Zero Hour: Crisis in Time 25th Anniversary Omnibus

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4-0

by Dan Jurgens

Celebrate one of the most monumental crossovers in DC history in the ZERO HOUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY OMNIBUS, which collects the time-bending miniseries as well as every comic book that tied into it, featuring appearances by every major DC super hero, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and more, as well as many forgotten cult-favorite characters.

All of reality comes under attack when a mysterious force of entropy begins slowly erasing time itself--making its way from both the past and future toward the present! As history itself unravels around them, the heroes of the world--including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, the Justice Society and the Titans--scramble to fix the broken timestream. But even if they stop the true source of the chaos, the world they save will never be the same! This new omnibus edition celebrates the 25th anniversary of this epic tale by collecting the original miniseries as well as every DC title that tied into it.

Collects ACTION COMICS #703, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #516, ANIMA #7, BATMAN #511, BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #31, CATWOMAN #14, DAMAGE #0 and #6, DARKSTARS #24, DETECTIVE COMICS #678, THE FLASH #0 and #94, GREEN ARROW #90, GREEN LANTERN #0 and #55, GUY GARDNER: WARRIOR #24, HAWKMAN #13, JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #92, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #68, JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE #16, L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #70, LEGIONNAIRES #18, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #61, OUTSIDERS #11, ROBIN #10, STEEL #8, SUPERBOY #8, SUPERMAN #93, SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL #0 and #37, TEAM TITANS #24, VALOR #23, ZERO HOUR #4-0, and stories from SHOWCASE '94 #8-10, along with a foreword by Dan Jurgens, afterword by series editor KC Carlson and an extensive gallery of promotional and behind-the-scenes material.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book

1096 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2019

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an oversized hardcover comic collection with over 1000 pages, this is the kitten squisher to end all kitten squishers. Seriously, if you need some kittens squished, this would be the book you’d want to use for the job.

It’s taken me months to get through this thing, not just because of how long it is, but because it’s so big that I had to be in the right mood to sit at the kitchen table because it's not like you could read it while laying on the couch or in bed.

Another funny thing about this one, it’s a DC crossover event that was originally published in 1994. I’m much more of a Marvel fan than DC (Except for my boy Batman.), I think crossover events are generally stunts to boost sales that have seriously hurt storytelling, and this came out at a time when mainstream comics had gotten so bad that fans quit reading which nearly caused the entire industry to implode. And yet I asked for this as a gift last Christmas.

Why? I’m not really sure myself. I’ve been watching a lot of the DC television shows and cartoons they do these days so that has my interest up. Plus, Zero Hour was right about the time I bailed on reading comics back in the ‘90s so it’s kind of a time capsule to go back to. It just sounded like an interesting artifact to re-examine.

So how was it? Weeelllll….. As I said before, this was kind of a bad time for superhero comics, and there is an incredible amount of material about characters that never caught on who I”m pretty sure have been left to the discount bin in comic books stores. So there isn’t nearly enough of the major characters like Batman and Superman to suit me. Plus, this was yet another huge part of DC’s obsession with repeatedly trying to revamp their continuity and create a timeline that ‘made sense’ which is something they insist on doing once a decade that looks more and more like a fool’s errand every time they try. The plot revolves around a big timey-wimey crisis that is ending all of the DC realities as we knew them, and it’s pretty much complete nonsense, even by comic book standards.

The most interesting aspect is that because it’s about worlds colliding, we get a lot of different versions of characters over the years at times, like Superman running into a whole bunch of different Batmen or Catwoman getting a glimpse of her various incarnations. One of the best side stories involves the Tim Drake version of Robin meeting and working with the much younger Dick Grayson as Robin to catch a thief.

My favorite was an absolute gem of a Green Arrow issue in which the entire story is done without captions or dialogue and shows via clever structure of the panels two parallel stories in which GA pursues a criminal, but ends two different ways. I could have used a lot more like that one in this.

Overall, it’s a big mishmash of ‘90s DC characters doing a lot of different stuff so it’s not without it’s charms, but anybody who didn’t know anything about the characters’ histories would most likely be lost. It’s also going to be a fairly big investment so not recommended for casual fans unless you find it cheap or get it from a library.

Still, I had some fun with it, and it did take me back to the days when Superman had come back from the dead and Batman had recovered from a broken spine. Not a bad trip down memory lane overall.

[Mizuki]

Pre-review: So this will come up by the end of this year? Totally want!

And...1096 pages!? OMG!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zero Hour very much wanted to be the new Crisis, and it's very obvious from its formulation, which includes a universe-wide crisis, a gathering of heroes, times (instead of places) being destroyed by waves of entropy, and even intrusions from other times (and dimensions). Sadly, it's just not as good.

Oh, the main plot isn't bad. It tries to resolve the failures of Armageddon 2001 and Emerald Twilight by building them both into something greater, but there's just not a lot of depth to anything. It's too quick and it's too clearly plotted, which pre-determined surprises yanking the readers around. And, it's also got the grotesque assassination of the JSA, to make room for "cooler" heroes. Still, it's got a somewhat emotional ending, and it did make way for some strong new series, most notably James Robinson's Starman.

