Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Part 1 - Atop the Fourth Wall 

"They simplified his (Hawkman's) origins to just be about reincarnation and aliens." is the most comic book phrase I have ever heard in my life.

Comics Industry: Linkara will never run out of material for Event Comics Month Me: That’s good. CI: Because the number of events we publish each year is growing exponentially. Me: That’s bad.

Crisis on Infinite Earth's: Reboot Zero Hour: Altered Timeline Infinite Crisis: Altered Timeline Flashpoint: Reboot DC Rebirth: Altered Timeline

"Hawkman" "Continuity" "Quick Explanation." Dude. These three things. Must never be included. In the same sentence. Not. Ever. PERIODS. EVERYWHERE.

Reboots and retcons are tools. Neither inherently bad or good, and they require care and respect. They are not to be treated lightly.

1:51 Well, in the final issue of Doomsday Clock, Dr. Manhattan says, and I quote, "It's July 2nd, 2025. A crises unlike any the metaverse has seen, one they will call "Time Masters", erupts...", so yeah. See you in 5 years, Linkara!

"The cosmos is in _agony."_ "It stepped on a _Lego."_ Truly the ultimate pain in the Universe.

Me: Wait a minute Crisis in Time didn't come out two decades ago it came out in the 90's. [Realises that the 90's WAS in fact two decades ago] Me: damn I am getting old :(

19:06 "including a very pregnant power girl." Oh god, this better not be like Avengers 200!

The Hawkman thing could have been resolved so easily if they'd just kept the Hawkworld mini-series set in the past like it was originally supposed to. The explanation that Katar's father worked with Carter Hall and slipped him the Nth metal and then used his hero identity to form the Thanagarian Hawk Police was all they needed. He then named his son after his friend. Everything makes sense, but they kept making it more complicated with Hawk Gods and avatars.

11:07 ...ooooooooh, _that's_ why the ship is called that in Legends of Tomorrow.

I'm so glad that Batman's format preference became a recurring joke. I hope in more modern comics he prefers HD-DVD to Blu-Ray.

The fact the plan to make Hal evil was all done in a weekend is both hilarious and also not much of a surprise. EDIT: Also apparently the original story they were gonna do was about fake Guardians of the Universe and The Green Lantern Corp has to figure out who’s the original, so essentially a space clone saga.

Crisis of the secret house. Sounds great

Linkara: "Until Geoff John's reworked his backstory, DC considered Hawkman radioactive. Don't use him, don't mention him." Me: "Now Hawkman's radioactive! That can't be good!" Also Linkara: "We'll cover how DC screwed up Wally West later." Me: "Oh God, we're covering Heroes in Crisis later, aren't we?"

The part about the Justice Society and the sliding time-scale of comics reminds me of another comic character I feel might face similar issues in the future: Magneto. Like the Justice Society, Magneto is a character who's tied directly to a singular point in history and it forms a huge basis of his motivations and character. I've had talks with people about how the MCU would depict Magneto in the films since by the time he finally appears, he'd likely be 80-90 years old. Do you change his backstory to a more recent event? Give him slowed-aging as an extra power? Have him pull a Captain America and get frozen or something? I'm not sure how the comics are handling it, but I think it's a topic that future adaptations and the like will have to address.

You get a crisis, and you get a crisis, everybody gets a crisis!

To be fair, Joker probably shot a LOT of people five years ago. Joker shoots five people before he gets out of bed in the morning.

"Mr. Stark, Anti-Life justifies my hate."

Oh that call forward to Heroes in Crisis...this is gonna be rough.

My favorite part of Zero Hour is the Aquaman tie-in where he's just running around with a crude harpoon on his bloody arm because the #0 issue happened right after Charybdis plunged him into a pool of piranhas and he lost his hand.

The Tim Drake-meets-Dick Grayson Robin issue is awesome.

I have an explanation about joker: he is from the same time as batgirl so she wouldn't notice any difference

Huh. There was actually a person named Waverider in the comics. So that's where the ship from Legends of Tomorrow got its name.

