Day of Vengeance #4-6 + Infinite Crisis Specials

 Day of Vengeance #4-6 + Day of Vengeance and Rann-Thanagar War Infinite Crisis Specials

Originally released in 2005

Written by Bill Willingham (Day of Vengeance), Dave Gibbons (Rann-Thanagar War)

Art by Justiniano (Day of Vengeance), Ivan Reis (Rann-Thanagar War)

The Spectre is on a crusade to destroy all magic, thanks to the manipulations of Eclipso, and it seems like he just might accomplish that goal.  In an attempt at stopping him, the Enchantress channeled the power of the world's magic users into Billy Batson, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, but with that only being the halfway point of the series, it's clear that something will go wrong.

Naturally, it does, as the Enchantress's dark side takes over, putting all of that magic into herself, and in the confusion, Eclipso and the Spectre slip away.  As this is going on, Detective Chimp and Nightshade track down a teenage girl who might be the key to stopping Eclipso and the Spectre.  Known as Black Alice, she has the ability to temporarily borrow magic power from others, and the hope is that this includes the Spectre.

The Shadowpact (this makeshift team of magic users) turns out to be a team that has existed in some form throughout history, and historically, none of the separate versions of Shadowpact have been very good at their job. (The Phantom Stranger describes it as flipping a coin, hoping to get tails, and getting heads nine thousand times in a row - sure, there's still a fifty-fifty chance of getting tails, but the odds still don't seem great)

The new plan is to have Black Alice steal the Spectre's powers and kill him while he's defenseless, though this is only partially successful.  She does steal the Spectre's powers, but this leaves him as a disembodied spirit that can't be killed, and the Spectre is teleported elsewhere before they can figure out a way to bypass that.

Once Eclipso's weakness to sunlight is mentioned, they do take her out of the picture by sending her into a supposedly perpetual orbit around a star, but even with Eclipso gone, the Spectre is still convinced that all magic users (himself included, once he's done) need to die.

Upon getting his powers back, the Spectre's next target is the wizard Shazam within the Rock of Eternity.  Billy tries to help, but the Spectre is able to negate his transformation at will for no apparent reason.

The Phantom Stranger informs the Shadowpact that they can't contribute to stopping the Spectre any more, and while Shazam puts up a valiant effort, the main series of Day Of Vengeance ends with Shazam dead at the Spectre's hands and the Rock Of Eternity appearing in the air above Gotham before exploding and magical rocks over Gotham to spread chaos. (As if Gotham didn't have enough to worry about) It's a fairly gloomy ending, though the Infinite Crisis Special makes things a little better. (Though still bitter)

As a side note, the wizard Shazam tried using the mystic Scarab that belonged to the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett, against the Spectre.  It had no effect and was launched to El Paso, Texas, where it would later be found by Jaime Reyes for him to become the third Blue Beetle.

The Infinite Crisis Special for Day of Vengeance starts with the Spectre having killed most of the Lords of Order and Chaos, leaving only Nabu (the spirit inhabiting Dr. Fate's helmet) left. Seeing no way to win, Nabu intends to accelerate the Spectre's plan.

Most of the issue consists of the heroes trying to pick up the pieces - quite literally, as they're trying to restore the shattered Rock Of Eternity.  In the chaos of doing that and trying to seal away the Seven Deadly Sins, Nightshade is kidnapped on Luthor's orders.

Meanwhile, Nabu is trying to convince the Spectre to work with him, and when that fails, to try and get the Spectre to see that there's a sinister force manipulating both of them for its own ends.  It's unclear how much truth there is to that, or if Nabu is making it up to goad the Spectre into attacking him.

The Spectre fatally wounds Nabu, which is exactly what Nabu wanted.  Apparently, the death of every single Lord of Order and Chaos is the only thing that would get the attention of higher powers to rein the Spectre in. On Earth, the Rock of Eternity is repaired, but it needs a permanent resident, and Billy Batson is chosen for the job. It's a dramatic change to the status quo, but from a writing standpoint, it seems super questionable as it takes a major hero and leaves him stuck on the sidelines, unable to actually do any heroics. (Something interesting could be done with that, I suppose, but for fans of Captain Marvel, it seems really unfortunate to say the least)

That isn't the only change that happens here; the Spectre is reassigned to another human host (though it's unclear who), and Nabu gives the helmet of Doctor Fate to Detective Chimp. Detective Chimp thinks it was means for him to wear it, but it doesn't fit, so he has Captain Marvel throw it as far away as he can and let fate decide who will hold the title next.

I'm also going to read the Infinite Crisis specials for The OMAC Project and The Rann-Thanagar War. While the Day of Vengeance special didn't seem as crucial to understanding Infinite Crisis as the Villains United one was, I want to make sure I'm up to date (relatively speaking) before I start reading Infinite Crisis.

Going back to the Rann-Thanagar War, a massive pair of hands have appeared, reaching out of the void of space.  During a moment's calm, the leader of Rann speculates that some other force (possibly the source of these hands) used Rann's teleportation into Thanagar's system as an opportunity to start the war for its own ends, but there's no time to think about it as Thanagar's leader resumes the hostilities.

What follows is chaos as Rann and Thanagar start fighting again while various Green Lanterns and Teen Titans seek to stop the fighting.  In the midst of all of this, Adam Strange discovers a Thanagarian satellite that recorded the moment that Rann appeared in Thanagar's system, showing the culprit behind Thanagar being knocked out of its orbit.

Komand'r, Starfire's evil sister, is with the Thanagarian fleet and wants the fighting to continue for her own benefit, so she doesn't inform her allies about the footage and has the satellite blown up for good measure. As this is going on, Kyle Rayner and Jenny (the daughter of Alan Scott, the golden age Green Lantern with no ties to the space police) try to fend off the giant hands, but Jenny is killed in the process. (As this is my introduction to the character, it's hard for me to feel much about her death)

The issue ends more or less where it began - once evidence is found that Superboy Prime pushed Thanagar out of its orbit, Rann and Thanagar hesitantly join forces to push back the hands. The biggest change (aside from Superboy Prime's role being uncovered) is that Kyle Rayner is now going by Ion, having been transformed somehow by absorbing Jenny's energy. (I think Ion is meant to be the Green Lantern equivalent of Parallax, the embodiment of that particular Lantern Corp.) It's noted that the events continue in Infinite Crisis issue 5, so I'll likely be waiting a while to find out what the giant hands have to do with all of this.

This just leaves the Infinite Crisis special for the OMAC Project. (I'm guessing it might also help to reread Crisis On Infinite Earths, but as I don't know a lot about pre-Crisis DC, I feel like I won't have any new perspectives on it) However, as the first page of that issue says that it takes place after Infinite Crisis #6, so I'll save that for after I'm finished Infinite Crisis, treating it as an epilogue. I'm not really sure how I felt about all of this; Day Of Vengeance was a bit of a downer, feeling like it existed to take most of DC's powerful magic users off the board before Infinite Crisis to justify their lack of involvement. (I'm surprised Zatanna didn't wind up in a coma) As for the Rann-Thanagar War, the involvement of Superboy Prime was an interesting development, but it felt like very little changed between the start and end of that special, compared to how monumental the Villains United issue felt.  Still, I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this gets tied together in Infinite Crisis.