You Can Just Go To Hell With Dave-El's Spinner Rack and the Justice League

If you're in the DC Universe, oh, the places you can go.

The undersea kingdom of Atlantis!

The savage world located in Earth's center, Skartaris!

The tropical island paradise of Themyscira!

Or you can go to HELL! 

I'm not talking about my last trip to Disney World.

I mean the literal Hell.

The abyss, the pit. 

A place of damnation and torture.

A region of cursed pain and torment.

And you can get there from here.

I mean, it's not like hopping a bus from Bakerline to Centennial Park in Metropolis but in the DC Universe, it's a real place you can go.

Like the Justice League.

In recent issues of Justice League Unlimited, Mr. Terrific has been leading a team of heroes into Hell to confront the demon Neron.

Some back story: over in the DC K.O. event book, Darkseid is coming and a bunch of heroes have been attempting to secure an ultimate power source to be come King Omega in order to have the power to repel Darkseid once and for all.,

(I'll cover that ground some more in next week's Spinner Rack post.) 

Meanwhile the Justice League is expending considerable effort to fortify or evaculate the Earth in advance of Darkseid's arrival.  A herculean enterprise made more difficult by Neron's fuckery.

Seems Neron has co-opted a bunch of Earth's super villains to take advantage of all this chaos to scoop up bunches and bunches of souls for Neron to snack on.

Mr. Terrific assembles a team to get tell him to knock it off.

And to do that, they gotta go where Neron lives.

Which is Hell.

The premise of Justice League Unlimited is that every hero on Earth is a member of the League.

And even that expansive mandate has undergone a glow up.

There are now heroes from elsewhere in time and the multiverse. 

Like Batman is from the future, Terry McGinnis who we know from Batman Beyond.  And Superman is from the past when he was in that god awful electric blue phase.  

Mr. Terrific starts off with a team of ten but by issue #14, his task force has been whittled down to seven.

And the demons and monsters of Hell ain't done whittling. 

Aquaman gets an awesome kickass moment taking down a very large demon by his own damn self. 

His epic heroism is rewarded with a terrible and ferocious death.

This is Hell after all.

And then there was six.  

And the whitling just won't stop and by the time Mr. Terrific actually makes it to Neron, he is all alone.

Or is he? 

A treacherous betrayal puts the kibosh on Mr. Terrific's desperate plan.

The physical lives of everyone on Earth maybe forfeit to Darkseid.

And all their souls now belong to Neron. 

There's a mighty deep dark hole to crawl out of before this saga is done.

Reflecting on the Justice League's journey to Hell brought my thoughts back to a fondly remembered classic comic book from my youth that also featured DC characters on a quest into Hell.  

That story was "Down Amongst the Dead Men" by Alan Moore,  Stephen R. Bissette & John Totleben  from Swamp Thing Annual#2 from October 1984.   

Some back story: in the regular monthy series, Swamp Thing had a major confrontation with his arch nemesis Anton Arcane. Things do not go well for Anton but just as he does, he gets one last "fuck you" at Swamp Thing by killing Anton's niece Abby (and Swampy's girlfriend) and sending her soul to Hell.

Well, I guess Swamp Thing's gotta go get her, I reckon.

(That cover and the double page spread above was colored by Tatjana Wood who sadly passed away about 2 weeks ago. More about her in today's 2nd post.)

With help from such DC supernatural stalwarts like Deadman, the Phantom Stranger, the Spectre and the Demon Etrigan, Swamp Thing descends into Hell to rescue Abby.

There's this great scene where Swamp Thing ponders why God allows Hell to exist and Etrigan replies that God grieves that Hell even exists and that it's foundations are built not by God but by Man.  

Swamp Thing runs into Anton who is being ass raped by demons with red hot pokers but it's worth it to know he fucked with his enemy by sending Abby to Hell.

Anton asks Swamp Thing how many years has he been in Hell.

Swamp Thing replies that Anton Arcane has only been in Hell for one day.

Anton's blood curdling scream splits the brimstone air as Swamp Thing shambles away on his quest.

Long story made short: Swamp Thing finds Abby and gets her the hell out of, you know, Hell. 

In a couple of months, Swamp Thing and Abby will consumate their relationship.  

Yes, they have sex.

It involves a sweet potato.

It's quite a beautiful experience.

Back to present day comics....

Next week the Spinner Rack looks in on the DC K.O. event.

Which hero...or villain... will become King Omega?

Will it be enough to stop Darkseid?