You know, I've actually got an idea for how to keep the JSA's origins relatively consistent, and timeless: Move their golden age from World War 2 to a new fictional war that happened 30 years before the current comics. Not World War 3, just a war that put America at direct risk, and saw a rise in heroes willing to fight for their homes and country, especially since there are a lot of members of the JSA without powers, so having THAT be what sets the standard for what the DC Universe views as heroic gives some decent continuity for the universe.

Barry's costume stayed because it resists the inertial effect The Flash experiences when he runs, so while Barry's sacrifice caused him to grind himself to death... his costume would have never been ground to death. Wally's costume stayed behind mainly as homage of Barry's death. Pol Manning was Hal's identity when he'd visit the future. Like how Wally is introduced in the 64th century, a lot of Silver Age DC Comics heroes would intermittently have adventures in the future, sort of how Superman and Jimmy Olsen would occasionally have off-genre adventures in the Bottle City of Kandor (where he and Jimmy basically cosplayed as sci-fi Batman and Robin, Nightwing and Flamebird). Kyle Rayner took a LONG time to reach his potential. He did eventually, but for the first 4 or 5 years, he wasn't considered to be much outside of his own title. Ah, 90s Hawkman. At least eventually people figured out what to do with ya. I completely disagree about the JSA and Golden Age heroes. There's no reason heroes "tied to WWII" ... have to be. SUPERMAN pre-dates WWII, and yet he's still a vital and important super-hero character. Even guys like Captain America don't HAVE to be tied to a certain timeline--in fact, a "completely new to the modern world" take on some of these characters could make for some interesting stories. Interesting mental gymnastics to paper over some questionable parts of their past, too, maybe. Anyway: you don't want the JSA tied to a specific point in history? Don't. Tie. Them. To. It. They're fictional characters! They can exist at *any* point in time.

Zero Hour struck me as DC wanting to resolve the Monarch stuff, having a bash at it for the first half, then announcing “Screw it, we’re gonna wrap up _Green Lantern/Green Arrow_ instead”

I read an interview with Dan Jurgens said the whole Zero Hour concept came to him because he wanted to revisit a storyline with Hawkman and Superman written in 1988. The story revolved around Hawkman taking Superman to the remains of Krypton. The editors at DC nixed the storyline because Hawkman was rebooted in late 1988 so the whole story couldn't have happened.

I love that cover of Hal Jordan holding up all the Green Lantern rings he's acquired from his victims. I even have a shirt of it.

"We've got a few weeks before we really see them screw with Wally West." I shudder to think with just how badly they screwed him over.

In fairness to Hal the Guardians have done some pretty evil things in the name of good.

19:03 I know this series came out a decade or so earlier than Final Crisis, but... Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds actually explains this. Basically, the Time Trapper is supposed to be a physical embodiment of the worst possible timeline. Put simply, depending on the events of the present day, his identity will change to reflect the worst case scenario, and essentially, whatever timeline that is, his goal is to make sure that that timeline is what will happen.

After playing MK11 Aftermath, I now believe all time travel stories would be infinitely better with _Shang Tsung_ in them.

your discussion about the distance from WW2 makes me genuinely worry for the future of Magneto. He's such a brilliant character, but to try and "modernise" his backstory would take away so much from it. I fear that the early 2000 X-Men movies may be the last we see of him in cinema.

Explaining the time being destroyed backwards Rita Repulsa: I HAVE A HEADACHE!

Can you really blame Guy for wanting to save his friend, the corp, and an entire city?

