Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special #1

History

Writer Bill Willingham and artist Justiniano — the same creative team that produced all six issues of the Day of Vengeance miniseries — reunited for this special, with Walden Wong and Wayne Faucher sharing inking duties across its two story segments. Walt Simonson provided the cover. Published January 4–5, 2006 with a March 2006 cover date, the issue was conceived as the mandatory connective tissue between the Day of Vengeance miniseries (which concluded with Day of Vengeance #6) and Infinite Crisis proper, while simultaneously setting the table for the Shadowpact ongoing series that DC launched a few months later. The issue was subsequently collected in the Infinite Crisis Companion trade paperback.

Trivia · 9 facts

• One-shot published January 4–5, 2006 (cover date March 2006); written by Bill Willingham, interior art by Justiniano and Walden Wong (pp. 1–34) and Wayne Faucher (pp. 35–38), with a cover by Walt Simonson.
• The issue's lead story is titled 'The Ninth Age of Magic' and directly continues from Day of Vengeance #6, forming the narrative conclusion of that six-issue miniseries.
• Nabu — the last Lord of Order and the power behind the Doctor Fate mantle — dies in this issue after deliberately provoking the Spectre into killing him, an act so severe it forces the Presence to intervene and assign the Spectre a new human host.
• The dying Nabu declares that the Ninth Age of Magic has ended and that a Tenth Age will soon begin — a cosmological status-quo change that became the premise of the subsequent Shadowpact ongoing series.
• Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) is assigned to remain inside the reconstructed Rock of Eternity as its permanent guardian to stabilize the wild magic contained within, removing him from the active DC roster going into the post-Infinite Crisis 'One Year Later' era.
• Detective Chimp suggests that Nabu's Helmet of Fate be hurled away from the Rock and allowed to fall to Earth freely, letting fate itself choose the next Doctor Fate — a plot thread that ran through multiple titles in the following years.
• Nightshade is captured by Felix Faust, acting on orders from Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society, directly tying this issue into the main Infinite Crisis storyline.
• The issue was reprinted in the Infinite Crisis Companion trade paperback, and its storyline leads directly into the first story arc of the Shadowpact ongoing series (debuting May 2006), in which the team is trapped for a year inside a blood dome over Riverrock, Wyoming.
• The Grand Comics Database also notes a backup story ('Beetle Mania') and records the first appearance of the character Daena within this issue's pages, along with the deaths of the Lords of Balance T'Charr and Terataya — events that stripped Hawk and Dove of their powers.

Cast · 11 characters

Full credits