WARNING! SPOILERS A-GO-GO! PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC, WHITE BOY!


Title: Crisis Times Five, Part IV: Gods & Monsters
Release Date: July 1999
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Howard Porter
Inker: John Dell
JLA Members: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Huntress, Steel, Zauriel, the Flash, and Plastic Man.
Guest Stars: Captain Marvel, the Justice Society of America (Sentinel, the Flash (Jay Garrick), Wildcat, and Hippolyta), the Spectre, Hourman, J. J. Thunder, and the Thunderbolt.
Bad Guys: Lkz, Qwsp, Triumph, Gypsy, and the Ray.
Cameos: The Quintessence (Highfather, Zeus, the wizard Shazam, Ganthet, and the Phantom Stranger).

So what happens?
Sentinel and Zauriel are finally able to age the artificial planetoid to extinction, and a very pissed-off Spectre escapes from his prison...

Inside the JLA Watchtower, Triumph and the mind-controlled Gypsy and Ray are trouncing on Aquaman and Batman until Superman, also pretty damn pissed, finally wakes back up...

In the Fifth Dimension, Green Lantern and Captain Marvel are able to convince the police of the Fifth Dimension to help them round up Qwsp, Lkz, and the Thunderbolt. Returning to Earth, Cap herds clouds together to spell a message to the Thunderbolt: a magic word he can say that will cause the two Imps to blend their colors into purple and become one Imp instead of two...

But back in Keystone City, Qwsp, demanding excitement and sacrifice, kills Wildcat by bursting his heart. J. J. Thunder gets the drop on him, though, and punches him down as the 5-D police arrive to take the malevolent Imp away...

In the Watchtower, Superman and Triumph, fairly evenly matched, are battling each other when Steel, controlling the Watchtower's security systems from his workshop, starts knocking Triumph around with microwaves. About the time Triumph realizes he's beaten, the Spectre arrives. He freezes Triumph solid and prepares to shatter him with an oversized sledgehammer when Zauriel intervenes, arguing that Triumph was merely a pawn of Qwsp and Lkz. Reluctantly, the Spectre exits...

In the aftermath, the two Flashes melt Plastic Man from stone to lava, helping him return to normal; Wildcat sits up while everyone's busy mourning him and reveals that he's had nine lives since 1945 (How? I have no idea. Maybe I wasn't paying attention); and Triumph is put on display in the JLA trophy room, with a sign warning that he is not to be thawed...

Cool Moments!
Superman waking up and busting through walls to get to Triumph; Wildcat's unexpected resurrection.

Cool Quotes!
Captain Marvel: "I have to get back to Earth and do some serious skywriting!"
Green Lantern, thinking: "Man...it's when I hear guys say crazy stuff like that, I remember why I love this job."

Qwsp: "I always forget how fragile things are here. Your 'laws of physics'--I can wear them like a funny paper hat if I want!"

Jay Garrick, mourning Wildcat: "Last couple of years, it's been one after the other: Al and Johnnie and Charlie and all the others...Good men and women I never had that last drink with, that last chance to tell them how proud I was to fight in their company...Ah...Old man crap..."

Zauriel on Triumph: "He was a superhero who fell. He could have been any of us, I guess."

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