No one: DC: we gotta _streamline our continuity_

00:12 to 00:30 Nice logo. 2:48 I thought Zero Hour was an okay event, but the two-page spread of the DC timeline showing superheroes since Superman’s public debut being active since for ten years is a mindscrew for the readers. In my headcanon, it would make sense that all the heroes Since Superman’s public debut would be active for 23 years since Superman graduated from Superboy at 20 years old (or 35 years since Superman stated as the original Superboy at eight years old), making the JSA in their seventies, the JLA in their late-thirties or early-forties, the Titans and Infinity Inc. in their mid-twenties or early-thirties, and Young Justice be in their early or mid-teens. At least that would make sense timeline and continuity wise. Also, in my headcanon, Barry Allen’s debut as the Flash would happen five years after Superman’s debut, the JLA would form seven years after Superman’s debut, Flash of Two Worlds would happen nine years after Superman’s debut, the first JLA/JSA teamup would happen and the Titans would form as the Teen Titans ten years after Superman’s debut, the New Teen Titans and the Outsiders and Infinity Inc. would form fifteen years after Superman’s debut, the first Crisis would happen 17 years after Superman’s pubic debut, Legends would happen a year after the first Crisis, Millennium would happen two years after the first Crisis, Invasion would happen three years after the first Crisis, the JSA would return and the Death of Superman would happen five years after the first Crisis, and Zero Hour would happen six years after the first Crisis. That way, it would make a lot of sense to the readers. 12:36 to 12:43 Linkara is talking about Heroes in Crisis. 14:40 to 15:08 If I were DC, there would be two versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl that coexisted in the Pre-Flashpoint continuity without any reboots or retcons that changed both characters. For example, the Golden Age Hawkman would debut in October 1939 and join the Justice Society of America in November 1940 and the Golden Age Hawkgirl would debut in June 1941 and join the All-Star Squadron in December 1941, while the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl (later renamed and rebranded as Hawkwoman) arrived from Thanagar to Earth and made their debut in March 1961 (or eight years before Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1977, fourteen years before Zero Hour in 1980, 22 years before Infinite Crisis in 1984, 24 years before Flashpoint and 29 years before Rebirth in 1987, and 31 years before Dark Knights: Death Metal in 1989 in my version of the DC timeline, which would last 35 years between the start of the Silver Age in 1956 and Dark Knights: Death Metal in 2020) and joined the Justice League of America 13 years in real-time (or five years in sliding time) apart. Everything would be like it is or was Pre-Crisis and Pre-Flashpoint without any continuity errors, while Hawkworld would either be a Post-Crisis retelling of the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl set in the past or would be an Elseworlds story. That is how I will set the continuity straight for the Golden and Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

The Legion stuff tied into their own sub-event-- End of An Era. Both teams- The Legion of Super Heroes and the Legionaries- had beeing facing the manipulations The Trapper since almost the beginning but it was only coming to light in the has been creating through the Giffen/Beirbaum and Waid runs on the series. It turns out the everything that happened in Legion vol 4.- which was a series already so incredibly dark that DC briefly considered moving it over to Vertigo along with Sandman, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, etc. was the pulled punch version of the timeline. Things were a lot worse. The timeline we were supposed to be living in had the Legion fight the original Time Trapper- a rogue member of the The Controllers, in a war that went horribly wrong. While the fought at the end of time, the Legion almost killed the Trapper- before he used the last of his power to destroy most of the life in our galaxy crica 2996... and many of the Legion members. Cosmic Boy absorbed The Trapper's energy. He spent centuries mastering the powers, The created literally hundreds of thousands of pocket dimensions each with their own Legion. He found a version of each of his friends as their 'most perfect' self, he removed them from their timeline, destroyed it and sealed them in a stasis tube in the early 2990s. Unfortunately, they were found by the Dominators and experimented on during their takeover of the Earth. But they broke out. The existence of the second Legion was supposed to create an x-factor. It did as it is now 2998 and the Milky Way Galaxy is still sparsely populated. On the other hand, they were created to avoid cosmic destruction but he had created so many pockets that he destabilized time enough for Paralax and Extant do their thing. The timeline created by the existence of the SW6 team started experiencing Zero Hour Effects. They think it is the Time Trapper's fault. They go the end of time as shown, Cosmic Boy gets separated. Finds all this out. Reads the books and finds out about the Legions histories.... all of their histories. Pre-Crisis,. Post-Crisis. Post Pocket Universe. All of it. . Future Cosmic Boy gives his powers to present Adult Cosmic Boy hoping he'd figure out a way to end the madness. Present Adult Cosmic Boy decides to try to use his new Time Trapper powers to preserve his own timeiines, only things get worse. In fact, he finds out the only way for all these thousands of time pocket teams to avoid simply annihilating each other is to merge them all into a single timeline. But in doing so he'd create a timeline so radically different from his own that all anyone could hope for is that a world without Time Trappers and Glorith interfering with people's timelines and free will is that the Legion would be the beacon of hope that was always R.J. Brande's vision.

