- Writer: Joshua Williamson
- Artist: Daniel Sampere
- Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
- Letterer: Tom Napolitano
- Cover Artists: Daniel Sampere and Alejandro Sanchez
- Editors: Chris Rosa and Paul Kaminski
Cover: Nice and straight forward – Green Lantern Hal Jordan on the left, Pariah in the middle, Barry Allen Flash on the right. Note that with this issue, the series was renamed DARK CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
Variant Covers can be found at the bottom of the page.
Page 1 – Panel 1: Hal Jordan on the left, chained by the constructs of the Lanterns of the Watchtower. From left to right are Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner, and Natasha Irons. We first met them at the end of the previous issue, and learned a little more about them in WORLDS WITHOUT A JUSTICE LEAGUE: GREEN LANTERN.
Page 1 – Panel 2: Jordan realises that these Lanterns are like the rest of the world, basically a construct.
Page 1 – Panel 4: The Lanterns are clearly unimpressed by Jordan’s bravado.
Page 1 – Panel 5: And as Jason Todd pulls a gun on him, someone from off panel is about to arrive . . .
Page 2 – Panel 1: . . . and it’s Barry Allen’s Flash, who was rescued from his own world as seen in THE FLASH #785. The Brave and Bold line harks back to the anthology series of the same name, as well as the mini-series focusing on the friendship between Barry and Hal.
Page 2 – Panel 3: Hal and Barry reunite for the first time in a while.
Page 3 – Panel 1: Wally did indeed find Barry as shown in THE FLASH #785 linked above.
Page 3 – Panel 2: Hal tries to bring Barry up to speed but he’s already there.
Page 3 – Panels 3 to 6: Flash travelling through the various worlds that the Justice League inhabited in the WORLDS WITHOUT A JUSTICE LEAGUE one-shots that were detailed in Crossovers Part 3. Left to right are Superman; Wonder Woman; Martian Manhunter; Green Arrow; and Black Canary.
Page 3 – Panels 7 to 9: Barry knows someone on another world who can help but the only was he can get Hal there is to carry him, despite his protests.
Pages 4 and 5: Credits for this issue.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 1: Supergirl and Power Girl save a damaged plane, probably in a call back to how Superman saved a plane from crashing into Metropolis in one of his earliest appearances.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 2: Left to right are Starfire, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and Signal saving civilians from a tornado.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 3: Top to bottom are Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Hourman, and Batwoman saving civilians from an inferno.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 4: Left to right are Cyborg, Mr Terrific, Robin, Donna Troy, Wildcat, Barbara Gordon, and Superman. Mr Terrific is updating them on the dark energy that is infiltrating the multiverse (see the map in the background) while Wildcat is overly confident that the JSA (who arrived in the previous issue) have driven Deathstroke’s army underground.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 7: Nightwing still holding vigil at the bed of Beast Boy as we saw in the previous issue.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 9: Top to bottom in the air are Jade and Obsidian, while on the ground are Red Hood and Dr Mid-Nite.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 10: Left to right are Arsenal, Raven, and Atom Smasher delivering pizzas to first responders.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 11: Left to right are Batgirl (Cassandra), Dr Light, Batgirl (Stephanie), and Wildcat (Yolanda).
Page 8 – Panel 1: Green Lantern Alan Scott speaks with Nightwing.
Page 8 – Panel 2: The reason Beast Boy isn’t waking up is, according to Nightwing, because he believes Deathstroke killed him.
Page 8 – Panels 4 and 5: Alan isn’t buying Nightwing’s self-pity and instead mentions seeing Nightwing’s parents, the Flying Graysons, perform in years gone by, and that everyone was waiting for Nightwing to step up.
Page 9 – Panel 1: Nightwing is in the depths of despair and doesn’t care what happens.
Page 9 – Panels 3 and 4: Alan Scott tells him both the new and the established heroes need Nightwing to step up as he was the first to do so.
Page 9 – Panel 5: But Nightwing thinks Deathstroke has won by beating him.
