Review: Earth 52 #7

This week's issue of Earth 52 starts in media res, with Trevor informing the team that there's been an attack on the Flash Museum in Central City (the current headquarters of the still as-of-yet unnamed team). Upon arriving, they discover that Savitar has built some kind of treadmill-like machine, and hooked several civilians up to it. Savitar, once more, talks about the 'Reckoning', planning to reach it first and use it for whatever evil thing all these villains want to use it for.

Before the group can stop him, he activates the machine, running at superspeed and channeling energy to the people who have been hooked up. They began to wither away and then the room explodes in a flash of light. When the smoke clears, the team find themselves outside the museum, but things are not what they seem...

Venturing back inside, everything appears normal at first, with people walking around, taking photos, all that stuff you expect at museums, except there's nothing for Flash here. In fact, it appears as though the Flash Museum has been replaced with the Justice Squad Museum! (Dah dah dah daaah!)

The team does a bit of searching, discovering that the Justice Squad is, in fact, the team! Older, of course, but them all the same. Myrmidon has apparently become King of Florida, Marathon is head of the Department of Metahuman Affairs, Fahrenheit has had a successful career sleeping with beautiful woman after beautiful woman, Paradox does commercials, Beorn now works as the head of a wildlife preservation taskforce in Alaska, and Necromancer is... a self-help guru.

Everyone else seems fairly pleased with where they are in ten years, while Necromancer is mortified. Determined to get back to his own time and stop this horrible fate from ever befalling him, Necromancer attempts to contact his future self, with no luck. The others have similar ideas, but they too have no luck in contacting themselves. The team decides to call Steve Trevor, ex-head of the Department of Metahuman Affairs, who can't really help them.

From what the team can gather, it is mentioned in their history that they did travel to the future at one point, but managed to make it back and defeat Savitar. Of course, the most pertinent piece of information (how they got back to their own time) proves difficult to find. So, in search of some more information about themselves, how they escaped the future, and how they stopped the 'Reckoning' they travel to their headquarters in D.C.: The Hall of Justice.



Upon arrival, they begin searching their offices for anything that might shed some light on their situation, with little luck. Marathon left a message saying that the team had an urgent matter to deal with in the Antimatter Dimension (or somesuch), and wouldn't be able to help. Out of options, the team goes to their last, last, resort: calling Lex Luthor.

Luthor teleports over to the Hall of Justice, and begins asking them about the Reckoning. The group, honestly not knowing anything about it, can't answer his questions. He says something to Marathon, and Marathon immediately turns on his comrades, telekinetically strangling Necromancer. Myrmidon attempts to attack Luthor, but Lex just disappears in a puff of smoke. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is battling Marathon, discovering just how damn tough their teammate really is as they hit him with everything they've got and can't make a dent.

However, Fahrenheit comes to the conclusion that perhaps Luthor and Marathon were never here at all, and that they're in some kind of simulation. Myrmidon attempts to call Savitar out, finding not Savitar but Dr. Destiny, wielding Morpheus' Dreamstone!



Meanwhile, in the waking world, Marathon has been investigating who or what put his teammates into this coma-like state. His investigations leading him to Dr. Destiny's lair, where he immediately suffocates the man and takes the dreamstone away from him. However, even though Destiny has been defeated, the rest of the team hasn't woken. But given that the dreams were created with magic from Morpheus' dreamstone, Necromancer is able to dispell it and wake them up.

After they recover from their adventure, the team decides that whatever this 'Reckoning' is, it needs to be stopped. The only connection they have to this Reckoning, however, is Fahrenheit and this door in Zandia that can only be unlocked by him. The only problem is that Fahrenheit wants nothing to do with the place or with whatever might be inside it. Necromancer steals a hair from Fahrenheit's head, using it in a spell to try and track down the location of the door. He gets a rough idea of where it's at and the team decides to head for Zandia, though not before Fahrenheit runs.

Marathon attempts to chase after him but loses him, Fahrenheit moving too fast for him to keep up. When he returns, the team heads for Zandia via Invisible Helicopter. They land in Greece, just within Necromancer's teleportation range before Shadowstepping over to Zandia and searching for the door. It doesn't take them too long to find it, but without Fahrenheit they have to find an alternate means of getting in. Necromancer goes intangible and heads in, encountering some resistance from the door but managing to push through. Once inside, he gets an idea of the area, going back out to teleport everyone in.

It takes a couple of tries to finally get through whatever sort of built-in field the door has, but they manage it and begin searching. Inside, they discover a console with a hologram of a Dominator who explains to them that this place is a bunker designed to protect the owner, and 30,000 others, from the Reckoning which is a Dominator-built weapon designed to destroy any species it is given a genetic sample of. And, according to the hologram, the weapon could be anywhere and still be effective, which leaves the group wondering how they are going to stop this thing when they don't know where it could be.

Before they have any more time to worry about that, though, Myrmidon is able to reset the controls for the door to make it open only for him, but also has the machine recognize the rest of the team. The hologram records Myrmidon's information as a Human/Olympian hybrid and the rest of the team (minus Paradox) as Human/Apocalyptian hybrids. The group is shocked, to say the least, and Necromancer teleports them back to Greece, demanding that they be taken to Belle Reeve to see Amanda Waller, determined to get answers.

Also, something that might come up is that Necromancer is now in possession of Morpheus' dreamstone. If he can discover how, he'll likely attempt to enter the Dreaming so that he can return it to its rightful owner. But, with any luck, he might also encounter someone who could prove to be very helpful? Who knows.