Barry Lyga's Blog: The BLog, page 11

Stories I Never Told: Crisis on Captive Earths — Chapter 4

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Settle in, folks. This one is long. It should really be two issues, in my opinion, but I guess Young Barry didn’t let a little thing like page count get in the way of his enthusiasm. Join me now for the next chapter in…

Chapter 4 — Running in Circles

(So, look, before we get started here, it’s important to remember that Brainy has been insane and dangerous in the past. Has his grief at Supergirl’s death made him lose it again? The story thus far hasn’t done a good job at drawing this out, but it’s the main impetus for Batman’s distrust. And the reader should be worried…)

We pick up where we left off last issue — Batman leaping at Brainiac Five, who is activating some Phantom Zone equipment.

Turns out Brainy is not releasing the Phantom Zone criminals — he’s releasing Mon-El! Well, that’s one solution to the problem of “not enough power!”

Superman is surprised by this move because he doesn’t even know that Brainy knows Mon-El. He doesn’t remember that Mon was a member of the Legion or that Brainy knows of him.1

Now he learns that he will fail Mon-El and as a result Mon will spend a thousand years in the Phantom Zone. Yikes.

(One little bit in the notes that I like: Mon-El keeps asking everyone, “Why do you keep calling me Mon-El? My name is Lar Gand. I was only Mon-El for a week.”)

Brainiac Five casually mentions that he’ll wipe Mon’s memory after the battle, so as not to mess with history. Superman’s worried that Mon might die, which would really screw up history!

BRAINIAC 5: If things go that badly, then it won’t matter anymore.

SUPERMAN: This is a hell of a risk, Brainy. Are things really this bad?

BRAINIAC 5: If I thought I could gather them in time, I’d re-form the Legion of Super-Pets, that’s how bad things are.2

Batman’s job is to stay at the Fortress and “coordinate things.” He’s not happy about this, but he’s outvoted. Brainiac Five gives him a telepathic plug “so that we can stay in touch,” but Batman doesn’t even put it in — he sticks it in a pouch in his utility belt.

Brainy is supposed to give a big rah-rah speech before they head off to fight the Time Trapper. He starts but he can’t do it. He says stuff like, “I know you’ll all do well. Because you’ll all do what I tell you to do.” He looks at Superman helplessly: “This isn’t me, Kal-El.” So Superman gives the speech.

He talks about joining the Legion, about being a kid and joining the Legion. He talks about how amazing the Legion is and how Brainy is such a big part of that. And some of it is that they are a thousand years in the future…

SUPERMAN: A thousand-year advantage. A thousand years of spiritual, social, technological, psychological growth. But here’s something I want you all to remember: This group that is so impressive, this Legion that we hold—appropriately—in awe… They were inspired by us. And now it’s time for us to live up to that inspiration.3

Brainy has a secret plan to knock Superman out with a red sun burst and leave him behind so that Superman won’t be at risk during the fight, but Superman figures it out and avoids the burst.

SUPERMAN: I’m not falling for that trick, Brainy. Andy got me that way once. I learn from my mistakes, especially when my friends die from them.4

Brainy brings very specific people on the strike team, including Rip Hunter in his Time Sphere. Leaves behind some puzzlers, like Flash, etc. Why? He refuses to answer. “I have a twelfth-level intellect and I don’t have time to explain my thinking to you.” Plus, he knows the Time Trapper could be watching, so he can’t get into details without giving away the plan.

Batman is even more suspicious now.

Just before the strike team leaves, Mxyzptlk shows up to bedevil Superman.

SUPERMAN (angry, eyes glowing red): Not. Now.

MXYZPTLK (quavering): Kuh- kuh- Kltpzyxm!5

The heroes that Brainy has assembled head to the End of Time to fight the Time Trapper. At the very last second, as the heroes break through the Iron Curtain of Time, Brainy does something to Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere and it ends up trapped on the safe side of the Curtain.

But then the heroes break through and the Time Trapper re-seals the Curtain…which is Rip’s signal to activate Brainy’s device6, strengthening the Curtain and making it as strong as the barrier that now separates Earth-4…and locking the heroes at the End of Time.

Shocked, Superman says, “What is the plan, Brainy?” and Brainy just grins. He’s sealed the world’s most powerful heroes at the End of Time and it looks like maybe Brainy is insane or evil at this point…

Back in the present, the four earths are suddenly under attack! With the most powerful heroes trapped at the End of Time, the Time Trapper is free to unleash his forces on the present.

Batman is stuck at the Fortress with Robin, coordinating the present-day response.

The skies have gone red.7

Nightwing radios to Batman that they’re all in deep. “We need to take this to the next level.”8 Bruce says, “Negative.” The enemies are all from different points in the time stream. “We have to be careful.”

NIGHTWING: With all due respect, Bruce, pretty soon there may not be a time stream to worry about. And again with all due respect, you’re not the one fighting out here.

Batman thinks: Exactly? Why leave me here? Why do this to me? Can we really trust your friend, Kal?

Things get worse and then…

BATMAN: Attention all team leaders on all Earths. This is Batman broadcasting on the open pandimensional channel. This is officially a Crisis-level event. You may take any action necessary according to the dictates of your consciences.

SOMEONE: What the hell does that mean?9

BATMAN: Lethal force is approved.

Dick calls in Kory, but Donna reports Kory went lethal five minutes ago.10

BATMAN: Nightwing, come in.

NIGHTWING: Yeah?

BATMAN: I need you to do something. It’s very important.

NIGHTWING: The Titans and I have New York locked down, but the red skies are freaking people out. And I gotta tell you, they don’t make me feel all that great, either. The Crisis was just a few months ago. We buried Kole—

BATMAN: Dick, I need you to find Silver.

NIGHTWING: What? What did you just say?

BATMAN: Find Silver St. Cloud.

NIGHTWING: But— Catwoman… Nocturna…

BATMAN: It’s Silver. It’s always been Silver. If the universe ends now, I want her to know how I feel. I can’t leave here now, and you’re the only one I trust with this.11

Then, out of nowhere… a voice says “Hello, Batman.”

Which is weird because Batman and Robin are the only people in the Fortress. Batman turns to Robin and says, “Did you hear that?” and Jason says, “Hear what?”

