ONE MORE YEAR LATER: WORLD WAR III AND CHANGES IN THE DCU

[MattBrady]

by Troy Brownfield

Set the Way-Back Machine to One Year Previous. At the close of Infinite Crisis, DC jumped all of their books ahead 365 days in the “One Year Later” event. Partially a function of accommodating 52, and partially a function of giving all of the books a fresh start, the jump put many of the characters in new, skewed, or even vaguely familiar circumstances.

Though some of the status quo changes have been covered in previous issues of 52, and still others will be covering in the Annuals of their home titles (as in the case of "Nightwing And the Proposal that Wasn't! - or - Hey, Everyone Says Dumb Things When The Think the World is Ending", for instance), many of these “OYL” moves occurred during an exceptionally busy week in the DC Universe: the week of World War III. We’re going to take a light-hearted look at a number of characters and see what facilitated the changes that we saw (and covered!) fifty-some weeks ago through the prism of the four WW3 specials.

And if you haven’t read the specials yet, spoilers ahead!

Book One: A Call to Arms

Character: Father Time

Who is he?: The head of SHADE, he originally appeared during the Seven Soldiers event as an African-American man.
And One Year Later...: He was an older white guy who looked vaguely like Uncle Sam.
How’d he get there?: After Black Adam rips his face off(!!!), Father Time uses his ability to “molt” to assume his new form.

Character: Jason Todd

Who is he?: Punched back to life by Superboy-Prime, the artist formerly known as Robin II became the Red Hood and bedeviled his old mentor.
And One Year Later...: He’s running around New York in a Nightwing costume, killing criminals.
How’d he get there?: I think he took the train. (Wait, was that a cricket?) Actually, Jason has a good motivation: he’s righteously angry that Batman took a cruise and hung out in a cave (not the Batcave, but the “Enter the Dragon” cave in Nanda Parbat) while the world went to hell in a handbasket. I’d say that the kid has a point; however, he doesn’t really make it eloquently by beating robbers to death.

Character: Firestorm

Who is he?: Not Ronnie Raymond. This is Jason Rusch, who near the close of IC fused once again with Raymond’s old mentor, Dr. Martin Stein. After the Zeta-Beam accident that brought the space team of heroes home from that event, he was stuck fused with Cyborg of the Teen Titans.
And One Year Later…: He’s fusing with Firehawk (not like that, you sick freak).
How’d They Get In There?: Apparently, they had a previous conversation off-panel after Martin Stein (also off-panel) figured out how to use the JLA transporter to unstick Jason and Cyborg.

Book Two: The Valiant

Character: Supergirl

Who is she?: Moody teen from Krypton, apparently programming by her evil dad to someday kill her cousin, Superman.
And One Year Later...: Still moody, and running around Kandor in armor with Power Girl while dealing with her dark side.
How’d she get there?: You actually see the schism occur as she appears above Earth due to the previously mentioned Zeta Beam incident. She crashes to Earth, and is later recovered by Power Girl.

Character: Harvey Dent

Who is he?: He was Two-Face, but then he got better.
And One Year Later...: He’s defending Gotham City, but about to go off the deep end again.
How’d he get there?: Before his world tour, Batman entrusted him with the safety of Gotham City. Good idea or bad idea? Show of hands?

Character: Batgirl (Cassie Cain)

Who is she?: One of two teen heroine versions of old characters named Cassie, but not the “Cain” referred to in the Crime Bible, she was the born-and-bred assassin who became the second official Batgirl during the “No Man’s Land” arc several years ago. She then headlined her own series which was cancelled around IC.
And One Year Later...: She’s evil! EVIL!!! EEEEEEVILLLLLL!
How’s She Get There?: Deathstroke played on her insecurities over the fact that Batman left former villain Harvey Dent in charge of Gotham instead of her. (Remember, Deathstroke has a history of manipulating teen girls; look for the “Deathstroke vs. Chris Hansen” mini in ’08 and the “To Catch a Deathstroke” special on MSNBC). We know now (according to recent issues of Teen Titans) that Deathstroke will soon whack her up with a personality and character altering drug that allows him to control her for nefarious purposes (like joining Titans East).

