“Yesterday’s” Comic> Armageddon: Inferno #1

“Quick! Waverider has dislocated his jaw!”

Armageddon: Inferno #1

DC Comics (April, 1992)

Since the events of Armageddon 2001, Waverider has become a man out of time, and during his travels in the timestream he came across a being named Abraxis. Abraxis wants to come into the regular world from his own, which he has already conquered, his servants nothing more than drained cattle for him to feed off the life essences of. He offers these husks to 12 people who have gotten such a raw deal at life that they’re willing to trade their souls for power. He sends them to four time periods to build the simulacrum he needs to enter the DC reality and take over all of time and space. Waverider is unable to stop him, his only hope now riding on selecting a group of heroes from safe points in the timestream to fight Abraxis’ minions. While all four teams are listed this summary is going to be long enough so we’ll focus on the one team we see in action. In Russia, just as the wall fell, Waverider summons Batman, the original Firestorm, the Creeper, Ultra Boy, and the Spectre. But even this team is unable to stop the first simulacrum from being completed and Abraxis wins the first round.

What they got right: I’m glad they found another story for Waverider, but it’s too bad they couldn’t continue on that, like give him the mission they later gave Booster Gold to repair the timeline or deal with threats to time and space like Abraxis here. Ostrander saw the opportunity to play with various versions of DC’s heroes and he went with it.

What they got wrong: The art really took a nosedive from the previous two Armageddon series, as if the 90s were finally pushing their way into the title.

Recommendation: Later today we look at part 2 but so far it’s off to a good start. Give it a look.