The very first crossover comic between Injustice: Gods Among Us and another franchise is here! Issue 1 was released as a digital chapter yesterday [purchase] with a print edition to follow shortly.
Featuring the writing of Tim Seeley, art by Freddie E. Williams II, coloring by Jeremy Colwell, and lettering by Wes Abbott, the first of this six-part miniseries sets the tone for the crossover chaos to come!
The story begins with a brief intro narrated by Zodac, hurtling alone through outer space. Through his exposition, we are introduced to this particular incarnation of Eternia. Interestingly, this series takes place in the aftermath of a He-Man/Thundercats crossover event, where it turns out that the evil robot impostor Faker has been posing as He-Man and ruling in his stead. On the DC side, this series takes place in the aftermath Injustice 2, following Superman’s ending, where he has destroyed Brainiac and appropriated his tech to turn Batman into a mindless servant.
After He-Man and the forces of good on Eternia conclude their battle, Batman (from the alternate universe) and members of the resistance arrive on the scene! In true comic book crossover form, heroes from both sides fight each other before realizing they’re on the same side. When Mossman and Swamp Thing used their telepathic link with plants to communicate with each other, it wasn’t long before they convinced their respective teammates to stand down. Batman explains that the team’s purpose in coming to Eternia was to enlist He-Man’s help against the tyrannical Superman. So, off they go!
Superman, it is revealed, has been collecting magical artifacts (magic being one of his few weaknesses) to ensure that they cannot be used against him. And, unbeknownst to our heroes, he has already enlisted the help of Skeletor—what type of force the Man of Steel used to compel his aid is left to the reader’s imagination. The first issue concludes by going back to Zodac, who has come face to face with Darkseid and his forces from Apokolips.
A read like this is a bit more involved than, say, the self-contained Mortal Kombat X comics (see our review here). To truly understand all the events going on, it requires a working knowledge of the events depicted in the Story Mode of the Injustice games as well as other contemporary crossover comics.
In some instances, the comic raises more questions than it answers. For example, He-Man’s mother (Queen Marlena) spent some time on Earth, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Was this the same Earth that is now under a tyrannical Superman’s control? The parallel Earth that Batman and Green Arrow are from? A different Earth altogether? To be fair, this is just the first issue, and there are five more to answer questions such as this!
In the long run, it will be interesting to see if any of the events that occur in this series will have an impact on future story developments. Since this series follows up to a Thundercats crossover, it seems reasonable that future He-Man adventures may make reference to this series. Of bigger concern to this audience will be if anything here affects the Injustice franchise. Could He-Man debut as a future guest character in Injustice 2? Could this comic be required reading to fully understand the events depicted in Injustice 3, when that is eventually released?
One other thing worth noting: The digital format appears more or less the same as the print book. This is a departure from the regular Injustice comics, in which the digital version is specially formatted for a widescreen reading.
[Related Article: DC Announces Injustice vs He-Man]
Being the first crossover between Injustice and another franchise, it opens the door to a lot of possibilities! Perhaps if this is successful, others may follow suit.
What types of things would you like to see in this series? What character battles are you looking forward to the most? What other Injustice crossovers would you like to see, going forward? Register and share your thoughts on the DC Universe Injustice forum!
