Invasion!
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Contents |
History
Invasion! was a massive crossover event in the DC Universe published in 1989, plotted by Keith Giffen. It features a massive Alien Alliance led by the war-like Dominators and Khunds intent on wiping out humanity to destroy all of Earth's metahumans. This all-out assault on superheroes led to a war consuming the entire world, and ramifications throughout the universe. The story was primarily published in three core issues, with tie-ins appearing in all regular monthly titles at the time.
Plot
The emotionless, calculating Dominators estabished an Alliance to invade Earth and eliminate the threat posed by their unpredictable "metahumans" (secretly, the Dominators wish to harness this and breed their own army of metahumans, but this goal is kept secret from the rest of the Alliance, and from their own junior cadres). After purging the galaxy of numerous potential threats to their plan - assassinating many former members of the disbanded Green Lantern Corps, and attacking the Omega Men - the Alliance launches a massive attack on Earth, overrunning Australia and establishing there a base from which to conquer the rest of the planet. The Alliance tenders an offer to spare the human race provided that the world's governments surrender their metahumans, but the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly rejects this offer, and 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. After Superman helps save them, they decide to withdraw from the Alliance and help defend Earth, and a force of thousands of Daxamites enters the Sol system and become supercharged by yellow starlight. 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.
The coda to this, however, proved just as disruptive: a young Dominator, aspiring to prominence among his people, managed to isolate the human gene that made a person able to survive otherwise lethal episodes and develop superhuman powers. On his own initiative, he developed and deployed the Gene Bomb, a device that bathed the Earth in a weird energy and affected every metahuman exposed in malignant ways, causing them to lose control of their powers and eventually fall into a coma and die. Since the point of the invasion was to harness these beings, not eradicate them, the Dominator was imprisoned by his own government, but prior to execution a group of heroes unaffected by the gene bomb, led by the Martian Manhunter, managed to steal data from his mind crucial to reversing the effects of the gene bomb and restore most metahumans back to health.
Issues
The primary storyline was told throughout the eponymous miniseries Invasion! which consisted of three issues each of which were 80-Page Giants. This provides the backbone for the event with all of the important plot points, and can be read alone in its entirety to understand the story. The crossovers function as further insight into the story, providing a more detailed look at the actions of the individual characters and teams during the Crisis. Tie-in stories were divided into First Strike and Aftermath.
Core Issues
First Strike
Following the actual physical invasion that took place after the first issue, these stories strictly took place in between Invasion! #1 and Invasion! #2, providing a look at how heroes around the world were dealing with the Alien Alliance individually and in small groups before they actually got organized. These are the stories that the event is primarily known for, featuring the actual war themselves. Most of them end with the cease-fire, and the super-hero summit.
- Adventures of Superman #449
- Animal Man #6
- Captain Atom (Volume 1) #24
- Checkmate (Volume 1) #11
- Detective Comics #595
- Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #17
- Firestorm the Nuclear Man #80
- Flash (Volume 2) #20
- Justice League International #22
- Manhunter (Volume 1) #8
- New Guardians #6
- Power of the Atom #7
- Spectre (Volume 2) #23
- Starman (Volume 1) #5
- Suicide Squad #23
- Superman (Volume 2) #26
- Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #81
- Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #25
Aftermath
These issues take place between Invasion! #2 and Invasion! #3 dealing with fallout from the main battle against the aliens. Although the heroes had recently made their victory, which appeared final at the time... they would still face the last ditch efforts of the Gene Bomb meant to completely decimate them. Aftermath tie-ins cleared up loose ends in the storyline before moving on to the conclusion of the event in the core issues. Interestingly, they still take place right after the technical middle of the story.
- Adventures of Superman #450
- Captain Atom (Volume 1) #25
- Checkmate (Volume 1) #12
- Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #18
- Firestorm the Nuclear Man #81
- Flash (Volume 2) #21
- Justice League International #23
- Manhunter (Volume 1) #9
- New Guardians #7
- Power of the Atom #8
- Starman (Volume 1) #6
- Superman (Volume 2) #27
- Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #26
Epilogues
- Blasters Special #1
- Doom Patrol: Crawling from the Wreckage
- L.E.G.I.O.N. '89
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 4) Annual #2
Paraphernalia
Items: None known.
Weapons: * Gene Bomb
Notes
- No special notes.
Trivia
- No trivia.
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- Invasion! at Wikipedia.org
- Invasion! at the DCU Guide
- Invasion! at DC Indexes
- Invasion! at Arkhampedia