Turns out it’s the telepathic plug Brainy gave him. Brainy tweaked it to work if it’s anywhere near Batman because he figures Batman wouldn’t trust him and would take it out. So at first, there’s just a voice that says “Hello, Batman.” And then…

BRAINIAC 5: Batman, this is Brainiac 5 transmitting from the telepathic plug I gave you. If you haven’t done so already, I suggest you insert it into your ear for the full effect.

He does so. It’s a recording of Brainiac Five…12

BRAINIAC 5: Hello, Mr. Wayne. I apologize for the last minute nature of this notice and my request, but I’m confident that you’ll be able to handle it. That’s why I left you in the twentieth century. I couldn’t tell you this before because I could never be sure if the Time Trapper was eavesdropping or not. But this message is keyed to go off when Dr. Hunter’s time sphere returns to the twentieth century, so by now the Trapper is secure behind our reinforced Iron Curtain of Time. The plan you’re about to hear has a 99.82744% chance of working. As to the remaining X%, you’ll have to improvise, but that’s what you’re best at.13

Problem: Batman is stuck in the Fortress at the North Pole! He goes running through the Fortress, Robin chasing after him.

BATMAN: Come on, Kal, tell me you still have it… He has to have it. The man never throws anything away — he has the Titanic hanging from his ceiling, for God’s sake.

They look into a room. Panel of Batman scowling, then he grins as Robin looks over his shoulder.14

ROBIN: Oh, you gotta be kidding me.

Next panel: Batman and Robin leaving the Fortress in the Supermobile!15

Now it’s Batman’s turn to contribute—Brainy could only trust Batman to pull off this last, impossible task, the crucial second half of the plan. Batman has to gather up the super-speedsters and the electro-magnetic heroes, repair the Cosmic Treadmill, and head to the past. To the Dawn of Time.

WALLY: Didn’t we just do this?16

At this point, the heroes don’t know who to trust any more. Batman has gathered them, but everything around them is falling apart and they’re just supposed to risk everything for another time travel jaunt? There’s serious resistance to Batman’s orders. Fortunately, he’s prepared for this with his secret weapons: Jericho and Deadman.

FLASH: I won’t run. What are you going to do about that?

BATMAN: Boston.

FLASH: Boston? Boston what?

And then he’s possessed by Deadman.

Meanwhile, Jericho is in Batman and Bats knocks out Johnny Thunder. Joey possesses Thunder and says, “Say, you, Thunderbolt! Listen to Batman until I say otherwise!” And the T-bolt says, “OK!”

Now Batman has two key elements needed. Hopefully, Brainy’s plan will work. Time to run.

End Chapter 4

Next: The Grand Finale!

(The only glory I will ever get for this thing that I’ve carried in my brain since childhood is people looking at it. So if you have friends you think might get a kick out of it, please point them in this direction! Teen Barry thanks you, and so do I.)

Stories I Never Told: Crisis on Captive Earths — Chapter 3

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Chapter 3 — Lost and Found

Superboy wants to go to Earth-4.1

Earth-1, it turns out, is too unfamiliar and alien to him, while Earth-4 — with its relative lack of cosmic heroes and villains — is closer to his own Earth-Prime. Since Earth-4 has Superman comic books, he’ll take on a new identity with a disguise, the whole nine yards. The heroes of Earth-4 agree to help him.

This dovetails perfectly with Brainy’s plan, which is to cut off Earth-4 from the other Earths. It’s the best thing for the people there, he argues, and will also prove the efficacy of the mystery technology he’s developed to fight the Time Trapper. Brainy pitches in to help young Clark with his disguise. Superman asks if this is the best use of Brainy’s time, all things considered.

BRAINY: Did you really think I would sever Earth-4 from us and leave it completely defenseless? The heroes there are nowhere near as powerful as here, and while young Clark’s powers are not yet fully developed, in time he’ll be as powerful as you. At least there will be one champion in that universe who is truly a force to reckon with.

While all of this is going on, we learn that Batman doesn’t trust Brainy. Superman tries to explain that Brainy doesn’t mean to be mysterious and non-forthcoming; he’s just so far advanced that he can’t help it. Brainy, meanwhile, pretty much treats Batman like dirt, since Batman is useless for his purposes.2

BATMAN: You trust him?

SUPERMAN: He’s more brilliant than any million people on the planet, including you and me.

BATMAN: I know he’s intelligent. I’m asking if he’s trustworthy.

SUPERMAN: He’s probably saved my life as often as you have.

BATMAN: And put it at risk as well, if I remember the stories you’ve told about him.

SUPERMAN: You’ve met the Legion. You’ve worked with them.

BATMAN: Yes, and I’ve even been to their perfect, shining future. And I know that I don’t trust anything that perfect.

The heroes are still gathered at the Fortress, making plans, developing strategies. Brainy plans to build something that will punch right through the Time Trapper’s Iron Curtain of Time, bringing the fight to him. In the meantime, Superman makes a decision—he will deal with Lex Luthor once and for all. So he and Batman break into Luthor’s cell.

LUTHOR: To what do I owe the honor, old foe?

SUPERMAN: I wanted to tell you something.

LUTHOR: Unless you plan to shoot yourself with a kryptonite bullet, I don’t want to hear it.

SUPERMAN: I miss you, Lex. I miss having you as my friend. When we were kids, you were the only person I could talk to, the only person I could trust. My only equal.

LUTHOR: And how did you repay that trust? By scarring me for life! By destroying my work! And now you come here with a sob story, and I’m supposed to buy it? Am I supposed to weep with you and feel sorry for you and become good? Am I supposed to forget what you did to me?

SUPERMAN (sadly): No, Lex. I just came to say goodbye.

LUTHOR: Goodbye?

SUPERMAN: Bruce, could you…

LUTHOR: Bruce? [Batman advances] Bruce Wayne of course it makes sense oh my God. Oh my God. You’re going to do it. You’re finally going to kill me. And you can’t even do it yourself, you coward! You have to have your lackey do it for you! Look at me! Damn you, you alien freak, look at me while he kills me! At least have the decency to watch your own handiwork!

But Superman only looks away as Batman approaches Luthor…and Luthor screams.3

Back at the Fortress, Brainy has gathered his tech. He’s ready for his test run and he fires up the tuning forks, modified with the tech he stole from Brainiac. It works! The universes are separated…and Earth-4 is permanently disconnected from the rest of the multiverse.

That night, Superman goes to Lana.

SUPERMAN: Someday…someday I’ll tell you everything. I’ll tell you about today. But not now. I just can’t…

Later, he goes to his diary in a secluded, private area of the Fortress and uses his heat vision to write: “Lex is no longer an issue.” And then he puts his face in his hands and sits alone.

