Crisis Weekly #20

PAGE ONE

Panel 1 (splash)

In the skies above the White House, Doomsday and President Lorraine Reilly/Firehawk clash.  Firehawk should already exhibit having been in an intense fight.

CAPTION: To confuse the monster with a mindless brute, interested only in destruction, is to completely misunderstand it.

CAPTION: The name it was given, “Doomsday,” is approximate to the intent of its existence.

CAPTION: Simply put, this was a creature engineered to usher the end of worlds.

CAPTION: From its release by the Caballero in Mexico, it went straight to the heart of western civilization, and there it was confronted by the one person with ultimate responsibility, the one person who had come to embody all that society had been led to despise, but also all that stood in its way: Firehawk, also known as Lorraine Reilly, also known as the President of the United States of America.

CAPTION: History will show that she handled herself bravely, without hesitation.

CAPTION: And that she was the first to fall.

TITLE: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”

WRITER: Tony Laplume
 

PAGE TWO

Panel 1 (splash)

Doomsday and Guy Gardner, armed with his yellow ring, clashing.  Doomsday is swinging directly at Guy’s face (evoking Guy’s crushed face from their first encounter), while Guy is unleashing the full power at his disposal, a brilliant flash that lights up the whole page, something few ring-wielders have ever done before.

CAPTION: Though he did not fall that day, Guy Gardner’s legacy, too, was immediately restored in his outstanding act of courage, stepping up before all others.

CAPTION: Where the public had been led to believe he was a moral deviant, Guy instead demonstrated the highest standard of heroic caliber.

CAPTION: He did not die, but he was defeated soundly and almost instantly.

CAPTION: The wreckage of the White House is the testament of his stand.  Already observers are saying that the grounds will be refashioned as a memorial to his efforts, and that the home of the president will be relocated elsewhere.

 

PAGE THREE

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Doomsday versus an army of Green Lanterns, including Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner.  They are engaging in the upper atmosphere.

CAPTION: The effect of Guy’s fall had severely tarnished the ability of the Green Lantern Corps to operate within the confines of Earth, their legitimacy having been challenged by a joint resolution of the world’s governments.

CAPTION: Hal had chosen to honor the apparent wishes of his home planet and dedicated his efforts elsewhere within the sector.

CAPTION: But came back, as all heroes do, when it became clear it no longer mattered what anyone thought.

CAPTION: And to rescue his friend and colleague.

CAPTION: Even this was not enough to stop the beast, however.

 

PAGE FOUR

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Doomsday clashes with Superman and Wonder Woman, with various other well-established heroes off in the distance, including the Crisis Compact, which now includes our pudgy Sandman.

CAPTION: Superman had been leading the rescue efforts in Washington in the wake of the creature’s devastation. 

CAPTION: Like Hal he had been maintaining a low profile in apparent deference to the will of the population.  Even in retreat, the consummate hero.

CAPTION: Everyone knew what had happened the last time he met this opponent.  Everyone feared it would happen again.  And, just perhaps, the thought occurred to him as well.

CAPTION: He hesitated, just perhaps, for a moment.

CAPTION: Doomsday, though, grows inured to all previous challenges.  This is to say, he always grows stronger.

CAPTION: So that even a superman isn’t strong enough anymore, to defeat him.

 

PAGE FIVE

Panel 1 (splash)

Doomsday against the arrayed collection of White Martians, including the likes of Karma, Boxer, the Man-Bats, the Bully Boys, and Russian Centaur.  The Creeper is there, too.  There are thousands represented.

CAPTION: What we realized was that we would have to put aside our petty differences.

CAPTION: The very agency that had been used to pollute us, the White Martian menace, that great unknown…

CAPTION: Martian Manhunter and myself finally put aside our prejudices and held an emergency council with their leaders, and we came to an understanding, at last.

CAPTION: And…we finally slowed the onslaught.

 

PAGE SIX

Panel 1 (splash)

Doomsday standing in a cloud of dust, apparently triumphant.

CAPTION: None of it was enough.

 

PAGE SEVEN

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Bloodwynd, in costume, clutching his blood diamond with a determined look on his face.

CAPTION: There is a Martian legend.

CAPTION: Mars is a dead world today.  We all know this.  All life on it came to an end.

CAPTION: Doomsday came to the red planet.

CAPTION: The legend states that an ultimate weapon was conceived to defeat the ultimate predator.

CAPTION: A blood red diamond.

CAPTION: This was to be a last resort, when all else was lost.

CAPTION: The cost would be great.

CAPTION: Like all bombs, it would consume itself as well as its prey.

CAPTION: I suppose I’ve always known…

 

PAGE EIGHT

Panel 1 (splash)

Doomsday confronting Bloodwynd, still clutching his blood diamond.

CAPTION: The hope is that this will end its menace forever.

CAPTION: In other words, worlds will live…