90's kid is now 90's dude. God I fee l old now

"Crisis of the Secret House" would actually be a good name for an event comic.

Both Smallville and the Stargirl tv shows updated the JSA so they started in the 80's with their legacy as the first superhero team still intact.

24:27 Hey, wait a minute. Does killing the Golden Age Sandman years after the freedom of Dream of The Endless began create continuity hiccups with Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, which DC has decided that because name hype to keep in the DCU as it began? Also, I don't think by 2040 anyone will have any problem accepting "it's maaaaaaaagic" to explain their ages. Geek is already mainstream. Imagine how much more self-cannibalistic media and fandom will be in 2040. I actually kinda like the idea of the DCU having these immortal titans who just get wiser and stronger with age because essentially out of universe they are like the Greek heroes of World War 2 and we have traditionally looked up to Nazi killers and mythological heroes.

Heroes in Crisis might just be my most anticipated review for this lad to cover.

Superman's mullet was a Crisis of its own.

“What time is it?!” should be a running gag!

I don't know what the idea was behind killing off and aging up all the JSAers, but it is interesting to note that Jurgens originally wanted Zero Hour to end with the JSA-related characters off on a new Earth-2, having been retconned out of existence in the main DCU. So I wonder if editorial nixed that *before* or *after* Jurgens decided to have them get slaughtered by Extant.

1:50 DC is already planning a reboot, Doomsday Clock mentions a future upheaval in 2025, probably tied to 5G.

I can't help but see that empty Flash costume as a weird sorta shadow monster that has been given new life inhabiting the Flash's old costume and wants to go around scaring people for Halloween, eat candy and waggle his arms around like a spaghetti.

Don't worry, I know exactly who to call when weird time stuff is going down. Somebody get me the number of the legends of tomorrow!

Zero Hour's premise would work really good for a Doctor Who story

24:00 this becomes more bizarre after you read jsa and find out what really happened to hourman. Actually the whole event just feels weird if you read jsa first.

19:18 I love that expression on Wonder Women's face. She's like "It's about time you all showed up."

Crisis on secret house is a great title Linkara, keep up the good work brother

You should totally have a villain named Ataw! Then you discover he's actually AT4W and it's the acronym and I'm not even finishing this sen

DC writers post-Zero Hour: Now Hawkman's radioactive! That can't be good!

Aw yeah! Events comic month is back and Blind Guardian still rocks!

If they kept the JSA around, I'd say that keeping the comics set in WWII or an alternate timeline where the events of the war were different (a la the Wolfenstein games) but they were still firmly in the past would probably be the best way to hand wave their unaging. Their timeline is moving SLOWER than ours or in fact, the rest of the DCU. (Hell, with one of the characters capable of traveling the multiverse, they could even firmly establish that that universe's timeline moves slower by having that character visit for what they think is a week, only to get home and find out that like, 20 minutes have passed back home.)

I know I'm a week late on this, but GOOD GOD you do an amazing impression of Mark Hamil's Joker. That's both impressive and uncanny. Nice!

