Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Prophecy

Do you remember that in JSA, the Gray Man awakened Sand Hawkins to his prophetic dream power, a gift from Wesley Dodds (the Golden Age Sandman) ?

In his initial prophetic dream, departed JSAers gave him various warnings.

Hourman's (not pictured here) clearly predicts Sand's challenge at Roulette's House. And Dr. Mid-Nite's prophecy (also not pictured) concerns the battle against the Dark Trinity of Obsidian, Mordru, and Eclipso.

Star Spangled Kid's prophecy is about the confrontation with the Jokerfied Solomon Grundy of "Last Laugh". The Atom (of all people) is predicting Infinite Crisis; interesting.

But Mr. Terrific and the Spectre? I'm not sure what they're predicting... .

I have a feeling if I read all of DC's comics over the last few years, I'd find quite a lot of hints and foreshadowings, since they've been planning this whole IC thing for a while.

Anyone else remember other hints?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa.

What issue is that from?

Anonymous said...

The Atom might be predicting that whole Ultra-Humanite-takes-over-the-Thunderbolt arc, and the Spectre might be talkin' IC.

Anonymous said...

Justice Society Secret Files 2001.

Not to harsh your buzz (okay to harsh it a little), but the Spectre is predicting the JSA "Our Worlds at War" Special, in which Sand recruits the Freedom Fighters and the remains of Infinity Inc. to fight, um, the Galactus rip-off, what's his name.

And anonymous is right, he's predicting Stealing Thunder.

Though there's a later part of the dream where Sand is eaten by Mr. Bones. And outside the dream Mr. Bones gets a call from a mysterious benefactor. I have NO idea what that was about. OMAC Project?

WHY DO I REMEMBER COMICS I HAVEN'T READ IN 5 YEARS?

Anonymous said...

I know Teen Titans has a big one and Lex says something at the end of the first arc of Superman/Batman, but the issue numbers are not coming to me.

It's surprsing how many are out there. Geoff Johns is a pacient and well thought out man.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Spec's talking about "Our World's At War".

Mr. Terrific is talking about the discovery that Michael Holt's better half was expecting at the time of her death.

Bully said...

"Anyone else remember other hints?"

Well, here's some they got wrong:


Superman: "I sure hope some younger version of myself never rips the arm off some kid hero."
Batman: "Naw, that'll never happen."

Mark Waid: "Barry Allen is dead. We will never bring him back."

Assorted comics bloggers around the world: "Man, All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder is gonna frickin' rock!"

Seriously, don't forget that long-ago panel in Justice League (round the Kooey-Kooey-Kooey storyline, I think) where Beetle predicts that Max Lord will put a bullet through his brain.

Anonymous said...

So Hourman was shown as a spirit? Just one more example of DC stating explicitly that Rex Tyler was really most sincerely dead; then later on they said that the android Hourman took his place at the last minute and he never reallty died at all.

And when I say "one more example" I refer to Starman #37, All-Star Comics #2, and Hourman #5.

Anonymous said...

Well, at the "time," he was sincerely dead.

The android changed history when he took Rex's place.

Which let Per Degaton (comics' second greatest Nazi behind Swarm) loose to sincerely muck up history...

which in turn led to Power Girl being hit by time-lightning (I wish I was making that up) that screwed up her powers and implicitly changed her origin (at least that's how I read the multiple Karens in one panel)...

which led to her new origin, which led right into Infinite Crisis.

And the knee bones connected to the, shin bone.

Anonymous said...

By my count that's the third time that Rex Tyler has "returned" from the "dead". The first two were Spectre (vol. 1) #7 and JLofA #124-125.

Scipio said...

Sand is having a prophetic dream. All that matters is that he thinks Hourman is dead, not whether he is. They were dreams, not ghosts.

Anonymous said...

Except the Spectre. He's always a ghost.

Also, Johnny Thunder, who WAS alive at the time, shows up in the dream too.

p.s. Will Crispus Allen go by "The Spectre"? Or "Ghost-Face Killa?"

Anonymous said...

I thought Johnny Thunder's appearance with all the then-dead JSAers was a hint that JT himself was actually dead by then, what with the Ultra-Humanite having scooped out his brain (such as it was), and taken over his body.

-Mindbender

Anonymous said...

Ooh, a philosophical discussion of when death occurs, how very Terri Schiavo.

While Johnny was under control at that time, he was also still alive, with his own brain. Sand found the real Ultrahumanite's brain in a giant jar at the end of the storyline, where the new Crimson Avenger shot it. A lot.

Johnny didn't die until Captain Marvel impaled him to ground the lightning bolt.

So I think that his appearance was just a hint that he was GOING to die, or that alzheimer's had all but killed him anyway.

And I don't care what anyone else thinks. I thought Johnny's demensia was good writing. Very touching, and the string of writers that pulled it off (Ostrader to Morrison to Johns) are all tops in my book.

Anonymous said...

"I have a feeling if I read all of DC's comics over the last few years..."

Wait a minute...you haven't read all of DC comics over the last few years?

Scipio said...

The Outsiders? Don't be ridiculous...!

Anonymous said...

Sand is having a prophetic dream. All that matters is that he thinks Hourman is dead, not whether he is. They were dreams, not ghosts.

Maybe so, but in Starman #37, Jack's dead brother David introduces him to the spirits of several dead Golden-Agers, including Rex. All-Star Comics #2 and Hourman #5 likewise said he actually died.

Jon said...

Starman #37 also features my introduction to the Red Bee, who acts like a total dick, calls Mr Terrific out on having a silly costume, and pounds the table hard enough to get soup all over his gauzy sleeves.

It was then and there that I decided he was awesome.

Mike Haseloff said...

The Spectre is clearly predicting the rift between the heroes that spurs the Civil War.



I mean, the Infinity Crusade.
No, sorry, I mean... the Crisis... ises... is... issisis...

Or, maybe Spectre is just trying to encourage Sand's latent bisexuality.
Many allies, indeed.

Chris Griswold said...

From what i've read, The planning goes back to Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, wherein Donna Troy and some forgettable YJ character dies.

Oh, and there is a great Teen Titans story arc abouta year ago where they meet there older selves in a future ten years hence, after the Titans fell apart and couldn't do whatever it took to save the day during a Crisis. The future Titans were bad people. So good.