Page 10 – Panel 1: The headquarters of the Legion of Doom.
Page 10 – Panel 2: Black Adam facing down the very suspicious Gorilla Grodd.
Page 10 – Panel 3: Around the horseshoe table, starting on the left and working around are (probably) Sinestro; Captain Cold; Cheetah; Punchline; Lex Luthor; Vandal Savage; Scarecrow; and Black Manta.
Page 10 – Panel 4: Black Adam appeals to the Legion to help stop Deathstroke and his army.
Page 10 – Panel 5: Cheetah refers to Punchline as a “newbie” as the character first appeared in 2020.
Page 11 – Panel 1: Luthor beat Vandal Savage to death in JUSTICE LEAGUE #1. Comics are weird like that. Both of them served with the multiversal group called The Totality for a while, the group that appeared after DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL and in INFINITE FRONTIER.
Page 11 – Panel 2: The orb Luthor is holding is the same map of the multiverse as seen on Pages 6 and 7.
Page 11 – Panel 3: Grodd thinks that allowing Deathstroke and the heroes to defeat each other would allow the Legion of Doom to step in.
Page 11 – Panel 4: But before the debate can continue, the place explodes.
Page 11 – Panel 7: And Grodd’s head is stood upon by . . .
Pages 12 and 13 – Panel 1: . . . Deathstroke who leads his army. Note the black chains wrapped around each of the villains’ chests – they have been possessed by the Great Darkness, in the same way that Pariah’s Dark Army was in JUSTICE LEAGUE #75.
At the back (either very tall or in the air) are Girder; Firefly; Silver Banshee; and Typhoon.
On the ground, left to right, are Dr Phosphorus; Multiplex (I’m only listing him once); Bonny Hoffman; Prankster; Skorpio; Scavenger; Prometheus; Deathstroke; Phobia; Black Spider; Carmen Leno; Shrapnel; The Key; Bug-Eyed Bandit; and Raptor. Each of the army looks particularly grey-skinned.
Pages 12 and 13 – Panel 3: Black Adam notices the chains.
Pages 12 and 13 – Panel 4: And Captain Cold turns down Deathstroke in the only way he knows.
Pages 12 and 13 – Panel 5: As the battle begins, we have a green caption box from . . .
Page 14 – Panel 1: Pariah who watches the battle in a style very reminiscent of how Superman, Lois Lane, Superboy-Prime, and Alexnder Luthor Jr watched things unfold in INFINITE CRISIS #1.
Page 14 – Panel 2: Green Lanterns Jo Mullein on the left and Kyle Rayner on the right, battling the shadow demons. Hal left them to hold the fort while he headed into Sector John Stewart at the end of the previous issue.
Page 14 – Panels 3 and 4: Hal and Barry’s actions appear to have speeded up Pariah’s machine. And we see the effect his plan is having on him.
Page 15 – Panel 1: Barry defends his simplistic dream world.
Page 15 – Panel 2: Hal feeds Barry an apparent compliment before turning it around.
Page 15 – Panel 3: And we find out we’re in Batman’s world which is very clock orientated.
Page 15 – Panel 4: Barry says he found Batman to be different here.
Page 15 – Panel 5: And instead of a batarang, we get a clock gear.
Page 16 – Panel 1: The Batman of this world.
Page 17 – Panel 1: Alan Scott leads Superman (Jon), Nightwing, and Wonder Girl (Yara) down to the basement of the Hall of Justice. At the top of the staircase, he mentions a number of people who have a connection to magic. The Spectre; Kent is Kent Nelson, aka Dr Fate; Johnny is Johnny Thunder, wielder of the Thunderbolt; Wesley is Wesley Dodds, the original Sandman; and the the Hawks are Carter and Shiera Hall, Hawkman and Hawkwoman.
Page 17 – Panel 3: Scott mentions Earth Omega which was featured in INFINITE FRONTIER. It was the mysterious planet that Barry Allen was imprisoned on and which was actually a fragment of the Great Darkness.
Page 17 – Panel 4: Superman asks if it’s safe for him as, like all Kryptonians, he has a susceptibility to magic.