Sad thing is, there was a very, very easy fix for the idea of the Justice Society not being super old. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, they decided they wanted to keep Infinity Inc., but not the JSA. So they created a story where, immediately after Crisis, the JSA had to deal with the aftermath of a spell cast by Hitler that attempted to start Ragnarok using the Spear of Destiny. To prevent Ragnarok from destroying the world, the JSA had to travel to Asgard and basically fight an eternal battle against the forces of Surtur and the other evil forces trying to lay waste to existence. But because of the spell, every time they won, the battle would reset, so the Justice Society were forced to basically fight a LITERAL never ending battle for all eternity to protect the world they loved. Only Dr. Fate, Power Girl and Star Spangled Kid were sent back to the modern world. It was a wonderful send off to said characters, and if that had been the last JSA story ever, it would have been a worthy send off. But later, DC decided to use shenanigans to bring the JSA back to the modern world, but they wound up having to come up with reasons for why they were young, usually involving some kind of stasis or the like. Instead, all they had to do was have the JSA be sent into Asgard following World War II, possibly after that HUAC storyline, perhaps also with their supporting casts coming with them. The JSA then spend decades in Asgard while the world moves on, until at some point they figure out some way to permanently win, and emerge back into the modern world 20 years before Superman makes his appearance. After all of the fighting, the JSA decide to retire and settle down, they have their kids, who would eventually become Infinity Inc 25 years later. But 20 years later Superman and the Justice League appear, Barry Allen meets Jay Garrick, and the JSA eventually comes out of retirement. Now the JSAers are in their 50s, so they're older, but thanks to training and magical vitality from their time in Asgard, they can still fight just as well as ever. There. Now no matter how long ago World War 2 was, the JSA have a reason to not be ancient, much like Captain America. Only the JSA's reason is much more metal than Cap's, since they were actually fighting gods in Asgard the whole while instead of being frozen in ice.

In a way, you can thank this comic for the creation of Zauriel, the angel who was a member of the Justice League. Long story short, when Grant Morrison was writing JLA, he wanted to use Hawkman, but DC declared Hawkman off limits , so Grant created Zauriel instead.

Zero hour's number choice is very creative and I somewhat wish comics still did that.

That JSA fight really boils my blood. It might be because I read Geoff Johns' JSA run before Zero Hour so I had heard about them going down against Extant nd expected it to have been a noble, fitting end and then just seeing the massacre pissed me off.

Who misses the old continuity alarm? I'd forgot it ever existed until he started talking about the backstory

The "I'll park wherever I want" comment reminded me of this old X-men cartoon clip, where magneto sees a no parking sign and says "the very sight of that sign offends me!" and then he destroys it.

“Hey...psst, whoever’s in charge here....the scenery! Where’s the scenery?”

9:42 I like how he pretends like the Joker could even remember what he was doing five minutes ago, let along five years.

Linkara: WHAT TIME IS IT? Me: It's Miller Time

I'll remind you all that we could've had shattered grid but people elected to vote a different comic thinking we could get SG on event comic month. *We're do they live....,*

“Crisis of the secret house.” Yeah you just want to do House of M. I’m also glad to see Zero Hour. Also everything with the JSA, the new team is probably my favorite. Sandy Hawkins, Atom Smasher, Mr Terrific, and Stargirl

DC seems to have a weird relationship with the JSA characters. There's issues with the sliding timescale of comics, given most of the members were active specifically in WWII, and thus them interfering with how old/young DC's more popular characters are supposed to be, like Superman and Batman. Yet whenever the JSA members try passing their legacy off to a newer, younger generation, DC always eventually brings back the original characters as the main members of the team. So the classic JSA members keep causing problems for them by having WWII heroes still being active today but those same members are too iconic for DC to ever let a newer generation take their place for very long. So they have a problem, they have a decent solution to that problem, but they keep backtracking on that solution and refusing to solve the problem.

This is one of the few DC events I never read, and now I dunno if I should enjoy seeing this torn apart, praised, or critically seen. I do know I’ll enjoy this review regardless!

Damn, DC loves the word Crisis. Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Zero Hour Crisis in Time, Identity Crisis, Crisis on Earth X etc.

