Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Val Semeiks
1998
DC Comics
Every year or so, DC and Marvel choose to take their respective universes of super heroes and throw all the comics into a huge storyline--often using words like "War," "Infinity," "Crisis," and "Armageddon" to indicate what a big deal the whole thing is going to be. As is standard, there's usually a body count, albeit a body count involving characters that you've never heard of because they A) just came into existence or B) were never that popular (which is why they're getting killed anyway.) There's never any danger of the big guns getting wiped out, and even if they kill a bunch of civilians, well, killing civilians is what motivates the underwear set anyway--so kill away.
DC One Million happens to be the 1998 version of this sort of storyline: the 853rd century of the Justice League returns to our time to do a little "meet and greet," luckily arriving in time for a futuristic plot to annihilate the universe. Or something like that. (There's always some weird pop "this is the end of all things" hanging in the balance.) Although it's far more frightening to imagine that "crime" and "evil" still need to be defeated by people in spandex in the 853rd century (seriously?) DC One Million happens to be full of a lot of ingenious little ideas, even though it is, quite staunchly, a pretty boiler plate story. The current trade, quite nicely, ignores all but the most integral storyline--it's quite common to print these things in multiple volumes when one really only needs the most basic outline. Still, Morrison is able to outdo himself on the finishing touches--Superman still being alive 85 thousand years into the future, being treated as, basically, the living embodiment of God: masterstroke. The other superheroes roam around, entrusted with the control of entire planets, an idea that would work pretty well if it were expanded upon. The current vogue for DC and Marvel is to make sure that these huge crossover storylines have massive impact upon their entire line, and it's nice to take a step a few years back and read one of them that only strives to be an entertaining story.
-Tucker Stone, 2006
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