Eight issues down, only four to go before a new DC Universe rises from the ashes.  Comic Book Classics Revisited has made it to Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 and it’s time to enter the final act!  Up to this point, the surviving beneficiaries of the Monitor’s power, Lyla, Alexander Luther (of Earth 3), and Pariah, have managed to protect only five of the remaining thousands of universes in a pocket “netherverse”, but they are not out of the woods yet.  They have managed to take the fight to the evil Anti-Monitor who plans to destroy all positive matter universes.  In that fight, he was hurt, but the heroes lost Supergirl.  Later, the Anti-Monitor planned to build an anti-matter cannon, but Flash would sacrifice himself to destroy it.  Now it is time to find out what the villains have been working up as Brainiac has been collecting his own team to rule over whatever universes remain.

On Oa, the six Guardians of the Universe that had been voted down a plan conceived to stop the crisis have come together to grant one-time backup to Hal Jordan Guy Gardner a chance to be a Green Lantern.  His mission is to seek out the evil that is causing this crisis, and eliminate it.  Just as he accepts his mission, an attack from the the Anti-Monitor’s travel to the dawn of time destroys the chamber the Guardians and Gardner was in and kills all but one of the Guardians.  Guy Gardner takes off to go on his hunt (which would later play out in the Green Lantern series of the time).

On Brainiac’s ship, dozens of villains have been collected by Brainiac and Lex Luthor of Earth 1.  Brainiac explains that he believes the crisis is over because he can no longer detect the Anti-Monitor’s presence in the positive or anti-matter universes.  Brainiac tells the villains to listen to Luthor of Earth 1 so they can plan their attack to conquer the remaining Earths.  However, the Lex Luthor of Earth 2 speaks up saying his Earth 1 counterpart is not the genius he is and he’s the only Luthor Brainiac needs.  Brainiac agrees that he only needs one Luthor, so he atomizes the Earth 2 Luthor.  They carry on like business as usual.

Orbiting Earth 1, a Tamaranian ship is here to pick up Starfire.  They are going to take her back to her father so she may be briefed on her duty during this crisis.  However, there seems to be some untruth to their mission to retrieve Starfire, but they aren’t ready to share what is actually happening.  In New York, the Teen Titans watch the people who have assembled outside the “warp zone”, a place where two Earths are touching and where time is running amok.  Firehawk and Donna Troy decide to enter the warp zone to try to find Donna’s husband, Terry.  In Earth 1’s World War II, the rippling energy that attacked Oa earlier is in the skies overhead meaning the Anti-Monitor’s travel through time has reached the 1940s.

On Earths 4, S, and X, the villains have stormed the lightly guarded planets and seized control.  At the United Nations on Earth 1, Alex, Lyla, and Pariah are addressing the nations of the world.  They seem confident that the worst is over, but some delegates aren’t so sure.  Shortly after Pariah claims that the trouble must be over because he’s not been called away to witness any catastrophes, he soon is teleported away as the image of Brainiac appears and tells the U.N. that they have taken control of three of the five Earths remaining.  He gives the floor to Lex Luthor who issues an ultimatum – surrender or the forces of the supervillains will be unleashed which will undoubtedly destroy Earths 1 and 2.

On Earth 2, the Justice Society tries to break the barrier to Earth 4 to save the people there, but they can’t get through.  The delegates at the U.N. building are starting to get anxious.  Alex tells them that one of Lyla’s plans is being enacted.  She and Jay Garrick go to the home of Wally West, a former Teen Titan and speedster known as Kid Flash.  Wally comes out of retirement and goes to New York with Jay Garrick.  They erect a cosmic treadmill so they can access Earth 4.

The heroes do break through as Luthor and Brainiac predicted.  On Earth 4, the heroes deal with a planet that has basically been set on fire.  On Earth S, the villains have frozen the planet completely.  Earth X is completely overrun by plant life.  The heroes fight hard, but the villains continue to have a little bit of an upper hand.  As Luthor speaks to Brainiac about their plans and what they are seeing play out on each Earth, he discovers Brainiac is not responding.  The robot explodes and out comes Psimon who plans to also kill Lex Luthor in order to usurp the control of these villains.

There’s not much to say about this issue, really.  Each act, if we break it up as issues 1-4 being act I, 5-8 being act II, and now issue #9 starting act III, has started this way with a “reset” of sorts.  It’s still moving the series forward, but not giving us much to truly breakdown.  Whereas issue 8 started with people being kinda down in the dumps over Supergirl’s death, the Flash’s death is not known to the heroes, or villains for that matter.  So, we’re just putting pieces into place for the final confrontation and the final outcome of what the crisis is doing to the heroes and the DC Universe as a whole.

I will say two things, though.  The first is that it’s nice to see the villains again.  They aren’t just off hiding or cowering and hoping that the heroes will wear themselves out so they can take over.  They’re (or I should say Luthor and Brainiac) up to something.  They aren’t waiting for the heroes to wear themselves out.  No way, they are going to threaten the chain of Earths currently linked together.  So while the heroes have been working collectively to save everything, the villains, and in particular Brainiac, have been calculating a way to force the heroes’ hands.  It’s kind of like kicking a dead horse.  The heroes have enough to deal with in this Anti-Monitor dude, the villains don’t need to be coming in and mucking everything up.

The other is pretty simple.  How often have you ever seen people in the know going to the United Nations to tell them what’s happening and what their plan is to help?  “But Geoff, in Avengers Vs. X-Men Tony Stark and Captain America are discussing the Phoenix with the President of the United States.” Yeah, I know that, but it’s two guys who are just generally considered leaders of the heroes talking to one leader of a country.  And, yes, I know later the Phoenix Five showed up at the United Nations to tell everyone all the good they’ve done for the planet, but that’s after they pretty much started conquering it.  It’s not too much different than what Brainiac and Luthor did here.  Show up, say what’s what and that’s it.  All this said, no one should be surprised that Alex, Lyla, and Pariah are met with frustration and skepticism from the delegates.  It’s pretty much the most realistic moment in this entire series.

I’ll wrap it up here for today.  We’re really rolling toward the epic conclusion.  The Anti-Monitor is traveling backwards through time, the heroes are split up trying to stop the villains, and, still, the DC Universe will not be the same again.  Come back Friday and we’ll get into issue #10!