Comic Reviews by Walt

A Time for Every Purpose

Writer: Michael Jan Friedman
Penciller: Mike Collins
Inker: Ken Branch
Letterer: Bob Pinaha
Colorist: Steve Mattsson
Asst. Editor: Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt
Editor: Paul Kupperberg
Published by: DC Comics
Cover Date: September 1994
Cover Price: $1.95

Darkstars is another series I’ve never before read an issue, and have now for the first time due to the tie-in to Zero Hour. As such, it is also another one where I read the issue "in a vacuum" with zero context of preceding issues and have only this one issue to follow along with…though kinda utilizing a broad, generalized "working knowledge" of the DC Universe in general to keep from being completely, absolutely "lost."

This issue is a relatively quick read despite feeling long-is for my lack of detailed familiarity with things. I had recalled THAT Donna Troy was once part of the Darkstars, but having read so little (overall) with her, this stuff is still primarily a blind spot for me.

The issue runs with Donna–apparently now new to the group–talking of a singular someone named Darkstar, and she and the others in her ship end up fighting an entity named Entropy–apparently the living embodiment of the abstract concept (much like Kismet in the Superman books or several of Marvel‘s "cosmic beings"). They also have dealings with a former Green Lantern of Earth–John Stewart (I suppose this must be after GL: Mosaic). We also get to see an Abin Sur from the past, apparently also pulled through time pursuing an energy signature from stuff going on.

There’s a lot of interesting potential to me here that makes me think I’d probably enjoy reading this series if I had all the issues and could "binge read" at some point. (Truthfully, I suspect that of many ’90s books and regardless of the final verdict I have the intent of doing just that for a number of them…eventually!)

As with a number of other tie-ins, this really has very little to do with Zero Hour itself as far as the main story…it just has events that are loosely "enabled" without further explanation by being a tie-in. Shifting things up a bit, though, this ends on blank pages as other "final week" issues did, with the arrival of "Zero Hour" itself…and yet ALSO ties directly to the first week as we see the Darkstars here get Superman’s messages as led by Metron and guided by Green Lantern.

I’m not blown away by the art…but it’s solid stuff and definitely fits. I’m not at all put off by it. Story-wise, I recognize Friedman’s name as a writer…which actually impresses me a bit with this title.

While things seem to move forward a bit in this issue in terms of what would seem the general plot…it’s not that exciting to me in the moment, and proves to be YET ANOTHER "skippable" issue in terms of Zero Hour itself.

Filed under: 2016 posts, The '90s Revisited, Zero Hour | Tagged: 1990s, A Time For Every Purpose, Bob Pinaha, Comic Reviews, comics, DC, DC Comics, Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt, Ken Branch, Michael Jan Friedman, Mike Collins, Paul Kupperberg, STeve Mattsson, Zero Hour |