Post by shaxper on Jan 28, 2021 11:47:03 GMT -5
Armageddon 2001 #2 (October 1991)
Script: Dennis O'Neil
Pencils: Dan Jurgens
Inks: Art Thibert; Steve Mitchell; Dick Giordano
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: John Costanza
Grade: C+
We were offered no less than two solicits for this book in last week's Adventures of Superman:
further reiterating the impression that Armageddon 2001 was really coming out of The Superman Office. And, with a change of writers this issue, it seems clear that Dan Jurgens is the creative constant driving this thing.
To review what we believe we already know about this story, the identity of Monarch is the big mystery behind this event. In Armageddon 2001 #1, it sure looked like Jurgens and Goodwin were planning for it to end up being Waverider himself (and I explain the multiple reasons why here). Presumably, sometime after that, the plan changed, and Captain Atom was going to be Monarch.
Thus, this issue begins by revealing Captain Atom's future, setting him up to become Monarch, and it's damn powerful:
A world in which crime runs rampant, street gangs are legally recognized and allowed to protect their turf, and the police are powerless and thus have ceased to care. Atom's desire to bring law and order to this world is compelling, and Jurgens' art makes it feel almost righteous:
But, as the story goes, the ending to this issue got leaked ahead of time, or perhaps it was just too easy to figure out, so someone at DC demanded a last-minute rewrite. Suddenly, Captain Atom regrets what he does, and Hank Hall becomes Monarch instead.
Honestly, Hank Hall makes some sense as Monarch. He was always into fighting first and asking questions later, demonstrating a belief that might makes right. That's Monarch. However, there's no way Hank Hall would know how to build a neutron bomb from scratch in a matter of hours:
And, even if he has the ten years between 1991 and 2001 to figure it out, I don't see him being the type to know how to build Monarch's armor or figuring out how to kill all of Earth's heroes.
Many have argued that Hank Hall was the only DC hero who couldn't become Monarch because they fought each other in the possible future depicted in Hawk and Dove Annual #2:
but we learn here that the way Hank becomes Monarch is by being allowed to kill Monarch and assume his identity. In that annual, Dove interfered with the fight between them and therefore may have prevented that from happening.
After all, the major logic lapse of this entire event is that Waverider sees one of infinite possible futures when he touches someone, and in fact subtly alters the future each time he does so, so he was never going to find out who Monarch was while touching them. A total rip-off really, and conceding that in the final issue doesn't make it any less so.
Anyway, back to the topic of Hank Hall being Monarch, what disappointed me most about this issue back in 1991 and still disappoints me the most now is not the choice of Hank Hall, but rather O'Neil and Jurgens' inability to make me care. We got such a moving, compelling dystopian future for Captain Atom that completely sold us on his becoming Monarch. But Hank Hall's ultimate transformation feels just as forced/rushed as it actually was.
How does this
and this
and this
lead to this?
"Hi, I was a hero six hours ago. You kidnapped me and my partner, murdered her before my eyes, I then killed you in cold blood, and now I want to be you and calmly/dispassionately bring order to the world"? It just doesn't make any sense at all. And I wasn't emotionally invested in those panels that made Hawk go haywire either. O'Neil and Jurgens neither manage to make us care nor understand Hank's transformation, and it's the highly anticipated climax of the entire five month, company-wide event.
Oops.
Oh, there are logic lapses too. How does what Captain Atom did in an alternate future that hasn't (and never will) occur release Monarch from a quantum field? Why was Monarch even stuck in the Quantum field? Why is Monarch trying to make his own timeline happen? It already happened. Whether or not it happens again shouldn't affect this version of Monarch. Is he just that into control that he travels back in time with no way to get back and intentionally gets himself killed so his younger self can assume his identity? It just doesn't add up and needs more explaining.
It also can't be a causality loop because, if all of this happened exactly like this before, then why was Captain Atom able to stop Monarch this time?
Also, the very idea that Monarch can summon ALL the DC heroes to wipe them out at once is absurd. How would he know how to contact EVERY DCU superhero (even with Hank Hall's memories), and really, would The Spectre or Dr. Fate even bother to show (by the way, they didn't, so they still should have been able to stop Monarch later). It's clumsy storytelling.
Still, some of the writing really clicked,
and this moment really got me:
I give O'Neil and Jurgens credit for not explaining it. They depend upon our remembering the event from the first issue, just as Waverider held onto the memory for all these years. It's classy.
Important Details:
- Death of Dove
- Death of the original Monarch. Hank Hall becomes Monarch, completing the time loop.
Minor Details:
- soooo much stupid in what began as a very intelligent story. Let's just use this particular example to illustrate the kind of logic lapses seen throughout this issue:
The fastest men alive in the DCU have FIVE minutes!
In the end, what began as potentially the most promising company-wide event ever executed bows to outside pressure and ends up with a rushed finale and a compromised climax that pleases no one. What a tragedy. It truly saddens me that so few comic fans even know about this event today. It should have raised the bar for these kinds of events. Fortunately, it's impact will at least continue to be felt in the Superman titles for a few more issues.