Character: Donna Troy

Who is she?: Talk about a loaded question. Sufficient to say, Donna is (now) Wonder Woman’s sister, and has a variety of powers from a variety of identities.
And One Year Later...: She fights for her rights in her satin tights (and, er, armor) as Wonder Woman!
How’d she get there?: While Diana is navel-gazing for a year, Donna takes up the mantle of Amazonian Ass-Kicker.

Character: Aquaman

Who is he?: King of the Seven Seas, he’s the long-standing member of the Justice League who is entrusted with checking the coasts.
And One Year Later . . . : He’s a cross between Cthulhu and Squid Head from Return of the Jedi named the Dweller of the Depths.
How’d he get there?: The ocean is apparently rejecting the transformation wrought on the people of Sub Diego, slowing killing them. Aquaman, with the guidance of some sea gods, uses the power in his water-hand to raise the city, but suffers this transformation as a result.

Book Three: Hell is for Heroes

Characters: The Teen Titans

Who are they?: Originally the protégés of other heroes, the Teen Titans morphed in the premier teen team of the DCU’s present. At the time of World War 3, they are under the leadership of Beast Boy in the latest of their rotating configurations (seriously, they had more line-up changes in the 52 year than the ’07 Pacers).
And One Year Later...: They welcome back Robin and a newly revived Cyborg.
How’d They Get Here?: The Titans suffer greatly at the hands of Black Adam. First they lose Young Frankenstein (villains hate arms!), then Terra (again). Apparently, this shakes Beast Boy and causes him to leave and join the Doom Patrol, which means that the OYL team forms and Raven disappears in about two weeks’ time.

Character: Manhunter

Who is she?: She’s prosecutor Kate Spencer, a super-heroine who carries on the legacy of the Manhunter while frequently employing her amazing power to defy cancellation.
And One Year Later…: She’s defending criminals like Dr. Psycho and Wonder Woman (okay, she’s not really a criminal. Don’t blame me; blame society).
How’d She Get Here?: After a miscarriage of justice at the federal prosecutor’s office, Kate and her pal Damon quit; the duo then take up Mr. Bones’ offer to front a defense firm, allowing them to “work for justice from [their] own angle.” Yeah, ethically shady, but come on, Dr. Psycho? He’s got it coming.

Book Four: United We Stand

Characters: The JSA

Who are they?: The first super-team of the DCU.
And One Year Later: They’re still together, only they soon revamp themselves with a new focus on training the legacy heroes of tomorrow.
How’d They Get There?: With many of the big guns conspicuously absent, the JSA leads the heroes against the rampaging Black Adam (whom they feel responsible for, in that he was once a member of their team).

Character: Martian Manhunter

Who is he?: JLA mainstay J’onn J’onzz.
And One Year Later...: J’onn has changed form (elongated head, wrinkly chin) and costume, and now maintains a cold and aloof distance from humanity.
How’d he get there?: Actually, J’onn’s journey is encompassed by all four books. He was actually the first…(er, only?) hero on-scene to confront Black Adam in Bialya, only to have his telepathy (and psyche) overwhelmed by Adam’s rage and willful justifications. He flees to space, and spends much of the event emo-ing out and trying to sort out how he thinks and feels while observing the other characters. Ultimately, he returns to the forefront of the battle with Adam. He once again psychically engages Adam and goes down as Adam is hit by mystic lightning provided by Captain Marvel. In the aftermath, his body takes the new form.

