JUSTICE LEAGUE versus DARKSEID
Rock of Ages Part Five: Twilight Of The Gods (DC)
Where: JLA #14 When: January 1998
Why: Grant Morrison How: Howard Porter
The Story So Far...
Hard light holograms simulating the seven core members of The Justice League are just the beginning of their problems when a new Injustice Gang is formed by Lex Luthor!
The wealthy businessman has come into possession of a rare and powerful stone that allows him to control an alien prisoner and his Injustice Gang teammates. He thinks it might just be the ultimate weapon -- but in its many guises The Worlogog is the key to initiating cosmic armageddon!
Aquaman, Green Lantern, and The Flash find themselves thrust through time & space by the New God Metron in an effort to destroy "The Philosopher's Stone", but when they arrive fifteen years into the future they discover its destruction has brought humanity to the brink of annihilation!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Darkseid 7 (Omnipotent)
Intelligence: Metron 7 (Infinite Wisdom)
Speed: Flash 7 (Lightspeed)
Stamina: Darkseid 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Wonder Woman 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Darkseid 36 (Cosmic)
What happens if evil finally wins? It's a question every comic book reader has pondered, and a few too many contemporary storytellers are willing to answer.
In 1998 JLA struck the right balance with a dark future dominated by evil New Gods in Rock of Ages. This Justice League are: Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Swarmtrooper 000830, and Wally West.
The tattered future League aren't entirely the heroes you remember. Huddled in the underground Detroit JLA Bunker, they represent the last remnants of the JLA gathered by a time displaced Aquaman, who now inhabits his future-self.
Joining him from fifteen years in the past is Kyle Rayner, whose body has been converted into a techno zombie-like Swarmtrooper sans Green Lantern ring, and Wally West: a pale shadow of his former self, now disconnected from the Speed Force, and reduced to a sickly, overweight firepit builder in the Keystone Ghetto.
Their first ally from the future is Wonder Woman: a battle-hardened, armor-clad survivor who'll die before the Zombie Factory takes her. They're also joined by Green Arrow, Atom, Argent, Azteka, and a reprogrammed Amazo, all of whom have roles to play in coordinated strikes away from the rest of the team.
Batman was believed taken some eight years prior, but it turns out he endured years of physical and psychological torture, overthrowing Desaad to remain embedded under deep cover for two months disguised as his captor. He's perfectly positioned to formulate a plan to strike at the heart of Darkseid!
Darkseid is a New God of unspeakable evil whose pursuit of domination is as likely to be directed as his own subjects as it is his enemies! Born Uxas, he reinvented himself with the murder of his mother and conquest of the planet Apokolips!
He seeks ultimate power through the Anti-Life Equation, believing fragments of its solution to lie within the recesses of the human mind. This has drawn him toward the Earth many times before, making playthings of its mightiest champions!
His powers dwarf the godly pantheons, but he has never the less known defeat. We saw Superman and Batman overcome him in Superman/Batman #42, and his son Orion fulfilled destiny by ripping Darkseid's burning heart from his chest in the explosive battle of Countdown #2! He died of his wounds, but Darkseid and the New Gods always find a way to return to life...
The Tape: Justice League Rankings: Batman (#1)
What Went Down...
Where: JLA #14 When: January 1998
Why: Grant Morrison How: Howard Porter
The Story So Far...
Hard light holograms simulating the seven core members of The Justice League are just the beginning of their problems when a new Injustice Gang is formed by Lex Luthor!
The wealthy businessman has come into possession of a rare and powerful stone that allows him to control an alien prisoner and his Injustice Gang teammates. He thinks it might just be the ultimate weapon -- but in its many guises The Worlogog is the key to initiating cosmic armageddon!
Aquaman, Green Lantern, and The Flash find themselves thrust through time & space by the New God Metron in an effort to destroy "The Philosopher's Stone", but when they arrive fifteen years into the future they discover its destruction has brought humanity to the brink of annihilation!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Darkseid 7 (Omnipotent)Intelligence: Metron 7 (Infinite Wisdom)
Speed: Flash 7 (Lightspeed)
Stamina: Darkseid 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Wonder Woman 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Green Lantern 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Darkseid 36 (Cosmic)
What happens if evil finally wins? It's a question every comic book reader has pondered, and a few too many contemporary storytellers are willing to answer.
In 1998 JLA struck the right balance with a dark future dominated by evil New Gods in Rock of Ages. This Justice League are: Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Swarmtrooper 000830, and Wally West.
The tattered future League aren't entirely the heroes you remember. Huddled in the underground Detroit JLA Bunker, they represent the last remnants of the JLA gathered by a time displaced Aquaman, who now inhabits his future-self.
