Today’s review is of a book (actually a comic book mini-series) that never existed, only a proposal was ever created. And the comic book company is doing their best to make sure no one knows it ever existed (except for the Wikipedia page and the sites they haven’t been able to shut down yet). If you ask why, there are suspicions that later mini-series might have copied some of the concepts, but those creators deny knowing about it. So why is the company trying to assert copyright on a proposal? No one knows, but at the end of the day it’s irrelevant why, but we can look and see what if not why.

Our story is a time-travel paradox that is designed, among other things, to remove the influence of time-travel from the super hero universe. It’s also designed to present an endpoint for the superheros, which is needed to turn stories into myths. And it’s hearkens back other super beings and their final battle, Ragnarök. The title of our imaginary book is Twilight of the Superheroes (which is a play on words of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung –Twilight of the Gods) and deals with Alan Moore’s proposal for a series similar to Crisis (which had just ended when this was created) to deal with the final future of the heroes.

 The story has a framing device of John Constantine getting a warning from his future self about how to horrible future and what needs to be done. Then we jump to the future (30 years ahead) where society has crumbled and there are rival superhero houses (like a feudal houses or the houses of Dune) the biggest ones are the Superman house and the Captain Marvel House. The lesser houses include the Titans, Justice League, Mystery, Secrets, Lanterns and Tomorrow. There are also characters such as Batman and the Shadow who have disappeared and seem to be dead, but as we know these characters never die.

The twin stories that intertwine with our series are the marriage of Superboy (Superman and Wonder Woman are the parents) and Mary Marvel Jr., which will cement the two giant houses together, and the death of a midget (who was last seen in with an S&M hooker) inside a locked room that had no way out and no murderer around.

The marriage is a big mover and shaker in the story. The lesser houses are paranoid about what will happen when the two great houses merge and what that will mean to them. They are trying to think how to stop the marriage, but how do you attack the combined efforts of the Superman Family and the Captain Marvel Family. Constantine is working between the houses trying to speed up some efforts and slow down others and he is searching for an old man and a missing Metal Man.

The wedding day is upon us and the lesser houses attack, but the greater houses are able to defend. Then an alien invasion happens which wipes out the rest of the lesser houses and advances on the Superman and Captain Marvel houses. But the twist happens here. Captain Marvel is dead. He has been dead since the beginning of the story. Billy Batson was the dead midget and his killer was the Martian Manhunter (who then took Captain Marvel’s place). When Superman realizes his problem he gets into a life-or-death fight with Martian Manhunter that ends with the Manhunter’s death. But the fight has drained the great houses so much that the aliens are able to take over Earth, killing Superman in the process.

Then, we have our second twist. The old man Constantine was looking for was Metron and the missing Metal Man was gold. Batman and the Shadow’s forces attack the Lanters wearing a thin sheath of Gold (which is yellow and neutralizes the Green Lanters) and Constantine has given the anti-matter universe of Qward access to Metron’s technology and they have attacked the alien’s home planets. This cause the alien invasion to leave Earth to go save their own planets. This leaves all the heroes with super powers either dead or off planet. Batman and the Shadow’s forces are able to take over the country and create a new Utopia with Constantine proudly helping out.

But the Constantine in the past finds out that his future self has playing him and tricked him into creating the conditions necessary for this future to happen. So the past Constantine takes the little bit of happiness out of his future self’s life. A woman that his future self would marry, the past Constantine blows off.

As you can see, this is an amazing story, but it’s also apparent why DC was reluctant to publish it. It’s a major cross-over with their brightest heroes where the the story turns on a superhero being killed while visiting a S&M hooker. There are also a lot of things which probably scared the executives even if they realized how good a story it is. So all we are left with is the proposal. It’s been removed from many sites, but I’m sure you can find it if you look hard enough.