Comic Book Classics Revisited has finally entered the blackest week in our series’ short run.  The Grim Reaper is going to make a couple stops this week.  First, Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 deals out death to an under-appreciated character that would later be heavily mourned by the DC faithful.  Let’s get you caught up and then crack this extra-sized issue open…

In issue #6, Earths 1 and 2 were tucked away in a netherverse that was safe from the Anti-Monitor’s destructive reach.  However, there were still three other universes containing Earths 4, X, and S that still needed to be saved.  Before the heroes got on board with saving the other universes, they made sure that all they were told about what was happening with their worlds was really going on.  The heroes each found that Earths 1 and 2 were not only merging, but the timelines were all messed up by having the past, present, and future practically existing on top of one another.  They agree to rescue the three remaining universes, but the Monitor’s satellite is destroyed by the Anti-Monitor.  It takes the last bit of Lyla’s Harbinger powers to pull the three remaining universes into the netherverse.  Unfortunately, Alexander Luthor and Lyla aren’t so sure what to do now.

Alex and Lyla are sitting on a rock above the collected universes.  They are soon joined by Pariah looking for answers as to why he has been part of this Crisis all along.  Lyla decides it is time for answers.  She leaves with Pariah and Alex for Earth where she will gather the representatives of each Earth remaining (plus Lady Quark who is the only survivor of Earth 6) so she can start explaining everything that is happening.

On Earth S, Dr. Sivana and Ibac see Fawcett City looking different from they are used to.  Sivana explains that the universes must be merging.  He plans to take over all five Earths, but Captain Marvel arrives to put them in jail.  Before Marvel can get to them, the pair of villains are beamed away to Brainiac’s ship.  Supergirl mentions that it seems Sivana and Ibac seemed just as surprised by the teleportation as Captain Marvel was.  Soon, Lyla comes to recruit Captain Marvel as the representative of his Earth.  On Earth 2, the new Wildcat looks to introduce herself to her godfather’s original team, but thinks twice after hearing Atom, Liberty Belle, and this Earth’s version of Green Arrow talking about the first Wildcat.

On Earth 4, Pariah finds that universe’s representative in Blue Beetle.  Alex speaks to both Earth 1 and 2’s Superman (Supermen?  Supermans?) and they head off to hear the truth of everything that’s happened.  Lyla explains that the crisis actually started long before Earth had ever formed.  It started on Oa when one of their greatest scientists, Krona, went against the long-held law to view the actual dawn of the universe.  When he viewed the beginnings, an astonishing sight of a hand in the middle of a maelstrom of stars as if it was meddling with the beginning of the universe.  The Oan legends told of utter destruction if this event was ever viewed.  When feedback created an explosion, the entire cosmos was affected.  Not only did the multiverse get created, but an evil anti-matter universe was too.  Everything except Oa was duplicated in the positive universe.  The only duplicate of Oa created was in the anti-matter universe.  That planet was called Qward.  For his crimes, Krona was reduced to disembodied energy and sent out into space.

Feeling guilty for the multiverse, and the anti-matter universe, that was created, the Guardians from Oa decided to build a police force to protect the citizens of the entire universe.  First, they built a robot force called the Manhunters.  Soon, they abandoned the machines for living creatures.  The Green Lantern Corps was born.  However, this displeased several Oans.  When a middle ground could not be reached, those Oans unhappy with the Corps split off and became known as the Controllers.

On the moons that orbited Qward and Oa, life was being created.  On Qward’s moon, the Anti-Monitor was born.  As if there was a cosmic need for an opposite, on Oa’s moon, the Monitor was born.  The Anti-Monitor grew to power and easily conquered Qward.  He built his own army of warriors of evil thunderers.  Those the Anti-Monitor found to be particularly evil, he transformed into the shadow demons that have been attacking the heroes so far in this series.  When the Anti-Monitor conquered all of the anti-matter universe, he still wanted more, but wasn’t aware there was anything else to conquer.  The Anti-Monitor did feel the presence of his opposite number in the positive universe.  The Monitor had spent the years in peaceful meditation to learn all he could about the universe, but he felt the presence of his evil shadow.  They soon waged a war for one million years across the barrier that separated their universes to which no victor could rise above the other.  Pretty much by accident, a simultaneous attack rendered both Monitors unconscious – for nine billion years.