Joining him from fifteen years in the past is Kyle Rayner, whose body has been converted into a techno zombie-like Swarmtrooper sans Green Lantern ring, and Wally West: a pale shadow of his former self, now disconnected from the Speed Force, and reduced to a sickly, overweight firepit builder in the Keystone Ghetto.
Their first ally from the future is Wonder Woman: a battle-hardened, armor-clad survivor who'll die before the Zombie Factory takes her. They're also joined by Green Arrow, Atom, Argent, Azteka, and a reprogrammed Amazo, all of whom have roles to play in coordinated strikes away from the rest of the team.
Batman was believed taken some eight years prior, but it turns out he endured years of physical and psychological torture, overthrowing Desaad to remain embedded under deep cover for two months disguised as his captor. He's perfectly positioned to formulate a plan to strike at the heart of Darkseid!
Darkseid is a New God of unspeakable evil whose pursuit of domination is as likely to be directed as his own subjects as it is his enemies! Born Uxas, he reinvented himself with the murder of his mother and conquest of the planet Apokolips!
He seeks ultimate power through the Anti-Life Equation, believing fragments of its solution to lie within the recesses of the human mind. This has drawn him toward the Earth many times before, making playthings of its mightiest champions!
His powers dwarf the godly pantheons, but he has never the less known defeat. We saw Superman and Batman overcome him in Superman/Batman #42, and his son Orion fulfilled destiny by ripping Darkseid's burning heart from his chest in the explosive battle of Countdown #2! He died of his wounds, but Darkseid and the New Gods always find a way to return to life...
The Tape: Justice League Rankings: Batman (#1)
What Went Down...
In a ship hovering over the ruined city of Metropolis: Darkseid awaits the arrival of his vile inquisitor Desaad. The New God of evil doesn't yet know his agent was replaced months ago by The Batman -- and he's bringing a new Justice League!
Batman leads the heroes through the Boom Tube, tossing scattered grenades ahead. The Apokolips-based technology fills the room with a dense "theotropically engineered" fog that baffles even the perceptions of Metron!
Darkseid erupts with furious bemusement while the League rushes purposefully through the smoke to their carefully planned destinations.
Wonder Woman elects to hold Darkseid, and the massive cube now called Granny Godness, at bay. She only promises an undisturbed minute or two. It takes mere seconds for Batman to reach The Mobius Chair and startle Metron.
The Dark Knight tempts Metron with the promise of undiscovered knowledge. He dares the New God to use his limitless power to become human for but a moment. Just long enough to record data most elusive to gods: mortal feelings.
While Metron considers the ease with which he could convert himself to a human approximation -- Wonder Woman harnesses defiant rage to fight for humanity!
"I'LL DIE BEFORE I BOW TO YOU!"
"I'LL DIE BEFORE I BOW TO YOU!"
The Amazon's vow is dismissed with cold agreement. Darkseid swats her away with the back of his hand, quite certain that she will die. Not by him, though. He has trusted followers to carry out such menial tasks.
Metron was never one to get his hands so dirty. Now flesh and blood, he discovers the sensations of weight and "ceaseless particle movement". He seeks the value of recording feeling. Batman gives him a crash course in pain.
Metron was never one to get his hands so dirty. Now flesh and blood, he discovers the sensations of weight and "ceaseless particle movement". He seeks the value of recording feeling. Batman gives him a crash course in pain.
A stiff right hand stuns Metron and allows Batman to fill the gods' vulnerable mortal form with powerful hypnotic drugs. Metron will now be completely pliant and ready to obey their every instruction.
Batman leaves Metron and his Mobius Chair to the time-displaced Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Flash. He trusts that a new fate will be made in the past, so that this doomed existence could be unwritten. The chair takes them back.
Still in the damned future: Darkseid summons his Grandmother Box to destroy Wonder Woman.
With all the heinous cruelty of the living Granny Goodness, the machine opens a Boom Tube to the molten core of Apokolips -- and teleports a direct stream of firepit energy directly at the Wonder Woman!
The Amazon ricochets through the halls of the dark aerial fortress.
Granny Goodness turns her red lens towards Batman, but before she can enact any cruel disciplines -- Wonder Woman smashes through the Grandmother Box's shell in a final furious blaze of glory!
Batman hurls his batarang through the gaping chasm of what's left of the murderous machine. His aim is true -- cutting a perfect line -- but the weapon explodes with indifference against the impenetrable shield surrounding Darkseid.
The Batman instructs an unseen Atom to do what he can about it. Maybe the guerilla scientist hears him, maybe he doesn't. It hardly matters with Swarmptroopers flooding into the chamber to surround him.
Darkseid condescendingly wonders if this dark individual is known to him, and what he could think his "pathetic display" would achieve. The New God still doesn't fully grasp the scale of Batman's deception and his planned "display".
