Written by Steve Orlando
Art by Davide Tinto
Published by Image Comics
Welp, the cat’s out of the bag.
As the world continues to fracture, and America’s Congress stands on the verge of voting on the mutual secession act, the remaining members of Crisis Command have told the world their secrets.
It’s a pretty big set of secrets, too: (1) a multiverse exists; (2) each of them were the U.S. president in their respective realities; (2) the multiverse is dead because of a reality crisis they each were unable to stop on their Earths; (3) and now this is the only reality left.
They didn’t even try to tell them about the concept of empathy being killed, or the Extinction Society.
Guess that would be too much?
The man-on-the-street reactions to our heroes’ revelations is among the best parts of the series.
We get the disbelief, the accusations of conspiracy, the resentment of folks not getting superpowers like Crisis Command, xenophobic distrust that now stretches across dimensions.
And there are other supers giving hot takes: Ajax, last survivor of Planet Olympus; Octobriana, born from a comic book sex ritual; and Brick Bat, who totally is rocking a Batman-meets-Nite Owl combo.
At least the president, a descendant of George Washington, is trying to halt the vote. Maybe next issue we’ll get back to some of the politics part of the story and whatever wayward Senator Nelson Next is doing to pull the country apart.
Thunder Woman, an embodiment of inspiration itself, arrives with Frontier at the Lightning World, a godlike place of pure concepts.
In this sequence, the story becomes its most Grant Morrison. A place made for beings with 13 senses, where concepts are born and wait for humanity to evolve the capacity to comprehend them. Many concepts are still waiting for their day to descend.
Frontier, despite her human perspective being called limited by a goddess concept, is able to think outside the box. She asks Thunder Woman whether the Lightning World, on the ground, actually is the place where concepts are born, or reborn. What if it’s the space-like void beyond?
Meanwhile, Sawbones and Seer have hunted down an agent hired by the Extinction Society, a supervillain named HeadCannon.
Yes, he has a cannon on his head. When he hits you with its beam, your doppelgangers from other realities emerge to fight you. But it’s not as if Seer is thrown off by seeing other versions of herself, so she effortlessly slices them all to ribbons.
Originator tracks the Extinction Society’s finances and figures out that more cells are being activated around the world. The endgame is under way, to bring about the end of all existence.
But where, you ask, is the Executrix – Frontier’s Earth-Z doppelganger? HeadCannon says she has been paying him to make copies of herself. But why?
Just as the forces of evil are gathering their legions, Crisis Command has issued a challenge to the people of Earth to join them in the fight. Unfortunately, it’s not going well. But by issue’s end, things are looking up.
An enjoyable issue that, while it largely sets the table for the greater conflict to come, still finds moments to deepen the characters and have fun with these worlds of heroes.