Character: Black Adam

Who is he?: Ancient hero turned villain turned anti-hero turned rampaging killer.
And One Year Later...: While we can’t say for sure, what with there still being two more weeks, and while we won’t tell you for certain, so to avoid completely giving it away if you haven’t already read it (and blatantly ignored the earlier spoiler warning) . . . but . . . Captain Marvel pulls a great swerve and effectively removes Adam from the board. Now, he wanders the Earth (much like, yes, Caine from Kung Fu…or Kyle Trueblood, aka Maximum Man from Gail Simone’s Welcome to Tranquility over at Wildstorm) searching for something he’s lost.
How’d he get there?: I’m guessing the Wisdom of Solomon helped Cap a bit, but extra credit to Atom-Smasher for allowing the depowered mass murderer to walk away. Good work, pal. What was it that Hourman said about guys in that mask being dumbasses?

And there you have it, the One Year Later questions answered by World War 3. Clearly, not all of the danglers were addressed, and some will still be resolved in other storylines. Was this the busiest week in the history of the DC Universe, or is that still to come? Just remember what we’ve learned today: villains hate faces; villains hate arms; Deathstroke likes ‘em young; and young super-heroines should avoid the name Terra.

One year ago, Troy was the married father of one. One Year Later, he’s the married father of two. You might think that a minor change, but try telling his wife that.

[rock334]

Cannot wait to get these today!

(I'm not gonna say it)

[KaijubotX]

I'm a big DC fan, but I was disappointed in this event as a whole. DC admits that they ran out of room in 52 to get to all these subplots so they were all moved to WW3, and many of them seem forced in. The Aquaman and Manhunter stories had nothing to do with WW3. A pretty mixed bag. At least now all the OYL stuff is out of the way and they can move on. OYL was an interesting experiment but lacked something in the execution.

Teen Titans = Star Trek red shirts these days? Somebody needs to tell them to just stay home when the Great Disaster hits.

[elias_A]

Don't want to be nitpicking, and it's nice that you seem to agree how rediculous the portrayal of Batgirl in Robin OYL was, but a lot of Batgirl fans (me included) would dispute that she was a "born and bred" assassin. At least that gives a rather wrong impression of her origin.

She was an innocent girl raised isolated from society and trained in martial arts, but had no concept of the meaning of killing and death. When she was eight years old, her father sent her for the first time to kill a man, but doing that she realised what death means and ran away from her father, resolved never ever to kill again.
That's a difference, I think.

And while not as bad as Robin OYL, her story in WW3 does not make much sense:

1) At the end of her series, she decided to quit being Batgirl. So she has no reason whatsoever to complain that Batman trusted Dent instead of her. Anyway she was always shown to fight evil because of a deep-rooted sense of duty, not to gain approval.

2) She can read body language and would see that Deathstroke cannot be trusted, even assuming she doesn't know he nuked her hometown and killed all her friends.

[rwe1138]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

(Remember, Deathstroke has a history of manipulating teen girls; look for the “Deathstroke vs. Chris Hanson” mini in ’08 and the “To Catch a Deathstroke” special on MSNBC)

Ooh, Chris Hanson is ____ed...

[MrNEWZ]

Originally Posted by elias_A

2) She can read body language and would see that Deathstroke cannot be trusted, even assuming she doesn't know he nuked her hometown and killed all her friends.

But Deathstroke has made a lifetime out of lying and deception... his body language would not be likely to give away his position just as he could likely fake a lie detector test. He believes it to be true or comes off as such in order to persuade.

[MrNEWZ]

Originally Posted by rwe1138

Ooh, Chris Hanson is ____ed...

Which Chris "Hanson"? the punter for the Jaguars? Or the Chris Hansen for Dateline (which makes the joke a duplicate)...

The members of "Hanson" are a little old and male for Deathstroke... (though none are named Chris...)

[dadthedude]

Originally Posted by MattBrady[i

One year ago, Troy was the married father of one. One Year Later, he’s the married father of two. You might think that a minor change, but try telling his wife that.[/i]

Hey Troy, I've got two grown kids (21 and 19). For what it's worth I have a friend with 4 kids who insists that the most radical change of life he ever went through was going from one kid to two. He insists that this was harder than getting his first job, moving away from home, getting married and even having his first kid.

