- Writer: Joshua Williamson
- Artist: Daniel Sampere
- Layouts: Daniel Sampere and Rafa Sandoval
- Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
- Letterer: Troy Peteri
- Cover Artists: Daniel Sampere and Alejandro Sanchez
- Editors: Chris Rosa and Paul Kaminski
Cover: The standard cover above features Pariah in the middle being attacked by multiple heroes in a homage to the cover of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #12. I’ve numbered a larger version of it here and the key is as follows, starting from the top and working clockwise:
1) Naomi 2) GL Arisia 3) GL Hannu 4) Wonder Girl (Yara) 5) GL Simon Baz 6) Superman of Earth-23 7) Donna Troy 8) Aquaman 9) GL Guy Gardner 10) Power Girl 11) GL Jessica Cruz 12) GL John Stewart 13) Martian Manhunter 14) GL Hal Jordan 15) Starfire 16) Cyborg 17) Batgirl 18) Zatanna 19) Supergirl 20) Flash (Barry) 21) Mr Miracle 22) GL Kyle Rayner 23) GL Kilowog 24) Dr Light 25) Superman (Jon) 26) Blue Beetle (Jaime) 27) Superman 28) Raven 29) Batman 30) Booster Gold 31) Obsidian 32) Dr Fate 33) Jade 34) Hawkgirl 35) GL Alan Scott 36) Shazam 37) Wonder Woman 38) Black Adam 39) GL Jo Mullein 40) Adam Strange 41) Captain Atom 42) Superboy 43) Red Tornado 44) Wonder Girl (Cassie) 45) Hawkman 46) Firestorm
Variant Covers can be found at the bottom of the page.
Page 1 – Panel 1: A glitching projection of Mr Terrific reporting on the events of the previous issue.
Page 1 – Panel 2: The Green Lanterns receiving Terrific’s broadcast. Most of those in the background are indistinct, but left to right are Guy Gardner; Lok Neebora; Jessica Cruz; Apros; Simon Baz; and maybe Arkkis Chummuck.
Page 1 – Panel 3: More Lanterns facing the Black Lantern Central Power Battery. This is an almost identical copy of issue #3 Page 17 – Panel 3. Left to right are Salaak; Two-Six; Isamot Kol; Apros; Rot Lop Fan; Larvox; Kilowog; Hannu; Penelops; Arisia; Lok Neebora; Guy Gardner; Jessica Cruz; Simon Baz; Chaselon; Space Ape. As Simon finishes speaking . . .
Page 1 – Panel 4: . . . a whole host of Shadow Demons explode from the Battery.
Page 1 – Panels 5 and 6: And the Lanterns engage them.
Pages 2 and 3: Credits for this issue.
Pages 4 and 5: This is Pariah explaining how he first heard the voice of the Great Darkness. His first few words, and the mention of being alone “for millions of years“, matches his origin as shown in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #7 where he describes being lost following the destruction of his home universe. The light that pushed the Darkness away was presumably the Monitor finding Pariah in his “netherversal chamber“, again as shown in CRISIS #7.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 1: The battle outside the Hall of Justice between the heroes and the Dark Army continues. Numbered image below (click for a larger version) with the key beneath it.
1) Silver Banshee 2) Wonder Girl (Yara) 3) Raven 4) unknown 5) Spectre 6) Typhoon 7) Gorilla Grodd 8) Captain Atom 9) Lex Luthor 10) Black Adam 11) Girder 12) Batgirl (Cassandra) 13) Starfire 14) Firestorm 15) Superman (Jon) 16) Gentleman Ghost 17) Darkseid 18) Booster Gold 19) Supergirl 20) Megabat 21) Nekron 22) Black Spider 23) Prankster 24) Captain Cold 25) Shrapnel 26) Multiplex 27) Flash (Wally) 28) Vixen 29) Bug-Eyed Bandit 30) Ice 31) Crush 32) Cheetah 33) Kid Flash 34) Doomsday 35) Blue Beetle (Ted) 36) Batwoman 37) Red Hood 38) Cyborg 39) Ares 40) Frankenstein 41) Nightwing 42) The Signal 43) Vandal Savage 44) Black Manta
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 2: And here’s Pariah looking worse for wear.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 3: Deathstroke, the commander of his forces. All Deathstroke’s interested in is the end of legacy heroes. He doesn’t care about the multiverse.
