Day of Vengeance #1-3

Day of Vengeance #1-3

Originally released in 2005

Written by Bill Willingham

Art by Justiniano (#1-2), Ron Wagner (#3)

I'm continuing my lead-up to Infinite Crisis with Day Of Vengeance; all I know going into it is that it involves the magic side of DC.  The story starts with Jean Loring, ex-wife of Ray "The Atom" Palmer, who's locked away in Arkham Asylum and talking to a purple gem. Agreeing to some sort of deal with it, she becomes the new host of the mystical villain Eclipso.

Three weeks later, the Spectre seems to have gone homicidal, or at least more than he usually is.  Normally, he's something of a spirit of vengeance, or the embodiment of God's judgment, but now he seems to be going out of his way to kill hundreds of sorcerers regardless of their alignment or what they've done.

Meeting at a bar for mystics, it quickly becomes clear that nobody wants to take on the Spectre, and those that try (like the Phantom Stranger, one of the more powerful mystical beings in DC) don't meet with a good fate. (though at least the Stranger is alive, just stuck as a mouse)  Seemingly the only ones who have any intention of putting a stop to the Spectre's trail of death and destruction are the Enchantress and Detective Chimp.

I'm less familiar with DC's magical side than I am with Marvel's magical side, and that's saying a lot since I don't consider myself very knowledgeable about Marvel's magical side.  I know of Captain Marvel/Shazam, Zatanna, Doctor Fate, and characters that showed up in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run (such as Constantine), along with characters like the Phantom Stranger occasionally making cameos in other books.  I'm not sure if this is going to serve as a crash course or wind up being utterly confusing.

The Spectre's standards for what justifies murder have lowered over time to the point where any mild wrongdoing, even talking back to a parent, qualifies. Eclipso explains to the Spectre that this is because he doesn't have a human host. Taking advantage of the Spectre's confused state, Eclipso tells him that magic is the greatest source of evil, leading to his ongoing attack against the universe's magic users.

The best plan that the remaining magic users who are willing to stand up against the Spectre can come up with is to go to where the Spectre is, beat up Eclipso, and hope that the Spectre comes to his senses before he kills them all. As far as plans go, it's not great, though it's helped by Captain Marvel providing a big red distraction.

Issue three mostly focuses on the battle with the Spectre and Eclipso, as Detective Chimp and an apparently lesser-known heroine who goes by Nightshade try to track down a little girl named Lori who might be more powerful than the Spectre. There's a great moment where every available magic user (even those who only unconsciously use magic) transfer their energy to Captain Marvel like Dragon Ball's Spirit Bomb, and this apparent suicide mission seems like it's going surprisingly well between that and Blue Devil stabbing Eclipso with a spear, but given that the Enchantress gave one of her fellow magic users a gun in case she turns evil from tapping into too much magic, and with this only being part three of six, it's safe to say that this won't last.

Rather than trying to fit the entire miniseries into a single day, I'll stop here and finish it later, along with reading the Infinite Crisis prologues for this, the Rann-Thanagar War, and the OMAC Project. All things considered, the Spectre seems way too easy for Eclipso to manipulate here, though I suppose that's why he was assigned human hosts in the first place.