Armageddon 2001 was a big crossover event held in the summer of 1991. The story line for Armageddon 2001 is interesting. It starts in 2030 with a tyrant superhero, named Monarch ruling the world with an iron fist. A scientist name Mattew Rider, who hates Monarch, discovers Monarch was once one of Earth’s greatest superheros.
Somehow in the past, Monarch turned evil, massacred all of Earth’s superheros, became Monarch and set out to conquer the world.
Rider uses his skills to create a technology to travel back in time and stop Monarch before he turns evil. Rider travels back to 1991 to find out who is Monarch and try to stop him. As he travels back in time his body is fused with the time stream giving him his own set of super powers. He takes the name Waverider.
Armageddon 2001 #1
Armageddon 2001 crossed into all the Annuals DC published from May 1991 to October 1991, twelve in all and ending with Armageddon 2001 #2. I enjoyed the crossover and was looking forward to the big reveal of Monarch’s true identity…until they revealed his identity. Then I wanted to massacre the writers.
What’s the moratorium on spoilers? 30 years should be long enough, so let’s briefly cover how the writers messed up. When Matthew Rider turned into Waverider he was able to connect with a persons aura and the past and possible futures.
As Waverider made his way through the various annuals he looked at Superman, who is killed by Batman in the future. He looks at Batman, who goes to prison for murder (not of Superman) in the future. The list goes on through all the heroes.
In the Hawk And Dove Annual, Waverider looks at both Hawk and Dove and their future. He’s also able to see multple futures with the help of Dove. In every future Waverider saw for the two of them, neither turned out to be Monarch.
Piecing together all the clues it was pointing to Captain Atom who becomes Monarch. Waverider hadn’t read Captain Atom’s future and as Waverider was about to touch Captain Atom the final Annual, Justice League Europe #2 ended. We would have to wait until Armageddon 2001 #2 to find out the answer.
It’s gotta be Capitan Atom!
Well it was and then it wasn’t. The writers at DC were upset Monarch’s identity leaked before the final issue, so they changed it. Instead of Captain Atom, they made up some junk story line with Dove dying, Hawk goes mad with grief, kills everyone and becomes Monarch.
No way! They just spent the entirety of Hawk and Dove Annual #2, 60+ pages going through every possible future of Hawk and he never became Monarch. It was lazy and they let pride get in the way of a good story. It was so bad in fact, DC has re-written the origin of Monarch, returning to the original idea with Captain Atom becoming Monarch.
The consequences rippled through the DC universe, once they killed Dove, which caused Hawk to go nuts and kill everyone, there was no way to continue the Hawk and Dove monthly series. The series was canceled in October 1991 with issue #28.
DC, or more accurately the writers, completely botched the story-line. Maybe if they were better writers it wouldn’t have been so obvious who turns into Monarch!
The writer for Armageddon 2001 is Dennis O’Neil. He also wrote the ‘Venom’ story arc in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #16 – #20, which is a fantastic story. I don’t know what change in a few short months.
I don’t know if DC (or Marvel) do the big crossover events anymore but I enjoyed them. They exposed readers to comics they might not normally read. I didn’t normally buy Flash or Justice League comics, but I did for this crossover.
I’m sure it pushed DC sales numbers up for the summer too.
Well, enough with all this jibber-jabber, let’s get down to business. What ads were in this book?
There were a few duplicate ads in this issue that I left out. One for Double Dragon III and the Dungeons and Dragons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cereal from the last issue. There was also one for Mile High Comics but I think I’ve beaten that dead horse enough.
There are still some good ads to look at, so let’s get to it.
Fleer Baseball Cards
I love baseball cards. I have a ton of these Fleer cards laying around. With the bright yellow border they are easy to spot. I’m not sure why this ad is channeling Batman’66 with Pow! Bam! Zoom! Holy Strikeouts, Doc Gooden’s glove is on fire!
I’m not sure why the Tom Glavine card shows him sliding into base? Glavine is a pitching legend, they should show him throwing heat, with his glove on fire! Glavine was in the majors for 22 years and hit a paltry .186. He’s a Hall of Fame pitcher, not a hitter. (At least he has a batting average, unlike those American League Prima Donnas!) The poor photography must have gone insane waiting for Glavine to get on base and then attempt a slide.
Maybe it’s like bigfoot, so rare that if you get it on camera you have to show everyone. Maybe he’s sliding in for the one stolen base of his career.
Go Braves!
Armageddon 2001
Oh, cool, Armageddon 2001, that looks like a good comic…wait a minute, that’s what I’m reading. Does the marketing department think I’ll see this ad and go out to buy a second copy of the comic?
Why have an ad for the comic, inside the comic. How about an ad for Superman Annual #3, which is the next issue in the crossover.
They could have put an ad for any other comic in here. Somebody fell asleep at the wheel.
Rocketeer
I remember seeing Rocketeer in the theater. I’ve only seen it one time, but from what I remember I liked it. Or maybe I just liked aspiring actress Jenny Blake. It’s all pretty fuzzy now.
Do you want to enjoy the greatness of the Rocketeer? Then listen to the Box Office 30-Wizards Comics crossover podcast talking all about the Rocketeer.
Throwback ads
I like these old style ads. There’s something for everybody. Lots of warehouse comic books, a sweet Bat Mobile Phone, monster posters and a pregnant guppy kit…wait, what? I don’t know what’s going on in Getzville, NY but someone needs to look into it!
Man I wish I could order one of those Pregnant Guppies kits today!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game
Let’s get the thought of pregnant guppies out of our head and think about mutant turtles instead. We get a nice, high quality ad for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game for Nintendo.
Upon closer inspection this is a strange ad. The top part features Raphael, I would say the mask is orange, but the sai is Raphael’s weapon. He’s telling us to get the Fall of the Foot Clan for the Game Boy. There’s no Game Boy in sight. I do like the pun ‘Ultra-cool adventure’ the game was made by Ultra.
The bottom half of the ad is for the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game from 1989. Both are great games, I’m not sure what the ad wants me to do? Do I buy both games? Why isn’t there box art or screen shots for Fall of the Foot Clan?
It’s as if they recycled an ad from 1989 and added a speech bubble to it. They wouldn’t do that, would they…
3 Musketeers
The back cover features a new 3 Musketeers ad. This one is No.4 in the series. This is the fourth one we’ve seen, although not in order. We’ve seen 3 Musketeers in the Peruvian Desert, inside the Tomb of the Last Mayan King and in Space!
Adventure #4 takes place high up in the Alps in the Eiger Pass. The sports photographer is ready for anything. He’s not ready for a giant 3 Musketeers bar!
I really hope I can find all the adventures in this series.
In case you’re interest, here’s the list of annuals in the Armageddon 2001 crossover:
- Armageddon 2001 #1
- Superman (Vol 2) Annual #3
- Batman Annual #15
- Justice League America Annual #5
- Action Comics Annual #3
- The Flash (Vol 2) Annual #4
- Hawkworld (Vol 2) Annual #2
- New Titans Annual #7
- Detective Comics Annual #4
- Adventures of Superman Annual #3
- L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #2
- Hawk And Dove (Vol 3) Annual #2
- Justice League Europe Annual #2
- Armageddon 2001 #2
Did you read the Armageddon 2001 crossover? Did you like it? What is your favorite ad in this issue. Let us know in the comments below.
Until then, keep your comics bagged and boarded…unless you want to thumb through them to check out the great ads!
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