Pages 6 and 7 – Panel 4: Deathstroke’s motive in the preceding issues was to create a Crisis event large enough that Pariah (along with his Dark Army) would be drawn to it.
Page 8 – Panel 1: Arriving to stop him in bestial form is Beast Boy. Over Deathstroke’s shoulder can be see Arsenal.
Page 8 – Panel 3: Garfield is Beast Boy’s real name; Deathstroke shot him in the face at the end of issue #1.
Page 9 – Panel 1: Multiverse-2, where we find . . .
Page 9 – Panel 2: . . . the Justice League in their dream-world personas as seen in Crossovers Part 3. This is Batman aka The Night, and Green Lantern John Stewart.
Page 9 – Panel 3: Left to right are the Flash (Barry); Hawkgirl; Wonder Woman; Green Lantern (Hal); Zatanna; GL John; Batman; Aquaman.
Page 9 – Panel 4: Flash explains what’s happening with the multiversal worlds above them.
Page 9 – Panel 5: A cramped panel with a few characters. At the top are GL Hal and Flash; below them are Superman (purple cape) and Aquaman; next row has Zatanna on the far left; Black Canary; Batman; Martian Manhunter; bottom row has GL John covered by the speech bubble; Wonder Woman; Hawkgirl; GL Kyle Rayner; GL Jo Mullein.
Page 9 – Panel 6: Hal sums up with a warning that there’s no guarantee they will all make it back.
Page 10 – Panel 1: And Green Arrow neatly sums up why the League members do what they need to.
Page 10 – Panel 3: Black Canary worries that Green Arrow thinks something’s going to happen to him.
Page 11 – Panels 1 and 2: Arrow and Canary show their love for each other.
Page 11 – Panel 4: Flash says “In brightest day…“, the start of Green Lantern’s oath.
Page 11 – Panel 5: The assembled League, left to right, GL John; Batman/The Night; Aquaman; Superman; Zatanna; Wonder Woman; Hawkgirl; Martian Manhunter.
Page 12 – Panel 1: Darkseid literally tears Frankenstein in half.
Page 12 – Panel 2: Black Adam and Mr Terrific, with someone finally calling out Adam’s negativity.
Page 12 – Panel 3: Left to right are Ravager; Nightwing; Roundhouse (one of the Titan’s pupils, now possessed by the Darkness); Phobia; the Signal; Girder; Red Arrow; Crush.
Page 12 – Panel 5: Ravager is Deathstroke’s daughter.
Page 12 – Panel 6: Superman (Jon) and Wonder Girl (Yara) take on Shrapnel and Girder respectively.
Page 13 – Panel 1: Batman (Jace Fox) roars in and takes down Lion Mane as he does.
Page 13 – Panel 2: Jon asked Jace to join his Justice League way back in issue #1 and he refused.
Page 13 – Panel 3: Left to right are the Ray; Queen Nubia; Steel; Green Arrow (Connor Hawke); Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes); and Miss Martian. Blue Beetle was shown to have ignored Nightwing’s call for heroes in the previous issue.
Page 13 – Panel 5: Pariah’s dialogue strays into the metatextual as he riffs on the “Worlds will live, worlds will die” advertising tag line used in a lot of promo work for CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
Page 13 – Panel 6: Steel, Booster Gold, Firestorm, Green Arrow (Connor), and Blue Beetle (Ted) all attack Pariah.
Page 14 – Panels 1 to 6: But he fights back and each of the heroes disintegrate in the same way that the Justice League did at the end of JUSTICE LEAGUE #75.