Earth 2’s Superman asks what freed the Anti-Monitor from his coma.  That’s when Pariah speaks up.  He was a scientist on his Earth – the greatest scientist of his people.  He discovered a multiverse.  When he plans to learn the origins of the universe, he too is warned of impending doom to learn that secret.  Not heeding the words of his peers, Pariah continues his research and creates a chamber of anti-matter to use to see the beginning of the universe.  However, in his selfish pursuit of knowledge, he forgets that since the chamber itself is anti-matter and his world is positive matter, it cannot exists in the same space.  He does see the same thing Krona did, but outside his chamber, the entire universe is created.  So, Pariah’s first sin was that he destroyed his own universe.  His second sin was through that, he released the Anti-Monitor from his sleep.  When his universe was destroyed, the anti-matter universe grew to fill the void, giving the Anti-Monitor more power – Pariah’s third sin.  However, with the Anti-Monitor now awake and planning on destroying each universe to grow stronger, the Monitor is also awoken.  Now, Pariah is used by the Monitor to view each of the dying universes, and, as for Lyla, she explains that she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck.  The Monitor found her and gave her powers to assist him.

Across each of the five Earths remaining, the heroes prepare to enter the anti-matter world to attack the Anti-Monitor.  Through the characters talking about wanting to help, we learn that the magical characters like Deadman, the Spectre, and the Phantom Stranger cannot go because their magicks will not work there.  As for everyone else, the most powerful heroes prepare to make the trip – except for Earth 2’s Power Girl (that Superman’s cousin), who is frustrated that she isn’t going with the other heroes.  On Alex and Lyla’s floating rock (sorry, I just have no better term for it and neither did Marv Wolfman or anyone else), the collected heroes are given a passage to the anti-matter universe through Alex’s body.  As it turns out, when Alex was transported from Earth 3 to Earth 1, he was changed and imbued with anti-matter energies.

Pariah leads the heroes into the anti-matter universe – his final atonement for all he has done.  The heroes find the Anti-Monitor’s fortress, a huge stone city unlike anything anyone has ever seen.  Inside, the Anti-Monitor originally  plans to kill the heroes, but decides to use Psycho Pirate’s powers to manipulate the heroes into being his slaves.  When Psycho Pirate claims he cannot and will need to recharge after controlling the emotions of three whole Earths, the Anti-Monitor comes to the conclusion that he must take care of the problem himself.  The heroes are concerned that they were able to enter the fortress so easily, but soon, the fortress itself comes alive with rock creatures.  They are so powerful that when they hit Earth 2 Superman, he’s shocked to see he’s bleeding from the hit.  When the heroes attack the rock creatures, they are astonished when the creatures quickly reassemble themselves.  Supergirl figures out that destroying the creatures is not the answer.  Instead, if they are crumbled, it’s best to delay their reassembling.

With Supergirl’s discovery, Earth 1’s Superman and the new Dr. Light make their way to the machine that is being used to slow down the vibrations between the five universes remaining.  Before Superman can destroy the machine, the Anti-Monitor attacks.  Supergirl hears Superman’s screams of pain and rushes to help him.  Superman and Dr. Light are overpowered by the Anti-Monitor.  Just before Superman is killed, Supergirl flies in and gives a massive left hook into the Anti-Monitor’s face.  Supergirl fights so ferociously, she begins destroying the Anti-Monitor’s suit, which keeps him alive.  Supergirl tells Dr. Light that she must take Superman, and the other heroes, and leave the anti-matter universe at once.  Then, Supergirl flies into the Anti-Monitor and they crash into his machine that is slowly merging the five universes together.  When Dr. Light begs to help, Supergirl turns tell her to go.  With Supergirl no longer facing her enemy, the Anti-Monitor unleashes a blast that rips through her.  The Anti-Monitor escapes to heal claiming he will be victorious at the dawn of time.

The heroes stand to watch Superman of Earth 1 speaking with Supergirl.  He tells her that the machine endangering the universes was destroyed.  She tells him not to cry because he taught her to be brave and she was.  She tells him that she loves him for what he is and how good he is and dies.  Superman screams in anguish.  Wrapped in anger, Superman wants to face the Anti-Monitor and make him pay for the death of his cousin.  He’s ultimately calmed by his Earth 2 counterpart.  The heroes leave and Superman takes his cousin’s body with him.

