WARNING! SPOILERS GALORE! THE HORROR! THE HORROR!
Title: Crisis Times Five, Part I
Release Date: April 1999
Writer: Grant MorrisonPenciller: Howard PorterInker: John DellJLA Members: Superman,
the Flash,
Green Lantern,
Plastic Man,
Huntress, and
Zauriel.
Guest Stars: Captain Marvel, the
Justice Society of America (
the Flash (
Jay Garrick),
Sentinel, and
Wildcat),
Hourman, and
J. J. Thunder.
Bad Guys: Lkz and
Triumph.
Cameos: The
Spectre.
So what happens?Something
weird is going on in
Keystone City--the two Flashes,
Wally West and his
Golden Age mentor Jay Garrick, discover buildings getting
twisted in knots, and thanks to a prediction by the Hourman of the future, the JLA suspects that they may be facing an invasion from the
Fifth Dimension (that's where Superman's
goofy tormentor
Mr. Mxyzptlk comes from). Meanwhile, over in nearby
Central City, people are reporting seeing
pink lightning, which reminds Jay of the pet Thunderbolt of Golden Age hero
Johnny Thunder. Batman quickly makes the deduction that the Thunderbolt is actually a Fifth Dimension
imp, and Jay suggests calling in some members of the Justice Society, since they have experience working with the Thunderbolt--Wildcat and Sentinel (the Golden Age Green Lantern) quickly answer the call.
Elsewhere, Zauriel learns that someone has imprisoned the Spectre in a planet-sized chunk of
rock. But is there any force that could lay such serious
smackdown on the embodiment of the
Wrath of God? If you're mouthing the words "
Fifth Dimension Imps", you're catching on fast.
The JLA and the JSA get together in the Watchtower to plot
strategy. Zauriel and Sentinel decide to try to free the Spectre, while most of the rest of the two teams make a trip to Central City to look for the Thunderbolt. Hourman predicts that Captain Marvel will soon be joining them...and that someone is gonna
die...
Back on Earth, in
Chicago, a washed-up,
hard-luck ex-
superhero named Triumph is trying to sell some old Justice League
artifacts to a bunch of supervillains so he can get enough cash to cover the
rent. (You've heard of Triumph, right? One of the
greats,
founder of the JLA, got erased from everyone's memories in a
time travel accident, lost his powers, one
humiliation after another after another...) The supervillains are going to kill him just for the hell of it, but Triumph gets in touch with a
renegade Imp called Lkz, gets his powers back, and lets the Imp run loose, turning Central City into a
chaotic nightmare...
Cool Quotes!Captain Marvel, for no real reason I can tell: "
Holy Moley. First time I've ever seen anyone scared of a
derby hat."
One of the nameless supervillains, ticking off a list of Triumph's
bad luck: "
Amazo steals his powers and he never gets 'em back.
Shrink ray hits him, the doctors restore
almost all of his
anatomy to normal size. His
trophy blonde walks..."
Sentinel, reminiscing about the old days: "Our
headquarters was in a
concrete ball. I remember one point during the war when there must have been about a hundred of us in there."
Wildcat: "And then
Liberty Belle blew one off and tried to blame it on
Al Pratt? I used to
sweat like crazy in that place."
Sentinel: "Ted...we noticed."
Wildcat berating Plastic Man (and reminding us that Plas is a lot older than he looks): "Shut yer yap, O'Brien. I remember
Father Gilhooley chasing you down with a
Bible in one hand and a
shillelagh in the other. You were
full of it then and you're
full of it now."
Back | Index | Forward