Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: “Hands of Fate”
Written by: Dave Gibbons
Penciled by: Ivan Reis & Joe Prado
Inked by: Marc Campos, Oclair Albert & Michael Bair
Colored by: Nathan Eyring & John Kalisz
Lettered by: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Publisher: DC
The build-up towards INFINITE CRISIS certainly lived up to the title, both in terms of cost and scope. Curiously, even though the main series is half-finished, the four main prelude mini-series are being brought back as “Infinite Crisis Specials”. Really, this just means that the six-issue minis are getting a seventh issue. A double-sized seventh issue. Even though the TPBs of the minis have already been released. It’s a curious method of collecting these stories to say the least, and it’ll be mighty interesting to see if the weekly 52 series is handled more efficiently. After all, there doesn’t seem to be much incentive to pick up the TPB of RANN/THANAGAR WAR if it doesn’t actually have the whole story. Then again, the same could be said about the ADAM STRANGE mini-series that led into the prelude to INFINITE CRISIS… and if somebody is trade-waiting on the Big Kahuna itself, they might not even get the whole story considering that some fairly important developments are happening in them. It’s all rather bewildering. The best bet is probably to wait twenty years and nab the Super Duper Absolute Bestest Ever Edition when it comes out.
Anyway, when we last left this story Rann and Thanagar were still at war with one another though they were ever-so-slightly distracted by a huge rift opening up in space. Yes, it took six issues to tell that one sentence story. Oh, and Hawkwoman died. It happened in as flippant a manner as that additional sentence though, so don’t dwell on it too much. This time around a lot more happens in the story, which hits all of its editorially-mandated plot points successfully. The problem is that none of it feels like it actually matters. Perhaps it’s a simple case of Crossover Syndrome, where the apathy begins to outweigh the interest, but for all the emotional involvement and depth displayed here there is no good (i.e. non-financial) reason why these plot points could not have just happened in two or three pages of INFINITE CRISIS instead.
For instance, the Big Swirly Thing that turned up at the end of RANN/THANAGAR WAR has now become a Big Swirly Thing with Alexander Luthor’s hands poking through it. This isn’t the most epic game of shadow puppets of all time though. Our Alex is merely opening a rift in space to bring back Earth-2 (or Earth-3, or a New Earth, something along those lines) as seen in INFINITE CRISIS #4. This is the threat to all known forms of existence that Donna Troy has been in a flap about lately, having come back from the dead to gather a random assembly of superheroes to take into space and fight it and all, yet there is still no good justification for her inclusion in this story. Again, she just continues the flap without managing to cap the situation. Let’s get a move on, please. The RETURN OF DONNA TROY mini-series and all those issues of TEEN TITANS and THE OUTSIDERS (and SUPERGIRL, FIRESTORM, WONDER WOMAN, etc.) had better add up to something more than a flap of epic proportions.
The Big Swirly Thing was made possible by Superboy Prime going on a merry jaunt from the post-Crisis ‘paradise’ he shares with Alexander and the Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane. He quite merrily caused Thanagar to crash into Rann, which shifted the universe off-centre and removed Oa from the centre-point to allow Alexander to cut loose. It’s probably best not to think about how the universe could have a centre or to worry about how this could stay constant if Rann was being Zeta-Beamed over various solar systems anyway. The truth is that for some reason DC thought this was the best way to get Rann and Thanagar to go to war, something that will almost certainly continue after the crossover ends.
For now, however, there is a truce of sorts. Adam Strange discovers satellite footage of Superboy Prime doing his damage. This is destroyed but luckily Prime left handprints on Thanagar. Optimus and Rodimus would never be so careless. Well, Rodimus might. This evidence is enough to convince the various leaders to work uneasily alongside one another to face the common enemy. Kilowog’s ring even identifies the culprit as Superboy Prime. Nobody seems bothered by the fact that none of them should know who that is. Hopefully that was a deliberate error to be addressed in due course.
Of course, DC simply could not put out a book with words like ‘infinite’, ‘war’, ‘crisis’ and ‘special’ in the title without including the death of a well-known character. As Kyle Rayner is slap-bang on the middle of the cover and needed a massive power-boost to become Ion, which he will once again be after this event is said and done, it’s probably not too difficult to figure out who the unlucky victim is. In a rather hollow attempt to try and make the death seem meaningful, the person bumped off is, naturally, somebody very close to Kyle. Important Nexus Safety Tip for the ladies of the DCU – do not date Kyle Rayner. G’Nort might smell like a broken fridge but at least you won’t wind up dead inside one by getting your Lantern fix from him. The death scene is wholly uninteresting too, with Big Swirly Thing firing some radiation out willy-nilly and somehow managing to hit this person twice – once to kill the body, once to kill the spirit… or at least transfer it to Kyle, increasing his power levels and making him Ion. The Guardians are watching this unfold on their plasma telly and are suitably hopeful about what Ion can now do for them. Apparently in their eternal wisdom they couldn’t think of a better way to grant Kyle his new skills. Sheesh, all Neo had to do was take the red pill.
That’s it, really. Kyle becomes Ion thanks to the death of a close friend, the characters are somehow clued in about Superboy Prime’s antics, and Rann and Thanagar call a temporary end to their war. This will either all be explained in INFINITE CRISIS #5 anyway, which makes this special rather pointless, or it will just randomly be without explanation, which will make the INFINITE CRISIS series read rather poorly as a seven-issue story. Either way, it doesn’t seem like the best way to handle these events.