The rest of the volume is a who's who of the DC Universe c. 1994, which is a nice little time capsule. Though some of the stories are unreadable, impossible to understand, or both (I'm looking at you, Anima), there are also comics that make strong use of the concept of people from other places and times, among them Batman, Robin, and Green Arrow. And we get some truly game-changing stories, such as the introduction of Impulse in the Flash and the latter half of the Legion's End of an Era. But don't expect these crossovers to be anything like full, coherent stories.

Overall, Zero Hour is OK, despite its flaws.

(And I am getting sick to death of the low quality of DC's omnibuses, particularly the big ones. This is another one who's spine has begun failing just from one careful read through the book. I'm not sure if it'll survive a second read without some repair.)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a big fan of Zero Hour. Besides Convergence it’s definitely the worst DC “Crisis” (and perhaps is worse or equal to Convergence—I haven’t read Convergence in a while but it had some great tie ins if nothing else). For reasons many people have said before, with just how convoluted it is, how it doesn’t really actually change much, etc.

I also am just not a Dan Jurgens fan. 🤷‍♂️ I don’t love Death of Superman, though that might be his best work, and overall I’ve never fully enjoyed anything he’s done.

Which weirdly becomes a positive for this omnibus, because it’s not just Jurgens. A lot of these issues were fine or “meh” or were issues I just didn’t care about (mostly due to not being familiar with the characters), but some were also really good. Overall a lot of them enhanced the event for me, and I just kinda skimmed through the ones I didn’t care for.

I’ll also mention that I think the book is incredibly well made and designed. There’s not really any gutter loss and the binding is holding up great so far. It actually has a table of contents which is great, and the way the issues are mapped out works well. There’s also a bunch of extras that I would absolutely love if I liked the event, haha.

And lastly, I love the dust jacket artwork and the artwork on the book itself. I’m glad they finally do not spoil one of the villains on the cover like they have in previous editions.

[Bane Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
I’ll start out with my main positive regarding this collection by saying that if you’re a huge DC Comics fan or just a fan of omnibus collected editions this is well worth your time. The art is suitably 90s bombast, and most of it looks excellent in an oversized format. This collection also contains a massive amount of bonus content (more than DC Omnis usually have), and it was really fun going through and looking at the more than 100 pages of bonus material.
That being said, if you’re only considering purchasing this omnibus for the story I don’t think it’s the essential way to read this material. If you’re a completionist (like me) then having all of the tie-ins in the correct reading order is great. However, very few of the tie-ins really add much to the overall event itself and some can be slightly confusing if you hadn’t read the previous issues of a particular character’s series. The main story isn’t much to write home either. You have to get to the third of the five chapters before anything of substance happens.

[Nolan Gutenschwager · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. This is by far my most conflicted review / rating. It kind of boils down to three things: 1) the five main issues of Zero Hour, which is largely good and all you really need to read 2) tie-ins that are usually not consequential but are fun standalone stories and 3) other tie-ins that are utterly confusing, irrelevant, or boring. If I was reviewing just the stuff I enjoyed or even just the main event, the rating might be a touch higher, but because this omnibus collects so much other stuff I have no interest in, it brings down the rating.

The plot is a little confusing but ultimately there are some odd time anomalies occurring all over and it is revealed that Extant (this is the new name he is going by, he was previously Monarch, and prior to that Hawk from Hawk & Dove) is behind this and destroying all of time. There are some people who monitor time trying to stop him and this Waverider character becomes pretty important, as he seems to know what is going on and how to solve everything. Superman summons a bunch of heroes together to save the day. Early on Wally vanishes and is considered potentially dead for awhile. The JSA has been de-aging themselves but that is reversed in the fighting and some of them die. Time is being wiped out everywhere until only the present moment is left. Then it is revealed Extant is not the main villain, but rather Parallax is behind all of this. This is what Hal Jordan is going by now, as he is driven so crazy after the destruction of Coast City and the huge fight with the Guardians and GLC.

I am conflicted on the Hal Jordan reveal. Disappointing to see such a great hero driven so mad, but at least there is an explanation. And obviously this is later retconned but I try not to keep that in consideration. But also, it is super compelling. I was so invested in Hal's story because it is a tragic fall from grace and the other heroes are struggling to come to terms with this too. Every time you see Hal show up you know something is going down. I will reiterate that the plot is a little confusing and there are definitely some questionable things going on. So Hal does not have a ring anymore, but he is powerful enough to do all of this? Apparently he absorbed some residual energy from the Anti-Monitor, so it was cool they acknowledged the first Crisis. So Hal can warp time, he basically knocks out Superman with one punch, then the Spectre shows up which is sweet but Hal still takes him down. The ending is nice, with Hal basically being drained of all his power and Green Arrow being so conflicted because this was his close friend but he shoots him in the chest with an arrow to bring it to an end. And then basically the timeline is reset and it is largely unchanged.