Script: Dennis O'Neil
Pencils: Dan Jurgens
Inks: Art Thibert; Steve Mitchell; Dick Giordano
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: John Costanza
Grade: C+
We were offered no less than two solicits for this book in last week's Adventures of Superman:
further reiterating the impression that Armageddon 2001 was really coming out of The Superman Office. And, with a change of writers this issue, it seems clear that Dan Jurgens is the creative constant driving this thing.
To review what we believe we already know about this story, the identity of Monarch is the big mystery behind this event. In Armageddon 2001 #1, it sure looked like Jurgens and Goodwin were planning for it to end up being Waverider himself (and I explain the multiple reasons why here). Presumably, sometime after that, the plan changed, and Captain Atom was going to be Monarch.
Thus, this issue begins by revealing Captain Atom's future, setting him up to become Monarch, and it's damn powerful:
A world in which crime runs rampant, street gangs are legally recognized and allowed to protect their turf, and the police are powerless and thus have ceased to care. Atom's desire to bring law and order to this world is compelling, and Jurgens' art makes it feel almost righteous:
But, as the story goes, the ending to this issue got leaked ahead of time, or perhaps it was just too easy to figure out, so someone at DC demanded a last-minute rewrite. Suddenly, Captain Atom regrets what he does, and Hank Hall becomes Monarch instead.
Honestly, Hank Hall makes some sense as Monarch. He was always into fighting first and asking questions later, demonstrating a belief that might makes right. That's Monarch. However, there's no way Hank Hall would know how to build a neutron bomb from scratch in a matter of hours:
And, even if he has the ten years between 1991 and 2001 to figure it out, I don't see him being the type to know how to build Monarch's armor or figuring out how to kill all of Earth's heroes.
Many have argued that Hank Hall was the only DC hero who couldn't become Monarch because they fought each other in the possible future depicted in Hawk and Dove Annual #2:
but we learn here that the way Hank becomes Monarch is by being allowed to kill Monarch and assume his identity. In that annual, Dove interfered with the fight between them and therefore may have prevented that from happening.
After all, the major logic lapse of this entire event is that Waverider sees one of infinite possible futures when he touches someone, and in fact subtly alters the future each time he does so, so he was never going to find out who Monarch was while touching them. A total rip-off really, and conceding that in the final issue doesn't make it any less so.
Anyway, back to the topic of Hank Hall being Monarch, what disappointed me most about this issue back in 1991 and still disappoints me the most now is not the choice of Hank Hall, but rather O'Neil and Jurgens' inability to make me care. We got such a moving, compelling dystopian future for Captain Atom that completely sold us on his becoming Monarch. But Hank Hall's ultimate transformation feels just as forced/rushed as it actually was.
How does this
and this
and this
lead to this?
"Hi, I was a hero six hours ago. You kidnapped me and my partner, murdered her before my eyes, I then killed you in cold blood, and now I want to be you and calmly/dispassionately bring order to the world"? It just doesn't make any sense at all. And I wasn't emotionally invested in those panels that made Hawk go haywire either. O'Neil and Jurgens neither manage to make us care nor understand Hank's transformation, and it's the highly anticipated climax of the entire five month, company-wide event.
Oops.
Oh, there are logic lapses too. How does what Captain Atom did in an alternate future that hasn't (and never will) occur release Monarch from a quantum field? Why was Monarch even stuck in the Quantum field? Why is Monarch trying to make his own timeline happen? It already happened. Whether or not it happens again shouldn't affect this version of Monarch. Is he just that into control that he travels back in time with no way to get back and intentionally gets himself killed so his younger self can assume his identity? It just doesn't add up and needs more explaining.
It also can't be a causality loop because, if all of this happened exactly like this before, then why was Captain Atom able to stop Monarch this time?
Also, the very idea that Monarch can summon ALL the DC heroes to wipe them out at once is absurd. How would he know how to contact EVERY DCU superhero (even with Hank Hall's memories), and really, would The Spectre or Dr. Fate even bother to show (by the way, they didn't, so they still should have been able to stop Monarch later). It's clumsy storytelling.
Still, some of the writing really clicked,
and this moment really got me:
I give O'Neil and Jurgens credit for not explaining it. They depend upon our remembering the event from the first issue, just as Waverider held onto the memory for all these years. It's classy.
Important Details:
- Death of Dove
- Death of the original Monarch. Hank Hall becomes Monarch, completing the time loop.
Minor Details:
- soooo much stupid in what began as a very intelligent story. Let's just use this particular example to illustrate the kind of logic lapses seen throughout this issue:
The fastest men alive in the DCU have FIVE minutes!
In the end, what began as potentially the most promising company-wide event ever executed bows to outside pressure and ends up with a rushed finale and a compromised climax that pleases no one. What a tragedy. It truly saddens me that so few comic fans even know about this event today. It should have raised the bar for these kinds of events. Fortunately, it's impact will at least continue to be felt in the Superman titles for a few more issues.
