Comic Book Classics Revisited: Crisis on Infinite Earths #8

The heroes fought back against the dreaded Anti-Monitor, and actually hurt him, but they paid a horrible price. Supergirl died to give the five remaining universes hope. There is a little time now to figure out how to merge the universes together without everything being destroyed. However, the Anti-Monitor isn’t done yet and there is still one major death yet to happen. Comic Book Classics Revisited now presents Crisis on Infinite Earths #8.

Somewhere in the anti-matter universe, a tiny ship is all that remains of the Anti-Monitor’s massive fortress the heroes destroyed in the previous issue. Here, Psycho Pirate is telling the captured Flash that he’s scared out of his wits because he believes the Anti-Monitor will ultimately kill him. His only hope is that the Anti-Monitor was killed when Supergirl was. As Psycho Pirate tries to convince Flash to join him, the Anti-Monitor appears in a new outer shell (the look we will become accustomed to from here on out whenever the Anti-Monitor is seen beyond Crisis). The Anti-Monitor plans to go to Qward to build an army from the weaponers on that planet.

Meanwhile, on Apokolips, Desaad finds the Anti-Monitor’s ship and asks Darkseid what they can do to stop the powerful being. Darkseid basically tells Desaad to chill out because he’s cloaked themselves from being detected. He’s going to wait to see what the final battle brings. He decides that if the heroes win, the status quo will be maintained, but if they fall, he will strike what surely will be a weakened Anti-Monitor.

On Oa, the Guardians of the Universe are released upon the end of the merging. The Green Lantern Corps is not pleased that the Guardians hid the danger from them. There is disagreement among the Guardians as well. It appears that they had a vote and whatever was proposed, it failed to gain a majority. The schism in the ranks of the Guardians will prove to have repercussions for years to come.

On Earth 1, in the 30th Century, Brainiac 5 is not dealing well with the loss of Supergirl. He is working nearly nonstop to try to repair the damage of the merging universes. In the 20th Century, Firestorm, Vixen, and Firehawk pick up the original creator of Red Tornado, T.O. Morrow. Under some duress, Morrow’s agreed to help with fixing Red Tornado. The Atom is looking around inside Red Tornado and they find that his insides have been changed to something unearthly. There seems to be nothing that can repair him now. In Los Angeles, Green Lantern (John Stewart) is there to pick up Blue Devil to help with the Red Tornado situation. When Morrow is about to detach the head of the android, Blue Devil sees that the android’s insides are glowing. He begs Morrow to stop, but when it goes unheeded, Red Tornado’s body explodes. When Morrow tries to escape, Blue Devil pursues, but when Morrow disappears, Blue Devil sees a swirling vortex that pulls Blue Devil into it. It turns out that he was pulled across space to the Vegan star system where the Omega Men are having problems of their own.

On Qward, the Anti-Monitor oversees the creation of a massive anti-matter cannon that he plans to use to obliterate the remaining universes. The Psycho Pirate is slowly recharging his powers to control emotions. When he taunts Flash, the speedster surprises him by breaking free from a web of gel that was holding him in place. Psycho Pirate tries to instill fear into Flash, but Flash resists and beats the Pirate to a bloody pulp. Psycho Pirate begs for his life and says he’ll do anything Flash wants. So, Flash speeds around with Psycho Pirate to make the weaponers start to hate and want to kill the Anti-Monitor.

They turn all of the weaponers against the Anti-Monitor. While they keep the Anti-Monitor busy, Psycho Pirate takes Flash to the anti-matter cannon. Flash tosses Psycho Pirate aside even after being begged to save the villain’s life. Inside the cannon, Flash discovers the cannon is powered by concentrated anti-matter. Even though he knows what will happen to him if he doesn’t do anything, he knows it will only be worse if he doesn’t destroy the thing.

