 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "DC One Million" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| "DC One Million" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Cover ofDC One Million (1999), trade paperback collected edition, art byVal Semeiks. | |||
| Publisher | DC Comics | ||
| Publication date | November 1998 | ||
| Genre | |||
| |||
| Main character(s) | Justice League of America Justice Legion Alpha Solaris Vandal Savage | ||
| Creative team | |||
| Writer(s) | Grant Morrison | ||
| Penciller(s) | Val Semeiks | ||
| Inker(s) | Prentis Rollins Jeff Albrecht Del Barras | ||
| Colorist(s) | Pat Garrahy (Heroic Age) | ||
| DC One Million | ISBN 1-56389-525-0 | ||
"DC One Million" is acomic bookcrossover storyline which ran through an eponymous weeklyminiseries and through special issues of almost all of the "DCU" titles published byDC Comics in November1998. It featured a vision of theDC Universe in the 853rd century (85,201–85,300 AD), chosen because that is the century in which DC will have published issue #1,000,000 ofAction Comics if it maintains a regular monthly publishing schedule. The miniseries was written byGrant Morrison and drawn byVal Semeiks.[1]
The core of the event was a four-issue miniseries, in which the 20th-centuryJustice League of America and the 853rd-centuryJustice Legion Alpha cooperate to defeat a plot by the supervillainVandal Savage (who, as an immortal, lives to the far flung century) and futureSuperman nemesisSolaris the Living Sun. Thirty-four other series then being published by DC also put out a single issue numbered #1,000,000, which either showed its characters' involvement in the central plot or gave a glimpse of what its characters' descendants/successors would be doing in the 853rd century.Hitman #1,000,000 was essentially aparody of the entire storyline. A trade paperback collection was subsequently published consisting of the four-issue mini-series and the tie-in issues that were necessary to follow the main plot. The series was then followed by a one-shot issue titledDC One Million 80-Page Giant #1,000,000 (1999), which was a collection of further adventures in the life of the future heroes.
In the 853rd century, the originalSuperman ("Superman-Prime One Million")still lives, but has spent over 15,000 years in exile within hisFortress of Solitude, located at the heart of the Sun, to keep it alive. During this time of absence, everyone he knew and loved died one by one. One of his descendants is "Kal Kent", the Superman of the 853rd century.
The galaxy in this far future is protected by the Justice Legions, which were inspired by the 20th-centuryJustice League and the 31st-centuryLegion of Super-Heroes, among others.Justice Legion Alpha, which protects the solar system, includesKal Kent and future analogues ofWonder Woman,Hourman,Starman,Aquaman, theFlash andBatman. Advanced terraforming processes have made all the Solar System's planets habitable, with the ones most distant from the Sun being warmed by Solaris, a "star computer" which was once a villain, but was reprogrammed by one of Superman's descendants.
Superman-Prime announces that he will soon return to humanity and, to celebrate, Justice Legion Alpha travels to the late 20th century to meet Superman's original teammates in the JLA and bring them and Superman to the future to participate in games and displays of power as part of the celebration.
Meanwhile, inRussia,Vandal Savage single-handedly defeats theTitans (Arsenal,Tempest,Jesse Quick andSupergirl) when they attempt to stop him from purchasing nuclear-poweredRocket Red suits. He then launches four Rocket Red suits (with a Titan trapped inside each of the four) in a nuclear strike onWashington D.C.,Metropolis,Brussels andSingapore.
One member of the Justice Legion Alpha (the future Starman) has been bribed into betraying his teammates by Solaris, which has returned to its old habits. Before the original heroes can be returned to their own time, the futureHourman android collapses and releases a virus programmed by Solaris to attack machines and humans.
The virus affects the guidance systems of the Rocket Red suits and causes one of them to instead detonate overMontevideo, killing over 1 million people. Tempest (the Titan inside) had escaped long before the suit exploded by using the ice that formed on the suit at high altitude, although he subsequently blacked out and fell into the sea. The virus also drives humans insane, causing an increase in anger and paranoia worldwide. Believing that this was deliberately planned by the JLA to stop him, Savage launches an all-out war on superhumans using "blitz engines" he had created and hidden while allied withAdolf Hitler duringWorld War II. The paranoia caused by the virus also leads the Justice Legion Alpha and the contemporary heroes to attack each other, although the Justice Legion Alpha manage to coordinate themselves enough to stop the other Rocket Red suits from hitting their targets.
