Savage dawn

This entry covers the entire “Savage Dawn” crossover, which includes “Superman” Vol.3 Annual 3 and issues 48 – 50, “Action Comics” Vol.3 issues 48 – 50, and “Superman/Wonder Woman” issues 25 – 27, written by Greg Pak, Gene Luen Yang, Peter Tomasi and Aaron Kuder

Wildstorm concepts:

This is a 2016 Superman crossover I missed back in the day, and it misteriously features the Carrier, but no Stormwatch members.

Time for a fun Stormwatch and The Carrier timeline!

In the New 52, Stormwatch was founded by the Shadow Lords, extradimensional beings who foresaw the coming of the evil god Brainiac and inspired the wizard Merlin, who was born with the Big Bang, to prepare a team. The team was brought together in the middle ages by the threat of the coming Daemonite aliens, which caused red skies, so they named themselves “StormWatch.” However, a prophecy stated the team would eventually fall due to brother fighting against brother; this happened in 2013 after The Engineer was infected by a virus that made her evil. The fight caused an explosion that alerted the Kollektive, a group of EVIL interdimensional aliens who went back in time, killed Merlin and changed the timeline. A few weeks later, StormWatch was able to turn things back to normal, but when they came back from the altered timeline, their ship “Eye of the Storm” had turned into the Carrier from Wildstorm. However, it wasn’t powered by a tiny universe, but by “Magnitude Engines”, which consumed and converted multiversal energy from the bleed into fuel. In 2016, Midnighter left the team on leave after breaking up with Apollo due to Middy having faked having a real name to appear more human. Around this time, the event of this post happens, where supervillain Vandal Savage steals the Carrier and eventually causes it to self destruct. Stormwatch isn’t seen again until the year 2050, so what happened to them? Did they all disband when Midnighter left? Did they disband after the Carrier was destroyed? We have no answers. In 2018, the Carrier appeared again being used by a group of evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse, carrying a baby universe unlike the Carrier that got destroyed. Did this Carrier come from the Dark Multiverse, perhaps? After the evil Batmen were defeated, the Carrier was next seen in 2020, used by Justice Incarnate, a team of superheroes from all across the Multiverse, and that’s the last we’ve seen of it. In that story, the Carrier is barely making it, but all damage and destruction is undone by the end of the crisis.

So that’s a history lesson for you! Now, what’s “Savage Dawn” about, other than what I’ve already mentioned?

As it turns out, not much. Vandal Savage steals the Carrier somehow, through unseen means, and crashes it against the Justice League’s watchtower. Vandal’s first move was to steal Superman’s power, and now he does it to the rest of the League. Born in the times of cavemen, Vandal is attacking with help of his descendants, Wrath, Puzzler, Salvaxe and Hordr, as well as a brainwashed Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Vandal launches a million lasers against Metropolis, totalling it, and then disperses Black Masses, a virus that triggers superpowers in any other dormant Vandal descendants. He hopes to overthrow the world with an army of his relatives. After stealing the Carrier and the Justice League watchtower, he steals Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and fuses them all. When Superman powers himself up by using Kryptonite to burn the cells that were blocking his powers, he and his allies rescue the kidnapped Leaguers. Cornered, Vandal Savage makes the Carrier self destruct! After this, Superman falls into his Fortress, which gives him back his powers and allows him to defeat Vandal.

Next: “Future State: Superman: Worlds of War” issues 1 and 2