Meanwhile, when no one is watching, Brainiac 5 slips into the Phantom Zone Viewing Chamber and begins cannibalizing Superman’s Phantom Zone equipment…

He presses a button and Batman suddenly leaps from the shadows! He was right — he couldn‘t trust Brainiac Five, who is now ready to unleash the horrors of the Phantom Zone on an unsuspecting Earth…unless Batman can stop him!

End Chapter 3

More soon!

(The only glory I will ever get for this thing that I’ve carried in my brain since childhood is people looking at it. So if you have friends you think might get a kick out of it, please point them in this direction! Teen Barry thanks you, and so do I.)

Stories I Never Told: Crisis on Captive Earths — Chapter 2

Prologue | Chapter 1

Chapter 2 — No Way Home1

This issue’s notes are the thinnest, mostly composed of blocks of dialogue. The upshot is that Brainiac 5 reveals that the Time Trapper is preparing to exploit the chaos in the timestream and across dimensions wrought by the Crisis on Infinite Earths to extend his domain from the End of Time and finally rule all of time.

And of course it’s the Time Trapper. Of course I would use a Legion villain. It’s funny, too, because I can see some elements of this story ending up in my Flash series, decades later. Which means nothing to you, Gentle Reader, but tickles my funny bone something fierce. It’s like a gift from Teen Barry to Old Man Barry, handed across the gulf of years.

Anyway, Brainy reveals that the Time Trapper is behind all of the weird time shenanigans of late. The twentieth century is the focal point, so this has to be the staging area.2 He has a plan to defeat the Trapper, but he won’t say what it is because the Trapper could be eavesdropping.

Superman, of course, trusts Brainy implicitly and helps him settle into the twentieth century so that they can plan their attack on the Time Trapper. Brainy — good friend that he is — sees that Superman is more discomposed by Lex than usual and tries to help Superman understand the true depths of Luthor’s hatred for him.

BRAINIAC 5: Even when he was happy on Lexor, some part of him could not rest, knowing that you existed. He will never rest until you are dead, Kal-El. Nothing will stop him. Not until you’re wiped from the universe.3

Brainy begins to get really frustrated by the primitive technology and relatively weak heroes of the twentieth century.4

BRAINIAC 5: This Black Lightning person: Can he generate electricity in the terawatt range? Can he manipulate electromagnetic pulses?

SUPERMAN: Jeff? No, I don’t— I don’t think so.

BRAINIAC 5: This is not going well. If I had a good telepath, a transmuter… I’m tempted to try to re-create Omega or Computo—

SUPERMAN: Oh, Rao, no. Please, Brainy, promise me you won’t. I can get you a transmuter. Firestorm’s a good man.

BRAINIAC 5: I’m worried about his inexperience.

SUPERMAN: He’s older than Jan was when we let him into the Legion.

BRAINIAC 5: True.

Brainy considers using Daxam, but there’s no time to mass-produce the anti-lead serum, and he doesn’t have time to train “a billion amateurs” in the use of their super-powers, or to hand-pick Daxamites who could be useful. Superman asks about using the Rokynians: “I trained a group of them myself.” Brainy points out that Rokyn’s out of phase with this dimension right now.5

BRAINIAC 5 (frustrated): I could do a better job with Tyroc, Color Kid, and Porcupine Pete than with most of the heroes of this era.6

Truly desperate, Brainy tracks down the Brainiac of the twentieth century.

BRAINIAC 5: Hmm. You’re in the cybernetic form that you later abandoned.7 I have to confess, this is very interesting, but I can’t stay to examine it.

Turns out Brainy has an override code for the original Brainiac! He just shuts down his “ancestor” and then cannibalizes him for the parts he needs.

So now Brainy asks Superman to gather his forces at the Fortress of Solitude, which means — I assume — we’d see a big two-page spread a la George Perez in Crisis of all the heroes. There’s a little character bit that I have to admit cracks me up, thirty years later:

ROBIN: Hey, remember the last time we were here and I saved Superman and Wonder Woman from that Mongul guy?

BATMAN: Yes. We were all terribly impressed.

Anyway, moving on… Brainy isn’t ready to reveal his entire plan yet (of course not — he’s Brainy), but he does say that it’s time to test it. He’s going to use the Monitor’s tuning forks (left over from the original Crisis and still on the surviving Earths) to separate the Earths from each other…and seal one of them off in its own universe forever!

Dun-dun-DUN!!!!

End Chapter 2

More soon!

(The only glory I will ever get for this thing that I’ve carried in my brain since childhood is people looking at it. So if you have friends you think might get a kick out of it, please point them in this direction! Teen Barry thanks you, and so do I.)

Stories I Never Told: Crisis on Captive Earths — Chapter 1

If you don’t want to be completely lost, start with the Prologue, please…

Chapter 1 — Here and Now

The year is 1986.

The super-heroes of five Earths have defeated the Anti-Monitor in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the greatest battle ever to befall them. Five remaining parallel universes are now interlinked, overlapping at certain points on Earth called “warp zones,” where travel between dimensions is as easy as crossing the street. Through joint agreements with the United Nations of each Earth, the warp zones are strictly guarded and quarantined.

Earth-4, though, is problematic. It is less experienced with super-heroes and especially with cosmic-level events such as the Crisis. The super-heroes of that Earth are trying to quell ongoing panics on Earth-4, but its continued connection to the other Earths is a major concern.1

Bad things are happening on all of the Earths — time goofs, random attacks from new villains and species. It’s [REDACTED] though no one knows it.2

Even Lex Luthor doesn’t understand what’s going on…which he admits only to his Lexorian power armor, which he has programmed with a sort of therapist AI.3

Superman reveals his identity to Lana. “No more secrets,” he tells her. Later, Lois realizes something is up.4

LOIS: He told you, didn’t he?5

LANA: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

LOIS: That’s OK. You can pretend. It doesn’t bother me. I’m glad he told you. You two…you’re good for each other. Sometimes first loves are best loves.

LANA: Lois…

LOIS: No, no, it’s OK. Really. I wish he had told me. I wish he had trusted me or loved me enough.

LANA: But you know.