The remnants of the JLA that stayed in the present and the Justice Legion Alpha overcome their paranoia when the future Superman andSteel realize the significance of the symbol they both wear; as theHuntress had pointed out to Steel earlier, wearing the 'S' means that he has to make the hard choices. The two JLAs are eventually able to stop the virus when it is discovered that it is a complexcomputer program looking for appropriate hardware. To provide this hardware, the heroes are forced to build the body of Solaris (including in it aDNA sample of Superman's wifeLois Lane) and the virus flees from Earth to this body, bringing Solaris to life. In a final act of repentance, the future Starman sacrifices himself to banish Solaris from the Solar System. The future Superman forces himself through time using confiscated time travel technology he finds in theWatchtower, almost dying in the process due to the drain on his powers.
Meanwhile, in the 853rd century, the original JLA are fighting an alliance between Solaris and Vandal Savage. Savage has found a sample ofkryptonite on Mars (where it was left by the future Starman back in the 20th century), which he gives to Solaris. Savage has also hiredWalker Gabriel to steal the time travel gauntlets of the 853rd century Flash (John Fox) to ensure the Justice Legion Alpha remains trapped in the past, but ultimately double-crosses Gabriel.
Solaris, in a final attack, slaughters thousands ofsuperhumans so that it can fire the kryptonite into the sun and kill Superman-Prime before he emerges. The JLA'sGreen Lantern — a hero who uses a power that Solaris has never encountered before — causes Solaris to gosupernova and he and the 853rd century Superman contain the resulting blast — but not before the kryptonite is released.
The future Vandal Savage teleports fromMars toEarth using the stolen Time-Gauntlets. It turns out, however, that Walker Gabriel and Mitch Shelley, theResurrection Man (an immortal who had become Savage's greatest foe through the millennia), had sabotaged the Gauntlets so that Savage, instead of travelling only in space, also travels through time, arriving in Montevideo moments before the nuclear blast he caused centuries earlier, finally bringing his life to an end.
It is then revealed that a secret conspiracy — forewarned by the trouble in the 20th century, mainly in that the Huntress, inspired by the time capsules which students in her class were currently making, realized they had centuries to foil the plot — has spent the intervening centuries coming up with a foolproof plan for stopping Solaris. Their actions included replacing the hidden kryptonite with a disguisedGreen Lantern power ring, with which the original Superman emerges from the Sun and finishes off Solaris.
In the aftermath, the original Superman and the future Hourman use the DNA sample to recreate Lois Lane, complete with superpowers. Superman then also recreatesKrypton, along with all its deceased inhabitants, in Earth's Solar system, and lives happily ever after with Lois.
Later, in the miniseriesThe Kingdom, it is established that this timeline is merely one of many possibilities and thus not definite due to the mutable effects ofHypertime.
Alongside the mainDC One Million miniseries and the accompanying80-Page Giant issue, the following ongoing DC Comics books also partook in the event:
There are 24 Justice Legions, each based on 20th- and 30th-century superhero teams. Those featured include:
Several other futuristic versions of DC characters appeared in the crossover, including:
In 2008, 10 years after the crossover, an issue ofBooster Gold (vol. 2) was published asBooster Gold #1,000,000 and was announced as an officialDC One Milliontie-in by DC Comics. This comic introduced Peter Platinum, the Booster Gold of the 853rd century.
Grant Morrison'sAll-Star Superman miniseries made several references to theDC One Million miniseries. The Superman fromDC One Million makes an appearance and the series ends with Superman becoming an energy being who resides in the Sun after his body has been supercharged with yellow solar energy (similar in appearance to Superman-Prime) andSolaris makes an appearance as well.
Morrison'sBatman #700 also briefly shows the One Million Batman and his sidekick—Robin, the Toy Wonder—alongside a number of future iterations of Batman.
The One Million Batman, Robin the Toy Wonder and One Million Superman play a significant role inSuperman/Batman #79–80, in whichEpoch battles Batmen and Supermen from various time periods.
By signing into WBID account in the video gameBatman: Arkham Origins, the costume of the One Million version of Batman will be unlocked for use.[2]
The original miniseries was a top vote-getter for theComics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Limited Series for 1999. The storyline was a top vote-getter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Story for 1999.[3]