Flash speeds around the cannon’s power source to force its power onto itself. Flash knows he’s dying as his power is being sucked from his legs, but he keeps going. He tells all his friends and loved ones that he loves them and begs them to understand why he’s sacrificing himself. He destroys the outer casing of the cannon and causes the energy to be unleashed. To punish him for this, the Anti-Monitor opens a temporal portal that the Flash runs through. He sees what the others who saw visions of his decaying body saw in previous issues. As the last of the cannon is destroyed, all that is left of Barry Allen is his suit and ring.

The greatest Flash of them all is dead. And only the Anti-Monitor knows it.

Angered, the Anti-Monitor pulls in all the anti-matter he can from his own universe, wiping out pretty much every planet and living thing in it to power himself for the final assault. On Earth 1, the Challengers of the Unknown spot a disturbance in the universe and they are attacked by a loud noise rippling through everything. That scream comes from the Spectre who is terrified by what may destroy all of reality.

Another issue, another massive death in the DC Universe. This time it is the very person who is credited for creating the Silver Age of Comics, Barry Allen. His introduction in Showcase #4 was the first for DC’s revamped and more modern heroes. He would be followed by Hal Jordan who takes the mantle of Green Lantern into a more sci-fi style that was popular in the 1950s. Since both the Green Lantern and Flash existed in the Golden Age with different alter egos and different powers, their interaction with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman ultimately created the multiverse at DC.

Prior to Crisis, Barry Allen had been accused of murder. His series ended prior to this story as he retired by going into the future with his pregnant wife, Iris. However, he was plucked from Earth 1 by the Anti-Monitor with no one realizing it. Not even his wife was aware of why he disappeared. His hero buddies didn’t even know what happened to him before the Anti-Monitor began his assault.

While Supergirl’s death was certainly done in a very emotional way, Barry’s death is almost sadder. He was always considered a beacon of the best of what a hero could be. He had some bad stuff happen to him just before all this, but now, he ultimately died alone and with no one truly aware of his fate.

The question I’ve asked as I was preparing to write this article was “Why did Barry Allen die?” Well, it was fairly clear why Supergirl had to go. She was part of a convoluted history for Superman, but the Flash wasn’t so much. Jay Garrick, the original Flash (who lived on Earth 2), was retired. He wasn’t featured too much in the main DC Universe’s stories (aside from series like Infnity, Inc. that existed on Earth 2). I’ve flipped through as much as I could to try to find the story behind the decision to kill off a member of the Justice League and someone who had a huge fanbase. I didn’t really find anything.

The conclusion I came up with is basically what I had noted above. Barry Allen is ultimately the cause of the multiverse. If that was to be wiped out, then I guess the catalyst needed to be as well. It’s kind of unfair, but it makes sense.

We’ll see who takes up the Flash legacy later in the series, but Barry Allen would remain “dead” for a long time after this. I used quotations because technically, it would be revealed he had merged with the Speed Force, the power that gives all speedsters their abilities. He would appear from time to time as part of that Speed Force with other speedsters who perished over time. As sequels to Crisis on Infinite Earths started to happen in the 21st Century, Barry Allen’s return seemed more and more likely until it finally happened in Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis when he tried to catch the magic bullet that killed Orion at the beginning of that story. I doubt I’ll ever go into any further detail than that when it comes to Final Crisis as that story frustrates the hell out of me and hurts me in my head.

Barry Allen’s death would come as a blow to the DC Universe. A long running character (no pun intended) would simply be no more. We could argue that his legacy creates a little bit of a continuity issue when this is all said and done, and we could debate that all we want, but that’s maybe for another time as Crisis was meant to fix continuity, but it doesn’t quite go as planned. That will be something that I’m sure I’ll mention in a few weeks as this series comes to a close. For now just imagine it is late summer/early autumn 1985. You just watched a big time hero die.

Next week, we begin the final stages of the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Anti-Monitor is prepared to unleash his final attack, the villains finally come into play, as do the mystical characters of DC’s multiverse, and something new is formed from the resulting final battle. So, come back next week as we begin the final act of this comic book classic!