The five Earths are stuck.  They are not fully merged, but they are not wholly separate.  The time distortions have mostly faded.  Everything, for the moment, is carrying on as before.  However, in Chicago, a memorial service is given for Supergirl.  Batgirl gives her a touching eulogy about what made her a hero.  Meanwhile, at Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, Superman says his final words to his cousin before taking her body, wrapped in her cape, into space.

Ooh boy, this was a big issue.  Not only do we get a huge history of how the multiverse was created and why the Crisis is happening, but also the heroes get their first shot at the Anti-Monitor, but, last but certainly not least, the death of Supergirl.  Up to this point, there had been deaths in the series.  Characters here and there from throughout the history of the DC Universe, but, until this issue, the deaths weren’t anything that would be a major change to DC’s lineup of big names.  Oddly enough, George Perez’s beautiful cover (oft-honored by being parodied by several other characters from a multitude of titles and other companies, and even re-enacted multiple times with cosplayers, even with Perez himself) totally tells you what happens in this book, but it is so well done, and so well written, this single issue is one of the true masterpieces of how to deal with something as big as the death of a character so tightly connected to your publisher’s line.  All that said, and all the touching tribute already stated and still to come, killing off Supergirl was part of the plan all along.  Allow me to explain.

Part of the problem over at DC was that Superman was always considered the last of the Kryptonian race.  However, Supergirl was around – a lot.  On top of that, there were Krypto the superdog, a whole bunch of other animals that had Kryptonian powers, and a multiverse of Superman copies.  It wasn’t terribly special to be Superman anymore.  DC wasn’t really looking to just kill Supergirl to mess with Superman, but she was an unfortunate casualty of merging the multiverse into one universe.  The only Kryptonians that would survive this purge would be Power Girl and General Zod (though later, Doomsday would be introduced with heavy Krypton connections).

Supergirl had kind of being under-appreciated for most of her history.  She was initially created to simply cash in on the sales of Superman comics and his related buddies.  She was mostly just a teenage girl with powers like Superman’s.  In some of the more goofier tales, it almost seemed as though she was in love with her cousin (not touching this subject ever, but that’s just how she was portrayed in the early days).  She was never considered to be a truly worthy character, nor was she ever given a defining moment…

Until she died.

Many would come to believe that Supergirl’s greatest moment was her last.  With Marv Wolfman’s marvelous script for this issue, he gave more life and more complexity to Kara Zor-El than anyone else ever had.  It was as if comic book readers collectively cried out to read more stories featuring Supergirl beyond her death, but now it was too late.  It’s kind of that “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” sort of thing.  I’ll also note that Wolfman didn’t really want to kill her off.  He was mandated to by editor Dick Giordano to help clean up Superman’s history.  So he basically gave her the best send off he could.  I have to say he pretty much knocked it out of the park too.

Kara would be one of those deaths in comics that would not be reversed… Well, for a little while.  She ultimately makes her full return in 2004 when Jeph Loeb brought her back just before this series’ sequel.  She was definitely given a better chance that time around.  She was written a lot more realistically as a teenager dealing with issues that didn’t concern boys or clothes.  In fact, her new version was even more powerful than Superman and despite being only a teenager, was actually older than Kal-El.  That was because she left Krypton as a teenager and was held in suspended animation while Kal left as an infant and grew at his normal pace.  By the time she reached Earth, Kal had grown beyond Kara’s age.  I’ll also point out that the original Supergirl’s spirit does appear a few times after Crisis, but she was never resurrected.  There may have been a couple of others who held the name Supergirl, but Kara remained dead until she was re-introduced in the 21st Century.

Okay, that should do it for part one of this Black Week.  Come back on Friday and we’ll be dealt an even heavier blow.  For now, I leave you with Kal-El of Earth 1’s final words to his dearly departed cousin, Kara:

“I will miss you.  The days will seem shorter now, the nights that much longer.  Sometimes I forget how mortal we really are.  I don’t believe I’ll ever forget that again.  I remember when you landed on Earth, a girl of fifteen, filled with life and hopes.  Linda Lee, hidden in that orphanage, secretly practicing your powers each night.  Lord, I remember how proud I was the day we revealed your presence to the world.  And now, Kara, you are gone.  And I grieve.  I live on.  Hurt, but not disillusioned.  Sad, but still hopeful that the dreams shared by you and me and all those others — Those with special powers, and especially those with none…  Those dreams of peace and hope can still come true.  We live on remembering and honoring the past, but always looking to the future.  Good-bye, Kara… Linda Lee… Supergirl.  I will miss you forever.”