LOIS: What am I, stupid?6 It’s a great disguise, I’ll admit. So much more than just a pair of glasses, really. You know, eventually I realized something. I realized that it must mean something to him, having people not know. It must be important to him. So I backed off. I stopped snooping, stopped trying to prove it. I knew the truth, and that was all that mattered. I just wish he’d told me. But I’m happy for you, Lana. I really am.7

I have a note in here that reads simply “Lots of conversations between Kal-L and Kal-El, including (this is so cool!) the events of Action Comics #1, told from Kal-L’s POV!” Yes, the parenthetical is right there in black and white. I…guess…it would be cool? I’m not sure what I was going for. And Kal-L is never mentioned again, so… 🤷‍♂️.

There is another note that “Green Lantern and the Corps are in the anti-matter universe, trying to rebuild.” I’m not sure if that means they’re trying to rebuild the anti-matter universe after the Crisis (why would they???) or if they’re trying to rebuild the Corps after its losses during same. In any event, I suspect my younger self was trying to remove a very, very powerful set of pieces from the board so that readers wouldn’t wonder why the GLC didn’t swoop in to save the day. YMMV.

Meanwhile, Lex decides to kill everyone Superman loves since he can’t kill Superman himself.8 He starts by kidnapping Lana. He threatens to kill her right in front of Superman when suddenly Brainiac 5 appears from the future.

BRAINIAC 5: We need to speak, Kal-El.

SUPERMAN: I’m busy right now, Brainy. Lana is—9

BRAINIAC 5: —a Legionnaire. She can take care of herself.10

LUTHOR: Brainiac? Since when did you—

BRAINIAC 5: Lex. I didn’t realize that you were still using the Lexorian battle armor at this point in history.

LUTHOR: Wait. I recognize you. You’re not the real Brainiac. You’re one of those brats from the future. You’re the one who’s almost intelligent.

BRAINIAC 5: Truly, Superman, we need to speak.

SUPERMAN (exasperated): Brainy!

So, Superman and Brainy rescue Lana and lock up Lex again. Then Brainy reveals that he’s come to the past because there is a new, growing threat. Something is taking advantage of the instability and chaos in the wake of the Crisis, and the front in the war is, as ever, Earth in the twentieth century.

Superman doesn’t want to hear it. He’s tired, man! Everyone is!

SUPERMAN: Brainy, we just saved the universe. Several of them, in fact.

BRAINIAC 5: And didn’t save billions of them.

SUPERMAN: That’s unfair.

BRAINIAC 5: Regardless, it’s true.

Superman says that the time weirdness and everything is under control. The Earths are still connected, but they can deal with that. And in the meantime, he has a slew of villains on the loose to deal with, and Lex will probably break out again any day now — he really needs to find a way to deal with Lex once and for all.

Brainy reveals that Superman’s diary11survived to the thirtieth century. Most of it is unreadable, but one entry is in English and reads, ominously: “Lex is no longer an issue.”

End Chapter 1

And that, weirdly enough, is the end of the notes for Chapter 1. It seems like a strange place to end, but this isn’t an actual script — just notes.

More soon!

(The only reward I will ever get for this thing that I’ve carried in my brain since childhood is people looking at it. So if you have friends you think might get a kick out of it, please point them in this direction! Teen Barry thanks you, and so do I.)

Stories I Never Told: Crisis on Captive Earths — Prologue

Bear with me: There’s a story before the story to this one.

1985: DC Comics publishes Crisis on Infinite Earths. Before the series is even over, DC announces a follow-up: Crisis on Captive Earth (note the singular). CCE is slated to be drawn by Jerry Ordway and written by my favorite comic book writer, Paul Levitz. Needless to say, I’m psyched!

1986: Crisis on Captive Earth never happens. Instead, DC publishes Legends, written by Len Wein and John Ostrander, with art by new Marvel expat John Byrne. What happened to CCE? Who knows?1

Now, look — if you don’t know anything about the original Crisis series, it’s beyond the purview of this humble BLog to educate you. Hie thee to Wikipedia, if you must. Suffice it to say, while I loved the series itself, I was less sanguine about the repercussions, which winnowed down the incredible DC multiverse to a single universe and timeline. This, I did not like.

Thus, in 1986, at the tender age of 15 and disappointed both in the ending of the original Crisis and the lack of a Levitz follow-up, I conjured…Crisis on Captive Earths (note, this time, the plural).

And now, decades later, I’ve found my notes for it.

It appears that I kept adding to the notes, probably through college, when I got my first Mac and committed it all to disk.

I’ve cleaned up what follows because in many cases the notes were scattered throughout the document and while I could follow the story that way because I know how my brain works (sort of), I figured a more linear presentation would be best for public consumption. I tried to present an honest version of what I wrote back then, but inevitably, some of present-day me will creep in.

I will also occasionally drop in via footnote to give context if I think it’s interesting, needed, or just amusing. There are bits of dialogue I wrote (forgive me) and I will reproduce them as-is (again, forgive me).

There are seven issues in total (and, thus, there will be seven posts): a prologue and epilogue, with five issues in between.

On Twitter, I referred to this story as a sequel to the original Crisis, but it’s more accurately something like half a reboot.

Let me explain.

In Crisis, the infinite earths are whittled down to five, and then those five are merged into one.

In my Captive Earths, I imagine instead that the five earths remained extant. That in the battle at the Dawn of Time seen in Crisis on Infinite Earths #10, the Spectre is able to defeat the Anti-Monitor decisively and protect the remaining earths, though at the expense of his very existence. Thus, the status quo when my series opens: Five parallel worlds, wracked by the horrors of the Crisis, trying to recover from a universes-shattering event, still partly connected and suffering from the overlap.

Here you go, from my fevered teen brain to you; I present…

Prologue — The World to Come

The thirtieth century2 is devastated from the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, including the critical moments at the Dawn of Time when the Spectre wrestled with the Anti-Monitor for the fate of the multiverse. In the aftermath of that battle, the Anti-Monitor was defeated, though at the expense of the Spectre’s existence. The heroes present at the Dawn of Time — including the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes — have found themselves flung back to their home eras and dimensions.

At the thirtieth century’s Time Institute, Rond Vidar attempts to catalog and quantify the massive changes to the time/space continuum created by the Crisis and its multi-pronged temporal attack. Vidar was not present at the Dawn of Time, but his research and discussion with the Legionnaires has filled in many of the details. He has learned that the remaining parallel worlds — Earths 1, 2, S, X, and 4 — are still interlocked, though their merging has halted and the time glitches that plagued them seem to have stopped.

For now.

