Aftermath — and Prologue
Infinity Inc #11
Cover Date: February 1985
Released: 15th November 1984
So you’ve spent almost a year setting up your team, all the new backstories and the building threat of the one big bad. Now he’s defeated what do you add now? More backstory!
Yes, this issue tells the tale of how the Star-spangled Kid has reconnected with his partner Stipesy, just a few weeks ago, to help defeat a plot of some gangsters. It involves armoured automobiles and seems pretty solid, but it’s totally out of the blue and brings all the momentum of the tales to a screeching halt.
It’s a shame as the issue has start’s really good, and with a Power Girl moment to boot, with the now recovered Superman wondering if the Metropolis could ever forgive him for what he’s just done. He even claims that it means that he’s never really been at home on Earth, which works better for the juggle planet Supes compared to the more “down to Earth” modern Supes we all know and love. And it’s ironic as Power Girl has gone on a journey, it teeny tiny steps, to become more comfortable on Earth to the point where just a few issues ago she was going against Supes to defend humans.
That’s a lot of me reaching as it’s just one panel! Wonder Woman / Lyta, Hawkman / Silver Scarab, Atom/Nuklon and Green Lantern / Jade & Obsidian get a few panels reconnecting with each other and poking along all the subplots that are swirling around. We also get this weird beat of Star-Spangled Kid really wanting a super team of his own, which seems weird for me as this whole event has taken maybe a week tops and at the start of all this he was already in the JSA. Of cause at the end of our flashback Infinity Inc stays together rather than joining the JSA and we move towards the big finale of this epic story.
Press Conference
Infinity Inc #12
Cover Date: March 1985
Released: 20th December1984
To finish off we have exactly what it says on the tin, Infinity Inc holds a press conference to announce themselves to the world or Los Angles at least!
Through the whole thing, we get recaps and details about all of the characters, and after an attempted leak the majority of the characters reveal their secret identities. Brainwave Jnr has a moment and decides to become a sometimes member (though I’m not sure how sometimes this was) and we get a hint of a member to come as Yolanda Montez, aka a future Wildcat, get to do her day job as a reporter. We even get a little superhero fight as the next mystery for the team, Harlequin, makes her appearance to taunt Infinity Inc.
You’ve noticed that I’ve not mentioned Power Girl or Huntress yet, well that’s because about a third through the issue they declare that they’re needed on the East Coast and leave the story, and more or less the team. And in the irony of many a character leaving a series, they get some of the best character stuff, with them and Star-Spangled Kid arriving by fancy car, and Kara interacting with that reporter who may or may not have a date at the end of the day.
It’s weird that of the two issues of this is the one I like best, but I have the least to say about it. Not because it’s bad, I kind of wish we have more of heroes interacting with the media. I’m fascinated at just how the general public of the DC universe views the world of superheroes, something that Infinity Inc gas been doing with asides here and there, including (as in this issue) how the parents of the young heroes react to the apparently live press conference.
Ironically, like myself, the shadow of Crisis seems to be hanging over things here. Crisis itself will start up in just a month and I would guess the series finishes. I assume that Power Girl and Huntress were caught up in all this, something that we’ll get to in the very near future…