1:55 2025 ? It is kinda happening in DC Comics current Event: Death Metal. However it is kinda shaping up to be like Marvel Comics's soft soft reboot that happened with 2015's Secret Wars 15:07 and 21:35 fortunately, alongside the foundation of Geoff John's explanation, Hawkman's comic book post Dark Nights Metal FINALLY kinda fixed his backstory. it is still kinda FULL COMIC BOOK insanity like Kamandi or Doom Patrol or Infinity Warps, but it finally makes some coherent ense

10:47 “Because it’s THURSDAY!” Watchtower Database anyone?

Barry and Wally's costumes stayed probably because Terminator. My guess is living matter ends up absorbed into the speed force and their costumes are designed to be immune from that energy and can't permanently absorbed, which is why the costume doesn't get worn out at top speed like regular clothes.

I rly like the art in this one for some reason. It's that sweet spot between the 80s and 90s styles. Like Todd McFarlane Spider-Man, almost.

Event comics 3 has finally begun and this is going to be fun. :)

Feels weird discussing this after the Arrowverse Crisis event. Hopefully CW doesn’t go this big or convoluted with its crossovers for a long time.

It's always so weird when comics I've read get reviewed on this show. Can't wait for Secret Empire, I actually liked the event itself. Really hated how Marvel advertised it; trying to act like Hydra!Cap was the 'real' Captain America was soooo dumb.

I remember reading one tie in Batman story where Batman and Robin met pre crisis Alfread. Who was French.

The funny thing about Triumph is that his creator, Mark Waid, would do a send up/pseudo-parody of him for an Avengers storyline called No Retreat, No Surrender, that actually kind of ties into another event being covered this month due to Hulk stuff.

4:40 it's like...how much more white can this cover be? And the answer is none. None more white.

Welp, Event Comic Month has begun. Bring on the Blind Guardian. :D

Just waiting to see his review of Heroes in Crisis.

0:07 that name it’s werid why secret houuuuuuuu wait a minute we’re doing House of M aren’t we that’s personal favorite of mine I can’t wait

12:35 I'll get the popcorn ready for Heroes in Crisis

Ah, Event Comics Month. Blin Guardian "Sacred Worlds" beginning each episode. Linkara yelling about something. Good times. Good times.

Okay, I’m about 6 minutes or so into the video, and what I’m about to say probably has nothing to do with the review (sorry), but I need to say this. Your copy of Zero Hour is signed by Dan Jurgens! Nice!

I love Event Comics 3. It means it’s happening now

“Oh god, been working since eight o’clock non stop, it’s half past midnight, I just want to melt on the bedNEW AT4W MUST WATCH NOW”.

... Coming back to this after the conclusion of Event Comic's month, the mention of Barry's character getting screwed with suddenly sounds a lot more ominous.

vanishing point. an orginization at the end of time keeping it focused and on track. damn, the TVA really are everywhere.

Also little thing - adore the duck amuck reference on the title card, brilliant for issue zero

h no, I've listened to more of this story, and my accumulated DC knowledge is spilling out. LIke that Waverider is a code name that another time traveling hero would *eventually* take on. Everyones Hero you've never heard of, Booster gold. Good thing his son is here to help him out. Side note, ya think Booster golds shield can survive time being destroyed?

Linkara: We perceived time as cause and effect... The Doctor: but in actuality it’s a big ball of Whibley wobbly tiny whiny stuff

I feel like an interesting take for DC would be to simply put the DCU into a ten-year time loop. Every ten years, the universe starts over and people can do whatever while ignoring all previous loops.

The current run of Hawkman by Robert Venditti is not only very good, but I think it managed to streamline everything Hawkman-related. Basically instead of Hawkman reincarnating through time, it's time AND space. Idk if it fixes everything, but so far it's done a pretty good job and pretty straightforward to follow. The Sky Tyrant arc felt like it kinda dragged, though.

So I am guessing Dc death metal is going to reboot the timeline kinda like zero hour did but do it better.

14:33 Vandale Savage: I've been defeated by Hawkman. He'll beat me up I'm sure. At least it can't get any worse. (more Hawkmen appear) Savage: o NO 😨