Zero Hour: Crisis in Time Vol 1 0 (2024)

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #0 is an issue of the series Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1994.

Synopsis for "Zero Hour"

Parallax explains his plan to some of the last remaining heroes, Batgirl, Guy Gardner, Alpha Centurion and Triumph to recreate a better universe for everyone now that he's nearly destroyed everything. He developed his great new powers by absorbing residual energies left over from the defeat of the Anti-Monitor in the first Crisis. He journeyed to the End of Time, where he harnessed entropy and used it to weaken the link maintaining time's perpetual loop.

At Vanishing Point, Waverider, Superman and the others try to think of solutions. Also gathered are Captain Atom, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Hawkman, the Ray, Liri Lee, Donna Troy, Green Arrow, the Atom and Damage. Waverider believes it would be possible for them to recreate time themselves, using the complete records kept by the Linear Men.

Parallax begins to recreate the universe, beginning by removing the destruction of Coast City.^[1] He also plans to resurrect the Green Lantern Corps, and he even considers setting up alternate earths so that individual heroes can be happy on their own worlds.

Before he can make any serious changes, the team from Vanishing Point arrives and Parallax is blasted by Waverider. As they hold their final confrontation, Parallax argues with the group, maintaining that they are all short-sighted, and his killing of billions was justified in the name of a better world. Coming from alternate timelines, and having been convinced of the value in Parallax's goals, Alpha Centurion and Batgirl join Extant to fight at his side. To confront Parallax, the Spectre himself arrives, and the two of them begin to duke it out in a fight of cosmic proportions! While Parallax is distracted, Waverider has the other heroes he gathered follow his carefully laid out plans. The Ray, Darkstar (Donna Troy), Captain Atom, and Kyle Rayner absorb the plasma energy universe Parallax created, absorbing most of Parallax's energy. Superman, Captain Atom, Darkstar, and the Ray send energy into Waverider who channels it into Damage. As Parallax is about to kill Damage, Batgirl dives in the way and sacrifices herself to save him. Kyle Rayner comes up from behind to grab Parallax just as Green Arrow resigns himself to putting Parallax down once and for all. Green Arrow shoots Parallax through the chest, and kills him. Satisfied that justice has been done, the Spectre deliberately pumps more energy into Damage until he is unable to control himself. Filled with an overwhelming number of energies on both a cosmic and biblical scale, Damage explodes and creates... a new Big Bang.

Waverider and the other heroes, having barely escaped by being taken outside of time and becoming anomalies themselves, overlook the new universe. Displaced characters, like Alpha Centurion and Batgirl's corpse fade away, and Extant simply leaves. Waverider has everybody safely reinserted back into the moments in the timestream they came from, and the world is completely back to normal. All of the deaths caused by temporal anomaly are reverted, although those who died of natural means remain dead, and Waverider explains what happened to those who are confused. In the meantime, in the midst of all of the death, Power Girl has given birth to an infant child, a boy. As Green Arrow mourns the death of his best friend, and the Linear Men go back to their arduous tasks, the Time Trapper, consistent at the end of time, presides and ponders over the events.

Appearing in "Zero Hour"

Featured Characters:

• Waverider
• Superman
• Green Arrow
• Triumph
• Warrior
• Batgirl (Zero Hour) (Dies)
• Wonder Woman
• Power Girl

Supporting Characters:

• Spectre (Jim Corrigan)
• Alpha Centurion
• Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)

Antagonists:

• Parallax (Hal Jordan)
• Extant
• Wild Huntsman (First appearance) (Cameo)

Other Characters:

• Liri Lee
• Captain Atom
• Hawkman
• The Ray
• Darkstar
• Damage
• The Atom
• Captain Marvel
• Impulse
• Terra
• Arsenal
• Batman
• Amazing Man
• Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
• Supergirl
• The Flash (Jay Garrick)
• Superboy
• Steel
• Martian Manhunter
• Time Trapper
• Power Girl's Baby (First appearance)

Locations:

• Vanishing Point

Items:

• Batarang
• Green Lantern Ring
• Trick Arrows
  

Notes

• This issue is reprinted in:
  • Zero Hour: Crisis in Time
  • Zero Hour: Crisis in Time 25th Anniversary Omnibus
• Zero Hour: Crisis in Time was shipped on a weekly publishing schedule.
• The reading order for this limited series counts down backwards beginning with issue #4 and ending with issue #0.

Trivia

• Hal Jordan decides to create one Earth for the modern-day mainstream DC Universe heroes and another for the Justice Society where they would never grow old—similar to the original pre-Crisis Multiverse concept of Earth-One and Earth-Two, the respective homes of both the Justice League and the Justice Society.
• Hal asks Captain Atom if he wanted to regain lost time, referring to his post-Crisis origin where he was transported 18years into the future due to the experiment that made him into Captain Atom.
• Green Arrow makes a comment about the recently-deceased (and erased) Batgirl not being forgotten even though she no longer at that point existed. Interestingly, her Earth-One counterpart made a comment about the Earth-One Supergirl being a hero that would not be forgotten at her memorial service in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, though her existence would be erased with the John Byrne reboot of the modern day Superman's origin.

See Also

• Cover gallery for the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time series
• Images from Zero Hour: Crisis in Time Vol 1 0

Recommended Reading

• Crisis Recommended Reading
  • Crisis on Multiple Earths
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths
  • Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!
  • Identity Crisis
  • Infinite Crisis
  • Final Crisis
  • Flashpoint
  • Heroes in Crisis
  • Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths

Links and References