Zero Hour #4 annotations: The Beginning of the End

Annotations for LSH v4 #60:

• On sale 6/21/94
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 717 (July 11, 2022)
• Timeline: 9/30 to 10/1/2995

 

Notes on Showcase '94:

• Before we get into ZH #4 itself, there was a 2-part story in Showcase ’94 that serves as a prologue. There’s nothing particularly relevant to our reading but it does explain how Monarch becomes Extant. This pair of 10-page stories was written by Dan Jurgens with art by Frank Fosco and Ken Branch (that were also reprinted in the ZH collected edition). In summary:
• Part 1: Waverider and Hunter are at Vanishing Point. Waverider recalls that to defeat Monarch (in the Armageddon 2001 timeline), he had to destroy the timeline that his family was from. Hunter thinks Waverider is the bad guy for destroying the timeline, even if it was to defeat Monarch. Just then, their time scopes flicker, and the cause of the disturbance is found to be in Washington DC, in 1994. But Monarch, formerly Hank “Hawk” Hall, is still alive and has rigged a contraption to warn him if someone is looking for him in the time stream, which just happened. Waverider and Hunter decide to go back in time and look for Monarch – but that’s just what Monarch wanted, as he can’t time travel yet, he wants the Linear Men to go to him so he can steal their tech. Monarch surprises them and says that he has felt the time disruptions but he’s not causing them. Waverider uses his power to see Monarch’s future and says “No! You’re more than we knew! More of a threat than…” and then Monarch blasts him unconscious.
• Part 2: Monarch is holding Hunter and Waverider in stasis, and takes them through time, but they realize that while he can travel in time, he can’t navigate. Waverider escapes and overloads Monarch’s circuitry, but Monarch has stolen Waverider’s energy and taken the three of them into his own past. He reveals that when Dove died, her powers, reason, and intelligence fused into his body, making him more than either of them were, and he changes from Monarch into Extant. He then steals one of Waverider’s arm bands that lets the Linear Men travel in time, and he disappears. Hunter says that Monarch was supposed to have died fighting him and Waverider in this time, but instead he has changed history and gotten more powerful. “For all we know, the Extant might change all time!” says Hunter, to which Waverider replies “If true, we stand on the verge of a true Crisis!” (take a drink).

Notes on Zero Hour #4:

• This issue went on sale 7/12/94; L.E.G.I.O.N. #69 (which we did in the crossover a few weeks back) came out on 6/28/94, in between LSH #60 from last week and this issue. That’s the one where Jo finds who he thinks is Tinya but it’s really been Enya all along.
• Page 1: Just like Zero Hour issue numbers are counting down from #4 to #0, inside the story we also see events counting down by “X hours ago”. But given that this starts in “Earth’s distant future 32 hours ago at the end of time”, this is really tracking the timeline of the story’s main antagonist from their point of view. It culminates to “now” at the end of issue #1, leading into issue #0. This happens to be very helpful to me when trying to fit all of the pieces of the story that take place in 1994, 2995, and the beginning and/or end of time in the right order for the timeline I’m tracking (see the bottom of this and every entry for the timeline as known so far).
• 32 hours ago: someone (we don’t know who yet) arrives and blasts the Time Trapper. As he drifts away, the antagonist thinks about changing time, and creates a giant white hole that starts swallowing everything going backwards in time, saying that the countdown to Zero Hour has begun.
• Page 4: 30 hours ago, Metron visits Darkseid looking for allies
• Page 5: 69 hours ago, it’s a new alternate Earth Batgirl
• Unless this is a typo and it should be 29 hours ago, this one is WAY out of order
• Page 8: 28:49 ago, at Vanishing Point, Waverider and the Linear Men see centuries of the future vanishing, moving backwards
• Page 9: 28:42 ago, Flash is in the 64th century and time is ending, and then so is Flash, only his costume remains – what would a Crisis be without the death of a Flash?
• Page 14: 24:42 ago, Metron meets Superman and Batman and tells them there’s a cosmic crisis (take a drink!)
• Page 15: 23:40 ago, Green Lantern is Pol Manning in the year 5700, but he dies along with Hunter
• Pol Manning was an identity assumed by Hal Jordan early in his career (GL #8, 1961). In the late-58th Century, the various planets of Earth’s solar system had banded together and formed the Solar Council. When their citizens were threatened by a disaster too great for them to handle, the Solar Council's secretary Iona Vane decided to bring the greatest Green Lantern in history, Hal Jordan, to their time. An unfortunate side effect of the time travel completely erased Jordan's memory. Vane created the fictitious "Pol Manning" persona and recorded it into Jordan's mind; she even cast herself as his romantic interest. This era was revisited in GL #51 and Green Lantern Corps #214 (when Salakk was brought to 5700 and assumed the role of Pol Manning).
• Page 17: 21:38 ago, Hawkman splits into his various counterparts, Dr Mist summons the Leymen, and Metron uses Superman and GL Kyle Rayner to summon a bunch of Earth’s heroes. Metron tries but fails to get Spectre to help.
• We will also see this summoning scene in the pages of Legionnaires #18 and Superboy v3 #8, among other issues, both of which also come out this week.
• Page 21: 18:35 ago, at Vanishing Point, Waverider finds out about the original Crisis.
• Page 22: 18:25 ago, the other members of the JSA find Hawkman, and then Vandal Savage disappears when his birth is erased.
• Page 23: 18:19 ago, at Vanishing Point, Extant has arrived and taken out the other Linear Men. 
• Page 24: house ad with info on things coming up (picking up threads seen in this issue), including:
• New details about the Time Trapper’s past can be found in Valor #23 (on sale this week) and LSH #61 (on sale in 3 weeks, the same week as ZH #1)
• Superboy encounters a time anomaly face to face when he meets a strangely familiar super-powered teenager in Superboy #8 (on sale this week)
• Future timestream anomalies are depicted in Legionnaires #17-18, Valor #22-23, and LSH #60-61 (aka “End of an Era”)
• Page 25: DC Universe house ad with rumors of what’s coming up in Zero Hour, including:
• The JSA, JLI, and L.E.G.I.O.N. fall!
• Phase regains her memory and returns to the 30th century!
• Phase returns to the 30th century but doesn’t regain her memory!
• Casualties: Hawkwoman! The Atom! Waverider! Valor – again!
• Villains: Glorith! The Anti-Monitor! The Time Trapper! Monarch!
• Battle of the Superboys! Return of the Insect Queen! Turtleboy Unlimited!
• The Legion of Super-Heroes and the Legionnaires – together again for the very last time!
• Mike Carlin is revealed to be the main villain of Zero Hour!

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Cutting down the timeline to just the last few days of story as we get close to Zero Hour. I'm color coding them based on whether the date appeared in the 2995 Sourcebook (yellow), it's a confirmed date that was given in the comic (green), or an estimated date based on keeping track of events and days (cyan). Bold text is something new added this issue. Italics are unknown dates.

Due to the timelines in the stories bouncing between 2995 and 1994 and things happening "simultaneously" 1001 years apart, I'm keeping the events in the order that they happen to the people involved, not strictly chronological by day and year. To make it easier to follow, the 1994 dates will be in red text and anything outside of time (like at the beginning or end of time) will be in blue text.