Page 14 – Panel 7: As five heroes die, five new worlds appear in the multiverse.
Page 14 – Panel 8: And Pariah commands his army to bring more heroes to make more worlds.
Page 15 – Panel 1: Black Adam carries Pariah’s original multiversal anti-matter machine as he and Mr Terrific head out to the battle.
Page 15 – Panel 2: Superman (Jon), Batman (Jace), and Wonder Girl (Yara) arrive and reveal that Pariah is not in contact with the Great Darkness after all, but it’s his own madness. This information, and the anti-matter cannon, was discovered in DARK CRISIS: THE DEADLY GREEN as seen in Crossovers Part 4.
Page 15 – Panel 3: Mr Terrific asserts a wild assumption as fact, but that’s comic book science for you.
Page 15 – Panel 5: As the heroes try to get the machine up and running, Pariah notices it. If, as Terrific states, Pariah’s connection to “the Dark Army must be channeled by his anti-matter cannon” why wasn’t that connection lost when Superman (Jon) and the others removed it from the Darkness in DARK CRISIS: THE DEADLY GREEN?
Page 15 – Panel 7: Wonder Girl can use her lasso of truth to make Pariah understand it’s not the Great Darkness he’s been talking to all this time.
Page 15 – Panel 8: And Superman heads out to give them the time they need.
Page 16 – Panel 1: Superman attacks the Dark Army’s biggest villains head on. Left to right are Neron; Doomsday; Darkseid; Eclipso; Nekron; and Ares.
Page 16 – Panel 3: Swamp Thing (Alec Holland) and Captain Atom are caught by Pariah.
Page 17 – Panel 1: Jon’s attack gives Yara the time she needs to tell Pariah the truth about the voice in his head.
Page 17 – Panel 4: Black Adam finally gets into the fight by attacking Nekron.
Page 17 – Panel 5: Pariah struggles to accept the truth . . .
Page 17 – Panel 7: . . . and shakes off Yara and her lasso.
Page 17 – Panel 8: Despite his bravery, Jon falls to the Dark Army.
Page 18 – Panel 1: As Doomsday punches Jon, Darkseid’s Omega Beams strike him.
Page 18 – Panel 2: Superman giving his son some encouragement.
Page 18 – Panel 3: The Dark Army – Neron, Doomsday, Darkseid, and Ares – attack Jon.
Page 18 – Panel 4: And some encouraging words from his mother, Lois Lane.
Page 19 – Panels 1 to 4: Jon attempts to fight back, but the Army is too strong for him.
Page 19 – Panel 5: Trying to get Pariah’s machine working, Batman (Jace) says they need to “work as if this was created in the anti-matter universe, not ours.” But it wasn’t – Pariah was originally from another Earth in the multiverse, not the anti-matter universe which was something he discovered.
Page 19 – Panel 6: Behind Pariah on the left is Aqualad and on the right is Firestorm, which is obviously an error as Firestorm was shown disintegrating back on Page 14 – Panel 2.
Page 19 – Panel 7: Wonder Girl is about to meet the same disintegrating fate as other heroes when . . .
Page 19 – Panel 11: . . . Pariah is caught in an energy cube from his own machine. The creation of the cube mirrors Page 14 – Panel 1 of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #7.
Page 20: And just like that, Pariah disintegrates with a smile on his face as his curse is finally lifted and he seems to see his world and his family once more.
Page 21 – Panel 2: Mr Terrific states that the Dark Army’ are weakening’s power is fading – it hasn’t instantly disappeared.
Page 21 – Panels 4 and 5: Black Adam tries to help Jon, but is held back by Lex Luthor and the Shaggy Man.
Page 21 – Panel 5: Jon’s happy despite the beating he took because he helped his friends by buying them time to defeat Pariah.
Page 21 – Panel 6: Doomsday – the killer of Jon’s father – bears down upon him . . .
Page 22 – Panel 1: . . . only to be stopped by the timely arrival of Superman, Jon’s father, who stops Doomsday’s fist.