The lack of clear ramifications is one of my main complaints with this. What exactly did this accomplish? It seems like this was trying to solve for problems that were not really there. And I think some of the problems are from storylines and characters I am not as familiar with such as the Legion, but still, the timeline largely seems the same as before. And since there is no multiverse anymore at this point, I'm not fully sure how different timelines exist in the first place. It just seems like everything ends up where it started, and Extant is initially made out to be some big new villain but really it is just Parallax.

In terms of the tie-ins, what a mixed bag. None of them are needed to understand what is going on, which can be a good or bad thing. Some of them were pretty good, like Superman interacting with all sorts of different Batman variations (golden age, Dark Knight Returns, etc.). Tim Drake Robin partnering with Dick Grayson Robin was fun, as Tim really doubts himself after seeing how far ahead Dick was at a younger age but Tim still ends up proving himself. The Flash stories were great. There is a tremendous one where it is revealed that adult Wally, caught in this timestream, was the one who spoke to his child self and gave him a pep talk to chase his dreams. Kid Wally had always wondered who the mystery person was. So you get a fair amount of fun stories that do not matter at all but are entertaining. And then there are a lot of others that were a chore to get through. Some of this is on me, because I am not familiar with or interested in these characters. But objectively, for a lot of these, you are thrown right into the middle of a story with no clue what is going on and only a small portion can be considered a tie-in. Some of them were just not interesting at all and I trudged through (like a three-part JL story), some I gave an honest effort but was utterly confused (the many different Legion stories), and others I just skipped because I wanted to get this over with (Team Titans, Damage, Anima). In hindsight, I should have skipped even more stories since none of them mattered and I would only be left with the good stuff.

In summary, this is a mixed bag. The main story is fun and confusing, as expected, but it seems kind of pointless. Some characters get to shine and you get the Hal reveal as Parallax which is a big moment. The art is generally good. But there is a lot of additional stuff in here that is not good at all. Maybe good for some people, but useless at any rate.

[Index Purga]

Omnibus aparentemente integral posta que según esta misma descripción recopila:
ACTION COMICS #703, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #516, ANIMA #7, BATMAN #511, BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #31, CATWOMAN #14, DAMAGE #0 and #6, DARKSTARS #24, DETECTIVE COMICS #678, THE FLASH #0 and #94, GREEN ARROW #90, GREEN LANTERN #0 and #55, GUY GARDNER: WARRIOR #24, HAWKMAN #13, JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #92, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #68, JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE #16, L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #70, LEGIONNAIRES #18, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #61, OUTSIDERS #11, ROBIN #10, STEEL #8, SUPERBOY #8, SUPERMAN #93, SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL #0 and #37, TEAM TITANS #24, VALOR #23, ZERO HOUR #4-0, and stories from SHOWCASE '94 #8-10, más prólogo de Dan Jurgens, posfacio del editorKC Carlson y muchás páginas de material promocional y detrás de escenas.

[Jordan Perez · Rating 2 out of 5]

As many claim this is the worst crisis event (next to identity crisis) in the line up. I'm here to say it is very ehh.

The main issues Zero Hour 4-0 seem to be some of the weakest in this omnibus in regards to story telling. I found the best parts of this omnibus to be in the tie-ins such as Superman interacting with the different generations of Batman or Tim Drake Robin working together with Dick Grayson Robin. This book oozes '90s charm from beginning to end... up to you if you think that is good or bad.

Due to the immense repercussions of this event it is a must read for DC comics continuity. This is a must read if you want to read one of the best DC crisis event which in my opinion is Infinite Crisis.

[TheMadReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Dan and his work on Superman but this was so hard to get through. If you’re a completionist, which I am…I’d say skip this. This will leave you lost unless you’ve read the runs of that era on all of the characters mentioned…also, the story itself…blehhh.

This is out of print so it goes for a hefty price. Unless you’re a DC Crisis collector, don’t waste your money.

[Lucas Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok mais pas incroyable, beaucoup trop de ties ins inutiles et de crossovers avec des séries d'équipes, nécessitant donc beaucoup de connaissances, mais sur le fond de l'évent principal de bonnes idées, et une conclusion intéressante.

[mayleh · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️2.5

Isso foi desnecessariamente longo e super confuso, eu não senti nenhum mínimo de interesse lendo isso.

[Nathan Bissett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the overall story was very enjoyable if messy.

A lot of the tie ins are super unnecessary and should have just continued their stories uninterrupted by the event and still could have had a 0 issue the following month.

[Dan Prestwich · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main story is a bunch of sloppy gobbledygook, but at least some of the tie-in issues get to have some fun with DC continuity. Especially enjoyed the fat, clumsy doofus Alfred from golden age comics showing up for a swan song.

C-

[Jacob Mahaffey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a lot of 90s comics, this has some great stuff and some totally forgettable over-the-top stuff. The main series is pretty decent, but the tie-ins range from unique to mostly attempts to make bland generic sci-fi type characters seem interesting. Overall a solid collection for anyone interested in DC’s second major crisis