Why? Because he thought that after the first child, he and his wife had it all figured out. Then his second child came along and everything they thought they knew about how to handle babies was turned upside down by a complete opposite (for the record, their kids get along great, by the way)!

My friend told me that after having his second child, it didn't matter how many kids he had, he was ready for anything! Congratulations to you and your family.

P.S. My kids gave me my screen name (my wife added the "e" at the end).

[lorbaat2]

Originally Posted by KaijubotX

I'm a big DC fan, but I was disappointed in this event as a whole. DC admits that they ran out of room in 52 to get to all these subplots so they were all moved to WW3, and many of them seem forced in. The Aquaman and Manhunter stories had nothing to do with WW3. A pretty mixed bag. At least now all the OYL stuff is out of the way and they can move on. OYL was an interesting experiment but lacked something in the execution.

I agree with this completely. Now that WWIII has come and gone, I can honestly say that I find 52 to be a huge disappointment. I was looking forward to 52 issues of a slow transformation from the DCU at the end of IC to the DCU as depicted in the "One Year Later" titles- because that's what 52 was advertised as.

I enjoyed 52 and all, but over the course of the year I found that it, Morrison's Batman, and All-Star Superman are the only DC titles I buy anymore. I've already decided not to continue with Countdown.

[elias_A]

Originally Posted by MrNEWZ

But Deathstroke has made a lifetime out of lying and deception... his body language would not be likely to give away his position just as he could likely fake a lie detector test. He believes it to be true or comes off as such in order to persuade.

Maybe.
But I forgot a more important reason: She witnessed how he personally killed some neighbours of her in Bludhaven (not to mention he ordered his daughter to kill her).
Why should she team-up with a supervillain?
If she is that desperate for a "family", it was never in the least shown in her series.

[Chimbo]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Just remember what we’ve learned today: villains hate faces; villains hate arms; Deathstroke likes ‘em young; and young super-heroines should avoid the name Terra.

amen

..........

[Simon DelMonte]

Thank you for saving me $12. I love 52, but can't say I was inclined to buy these, and you have proven me right.

[froinlaven]

This event was garbage and a waste of my money...

[Kevin T. Brown]

Originally Posted by elias_A

Don't want to be nitpicking, and it's nice that you seem to agree how rediculous the portrayal of Batgirl in Robin OYL was, but a lot of Batgirl fans (me included) would dispute that she was a "born and bred" assassin. At least that gives a rather wrong impression of her origin.

She was an innocent girl raised isolated from society and trained in martial arts, but had no concept of the meaning of killing and death. When she was eight years old, her father sent her for the first time to kill a man, but doing that she realised what death means and ran away from her father, resolved never ever to kill again.
That's a difference, I think.

And while not as bad as Robin OYL, her story in WW3 does not make much sense:

1) At the end of her series, she decided to quit being Batgirl. So she has no reason whatsoever to complain that Batman trusted Dent instead of her. Anyway she was always shown to fight evil because of a deep-rooted sense of duty, not to gain approval.

2) She can read body language and would see that Deathstroke cannot be trusted, even assuming she doesn't know he nuked her hometown and killed all her friends.

I disagree. She was definitely "born and bred" to become an assassin, she just turned away from that training. Cain had every intention of having a child in order to raise them to be his successor. Deathstroke knew that, played on her weaknesses, and was able to manipulate her enough before finally drugging her into compliance. It's not until recent issues of Teen Titans that she was able to finally get free of his drug-induced influence over her.

[BanMan]

Originally Posted by elias_A

Maybe.
But I forgot a more important reason: She witnessed how he personally killed some neighbours of her in Bludhaven (not to mention he ordered his daughter to kill her).
Why should she team-up with a supervillain?
If she is that desperate for a "family", it was never in the least shown in her series.

