| Invasion! | |
|---|---|
 Invasion Book One: The Alien Alliance, art byBart Sears. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Mini-series |
| Publication date | October – December 1988 |
| No. of issues | 3 |
| Main character | Justice League International |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo |
| Written by | Keith Giffen Bill Mantlo |
| Penciller(s) | Todd McFarlane (issue 1 and first half of issue 2) Bart Sears (issue 3 & all 3 covers) Keith Giffen (layouts for all 3 issues and pencils for second half of issue 2) |
| Inker(s) | P. Craig Russell Al Gordon Dick Giordano |
| Letterer | Gaspar Saladino |
| Colorist | Carl Gafford |
| Editor | Andy Helfer |
| Collected editions | |
| Invasion! | ISBN 978-1-4012-2066-2 |
Invasion! was a three-issuecomic booklimited series andcrossover event published in 1988 byDC Comics.[1] It was plotted byKeith Giffen, and ties up several plotlines from Giffen's other series, includingOmega Men,Justice League International, andLegion of Super-Heroes. A trade paperback collection of the three issues was released on September 3, 2008.[2]
The series was scripted byBill Mantlo; it was his first work for DC after a long career atMarvel Comics. Pencils were byTodd McFarlane,Bart Sears, and Giffen himself; inks were by Joe Rubinstein,P. Craig Russell, Tom Christopher,Dick Giordano andAl Gordon. All three covers were pencilled byBart Sears, including issue #1, contrary to DC's credits listing.
The alien coalition consisted of several disparate races; several had only appeared before with theLegion of Super-Heroes one thousand years in the future. Assembling this alliance was a major diplomatic victory for theDominators, considering the animosities many of the members shared for one another (particularly the three races of theVega system). As it worked out, the Dominators provided the overall strategy for the invasion, with input from each member world while theKhunds acted as the shock troops for the first wave of attack that overran Australia. Each member world was then tasked with invading or subverting a particular sphere of influence:
| Dominators: | The driving force behind the Alliance and the invasion of Earth, and consequently the Alliance's de facto leaders. |
| Khunds: | A brutish race of humanoid warriors. |
| Thanagarians: | Hawkman's people, now living under a fascist police state. |
| Gil'Dishpan: | An aquatic species who live within hovering, armored cybernetic shells. |
| Durlans: | A humanoid shapeshifting species. |
| Warlords of Okaara: | A race of warmasters from the Vegan star system. |
| Citadelians: | A species whose members are all clones of their leader, the Complex-Complex. They comprise the armies of the Vega system empire known as the Citadel. |
| Daxamites: | A species related toKryptonians who possess similar abilities to them, but are vulnerable tolead rather thankryptonite. |
| Psions: | A reptilian species created as part of experiments by the beings who would one day become theGuardians of the Universe. |
Additionally, some members of the Alliance are tasked with specific areas of responsibility and played little part in the military operations side. The Citadelians are given charge of administering the Alliance's vast Gulag of potential opponents and experimental subjects; the Psions are charged with (or left alone to) conducting biological research on humans; and the Daxamites are largely an observer group, providing medical and scientific assistance to the Alliance.
The Dominators have put together an Alliance to invade Earth and eliminate the threat posed bymetahumans. After purging the galaxy of numerous potential threats to their plan - securingDarkseid's non-interference by assuring him that they would not destroy the planet and thwart his quest for theAnti-Life Equation, assassinating many former members of the disbandedGreen Lantern Corps, and attacking theOmega Men - the Alliance launches a massive attack on Earth, overrunningAustralia and establishing a base there from which to conquer the rest of the planet. Meanwhile, theSpectre appeals to theLords of Order to allow Earth's magicians to join in Earth's defense, only to be told that he must instead ensure their neutrality for fear of provoking the Lords of Chaos from intervening on behalf of the invaders and escalating the conflict into a cataclysm that would mean the destruction of everyone involved. The Alliance tenders an offer to spare the human race provided that the world's governments surrender their metahumans, but theUnited Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly rejects this offer.[3]
Superman leads a counterattack against the main Alliance base. The counterattack is temporarily disrupted by the Daxamite observers, who become the equal of Superman and temporarily defeat him, but fall prey to Earth's atmospheric differences from their own world and how it affected their extreme and lethal sensitivity tolead poisoning. After Superman helps save them, they decide to withdraw from the Alliance and help defend Earth. To that end, a small fleet of troop transports arrive and demand that the Alliance withdraw from Earth. The Dominators decide to ignore them, unaware of the effect a yellow sun has on Daxamites, until the fleet deploys several thousand soldiers into space as a near invincible attack force. This, combined with key defeats in various theaters, and a full-scale and uncontrollable riot aboard the Alliance Gulag, leads to a quick collapse for the Alliance and individual surrenders by each former member.[4]
However, a young Dominator, aspiring to prominence among his people, manages to isolate the "metagene" in humans that enables a person to develop superhuman powers. On his own initiative, he develops and deploys the Gene Bomb, a device that bathes the Earth in an energy that affects every metahuman exposed to it, causing them to lose control of their powers and fall into a coma. Since the point of the invasion was to harness these beings, not eradicate them, the Dominator is imprisoned by his own government. A group of heroes unaffected by the Gene Bomb, led byMartian Manhunter, manage to take information from the Dominator's mind crucial to reversing the effects of the Gene Bomb and restore the affected metahumans to health.[5]
"Invasion!" was DC's line-wide crossover event for 1988. It crossed over into 30 other DC comics and also featured guest appearances from other DC Universe staples such asAdam Strange, the planet Thanagar, and one-timeJustice League of America sidekickSnapper Carr and his team theBlasters. The Blasters would make several more appearances, fighting further alien threats to Earth.