While the devastation to the thirtieth century has been horrific, it pales in comparison to the rest of the timestream, thanks mainly to the existence of the Time Beacon and the Infinite Man (as chronicled in Legion of Super-Heroes Volume III, #173). Rond’s efforts to piece together a chronology of the Crisis are hampered by the havoc along the timestream and also by the absence of Brainiac 5, who is in mourning for the death of Supergirl.

Hoping to comfort his friend and also to get Brainy back to work on the problem of quantifying the changes to the timestream and their implications for Rond’s ongoing time travel research, Rond goes to Legion headquarters, where he and Mon-El discuss the Crisis and potential ways to get Brainiac 5 “back on board.” Rond enlists Mon-El in his efforts, since Mon is a veritable treasure-trove of first-hand historical experience, having personally witnessed an entire millennium.4

It’s also, Rond figures, a good way to keep Mon-El’s mind off of the death of Supergirl, which is bothering all Legionnaires, but hitting Mon-El particularly hard.

As the two begin their research (commandeering Brainy’s lab), they begin to find strange temporal glitches. Are these “bleed-throughs” from the other alternate earths, or the result of permanent damage to the timestream? One such glitch is in the form of an image preserved from the late twentieth century, purporting to show a gathering of super-heroes, including members of the Justice League…and an old Coluan.

Rond and Mon-El figure that the mysterious Coluan is the perfect way to get Brainiac 5 interested again. There are no previous records of Coluan contact with Earth so early in history (save for the original Brainiac robot), and this is just the sort of thing that should jump-start Brainiac 5’s curiosity.

To their chagrin, Brainy seems completely uninterested in the old image, dismissing it and them.
Later, Rond returns to the Time Institute…only to discover that his work has been destroyed, his records ransacked. Even his Time Cube — outdated and obsolete, kept around purely for nostalgia — has been destroyed.

At the same time, Mon-El comes upon Brainiac 5 in the Legion lab, where he is packing equipment into one of the time bubbles. Mon-El asks what Brainy is up to.

BRAINIAC 5: Mon-El, you’re aware of the serum I created that keeps you alive.

MON-EL: That’s a stupid— Of course I am…

BRAINIAC 5 (tapping buttons on his belt): I built in a deactivation mechanism, just in case.

MON-EL: I don’t—

BRAINIAC 5: And I just activated it.5

Mon-El collapses in agony. Just before he falls into a coma from massive lead poisoning, he sees Brainy hop into one of the time bubbles. Then, as the bubble fades into the timestream, the other time bubbles all explode, along with the rest of the lab, leaving Mon-El dying amid the wreckage.

End Prologue

More soon!

(BTW: Look, the only reward I will ever get for this thing that I’ve carried in my brain since childhood is people looking at it. So if you have friends you think might get a kick out of it, please point them in this direction! Teen Barry thanks you, and so do I.)

Stories I Never Told: The Fury of Firestorm

For every story of mine you see, there are many that never managed to make the leap from my brain to your eyeballs. Stories I Never Told is where I rectify that.

Listening to this wonderful interview with comic book legend Gerry Conway reminded me that a few years back — at the beginning of the Trump Years, as you will see — I pitched a Firestorm graphic novel to DC Comics for their then-new young adult imprint. It was rejected, for reasons I’m still not entirely clear on.

Anyway, I’m sort of glad it was rejected. Since then, I’ve come to feel that if the creator of a character is still alive and interested, then only that person should be writing the character in question. If the creator is not interested, then he or she is free to “bless” another writer. But really, unless Gerry Conway says it’s OK, no one else should be writing Firestorm.1

But hey — I’m still happy to share the pitch with y’all. Check it out…

The Fury of
FIRESTORM

by Barry Lyga

Sometimes you can only rely on yourself…
…and maybe the voice in your head.

We don’t have to write stories about kids learning that they can change the world. Check out Parkland. They already know.

But there’s still a place for stories about what to do with that power.

All things being equal, you probably think you’d like to be Ronnie Raymond. Handsome, well-liked, high school football star-in-the-making… Surrounded by friends, dating Doreen Day, who’s one of the smartest kids in school…

And oh yeah — a little while back, he happened to be present when a nuclear facility went ker-blooey, and as a result he was gifted with an array of super-powers, including the sexy-sounding “atomic restructuring.” Which basically means he can convert any inorganic matter into any other form of inorganic matter. Need a gold bar conjured from thin air? Need your backpack turned into a diorama of the surrender at Appomattox in time for third period History class? Firestorm’s your man.

Not bad.

But every silver lining has its cloud.

Ronnie can only become Firestorm by merging with Professor Martin Stein, who was with Ronnie when the nuke plant went sky-high. They form a whole new body, with Ronnie in control, but with Stein as a nagging, too-smart, old man voice in his head. Sometimes the guy gives good advice, but most of the time, honestly, it’s like a 24/7 livestream of your parents bitching at you.

Then there’s this: even though Firestorm mitigated almost all of the damage from the explosion, everyone assumed he made it happen in the first place since he was a super-powered guy on the scene. So the cops, the FBI, the NRC, the CIA, the NSA, the DEO, and pretty much every other TLA out there wants Firestorm in their greedy little clutches.

It’s tough to be a super-hero when you’re also a wanted man. Fortunately, Ronnie and Stein can split and no one’s ever the wiser.

Still…

He’d like to do something. He has all this power, and yet it feels like he’s wearing chains. Every time he tries to do something, he just gets chased down by the cops and pilloried by the media. What’s the point of having that power?

His “civilian” life isn’t much better. Yeah, he’s a football hero, but he’s losing his love of the game. One more year to graduation, and Ronnie’s only hope for college (and sticking with Doreen, whom he adores) is a football scholarship. After all, his grades don’t exactly set the world on fire, and his dad is an investigative reporter for a dying print publication. Which isn’t really a high-paying gig. Dad gets offers all the time from tony internet sites to work for them, but refuses to compromise his principles, no matter how much Ronnie begs him to “get a real job.”

Oh, and also: He’s dating the principal of Ronnie’s school. Come on!

Ronnie Raymond has all the power of a god, but he still can’t get his GPA above 2.9 and he still can’t figure out how to fix his mess of a life and he can’t even summon up the enthusiasm to join in the campus protests against the border wall that’s almost finished construction. Everyone else is engaged; why not him?

His football has become sloppy as he struggles with all of this, and during a critical game, he freezes up at one point, almost costing the team a win.