Like I said...they really don't know WHAT to do with the girl. Methinks they didn't initially intend to get the backlash from Beechen's initial Robin arc, and so they created this Deathstroke subplot to even things out. Frankly, they should've just left it at the Teen Titans issue where we found out she was drugged. Nothing more was necessary.

[Kevin T. Brown]

Originally Posted by Simon DelMonte

Thank you for saving me $12. I love 52, but can't say I was inclined to buy these, and you have proven me right.

Actually, $10. The WWIII issues were also $2.50.

[newfoundma]

Hated it. DC advanced their stories a year. I was fine with this, because based on the initial 1 Year Later books, a lot has changed. If you think about the DCU only being 10-12 years old in continuity, and compress the all the stories since the beginning of the Silver Age into that time (I know Superman and Wonder Woman were rebooted since then, but stories with them go back to the original Justice League are in continuity). Therefore a lot happens every year. I figured I would let them impossibly age Tim Drake and the like again, if the story was worth it. And what do readers get? A mess.
Instead of using the year to gradually work in the changes, we get them all rushed into two weeks before 1 Year Later. Why not just jump 2 weeks instead next time, DC? 52 was a big enough mess, with the first 40 issues or so at a painfully slow pace, where it seemed like a character would commit to go somewhere (whteher it was somewhere else in town or around the world) and we wouldn't see them for 2 weeks. Seriously, Steel and Ralph's stories could have easily been two issues long, and be finished with.
And then there was the rush to fit in all the changes to the DC characters (which essentiall amounted to one vague change in a whole year in continuity). Aquaman's change had nothing to do with WWIII! So based on who we saw in these issues, Black Canary fought Black Adam and then ran off to play Trading Spaces with Shiva (for two weeks), Manhunter had her won firm for only two weeks when she took on Psycho Man as a client, Donna Troy was Wonder Woman for two weeks, therefore keeping it from being "A Year Without Wonder Woman." Don't even get me started on the fact that yes, he was held captive for a spell, but what changes did Hal Jordan actually go through in the missing year? The Titans are a mess. Ravager AND Kid Devil still need to join before Raven and Beast Boy break up and the team dissolves and Beast Boy runs off to Prague with the Doom patrol *whew*. And Batman's year long journey with Dick and Tim? Turns out it wasn't so long. As we saw in this weeks Nightwing Annual, Dick didn't leave until he was very recooperated from being attacked by Alex Luthor (he had to relearn how to walk!) at the end of Infinite Crisis. This means that Batman and Co. didn't leave til months into 1 Year Later. So it wasn't a "A Year Without Batman" either. Also, Tim was shown to come before Bats in early 1 Year Later issues of his series, and in 52 Dick has been back in the states since at least Christmas. Therefore, Batman, Nightwing, and Robin spent what? A week retracing Bat's steps this year? Some bonding.
So congratulations Catwoman, Greem Arrow, and Outsiders. You are the only two titles that I can think of that actually used the 1 Year Later concept.

[elias_A]

Originally Posted by Kevin T. Brown

I disagree. She was definitely "born and bred" to become an assassin, she just turned away from that training. Cain had every intention of having a child in order to raise them to be his successor. Deathstroke knew that, played on her weaknesses, and was able to manipulate her enough before finally drugging her into compliance. It's not until recent issues of Teen Titans that she was able to finally get free of his drug-induced influence over her.

Well, we can argue about what training to be an assassin means.
Of course Cain wanted her to be his successor, but Cassandra didn't know that, or at least didn't understand what killing means. That is an important, unmistakable point in the Batgirl series.
Her training consisted only of martial arts lessons, as far as we know.
Cain himself admitted that he made a mistake in training her the wrong way.

And "born and bred" sounds like she had expierence as an assassin and practiced that lifestyle for years, which she did not - she quit at her first "real" encounter with it.