The Dark Knight kneels over Wonder Woman's motionless body and whispers, "We did it." Then he tells Darkseid that they've shared a few laughs, but now he's taking everything. The dark god need only look up to see the beginning...
Somewhere within Darkseid's Zombie Factory: the young hero who answers to Azteka flips a switch on her belt. It unleashes the destructive power of her four-dimensional battery's energy! The explosion rips through The Moon base!
Darkseid condescendingly wonders if this dark individual is known to him, and what he could think his "pathetic display" would achieve. The New God still doesn't fully grasp the scale of Batman's deception and his planned "display".
The Dark Knight kneels over Wonder Woman's motionless body and whispers, "We did it." Then he tells Darkseid that they've shared a few laughs, but now he's taking everything. The dark god need only look up to see the beginning...
Somewhere within Darkseid's Zombie Factory: the young hero who answers to Azteka flips a switch on her belt. It unleashes the destructive power of her four-dimensional battery's energy! The explosion rips through The Moon base!
As masses of humanity begin to awaken from the nightmare of Anti-Life, Darkseid confesses his respect for such a small being's ability to hurt him.
Darkseid's mercy is expressed through the red beams that dart jaggedly through the room until they reach their intended target.
Batman will suffer The Omega Effect, but not before he hurls a final insult at Darkseid. A bitter truth: that Darkseid finds himself surrounded by "maggots" because he did what he said he would: "You recreated the whole world in your image ... and what you see is your own ugly faaaaa--"
The last word trails off as Batman ceases to exist -- lost in a cloud of sizzling red particles. To where or when, even Darkseid does not know. It simply is.
The Hammer...The fight does not begin or end with the death of Wonder Woman, and defeat of Batman.
The Justice League's last stand is part of a three-pronged attack fought over multiple arenas, including a second front over the skies of Metropolis.
Batman's attempt to relay intelligence to Atom will play out minutes after he suffers The Omega Effect: an ambiguous fate that sent him through ancient history, and multiple lives, when it happened again in Final Crisis.
It could be argued that the arrival of Atom & Green Arrow minutes later is part of a single coordinated strike, but it functions as part of a very separate sequence, which we'll examine as Round 2 when we reconvene in the future.
I suppose efforts to send Aquaman, Green Lantern, and The Flash back to then-present 1998 could be considered an additional front -- if we take Doc Brown's advice and think of it fourth dimensionally. Otherwise, it's a pre-emptive strike that will render this entire future moot once the Philosopher's Stone (or Worlogog) is protected.
That just leaves Argent & Azteka's attack on the "Zombie Factory" Moon base unaccounted for. We caught an indirect glimpse of it during the fight recap. If you'd like to see more of that one, you can contact me through the various available channels, including Patreon. It's interesting, but incredibly brief.
Here in the grim future (or past) of 2021: it seemed appropriate to finally touch upon Rock of Ages for the imminent release of Zack Snyder's Justice League.
It's not so much a celebration as a comparison. Both stories have superficial similarities, but play out with significantly different quality, priority, and context.
Snyder restores his original vision with a four hour runtime that shares some of the dark palette seen in the now-classic JLA comic arc, but apparently benefits from little of its levity, brisk optimism, or inventive comic book genius.
Grant Morrison takes cues from the high concept mastery of Jack Kirby and bakes it with the dizzying excess of late 90s comics. Nothing is held back, allowing JLA Rock of Ages to be many things to many people, if a little cluttered and hurried.
The story is bookended with Lex Luthor and his Injustice Gang, whose plan sets the possible dark-future into motion. It is told in two dedicated issues after an excursion through Wonder World, and a multiverse of strange and chilling realms. The beginning and end, rooted in an exciting and turbulent contemporary DC Universe, anchor the darkness with colour and the joy of good superheroes.
I would argue Morrison perfected his New Gods epic with Final Crisis. It revisited similar concepts with slightly more clarity and breadth despite a "channel changing" style that incorporates many more players and series than Rock of Ages. It also can't be understated how Morrison's work benefits from interplay with itself, and how both stories benefit each other. The guy really knows what he's doing!
The depiction of Wonder Woman in this grim future is interesting. I didn't find myself able to include some of Howard Porter's most dynamic depictions of the Amazon. In truth, she is frustratingly out of focus, even when she leads the fight against Darkseid, and rips through his sinister servants.
The helmet and armor design reminds me a little of Big Barda, but behind its gold and silver plating is a story of battle-hardened survival and withdrawal into violent warrior culture. It should read as a contrast to the superhero, but here in 2021, I can't help but notice how much this seems like the contemporary depiction of Wonder Woman. A bit like Kingdom Come, it feels like its dark example has been ignored, serving as precedent & inspiration, instead of warning.
