Mild Mannered Reviews – Dark Crisis #2

Dark Crisis #2

KindleDownload iBookBuy Now

Dark Crisis #2

Scheduled to arrive in stores: July 5, 2021
Cover date: September 2022

“Chapter Two: Fall of the Titans”

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Daniel Sampere
Cover: Daniel Sampere and Alejandro Sanchez
Variant Covers: Juliet Nneka, Mario “Fox” Foccilo and Prasao Rao (Pressy), Lucio Parrillo, Rafael Sarmento

Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer


We start with a quick monologue by Pariah explaining his role in “Infinite Crisis” and his burgeoning role in the coming crisis. We then jump back to Titans Academy where three students are dragging Nightwing to safety. The students debate running away or taking the fight to the intruders, during this discussion they are attacked by Deathstroke’s men who carry the students away. Nightwing wakes up to find Deathstroke’s army has infiltrated the school and they are also taking out heroes around the world. Deathstroke reveals that Beast Boy will survive a bullet to the head. This causes Nightwing to attack. The two fiercely fight with Nightwing coming out on top. Deathstroke asks who Nightwing wants for round two, to which Dick responds that he will let Slade kill him if all the others are set free. Slade agrees and takes aim at Dick. The bullet is blocked by Jon, arriving in the nick of time. The two friends attack Slade’s army. But Deathstroke calls in Cyborg Superman for reinforcements. As Jon and Henshaw fight, a voice, presumably Pariah, calls Deathstroke and tells him to let the heroes live. As Slade calls his soldiers back he tells the heroes that it is open season on them, and that death is mercy compared to the darkness. Henshaw and Jon continue their fight until Cyborg arrives, stepping on Henshaw’s head and crushing it. Black Adam then arrives to take leadership of the Justice League.

The next scene takes place on a prison ship. Kyle Rayner is trying to escape when he is rescued by Hal and Jo Mullein. They explain their mission and the last page is a beautiful splash page of the Green Lantern Corps gathered to fight.

3Story – 3: I’ll get rid of my complaints first. I can’t believe they did Hank Henshaw dirty like this. Henshaw is a legitimate Superman level bad guy, there is no way Cyborg and Jon could beat him, especially by stomping on his head. I am pretty sure if Henshaw’s head can withstand punches from Superman, Cyborg’s foot isn’t going to do anything. That scene, which was meant be a cool reveal of Cyborg, just ended up being stupid. A page earlier Henshaw’s head even draws blood from Jon’s face! Somebody needs to sort out power levels for everyone, because inconsistency really takes me out of it. How is Jon even keeping up in this fight? The rest of the story is actually quite entertaining. Dick and Slade’s fight is full of history and emotion. It is choreographed beautifully by Sampere. Plus, Kyle’s rescue scene at the end gives me a lot of hope that the Green Lantern Corps will have a positive role in this crisis.

5Art – 5: Beautiful. Sampere and Alejandro Sanchez rock this issue. The art is gorgeous! The colors are vibrant. The fights look amazing! The art on this event is its biggest asset.

5Cover Art – 5: A great cover by Sampere and Sanchez. It showcases the threat to Titan’s Tower and the brutal conflict between Slade and Dick. This is a beautiful shot.

5Variant Cover Art A – 5: This cover has Future State Batman and Future State Wonder Woman back to back. I really like this version of Wonder Woman. I didn’t read much of the Future State Batman, but I read a lot of this Wonder Woman (Wonder Girl?). This cover showcases both of them beautifully. Its dark and broody with a lot of earthy textures.

3Variant Cover Art B – 3: I like the water color palette used in this cover, but I am not a fan of the Silver Age character designs. It’s just not for me.

4Variant Cover Art C – 4: This is a cool Trinity cover. I like the minimalist design. My only quibble… why does Batman take up half of the cover while Superboy and Wonder Woman only get a quarter each?

5Variant Cover Art D – 5: A cool scene from the attack. The tower burning in the background while Slade is on his knees in the foreground. It makes for an engaging image.

Check out the Mild Mannered Reviews contents page.

2 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Superman2878
July 10, 2022 11:47 am

I haven’t read the Dark Multiverse series. Is it any good? Is it another crisis like story with multiple universes?