Dad gives him hell for it. “You just stood there! Like a deer in the headlights!”

“Really original, Dad.”

“I get paid for original, Ronnie. I don’t need my thesaurus to tell my kid to get his head out of the clouds and into the game.”

“But there was no good move! I had blockers on one side and a tight end on the other, and—“

“And when you have no good choices, you choose the least bad one. You do something.”

Fed up with his dad, losing his sense of self, Ronnie decides that he has to confide in someone about his double life. He can’t tell Doreen — she’d freak out, and he can’t live in a world where she doesn’t want to be with him. So instead he tells his best friend since grade school, Johnny St. James. They’ve shared everything, and on the football field, they’re pure magic together.

Johnny takes the reveal pretty well, actually. And then he tells Ronnie that since they’re sharing big secrets…

“I’m an alien.”

Ronnie goggles. “You mean…like Superman?”

Johnny laughs. “No, dude. More like Undocumented Man.”

Johnny’s birth name was Juan Santiago. His parents brought him across the border when he was two and a half, and they’ve lived here ever since. Johnny’s never told anyone, and it’s a huge burden lifted to finally speak it out loud.

Unfortunately, overhearing is Cliff Carmichael, the “brain-jock” of East Park High School. Cliff’s the kid who sold his first app to a start-up at the age of 12. He’s always been top dog, and he knows it. The only thing that bothers him more than bugs in his code is the idea that his peers are still stupid enough to worship the Neanderthals who play sports.

So of course he drops a dime on Johnny in order to gut the football team. And the next thing you know, the whole family’s been snatched up by ICE for deportation.

Ronnie’s dad, the big, bad investigative reporter, is no help. “Sometimes, son, all you can do is shout to the world Here’s a problem! And that’s more than you think. Awareness matters.”

Awareness matters??? Ronnie’s plenty aware, thanks. He needs to take action.

He’s never actually met Professor Stein before. They’ve shared a body, but never interacted when not Firestorm. Ronnie goes to him, thinking a guy that smart has to have some ideas.

And he learns a horrible secret: When he’s not Firestorm, Stein is a barely-functioning alcoholic. The transformation process clears his mind for their super-hero stints, but when he’s a civilian, he’s…

…just as useless as Ronnie’s dad.

And the teachers who watched ICE agents snatch Johnny out of Chem class.

And the politicians who can’t be bothered to figure any of it out.

Ronnie…

…loses it. And when he decides to go nuclear, well…take it literally.

He’s all-too-aware of his limitations. The ability to restructure matter doesn’t let him change the law. Or people’s minds. The only thing he can do is track down the Santiagos, who have been stashed away in a terrifying, extra-legal ICE facility.

Firestorm turns the place into steam, releasing everyone.

It feels good, even though ICE is now another one of those TLAs that would like to…talk to Firestorm. The good feeling doesn’t last, though. For one thing, it turns out his dad had been investigating the facility for a year and was working on a book that would have changed his life. Now, thanks to “that goddamn superhero!” it’s all moot.

And most of the detainees are quickly recaptured, though at least now they’re in actual law enforcement custody, where they can try to avail themselves of the courts. Better than ICE’s black sites.

But not good enough.

When you have no good choices, you choose the least bad one. You do something.

With ultimate power at his fingertips, Ronnie realizes that it’s incumbent on him to take a stand, force people to think, change the status quo. He has precisely zero good options, but he can’t let that stop him.

He flies south, to where the border wall is being constructed. It would be easy to vaporize the wall, but that would just leave nothing there. Nothing for people to contemplate.

Ronald, Professor Stein says, what on earth are you going to do?

Something.

So, instead of taking the wall down, he blasts massive holes in it. Now there’s a monument to failure on the southern border, a KEEP OUT sign that’s been shotgun-blasted. That “big, beautiful wall” is now a pointless eyesore.

Let people see that; let them see the futility of a wall.

Ronald, says the Professor with an almost parental sigh, they’ll just repair it.

“Let ‘em,” Firestorm says, flying away. “I’ll come back and do it again.”

And again.

And again.

As many times as it takes.

Generation Wonder: The New Age of Heroes is Coming!

Been sitting on this one for a long time, and I am so happy to announce it!

A high-flying YA anthology featuring 13 short stories that turn superhero tropes on their head and offer fresh perspectives on modern myths

Triumph. Tragedy. The empyreal. The infernal. Even the mundane, filtered through the fantastical. Superheroes are, appropriately enough, a sort of super-genre, encompassing all other story types.

This YA anthology features 13 short stories that creatively turn superhero tropes on their head, while still paying homage to the genre that has found fans for more than eight decades. And there will be no mistake—superheroes don’t have to just be generic handsome white dudes. Everyone in the world, no matter their race, sexual preference, pronouns, or level of ability, has dreamed of flying.

Contributors include six New York Times bestselling authors, seven multiple award winners, a founder of We Need Diverse Books, and at least one author with millions of books in print in the U.S. alone. The collection is edited by New York Times bestselling author Barry Lyga, and it also features illustrations from Colleen Doran—New York Times bestselling cartoonist, and artist of the legendary Stan Lee’s memoir. The full list of contributors includes: Barry Lyga, Paul Levitz, Sarah MacLean, Lamar Giles, Elizabeth Eulberg, Danielle Paige, Varian Johnson, Joseph Bruchac, Morgan Baden, Matthew Phillion, Anna-Marie McLemore, Sterling Gates, and Axie Oh.

If you know anything at all about me, it’s that I love super-heroes. And I’ve always wanted to assemble my own Legion of Super-Authors to give the world a slew of new ones. Now it’s happened. Generation Wonder will thrill you, tickle your funny bone, make you cry, and surprise the hell out of you. It’s an assemblage of people known for doing super-heroes…and known for not doing super-heroes. Of YA authors and non-YA authors and even a couple of folks who’ve never written prose before.

I can’t wait for you to see it, along with Colleen’s gorgeous illustrations!

You can preorder the book here. And then put June 14 on your calendar and get ready to fly.

 

Stories I Never Told: Superman Confidential

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Recently, I was plumbing the darkest depths of my hard drive and came upon a story pitch I wrote at DC’s invitation a million years ago.1

I can’t remember exactly how I ended up talking to DC (I think Brad Meltzer told them about me…?), but they asked me to come up with single-issue pitches for a couple different titles. At the time, there was a series called Superman Confidential. Well, you say Man of Steel and I say, “Sign me up!”

