Welcome to our weekly Monday Demythify column!
We know from DC Comics New 52’s February 2014 Solicitations, that Forever Evil #6 will reveal the final fate of Nightwing and we will also finally learn who the identity of the hooded prisoner is of the Earth 3’s Crime Syndicate.
That leaves one mystery that may also be revealed in Forever Evil #6. What is the Crime Syndicate’s secret surrounding the all-powerful entity that decimated Earth 3 that now threatens the core Prime Earth of the DC Comics New 52.
In an earlier column, we identified the most likely suspects for who is the hooded prisoner of the Crime Syndicate. Following that, DC revealed further tidbits to piece together that person’s identity. In addition, last week, we covered the likely fates of Nightwing to be revealed in Forever Evil #6.
That leaves us with the mystery around the entity that has come from Earth 3 to threaten the New 52’s Primer Earth.
Forever Evil #6 was supposed to hit stands this week on February 19th, but according to Previews it’s been pushed back to March 5, 2014, despite DC Comics’ website showing it as out this week until it was updated in the last few days, and DC’s in-comic house ad teaser showing it as a February 2014 shipping book.
Ok, on to this Monday’s Demythify column and the Top 5 likely Earth 3 destroyers of Forever Evil.
Possible SPOILERS for Forever Evil #6 may follow.
Originally, my #4 on the below list was going to be “New Character“. However, since writer Geoff Johns is best known for refurbishing existing dormant DC Comics characters, that seems unlikely. Although, to buck that trend, Geoff Johns and artist John Romita Jr’s upcoming DC Comics New 52 Superman series is being teased as including new characters and concepts. Despite that, I thought it was best to find a replacement for this initial thought for the list.
And, away we go…
(5) Monarch / Waverider / Extant
In 1991, DC Comics published an event called Armageddon 2001 that teased that a hero from that era would become the villain Monarch in 2001. Monarch essentially would kill all the heroes and enslave the world. Waverider was a character who became a hero in Monarch’s future and time traveled back to 1991 to find out who the hero that turned into Monarch would be and prevent that metamorphosis. He touched the heroes in the DC Comics and gleaned their respective possible futures which were depicted in the annuals. The hero-turned-villain was supposed to be Captain Atom, but that leaked out in the pre-internet age so DC Comics made the villain Hank Hall / Hawk instead.
During DC Comics’ timeline rationalizing event Zero Hour, the spiritual chronal sister series to the mid-1980’s Crisis on Earths (an event series that rationalized DC’s multiverse), Monarch absorbed Waverider and became the chronal villain Extant. For the skinny on how all that went down, check out the last image on the above right. It explains it quite well. Anyhow, the wavelike pattern in the sky to end Forever Evil #5 (the second image in this article) does evoke Waverider in some ways for me.
However, since Monarch / Waverider / Extrant where chronal or timeline threats in DC Comics as opposed to multiversal threats, this may not come to pass in Forever Evil #6.
(4) Captain Atom
In advance of DC Comics year-long weekly series called The New 52: Futures End, I listed the Top 10 time anomalies that would need fixing in that new timeline-based maxi-series. One of those anomalies in the DC New 52 was Captain Atom. In Fury of Firestorm #15, Captain Atom was ruptured and split in three. Each shard went to presumably a different time period in the New 52, but perhaps one slipped into the multiverse? Only one shard’s destination was revealed and expanded up in Legion Lost before that series’ cancellation (and Captain Atom and Fury Firestorm are also no longer on stands as ongoing series).
In the pre-New 52 Countdown to Final Crisis, DC Comics did rectify its 1991 Monarch reveal correction by making Captain Atom the villain Monarch. Captain Atom also in previous years visited Armageddon upon the then separate Wildstorm universe.
Captain Atom is potentially all-powerful. With the extra juice he ingested from the hijacked Firestorm that caused his three-way rupture, there’s no telling how powerful just a shard of Captain Atom can be. While its more likely that Captain Atom would be more of a timeline threat to the New 52, due to his immense powers, he could easily be a multiversal threat as well. And, the crackling energy ribbon in the sky at the end of Forever Evil #5 could be a manifestation of Captain Atom’s powers.
(3) Lord Entropy
I’m actually hoping that Geoff Johns will use Forever Evil to try to revive a Wildstorm villain as the Earth 3 threat. Despite DC trying quite a bit to make New 52 ongoing series based on Wildstorm concepts viable, none were therefore seemingly making the Jim Lee created properties somewhat cursed.
Perhaps DC Comics revives a Wildstorm property and makes him/her a bigger threat? Afterall the Wildstorm Universe, the Vertigo Universe, the old DC Universe folded into one DC Comics New 52 Universe at the end of Flashpoint.
The old villain at the pseudo-cosmic level that could fit the bill would be Lord Entropy. He was a Wild CATS villain who possessed the power to defy the laws of probability and nature.
(2) Anti-Monitor / Monitor(s)
During the classic mid-1980’s Crisis on Infinite Earths we saw the battle between the Anti-Monitor and Monitor with the then multiverse in jeopardy. In the end, the multiverse was destroyed leaving one new universe to survive. In the late 2000’s, we had the Countdown to Final Crisis that reintroduced the Monitor times 52 as a new finite multiverse numbering 52 debuted at the end of a year-long weekly maxi-series called, interestingly enough, 52.
In Countdown to Final Crisis, the Monitors (one in particular) and Darkseid were at odds. We know Darkseid is a major force in the DC Comics New 52 having caused the formation of the Justice League on the Prime Earth and whose forces continue to wage war on Earth 2 having turned that world’s Superman evil.
Will the Anti-monitor or The Monitor(s) emerge as the Earth 3 threat that now faces the Prime Earth of the New 52?
(1) Darkseid / Old Gods
Villains Month’s Justice League #23.1 Darkseid #1 revealed the origin of the DC Comics New 52 cosmic threat Darkseid. He presumably killed the Old Gods and took their powers to become the all-powerful Darkseid we know today.
He was the reason that the Justice League formed in the New 52 and his forces continue to wreak havoc to this day on Earth 2.
It isn’t a stretch to think he is behind the decimating of Earth 3. However, like with #2 on this list that indicates that a multiversal threat to rival Darkseid would prove interesting, perhaps one or more of the Old Gods still exits and are attempting to conquer Prim Earth where Darkseid failed?
There is only one Darkseid in the multiverse and the New Gods are also not replicated. Who else would make sense as threats to the multiverse?
Thanks for reading. All feedback welcome. :)
