyone pretty green at their skillset. That being said, they're also being opposed by the Linear Men, who have been mentally altered to work for the big bad of this book, but also villains throughout time who have been mentally altered as well, but like our heroes of this book, they too seem to be at the beginning of their villainy, feeling a lot like the Time Stealers, who were originally brought together at the beginning of their careers in evil because they would have been easier to manipulate. This never comes into play in this issue, but it just felt like something familiar that might come into play later in this story. Time is fractured though and being erased so that our mysterious big bad, who is named in this issue, but spoilers and whatnot so that he can make a new reality and to achieve this, our heroes are separated throughout time with no idea how to get back together or how to fight this threat.
All in all, the story is interesting but also confusing because the aspect of time is how we'd interpret it as comic book readers instead of how our heroes would have lived it. That being said, after Death Metal changed the way the Multiverse was created and everything changed in a way that is yet to be determined, we can just go with this aspect of our story because like we were told at the end of Death Metal, everything matters and I guess we're seeing what that means here. That sentiment is all the more highlighted when we see the villain in this issue because he hasn't been around for over twenty years and seeing him here is pretty cool and there are other aspects to this story that feels like we're doing more than what is being shown right away and the scope of that is pretty interesting, even if we don't explain or accomplish much in this first issue besides for setting up the good guys and setting up the bad guys....... which is not a bad way to end the first issue.
Bits and Pieces:
We've got a big ol' story on our hands that is setting up what "everything matters" means from the end of Death Metal and the big takeaway about that in this "Crisis" level event that didn't wait at all to attack our new Multiverse is the way we and our heroes perceive time and events. Yeah, it's not all explained yet, but it's interesting nonetheless and I look forward to continuing this jaunt throughout what time is left and seeing how our heroes will be able to overcome this unshaper of the Universe.
Thanks for the review. Out of all the books, this is the one I'm most excited to see more of, and I'm also intrigued with the return of the major villain in the series. I'm looking forward to what we'll get from him and the rest of the heroes.
ReplyDeleteOf all the books i rwad this week this one looks like its going to be the most fun
ReplyDeleteYep - this felt like a fun Event and I like the crazy team being built
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