Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Just How Big A Crisis Is Required?

I was reading Esther Inglis-Arkell's review of Batgirl #3 on 4thletter, and learned something in the comments I hadn't known. Esther had mentioned how she liked that there was a subtle red color in the background of all the scenes. Commenter Stig explained that Red Skies = Crisis, and even though Final Crisis is over, the skies over Gotham will be crimson due to the city being in crisis. I assume it has something to do with Bruce Wayne being unavailable, and so you get Dick Grayson Batman, and Jason Todd, and now it looks like we've got Two-Face Batman, and they'll probably all being struggling to be top dog.

So, would this be limited to Gotham, or can the skies turn red anywhere? There's this whole War of Light thing - you may have heard of it, it involves some group called the Green Lanterns, and a bunch of other yahoos*? Dead bodies being reanimated, threats from, um, wherever that Nekron fellow is from, it's outside their universe, I'm sure of that, which certainly sounds like a Crisis to me. Can you have red skies in space? Would it be more like a red nebula suddenly appeared everywhere at once? That'd be amusing, like the climactic ship battle at the end of Wrath of Khan, where they stumble about, trying to find each other*. Or perhaps they'd have to enter an actual atmosphere. So, there's a big fight, they head towards some normal looking world, and the second they reach it, BOOM, red skies. That ought to confuse the natives.

Also, how big a crisis does it have to be? If I can't find my keys, and I'm going to be late for work, will the skies turn red? Maybe just the sky directly over my home? What if I said I had a really important job, maintaining quality control on a potentially world-destroying invention? Then it would be pretty important that I get to work on time. Maybe the red skies would follow me receding as I drove away from a certain location.

All snarkery aside, it is kind of a cool concept, though it seems like it might downplay the seriousness of other stuff in comparison. That battle the JSA is having against Kobra might not seem like such a big deal, what with the skies above looking normal.

* Hal Jordan: There you are Atroctious! *some sort of power ring attack* Ow, it's me, Gardner, you dipstick**!

** Man, I write the worst Guy Gardner ever.

2 comments:

Seangreyson said...

I think this would make for a great Marvels-type project.

People on their way to work when the sky turns red. It's like the Watcher showing up but even better in some ways because you can't be certain exactly what event around you is the actual Crisis.

CalvinPitt said...

seangreyson: I really like the sound of that. What is it like to know there's something wrong, but have no idea what specifically is the problem.