• Fri 9/29/95: Arriving at Weber’s World, the team tries to stop the Khunds’ bombs from destroying the planet; Dawnstar arrives and meets Wildfire; Firefist kills Veilmist; and after studying at the Infinite Library, Glorith travels to Tharn where she restores Mordru’s powers to help her conquer the universe (LSHv4 #58). Meanwhile, SW6 Brainy & Triad find that Valor has been retconned from history (Valor #13, Legionnaires #16 pages 9-10), so a team of Legionnaires goes back in time to find out what happened (Valor #14, Legionnaires #16 page 10).
• Outside of time: the Legionnaires enter the time stream and crash their Time Bubble (Valor #15); the Legionnaires fight Valor and find out that Lori is Glorith (Valor #16), and then fight Glorith, but Valor succumbs to the effects of his lead poisoning and dies; SW6 Valor appears (Valor #17); Brainiac 5 tells SW6 Valor that he will have to spend another 1000 years in the Phantom Zone in order to save time, and Valor does not take it well (Valor #18), but the presence of Waverider and seeing his fellow Legionnaires vanish changes his mind. Once he accepts his fate, the Legionnaires appear back in their own time and the legend of Valor is restored (Valor #19, Legionnaires #16 page 11. From Vanishing Point, the Linear Men see a timequake affect the 30th century (Valor #20), which causes Dream Girl and Star Boy to appear (Legionnaires #16).
• The Legionnaires instantly return to their present, unaware of their meeting with Glorith and the Valors (Valor #15-19, Legionnaires #16 page 11); Star Boy, Dream Girl, and Bouncing Boy appear with the Legionnaires and Ferro Lad is long dead, leading Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad – who seem to be the only ones aware that something funny is going on – to take a Time Bubble to figure it out (even though Invisible Kid and Rond Vidar are secretly aware that something’s happening); Polestar appears at New Earth (Legionnaires #16, LSHv4 #59); Rond, SW6 Brainiac 5, and SW6 Invisible Kid arrive on Weber’s World in a time bubble at the same time as with Mon-El, Shadow Lass, and Dev-Em, but they're all too late to prevent the death of Laurel Gand from the Khund bomb; Jo leaves for 1994 to find Tinya (LSHv4 #59). The SW6 Legionnaires confront Polestar at New Earth (Legionnaires #17).
• Sat 8/6/1994: Valor tries to re-create the feats he did before he went into the Phantom Zone, but fails; the Linear Men watch Valor from Vanishing Point (Valor #20). As a result of the timeline issues, Valor splits into multiple copies of himself and manages to do all the things that legend said he did over the years, in just a few hours, then resigns himself to having Glorith send him back to the Bgztl Twilight dimension. But the Linear Men realize it’s too late, the future is doomed (Valor #21).
• Sun 8/7/1994: Jo Nah arrives from the future in the time bubble (L.E.G.I.O.N. #68). He meets who he thinks is Tinya, but it turns out to have been her cousin Enya all along. He wants to bring her back to the 30th century (L.E.G.I.O.N. #69).
• Sat 9/30/95: Laurel Gand is laid to rest on Shanghalla in a ceremony attended by a number of adult and SW6 Legionnaires, after which Glorith and Mordru attack the group with replicas of some of their old foes and kidnap Rokk, and then Dawnstar fades out (Legionnaires #17). Valor and others go to New Earth to help RJ Brande bring Pocket Earth into this universe, but while the Subs and several Legionnaires blink out of existence, Pocket Earth turns out to be unstable and will explode in 72 hours (Valor #22). Rokk tries but can’t escape Mordru and Glorith (LSHv4 #60).
• Sun 10/1/95: Rokk escapes Mordru and Glorith by going into the Infinite Library; the surviving members of the adult and SW6 Legions meet on Winath to help look for Rokk, but when Glorith and Mordru show up on Talus seeking the Time Beacon, the Legions go there. The magicians call forth the Infinite Man, and then they take his powers. Gim Allon disappears when his SW6 counterpart Leviathan is killed (LSH v4 #60). 
• End of Time: Time Trapper is blasted by someone unknown, who starts to destroy time from the end going backwards and from the dawn of time going forwards (Zero Hour #4).
• Mon 8/8/94: Metron, Superman, and Batman gather some heroes, including the Legionnaires and Superboy (Zero Hour #4).