The assignment was to develop a single-issue story that could drop in at any point. So, no earth-shaking changes to continuity or anything like that. My pitch made it through the assistant editor, then the editor, then died on Dan DiDio’s desk because, in Dan’s words, “This isn’t a Superman story.”

Well… You decide:

Superman Confidential:
“For the Man Who Has Nothing”

The Man of Steel can’t defeat death…but can he defeat hopelessness?

We open on a splash: It’s Saturday night and Brian is at a party, surrounded by his family and friends. He’s the happiest man in the world. In this moment, Brian has everything.

And then we flash back: On Monday, Superman stops a bridge from collapsing in downtown Metropolis. And there’s Brian, one of the city’s homeless, watching the whole thing. Superman takes Brian to a shelter…and puts the incident out of his mind.

On Tuesday, Superman fights the Parasite at Centennial Park. And yes, Brian’s there, trying to sleep on one of the benches, wrapped in newspapers. Superman tries to talk to him, but Brian’s delusional. Worried about his mental state, Superman dutifully drops him off at a clinic before leaving on another mercy mission.

But on Wednesday… There’s Brian again. In the way again. Not in a hospital room somewhere. Not in a shelter.

Now Superman’s got an interest in this guy.

Intercut with this ongoing story, we revisit Brian in his paradise, with his friends and family. He has everything.

Visiting the shelter and the clinic and talking to Brian (who fades in and out of lucidity), Superman learns something horrible from the clinic doctor: “He has end-stage brain cancer, Superman.”

“Yes,” Superman says. “I see it now.”

Brian will die within the week.

“I wish there was something someone could do for the poor guy,” says the doctor.

“Guess what?” Superman replies.

He takes Brian to the Fortress of Solitude, where we witness a big splash of two incongruous worlds in collision: Brian sits there, a disheveled, dying homeless man surrounded by alien architecture and technology beyond human understanding… And he asks for a cookie.

Superman tries to ease Brian’s pain and descent into delusion with the many amazing and wondrous distractions the Fortress has to offer. But in the end, he realizes that all he can do is make Brian comfortable. And maybe, just maybe, ease his pain.

And so, he offers Brian the Black Mercy, the semi-sentient plant/fungus that bonds with its host and plays out for it a simulation of the host’s perfect “happy ending.” The story comes full circle as Brian lies in a fugue state for his last days. Inside, his mind is clear once more as he lives in a world where at last he has everything, everything he could have ever wanted.

When the inevitable comes, Superman returns to Metropolis with Brian’s body. “I’m sorry,” says Brian’s doctor. “I know you wanted to save him.”

And Superman can only smile — a triumphant smile. “What are you talking about?” he asks. “I did save him.”

What do you get for the man who has nothing? You give him everything.

I also found some loose notes I had jotted down with more details, such as this exchange between Superman and Brian:

SUPES
Are you OK? can I get you anything?
BRIAN
A cookie.
SUPES
OK, sure. A cookie. What kind?
BRIAN
I like the ones with chocolate. But not too much chocolate.
SUPES
…Right.

I also planned to have Krypto show up to meet Brian because every story needs a gooddog, right?

My general thought was that you wouldn’t really know that Brian had been plugged into the Black Mercy until the very end. Superman would mention possibly using the Black Mercy, then say something like “Great Krypton! My x-ray vision shows that your cancer is completely gone! I’ve never seen anything like it before!”

Of course, that’s part of the fantasy — he’s already plugged in at that point.

Speaking of that Black Mercy — where did Superman get it? Didn’t it go into a black hole with Mongul in the original Moore/Gibbons story?

Here’s a bit of dialogue I’d written to cover it:

SUPERMAN
This is something called a Black Mercy. It was…given to me a while back by someone who… Well, anyway. I had to give it back, but I kept a cutting and it’s grown since then.

Anyway, there you go — another Story I Never Told!

The Secret Origin of Free Comic Book Day

I wrote a thread on Twitter about Free Comic Book Day this year, but it was pretty long and I still had to leave out a lot. After I posted it, I discovered a trove of original documents on my computer. So for the sake of posterity, here’s everything from that Twitter thread and more!

It’s been twenty years of Free Comic Book Day. As the guy who was there at the beginning, I thought y’all might be interested in a little time travel. Come with me now to the halcyon days of late 2001…

It started with a magazine called Comics Retailer and a man named Joe Field.

Joe owned (and owns!) Flying Colors, an amazing comic book store in the Bay Area. He noticed one day that the Baskin-Robbins store nearby was getting a hell of a lot of business when they gave away free scoops. He wondered if maybe comics could do something similar.

So he wrote an open letter in Comics Retailer proposing the idea of a coordinated day of giving away comics.

At the time, I was working at Diamond Comic Distributors, managing all non-Previews publications. So I was in charge of the order forms, the weekly newsletter, the monthly retailer magazine, all of Diamond’s websites, plus ad hoc stuff like ads, marketing materials, etc.

It was…a lot.

The original FCBD logos. I think the folks at DC designed the oblong one and then Diamond did the rectangle.

I was summoned one day into the office of Roger Fletcher, VP of Marketing. Also there was my direct boss, Shelley Myers, Executive Director of Marketing. I think Bill Schanes, VP of Purchasing, was there, too. Not sure.

Roger asked me if I’d read Joe’s open letter. I said I had. “Do you think we should do something like that?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” I said.

“OK,” said Roger. “You’re in charge. Make it happen.”

Now, the operations side of things was handled by Cindy Fournier, VP of Operations — it was her task to arrange separate warehouse procedures to handle the influx of free comics from the publishers. Which was no small task! To her credit, I believe there was never a glitch in any FCBD shipping, at least not while I was at Diamond.

But FCBD was — and is — a marketing effort. At the end of the day, if the books are in the stores and no one comes in to get them (and, ideally, to be seduced into buying something while they’re there!), then the event is a failure.

The date May 4, 2002 was chosen. Because that was the day after the premiere of the first Spider-Man movie, which had all the hallmarks of being a mega-hit. It seemed like a natural media hook.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but far from being “one more thing” on my already overflowing plate, FCBD would grow to consume all of my work time. Fortunately, I had a great team working under me — Lance Woods, Scott Braden, Jeff Mills… I think Abby Horman was handling the order form by then, but I might be off by a year.

Coupons we provided to stores. The idea was that newcomers would be enticed to come back.

