Justice League of America #184 - Apokolips Now!

 

CRISIS BETWEEN TWO EARTH
or APOKOLIPS NOW!
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #184

Published: 14th August 1980
Cover Date: November 1980
Cover Artists: George Pérez
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: George Pérez
Inker: Frank McLaughlin
Colourist: Gene D'Angelo
Letterer: Ben Oda
Editors: Len Wein

Introduction
No little lectures or points to be made this time around, other than to say that I'm using the Apokolips Now as the title rather than its official title as it's, in my opinion. much cooler than the Crisis related title. And for context at this point, Crisis was just the name of the annual crossover between the JLA and the JSA rather than the big multiversal event that they are now. And the film Apocalypse Now was only a year old, coincidently releasing on August 15th 1979, so was relatively cool and probably still in the public consciousness.

Synopsis

After a glorious full-page spread that gives us the story so far, we get another one showing Darkseid in all his glory, with a couple of tiny heroes, including our Pee Gee for scale. Hot-headed Orion going straight on the attack, against the cooler head of Pee Gee (and Firestorm, insert your own hothead jokes here), who nether the less fly after him to help out. They face off against three members of the Injustice Society, Shade, Icicle and Fiddler, Earth-2 villains who have for some reason thrown their lot in with Darkseid. Shade and Icicle are quickly dispatched, with some cute fight fliting between Pee Gee and Firestorm, Fiddler however hits them with a musical whammy, that shows them images from their darkest soul. And look I promise you I don't plan these things out to sync up, it's mostly happily little accidents, whilst Firestorm is tormented by literal demons and Orion by Darkseid, Power Girl is tormented... by herself! What that means has so many interpretations, from self-loathing to just the writer not knowing what Pee Gee fears, I'll leave it to you to decide which one fits your best headcanon.

The fast of our heroes is left unclear as we cut to Grannie Goodnesses Orphanage, where Wonder Woman, Big Barda and Superman are traipsing through what looks like a hi-tech sewer. Luckily we're still a few years from that infamous issue, and besides they have an orphan child travelling with them, so instead they see a scene of children resistance working on a lovely full-page spread. Oh and for balance Pérez can't draw Barda's lovely hat right in these images. Some of the older children step up to attack the heroes but Barda, who grew up in the same environment talks them down with the literal power of love! It might be as cheesy as all heck, but I can't help but love it for being so in character for Big Barda.

One of the children is apparently a multi-cog, a telepath with the special power to fill in the backstory of how villains from Earth-2 ended up helping out Apoloklipse, with apparently a stone golem Darkseid showing up to tell them they needed to help him if they wanted to carry on living. The little leader Crimson, who is only a young teen with great proto-Starfire hair, decides to help the adults and show them where to go to question Granny Goodness about Darkseid's plan.

But we still have a few more reveals to go, so in the building, Dr. Fate, Green Lanter (Hal) and Oberon find that the shocking surprise within is the High Father himself! They release him and he begins to hint at the devious plan that the still manifesting Darkseif is putting in place. To that end Batman and Huntress are breaking into the imperial palace, using what very much looks like, in function at least, a grappling gun. Within they meet up with Scott Free, Mr Miracle, who reveals the final part of the plan. Darkseid plans to shift Apokolips to Earth-2 where apparently no gods, old or new, exist where he can rule over the universe. The only downside would be that it would destroy that universe's Earth!

Final Thoughts

I can't fault this issue whatsoever! Rather than a series of fights, we get each time gets to reveal a part of the plan, though we do get that fight at the star. Each team has feels in character and approaches the problem in their own unique way, obviously my favourite is Big Barda's just-being-kind approach, though Pee Gee's punchin' come a solid second!