Super Swamp Thing faces the Great Darkness in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Deadly Green #1

Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Deadly Green #1
(Image credit: DC)

The Great Darkness has been corrupted, and it could lead to the downfall of the entire DC Universe... unless the heroes of Earth-0/Prime manage to stop it.

In Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Deadly Green #1, written by Ram V, Alex Paknadel, and Dan Watters, and drawn by Daniel Bayliss, Tom Derenick, George Kambadais, and Brent Peeples, with colors by Matt Herms and letters by Troy Peteri, a large, diverse group of superheroes gather in the dark space beneath the Hall of Justice to form and execute a plan.

Spoilers ahead for Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Deadly Green #1

(Image credit: DC)

Superman (Jon Kent), Nightwing, both Swamp Things (Levi Kamei and Alec Holland), Wondergirl (Yara Flor), Doctor Fate, Raven, John Constantine, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Jade, and Obsidian gather to combine their forces, learn the Great Darkness's secrets, and hopefully end it for good.

The last time the Great Darkness threatened the DC Universe, in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, Swamp Thing put it to sleep. Now, that's no longer an option - it's kill or be killed, with the highest possible stakes.

The plan is for Obsidian, Green Lantern, Raven, Constantine, both Swamp Things, and Superman to traverse astral planes to find and stop the Great Darkness, which will involve bringing the Darkness itself into Obsidian, whose power is derived from it. Nightwing, Doctor Fate, Wondergirl, and Jade will stand guard over his body and Scott's, to make sure nothing tries to return from the astral planes with them.

Once inside the Green, which is slowly being taken over by the Great Darkness, Raven, Jon, and Levi struggle to reach the heart of the latter without being taken by it. Alec is just a memory inside the Green, as explained by Levi, and Constantine is taken to a different astral plane altogether where he meets with the devil.

On the surface, Alan struggles against the nightmares Obsidian is pouring into his head in order for their teammates to access the Great Darkness.

(Image credit: DC)

What they eventually discover is that Pariah himself has corrupted this powerful force, turning it into the infectious, terrible thing it's become - using the same machine that destroyed the first five Earths in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths event in 1985. In order to remove it, Jon seemingly becomes the human avatar for Alec's Swamp Thing powers, turning him into Super Swamp Thing just long enough to take the machine out of the Great Darkness and carry it back through the Green to the Hall of Justice.

This changes the game significantly in the fight against Pariah, Deathstroke, and the Great Darkness, as the heroes attempt to save Earth-0/Prime from total destruction. Constantine declares that the heroes themselves are the corruption in the Great Darkness, rather than the other way around - so how can they defeat it?

The first step is seemingly removing Pariah's machine, which Super Swamp Thing has already done. The second step is likely taking down Pariah, which may be easier said than done.

Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Deadly Green #1 is available now.

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Samantha Puc
Editor, Newsarama

Samantha Puc (she/they) is an editor at Newsarama and an avid comics fan. Their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., The Beat, The Mary Sue, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School.