Stan Lee’s Crisis was set up in multiple parts but I felt it was best to write it up as just one entry. This will also conclude our time with the Just Imagine Universe. I just wanted to say at the top of this that diving into the world of Just Imagine was a ton of fun. Like any comic series there were some down points but overall I really enjoyed the comic. For anyone that has been reading comics for a while this is a series that is a fun experiment taking one of the creators of the Marvel Universe as we know it and tasking him with reimagining the DC Universe through his eyes. With that come some obvious comparisons but I felt that was to be expected. My hat goes off to DC Comics for doing this to begin with. Enough of that though lets talk about Crisis!
The issue starts off with someone, obvious from the start it is Robin, stealing the hawk idol from a museum when Catwoman shows up. She is too late to stop the thief so the museum curator summons Wonder Woman who then summons the JLA and all the new heroes we met after the JLA issue. As you would expect there is some in fighting among the group and the new members but they are quickly turned to the task at hand, defeating the incoming threat of Crisis. We learn that Crisis is a person not an event and that he has family ties to Morgan Le Fey and Reverend Darkk. These ties are later revealed to lead to Robin as well. Sandman helps the team come up with a plan to defeat Crisis by taking away the source of his power, five gems(tell me if that sounds familiar). When the team tries to take the gems they are all pulled into a nightmare realm that paralyzes them before Sandman can escape and save them. Soon the team turns on each other as they learn one of them is working with Crisis. Robin quickly convinces the group that Sandman is the turncoat and takes away his Dream Stone. Once Robin has the stone it is revealed that he is the spy, as he is the grandson of Crisis. Robin then tries to use the Hawk Idol but is attacked by Batman who destroys it but not before Robin can use it’s power turning him into a half hawk half man, or Hawkman if you will. The team then has to fight both Hawkman and Crisis together and at the moment of defeat Green Lantern absorbs enough power to summon Yggdrasil and put a halt to the fight. This also creates a crater in the ground that births a new super power beings known as the Atom who quickly defeats Crisis and joins the JLA.
This being the big finally to the universe, at least for Stan Lee, Crisis was a good apposing villain to take on the heroes of Just Imagine. The action was well done, the story was good enough for a big “event”, and the conclusion was satisfying. As I said at the top overall I really enjoyed my time inside the pages of Just Imagine. I hope you did too!
As for next week’s post we will be diving back into the world of Rom the Space Knight at issue #12. I hope you all are enjoying the Retro Re-Read series, and all the post on my SubStack! If you are please take a second and like this post, comment down below, and don’t forget to subscribe. I hope to see you all here next week!
The Stan Lee versions have been really interesting. It's a shame DC haven't put together an omnibus
They did. That is how I've been reading it
Even better, I'll have to look out for it.
I got fairly cheap on the secondary market.
It's keeps getting better