I've written about the struggle for a definitive Wonder Woman, and the intuitive emphasis of her Amazon warrior's heritage, but today's battle, with all its sound and fury, gives me a moment's pause to consider the finer points of her status as an ambassador for peace. There may still be much work to be done.
In-fiction, the grim future of Rock of Ages ultimately doesn't matter. It's obliterated from within by Orion and the Genesis Box before our time travelling heroes even set things right. Which is good. Because as tempting as it is to wonder about the darkest outcome -- the inherent beauty of superheroes is their ability to always prevent it. Wanting anything else is just madness. Anti-Life.
The phenomenon of Zack Snyder's Justice League has been a little off-putting in total. The zealous fervor of its most die hard cultists un-ironically recalls the edicts of Darkseid himself. A ravenous pack dedicated to nothing but the darkness of Snyder's vision and the inevitability of consuming more of it. Dark Snyder is.
I've pretty much had my fill of middling to disappointing adaptations and their expanding circumference of influence. As a consumer I want more from my purchases, and as a fan I crave better days of inventive, colourful superheroes.
DC Films President Walter Hamada referred to the Snyder Cut as a "storytelling cul-de-sac". I don't think that was a comment on its creative vision, but I wouldn't be opposed if it was, and hope in the face of dangling plot threads it can live up to that designation. The new cut may restore an acceptable degree of coherence to the plot, but I find it very hard to believe it is the best the Justice League can be.
Of course, the dark future of Rock of Ages isn't the best they can be, either.
If you find yourself feeling similarly, and want to experience the entirety of today's featured battle, you might like to check out JLA: Rock of Ages collected in JLA: The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 or JLA Rock of Ages. Using Amazon purchase links provided will not only net you a good deal, but also help support the site.
If you enjoy Secret Wars on Infinite Earths and want to get involved in supporting the cause you can sign-up to Patreon! As a thank you patrons receive access to additional updates, stats, and customizable articles including the recently returned Hero of the Week! Do it because you like the site and want it to succeed!
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has eatured well over 600 battles and ranked more than 1000 characters! You can discover them all by diving into the Secret Archive for an index of battles by publisher, series, and issue number -- or discover the joy of following links throughout this post to other stories.
Subscribe to Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day! Don't forget to hit that like and share! Anti-Life justifies it!
Winner: Darkseid
#119 (+287) Darkseid [+1 kill]
#466 (+6) Granny Goodness [+1 assist] [+1 kill]
#609 (new) Metron [+1 assist]
#1 (--) Batman
#10 (--) Wonder Woman [+1 kill]
#25 (--) Aquaman [+1 assist]
#34 (--) Flash (Wally West) [+1 assist]
#75 (--) Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) [+1 assist]
I've pretty much had my fill of middling to disappointing adaptations and their expanding circumference of influence. As a consumer I want more from my purchases, and as a fan I crave better days of inventive, colourful superheroes.
DC Films President Walter Hamada referred to the Snyder Cut as a "storytelling cul-de-sac". I don't think that was a comment on its creative vision, but I wouldn't be opposed if it was, and hope in the face of dangling plot threads it can live up to that designation. The new cut may restore an acceptable degree of coherence to the plot, but I find it very hard to believe it is the best the Justice League can be.
Of course, the dark future of Rock of Ages isn't the best they can be, either.
If you find yourself feeling similarly, and want to experience the entirety of today's featured battle, you might like to check out JLA: Rock of Ages collected in JLA: The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 or JLA Rock of Ages. Using Amazon purchase links provided will not only net you a good deal, but also help support the site.
If you enjoy Secret Wars on Infinite Earths and want to get involved in supporting the cause you can sign-up to Patreon! As a thank you patrons receive access to additional updates, stats, and customizable articles including the recently returned Hero of the Week! Do it because you like the site and want it to succeed!
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has eatured well over 600 battles and ranked more than 1000 characters! You can discover them all by diving into the Secret Archive for an index of battles by publisher, series, and issue number -- or discover the joy of following links throughout this post to other stories.
Subscribe to Twitter and Facebook to get daily links to battles inspired by the topics of the day! Don't forget to hit that like and share! Anti-Life justifies it!
Winner: Darkseid
#119 (+287) Darkseid [+1 kill]
#466 (+6) Granny Goodness [+1 assist] [+1 kill]
#609 (new) Metron [+1 assist]
#1 (--) Batman
#10 (--) Wonder Woman [+1 kill]
#25 (--) Aquaman [+1 assist]
#34 (--) Flash (Wally West) [+1 assist]
#75 (--) Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) [+1 assist]
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