Review: Armageddon: Inferno by John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell, Bruce N. Solotoff, et al.

I debated about reading this. I knew it was the story where the Justice Society returned from Ragnarok, the limbo they'd been in since 1986's Last Days of the Justice Society, so it was important, but I was also pretty sure the actual return was perfunctory, and there has never been a good Armageddon 2001 tie-in except for Justice League Europe Annual #2. I suffered through Countdown: Arena, okay? Surely I could go straight from The Demise of Justice to the JSA's present-day adventures in Justice Society of America vol. 2?

Anyway, the completist in me won out. Obviously!

I don't even know why this book exists. Armageddon 2001 was a crossover that ran through all of DC's annuals from May through November 1991. Was it really such a good seller that DC needed to follow it up with two different miniseries, this and Armageddon: The Alien Agenda? The hook of Armageddon 2001 was that the characters in every DC series got a vision of themselves ten years in the future; the stuff about Waverider and Monarch was just a vehicle to justify that. The only link between 2001 and Inferno is that Waverider is in it again, and boy I do not care about Waverider.

At first, though, I was like, "This isn't so bad!" Waverider has to gather heroes to battle some cosmic evil entity. The set-up is all quite dumb, and obviously it can't work: there are sixteen bad guys, all new characters, and there are four different teams of good guys in four different time zones. Like, how could you ever focus on any of them enough for this to be satisfying? But even a bad John Ostrander comic is better than a good Keith Champagne one, and there are some small bits of characterization and dialogue that lift this above the usual event comic dreck. Ostrander picks good characters for his out-of-time teams, even if the dialogue is often painfully clear about continuity. "Oh this guy comes from one year ago but this guy comes from five years ago." In a nice touch, though, Katar and Shayera of Hawkworld, which he was writing at the same time, are in it. It's not great-- Mark Waid would do this kind of thing much better during his run on The Brave and the Bold-- but hey it definitely could be worse.

from Armageddon: Inferno #2
(art by Walter Simonson)

And I had been worried about the fact that it has nine different artists for four issues, but the story actually does okay by this; the artists do different segments that correspond to different time periods, so there's no jarring mix of styles. Some artists just do single pages in an issue, but this is because they are splash pages that give you a quick sense of something that's happening somewhere, and usually quite atmospherically done. I mean, hey, if Walt Simonson draws a single page, it will be a good one even if it is a single one, right?

Actually it all goes downhill once the Justice Society is introduced! I don't know anything about the behind-the-scenes circumstances of this comic, but it actually reads to me like the idea of using at as a JSA revival was made up after issue #2 was written. In #3, Waverider and the Spectre decide to pluck the JSA out of time between moments in Ragnarok so that they can attack the master villain directly in his home dimension. (Waverider has already taken as many people as he dares out of time, but since the JSA is already out of time, they can be used without endangering anything as long as they are put back when it's all over.) And suddenly, the myriad characters introduced in the first two issues basically disappear! Like, why even bother? From then on, the comic focuses on the JSA battling Abraxis, where their abilities are enhanced by their participation in Ragnarok-- and eventually they pass the powers on to others. 

from Armageddon: Inferno #4
(art by Luke McDonnell & Bruce N. Solotoff)

So issues #3 and 4 focus on the JSA, who weren't really even alluded to in #1-2. The dialogue goes downhill in the JSA issues, as suddenly it's a bunch of cheesy quips. But what kind of personality could a battle with Abraxis ever express anyway?

But then the JSA has to go back, because otherwise Ragnarok cannot continue and the universe is doomed, so they get returned. But then literally on the last page in an aside, it's revealed that Waverider was able to swap their locations in time with Abraxis's minions. So they will fight in the battle, and the JSA can return to the normal flow of time. Like, if Waverider could move the bad guys in time... why didn't he just drop them all in a sun or something? So not only does it read like the JSA was added to #3 at the last minute, it reads like once they were added, the idea of their return was a last last minute change to #4!

This isn't good, and I shouldn't have read it. Like many superhero comics, what happens is noteworthy, but how it happens is not.

Armageddon: Inferno was originally published in four issues (Apr.-July 1992). The story was written by John Ostrander; pencilled by Luke McDonnell (#1-4), Art Adams (#1, 3-4), Mike Netzer (#1-2, 4), Walter Simonson (#1-4), Tom Mandrake (#1, 4), and Dick Giordano (#4); inked by Bruce N. Solotoff (#1-4), Art Adams (#1), Mike Netzer (#1-2, 4), Walter Simonson (#1-4), Tom Mandrake (#1, 4), Terry Austin (#3-4), and Frank McLaughlin (#4); colored by Gene D'Angelo; lettered by John Costanza; and edited by Dennis O'Neil.

 

This post is twenty-first in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment is a supplement covering "Man-God!" Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930)
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)