My desk became covered with post-it notes related to FCBD, and I was so busy that I literally did not have the time to organize them or transfer them to a more permanent medium. I knew by muscle memory where each note was on the desk and didn’t dare move them. So at some point, I grabbed a tape gun and basically laminated the top of my desk so that nothing would move or get lost. Scott came into my office after FCBD was over, looked at the desk, and said, “You oughtta get that framed and hang it on your wall.”

(I kinda wish I had. Or at least taken a picture for posterity.)

FCBD talking points I compiled for other Diamond folks to use.

In this age of billion-dollar super-hero franchises, it may seem quaint, but at the time, FCBD was considered a pretty revolutionary idea. Comics were still in the doldrums of the big bust of the nineties, and here the industry was coming together to promote itself. It was a pretty big deal.

My budget was zero dollars.

Zero.

I was supposed to launch the industry’s first-ever industry-wide promotional event and I had no money.

So I picked up the phone. I started cold-calling and cold-emailing everyone I could think of. Every news contact I had. Every organization focused on promotion and marketing. TV Guide! Cartoon Network! I tracked down every reporter I could find who had ever done a story about comic books and bombarded them.

I got lucky. A lot.

Started calling USA Today, CNN, everyone I could think of. Realize I had zero experience in this sort of thing. I was just making lists of everyone I could think of that would have any interest whatsoever. I called, e-mailed, filled out contact forms. At the time, MasterCard was doing it’s “Priceless” ad campaign, and I came up with a hook to tie it into FCBD. I called them repeatedly and never heard back. Which is probably sensible on their part, but damn, it would have been cool!

I  managed to connect with a woman named Susan Nave at SYFY. (They were Sci-Fi Channel back then.) Stargate SG-1 and Farscape were about to launch new seasons, and it seemed like a good fit. Sci-Fi hired the inestimably talented Neal Adams to draw an original piece of art celebrating those series. Then Diamond arranged to have that art printed on thousands of backing boards that were sent free to store for giveaway, along with comic sleeves with the Sci-Fi logo. A week before FCBD, Sci-Fi ran a day of super-hero programming and promoted the event on-air.

The press release announcing Sci-Fi Channel’s support of FCBD.

It was perfect except that there was some kind of glitch where the guy in charge of the bags and boards at Diamond never told me about a production charge that came to something like $1500. I remember calling Sci-Fi Channel, petrified that they were going to ream me out, but they just laughed and said, “Is that it? No problem.”

What a difference between the budgets in TV and comics!

We offered press releases and as many assets as we could to local stores. One of the things I did was try to explain to local stores how to get local coverage. That was my big brainstorm — this event was coordinated at the national (and international) level, but it was really thousands of local events all happening at once. A story on the evening news would be great, sure, but even better would be a story in the local paper pointing potential customers right at the local store.

A fill-in-the-blanks “Swiss Cheese” press release we provided for local retailers to use.

I was literally the only person in the comic book industry at the time whose job description included the phrase “promote comic books.” I mean, sure DC had someone to promote DC comics and Marvel had someone to promote Marvel comics, but there was no one tasked with promoting comics themselves as a medium.

One of the biggest issues was internal to the industry — there was a lot of tension between the big publishers in those days, especially DC and Marvel. No one wanted to do something that would help their bottom line if there was a chance it would also help their rival’s. Ugh. Until the event could be proven and popular, no one was really going to go all-out. In a way, we were lucky just to get them on-board at all!

The comics produced by the four inaugural FCBD Gold Sponsors.

After months of work, the day itself arrived. I went to two local comic book stores on that first FCBD. Both were ill-attended and had no customer bump to speak of.

The event was a dismal failure. I was a dismal failure.

I wallowed for the entire weekend. I had given it my all and it hadn’t worked. It was pretty goddamn depressing.

Well, at least Spider-Man was good, right?

The Monday after FCBD, I trekked into the office. Stared glumly at my desk, a mocking reminder of all my fruitless labor.

While my computer slowly chugged through its boot-up process, I checked my voicemail. The excited voice of Patty Jeres from DC Comics erupted forth from the speaker: “Barry! You did it! Congratulations!”

What the hell was she talking about?

And then my email came up and I understood.

Dozens and dozens and dozens of emails. From readers. Customers. Retailers. All of them describing amazing, wonderful FCBD events at stores around the world. Photos and testimonials and thanks from everywhere.

Somehow, I had managed to visit the only two stores in the world with miserable inaugural Free Comic Book Days.

(Since, one of those stores has gone out of business. The other is still humming along and pretty quickly figured out how to make FCBD work and now has a great Free Comic Book Day every year.)

So…it worked. I couldn’t believe it.

I had a couple of days of clean-up, then jumped back into my normal job, getting caught up. Soon enough, the Powers that Were informed me that the event had gone so well that we were going to do it again.

And then again. And again. All the way until today.

My last FCBD from behind the desk was 2005, my last year at Diamond before I quit to pursue writing. (In fact, I left exactly one month after FCBD 2005, figuring I would see through the event and the necessary post mortem and clean-up before going.) I remember being of two minds when I left. On the one hand, I wanted the event to continue in my absence. On the other, I kinda wanted it to fall apart without me.

Well, it didn’t. If anything, it got bigger and better, which — on some days — makes me wonder if I was holding it back!

Anyway, Happy FCBD! And here’s to many, many more! Put on a mask and go get a free comic book today! (freecomicbookday.com will tell you where to go!)

As a bonus for reading this far, here are some more documents from the past!

This is the text I provided to the Diamond web designers for the very first freecomicbookday.com.

The original press kit for the FCBD website.

My original outline/plan for promoting FCBD online. Probably written in late 2001.

 

Publishers Weekly Stars Time Will Tell!

I’ve published a couple dozen books at this point, but the anxiety of waiting for reviews never really goes away. It may become milder as the years and the pages fly by, but it’s always there.

So I was both stoked and relieved to get the first review of Time Will Tell and find that it was a starred review!

Lyga … grips readers at every turn in this layered and provoking mystery that tackles sexual assault, mental illness, bullying, homophobia, and racism…. Switching perspectives between the present-day and 1986, Lyga’s novel is packed with unexpected twists and red herrings.

See the complete review here and check out the first four chapters of the book here.

Time Will Tell will hit bookshelves on September 28, 2021! You can preorder the book here: Amazon | Apple | BN.com | Indiebound | Kobo