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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Massive crossover galore, 13 Jun 2003
Before 1985, DC Comics used to do occasional crossovers, with a few characters guest starring in other characters' comic books, and then expanded its storylines to create dozens of alternate universes with different versions of each character. Then in 1985, they came up with Crisis on Infinite Earths to resolve the chaotic and tiresome continuity problems. A massive 12-part storyline involving virtually every single character in the DC Multiverse, Crisis elimnated a lot of old characters and jump started the DC storylines.Zero Hour is very much like a sequel to the original Crisis. Someone is interfering with the timeline, altering history, and destroying both past and future to eliminate the present. Who could be so powerful, so insane, to carry out such a plan? The Linear Men, self appointed guardians of history, know the answer. An old villain (from the 1991 Armageddon 2001 annuals)has resurfaced as Extant, but he is working for someone far more shocking. DC heroes are assembled to combat this threat and so we see Superman, Batman, Green Lantern etc working together with heroes rom the 1940s to save the universe (yet again). DC does end of universe storylines fairly well (if a little too often) and this is no exception. The only problem is, this graphic novel collects issues 4-0 of Zero Hour (plus Showcase 94 explaining the origins of Extant), but this is only a summary of what is going on in all the other issues, so the story is a bit disjointed and flat. If you collected the comics in 1994 you had a chance of piecing the story together into a grand mega story, but just collecting this graphic novel reduces the excitement and scale. The identity of the real villain is a bit of a shock, but the final resolution is a little lame and badly explained. Overall very exciting, but by itself not much use; much better to actually have some of the comics that were tied into this storyline. Extant will return in JSA Darkness Falls.
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