And I don't know what you mean with weaknesses that Deathstroke understood.
It was never a problem for her that other heroes might not accept her. She was a hero out of her own deep sense of purpose, and admiration for Batman's example.
Certainly she has no build-in danger to change back into an assassin, if that is what you mean.
Especially since she is used to be lonely and self-reliant, cause she was living on the streets for years as a child.

[rwe1138]

Originally Posted by MrNEWZ

Which Chris "Hanson"? the punter for the Jaguars? Or the Chris Hansen for Dateline (which makes the joke a duplicate)...

The members of "Hanson" are a little old and male for Deathstroke... (though none are named Chris...)

See, this is why I should abstain from mocking people whose names I don't know how to spell.

[whitemarkd]

While 52 this week was great, the WWIII issues were disappointing - Deathstroke's conversion of Cassie was weak, they didn't address Donna's decision to become Wonder Woman at all, and the reason Jason Todd became Nightwing was OK until they cast doubt on his more noble motivation when he realized that crime(-fighting) pays.

The only things they explained fairly well (to me, at least) were J'onn's turmoil (Superman must have taught him how to cry) and Aquaman's change, which I found satisfying, though I wish they would have given him an Annual to do it properly (like they're doing for Nightwing and Outsiders).

And OH! it felt so good to see the one and only Aquaman again - I wouldn't be surprised if his appearance here spells the eventual end for Sword of Atlantis.

[yoshimi20]

Screw the haters, 52 is one of the best things DC has ever done and I really enjoyed the WW III books as well. Also I think the writers did a good job of making it so people didn't "need" to buy the extra books, but they do make the event have more depth.

[RickinToronto]

WW III was just awful. An incredibly whiny Martian Manhunter, rushed art work and writing, ugh...I can't believe I spent money on this. I am returning my comics today and hopefully will be getting my money back. WW III really made me dislike Martian Manhunter. All that angst ad nauseam. What a horrible night of reading comics this was.

[vbartilucci]

So, Supergirl split in two? Damn, that's a more confusing book than I thought. I gotta go look at it now just to see how big a train wreck it is...

I'm pretty damn sure that they STILL don't know what they want to do (or "are doing") with Batgirl. And I don't think they can blame this one on the whole "timeline" chestnut. Wasn't there a few panels in one of the WWIII previews where they were talking and did a Louisiana Lip-Lock? Or was that from another book? Or am I hallucinating again?

They didn't exactly EXPLAIN why Jason was pretending to be Nightwing, just said that he was, which you already knew if you were reading the book. I'd much rather know that, as well as why Nightwing moved to NYC - maybe that's in the annual, which I haven't read yet. I mean, according to what we now know, Nightwing stayed in Gotham (or commuted from Tibet) for no reason other than to apparently hit on Batwoman (apparently there's no Gaydar in the utility belt), Jason moved to NYC, masquerading as Nightwing, and then Dick moved to NYC, having no idea that there was already a Nightwing there. That's a pretty wild coincedence, no?

I think the way they went in Nightwing could have worked for all the OYL danglers - handle it in the book's annual. You can do a nice long story for the missing year, and they can be bought (or ignored) by the people interested (or not) if they all get bought you've sold like ten comics over the course of two months, instead of four in a week. And you get a nice cohesive theme for this year's annuals; "OYB", One Year Before

I think you'd have less people pissed off about the crammed aspect of WWIII that way. I didn't mind we didn't get all the OYL stories explained in 52, even if that's what was promised; it turned into a much better animal talking about those characters they chose to use.

[LunarDaydreamer]

I hate what the’ve done to Cass so, so much.

All the beautiful work done by Puckett & Scott undone for no good reason.

[Prometheus3]

Originally Posted by Simon DelMonte

Thank you for saving me $12. I love 52, but can't say I was inclined to buy these, and you have proven me right.

Yeah thanks Newsarama, except I discontinued buying 52 a while ago.