Page 22 – Panel 3: As Doomsday attempts to strike with his other fist, Jon stops that one.
Page 23 – Panels 1 and 2: Both Supermen strike Doomsday and send him flying off.
Page 23 – Panels 3 to 7: As an exhausted Jon slumps into his father’s arms, Superman tells him the rest of the League have returned as well.
Pages 24 and 25: The League and the Green Lantern Corps arrive. Along the bottom of the page are Nekron, Multiplex, Red Hood, and Batwoman. For the crowd in the sky, here’s a numbered image with the key below:
1) GL Gpaak (possibly) 2) GL Space Ape 3) Martian Manhunter 4) GL Salaak 5) Wonder Woman 6) GL Isamot Kol 7) GL Olapet (possibly) 8) Hawkgirl 9) GL unknown 10) GL Amanita 11) Zatanna 12) GL Chaselon 13) GL Simon Baz 14) Black Canary 15) GL Kilowog 16) GL Kyle Rayner 17) GL Rot Lop Fan 18) GL Larvox 19) GL Two-Six 20) GL Guy Gardner 21) Batman 22) GL Hal Jordan 23) GL Penelops 24) Flash 25) GL Arisia 26) GL unknown 27) GL Medphyll 28) GL Lok Neboora 29) GL Jo Mullein 30) GL Jessica Cruz 31) GL John Stewart 32) GL Apros 33) Aquaman 34) GL Charqwep 35) GL unknown 36) GL Green Man 37) GL Hannu 38) GL unknown
There are a few unknowns and a couple of possible identifications in that list – if you can confirm any, please use the form in the Contact Me page.
Page 26 – Panel 1: Left to right are Cyborg; Hellhound; Black Spider; the Signal; Batman (Jace); Phobia; Punchline; Batgirl (Stephanie); Batgirl (Cassandra); Eclipso; Vandal Savage; Starfire; Batman (Bruce); Firefly.
Page 26 – Panel 2: Left to right are Black Manta; Donna Troy; Shaggy Man; Wonder Girl (Yara); Queen Nubia; Wonder Woman; Hawkgirl; Vixen; Cheetah; Ares.
Page 26 – Panel 3: Left to right are Kid Flash; Captain Cold; Weather Wizard; GL Simon Baz; GL Jo Mullein; Sinestro; Captain Boomerang; Nekron; GL John Stewart; Jesse Quick; Flash (Barry); GL Kyle Rayner; GL Rot Lop Fan; GL Hal Jordan; Flash (Wally); silhouetted Gorilla Grodd (possibly); GL Guy Gardner; GL Kilowog.
Page 26 – Panels 4 and 5: Black Canary and Arsenal meet for the first time in who knows how long.
Page 26 – Panel 6: But Arsenal notices Green Arrow is missing.
Page 27 – Panel 1: In the background, Black Adam fights Doomsday; in the foreground it’s Superman (Jon); Darkseid; Superman (Clark); Supergirl.
Page 27 – Panel 3: The Justice Society left to look after the multiverse in the previous issue; this is the first time we’ve caught up with them since where we find they’re battling shadow demons. Left to right are Wildcat; Atom Smasher; Jade; Power Girl; Obsidian; GL Alan Scott. Even with Pariah gone, as Alan says, “the darkness still spreads.“
Page 27 – Panel 4: Aquaman fights Neron; Zatanna fights Lex Luthor; Tempest at the bottom of the panel.
Page 27 – Panel 5: Zatanna points out the army is still possessed even though Pariah has gone. Sinestro is on the left, Punchline on the right, with silhouettes behind them.
Page 27 – Panel 6: The Flashes are convinced that the darkness has gone somewhere else.
Page 27 – Panel 7: Beast Boy has been beaten once more.
Page 27 – Panel 8: And speaking from off to one side – note the white on black speech bubbles – is . . .
Page 28: A suddenly beefed up Deathstroke holding Nightwing in one hand and Ravager in the other. This is where the darkness has ended up.
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 