Page 18 – Panel 1: In the centre of the hall is a portrait to Zatanna who was lost with the rest of the team in JUSTICE LEAGUE #75.
Page 19 – Panel 1: Detective Chimp who threw the bottle of booze at Superman’s feet. He has something of a drinking/mourning problem.
Page 19 – Panel 2: Nightwing and Detective Chimp (Bobo T Chimp is his name) teamed up during DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL.
Page 19 – Panel 4: John Constantine makes himself known.
Page 19 – Panel 5: Arranged around the table, clockwise from the bottom left, are Dr Fate (Khalid); Klarion the Witch Boy; Madame Xanadu; unknown; Jakeem Thunder. Constantine’s reference to a seance harks back to the last time the Great Darkness was tackled, which resulted in the death of Zatara, Zatanna’s father, as shown in SWAMP THING #50.
Page 19 – Panel 6: Nightwing wonders if the Great Darkness is controlling Deathstroke and is answered by . . .
Page 20 – Panel 1: . . . Alec Holland, Swamp Thing. He is joined by the latest Swamp Thing, Levi Kamei. They find it unlikely that an elemental force such as the Great Darkness would be concerned with anything on Earth.
Page 20 – Panel 2: Alec Holland recounts his meeting with Alex Luthor Jr during the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and that Holland was charged with stopping the Darkness during that event.
Page 20 – Panel 4: And Levi Kamei suggests that they may not be facing just the Darkness after all, but rather something that has corrupted it.
Page 21 – Panel 1: Left to right in the sky are Typhoon fighting Weather Wizard, and Silver Banshee attacking Sinestro. On the ground, Multiplex is getting shot by someone off-panel, while Captain Cold takes on Dr Phosphorus.
Page 21 – Panel 2: Prankster being hit by Black Adam; Carmen Leno; Lex Luthor; the Key; and Black Spider.
Page 21 – Panel 3: Luthor’s map of the multiverse now shows the darkness and it’s connection with Deathstroke.
Page 21 – Panel 4: Deathstroke strikes at Black Manta.
Page 21 – Panel 5: And despite Black Adam’s protest, Luthor flies off to attack . . .
Page 22 – Panel 1: . . . Deathstroke himself.
Page 22 – Panel 2: Barbara Gordon, Mr Terrific, and Cyborg notice a spike of energy within the Darkness.
Page 22 – Panel 3: As Barry Allen and Batman fight, Hal notices the red skies, a long-held feature of the various crises.
Page 23 – Panels 1 to 3: Luthor and Deathstroke face off.
Page 23 – Panel 4: Luthor mentions having his “humanity stripped away by a greater power.” This was Perpetua during the DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL event.
Page 23 – Panel 6: The help that Luthor offers is going to be a shot to the head.
Page 24 – Panel 1: But Prometheus arrives and infects Luthor with the Darkness that has taken the other villains.
Page 24 – Panel 2: And in Multiverse-2 with Pariah, the effect is being felt.
Page 24 – Panel 3: Vandal Savage is possessed, while Black Adam is helpless, with Multiplex in the background, then Cheetah and Gorilla Grodd both succumbing.
Page 25 – Panels 1, 4, 7 and 9: These are the Pariah panels moving diagonally down the page where Pariah speaks the first words read in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 as he marks the birth of a new multiverse.
Page 25 – Panel 2: Mr Terrific realises something is wrong.
Page 25 – Panel 3: Captain Cold and Punchline fall to the Darkness.
Page 25 – Panel 6: Black Adam stands against the possessed Legion of Doom. Sinestro and Typhoon at the top; Luthor below them; Weather Wizard below him; Multiplex to the left of the panel; then Dr Phosphorus, Black Manta, and Captain Cold on the ground.
Page 26: And the new multiverse arrives. The hand releasing the worlds is likely that of the Great Darkness.
Variant Covers – due to the number of different covers, I’ve added them here so they don’t interfere with the main text.
Crisis on Earth-Prime 