The invasion of Earth and the Gene Bomb had some long-lasting effects on the DC Universe. In particular, the recently relaunchedDoom Patrol, a combination of the '60s, '70s, and brand new members, lost two team members and fell apart. This was done to give new writerGrant Morrison a clean slate to revamp the book, including the addition of new metahumans having powers awakened by the Gene Bomb. They started withCrawling From the Wreckage storyline starting inDoom Patrol (vol. 2) #19. Morrison used the Invasion fallout for a pair ofAnimal Man stories, including the acclaimed "The Death of the Red Mask". Also, the Gulag storyline introducedVril Dox and the organizationL.E.G.I.O.N., which received its own title soon afterInvasion! ended.
The Gene Bomb was also responsible for giving powers of mind control toMaxwell Lord, but such powers were mostly unused. Another character from theJustice League International whose power was improved wasFire. Initially, she could only exhale bursts of fire, but after being affected by the Bomb she gained enhanced abilities akin toMarvel Comics'sHuman Torch.
One of the Dominators ended up under the control ofQueen Bee, ruler ofBialya. Though he did not long survive her anger, the technology he introduced was used against the Justice League multiple times. Several other Dominators were left on Earth for years and appeared in various comics (usually briefly) including one inCaptain Atom (became a farmer), a few in theOutsiders #44, and a cameo in a prison break inFlash. Also, a Dominator appeared inJoker: Last Laugh #3. A Khund was killed byMongul during a prison break inGreen Lantern.
The greatest impact ofInvasion was its introduction of the metagene as the explanation within the DC Universe as to how some people gain superhuman abilities. The Flash's father, Rudolph West (a Manhunter agent) appears to die in an explosion inCuba, defending the land duringInvasion #2. His subsequent returns would plague the Flash and his mother multiple times. Unusual for the time, the three issues were published as perfect-bound comics, each the length of three usual comics - a throwback to the "80-page giants" of theSilver Age.
In the reading order presented in the back of each main issue:
Invasion! #1:
Invasion! #2:
Others (omitted from the #2 list):
Invasion! #3:
DC also released a special edition of theDaily Planet as a tie-in to the storyline (the front page of which appears on the last page ofInvasion! #1). Spun off fromInvasion! wereBlasters Special #1 andL.E.G.I.O.N. #1, the latter of which depicted an aftermath.
All tie-in issues between #2 and #3 ended with the gene bomb being detonated in Earth's atmosphere, so that the coloring of the artwork is flipped to a photo negative.
A number of stories make oblique or explicit reference toInvasion! without being explicitly tied-in via their covers, includingWonder Woman (vol. 2) Annual #1 andWonder Woman (vol. 2) #24 (in which George Baines andEtta Candy track the invasion from the South Pacific),Swamp Thing #80 (in which the Dominators send Swamp Thing's essence back through time),The Spectre #22 (in whichJim Corrigan's team investigates cattle mutilations and continues directly intoInvasion! #1), whileThe Flash (vol. 2) #20 hasWally West andPied Piper shot by a Durlan before seeing the invasion fleet, andSuicide Squad #22 hasAmanda Waller mentioning she must attend a special council with regard to Invasion.Animal Man #7 is not officially tied toInvasion!, but like the other aftermath titles, ends with the explosion of the gene bomb.
Swamp Thing #96-98 features a visit toHell, in which the afterlives of many of the slain Invasion forces are seen.
The 2008 trade paperback collection ofInvasion! (containing only the three core issues) includes cover copy stating "Secret No More!"ISBN 978-1401220662.[2] A new edition was released in April 2016.[6]