So what happened to Lyla the Harbinger after she left to go explore? Did Lady Quark, only survivor of an entire universe, find her place in the new reality? Did Pariah ever learn to do something besides watch people die and cry about it? And was the Earth-2 Superman really gone “forever”?

Come with me as we answer these questions and I show you just what some of these folks have been up to since the events of THE CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Some of the answers may seriously surprise you (especially concerning a certain blonde Kryptonian sighted one lonely Christmas).

SPECIAL NOTE: The very last paragraph of this entry contains a spoiler from RETURN OF DONNA TROY #4 and the notes on Pariah and Lady Quark contain minor spoilers from VILLAINS UNITED.

This is an extension of my overview on The Crisis On Infinite Earths, which starts HERE. Feel free to enjoy. It is also a companion piece to my article on Pre-Crisis Memories of the DCU.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?!?

KOLE – She was killed by shadow demons, right? But sometime after the Crisis, Kole showed up and helped out the Team Titans against some nasty vampires. At the end of the story, Kole vanished from the group and in her thought bubble she remarked that she wasn’t alive. Whether she was intended to be a ghost or a zombie or what was never discovered. DC did their ARMAGEDDON 2001 saga soon afterwards and the Kole storyline was basically dropped, with the writers explaining away at the last minute that she was a duplicate created by the villain Monarch for some reason. She hasn’t been seen since.

DR. LIGHT II – Hoshi reluctantly joined the Justice League and then later joined up again with Justice League Europe. Not wishing to be confused with the villain who once wore the same outfit, she altered her costume to be yellow instead of black. When Hal Jordan left the JLE, Hoshi was designated as the leader but then she retired from the hero biz for the most part in order to spend more time with her children. The original villain Dr. Light (Dr. Arthur Light is his name) came back and fought the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner several times, having been driven insane by being trapped inside the Green Lantern power ring. Later he calmed down again and subsequently regained a vast amount of intelligence and ruthlessness he found out he’d lost before due to mind-tampering by the JLA. One of the first things he did was go and put his heroic successor into a hospital. Sorry, Hoshi. Hope you feel better.

Arthur Light Kimiyo Hoshi

KARA ZOR-EL – Recently, a new version of Kara Zor-El was introduced into comics. But before this happened, the Pre-Crisis Kara actually paid a visit on Boston Brand, the ghost who calls himself Deadman, during what would have otherwise been a gloomy Christmas. In the DC Comics Christmas Special story "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot", Boston is lamenting the fact that he does a lot of good deeds and fights for justice but since he’s a ghost no one gets to see him in action and few people (aside from sorcerers and guys like Batman) even know he exists. At this point, a blonde woman says, "Is that why you do it? For rewards?" Deadman is shocked by the girl’s ability to see him and asks if she’s magical. "No," she says, "magic and I have never been boon companions, I’m afraid." (Supergirl and Superman are vulnerable to magic, wink, chuckle).

After a bit of chit-chat, Boston explains that it isn’t so much about glory as recognition. "I was a performer, you know? … The sound of applause … I soared …Then suddenly, it’s gone. Forever. You are playing to an empty tent …"

The blonde woman responds, "You soared and you were cut down … at your height. Maybe there was a reason for that. Boston …take off that silly mask and listen to me. We don’t do it for the glory. We don’t do it for the recognition … We do it because it needs to be done. Because if we don’t, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we’ve done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed."

Boston agrees and says "Don’t mind me. I’m just a putz sometimes." "No, you’re only human. You are still human, Boston. Don’t be ashamed of it."

As the girl leaves, Boston asks for her name. She simply turns and says, "My name is Kara. Though I doubt that’ll mean anything to you."

And as she left, Boston rose into the air and his narration said, "I still didn’t know anything about her, other than what she gave me that night … and I’ve got the feeling I never will. Like maybe that was the whole point … Merry Christmas, Kara. Whoever you are …"

Tell me that doesn’t tug on the old heart-strings. That one story almost made me feel okay about Kara being erased from continuity. Kara also appeared in a sort of spirit form during Peter David’s SUPERGIRL #50.

In his Supergirl story MANY HAPPY RETURNS, Peter David brought back what seemed to be the Pre-Crisis Earth-1 Supergirl lost in time and space. She had to go back to where she belonged later in order that she could live on to participate in the Crisis or else historical events would alter and the heroes would lose.

SUPERBOY-PRIME — Although we have never seen this boy since he left with Kal-L and Alexander Luthor, he is not forgotten. During Byrne’s run on Superman, the Post-Crisis Superman met a younger version of himself from a "pocket universe" and commented that he’d met a Superboy during the Crisis. So although Superman may not have remembered that his own world was an amalgam of various worlds, he did remember that there had been at least one or two other universes that had been destroyed before the Crisis was over and he remembered meeting the Superboy who had helped out the heroes in the end. Whether or not he also remembered an elder Superman and Alexander Luthor of Earth-3, or whether he had any idea about how Earth-2 Superman and Superboy-Prime had gone off into another dimension, was not clarified.

“Welcome to Paradise …”

EARTH-2 SUPERMAN – During his story THE KINGDOM, Mark Waid showed that the new universe was not as limited as previously believed. The DC Universe was actually just one small part of a tapestry called "Hyper-Time" which was not merely a multiverse but included fictional realities and alternate timelines as well. Basically, any scenario you can imagine actually exists somewhere else in Hyper-Time. During this same adventure, readers saw a figure in shadows whom "had been promised PARADISE but found himself in a prison." This figure wore the same S-shield as the Earth-2 Superman and Crisis fans realized that the paradise dimension Alexander took him too might not have been such a wonderful place after all.

Nothing more was shown about this, except that the Earth-2 Superman, if that was indeed who he was, came to the conclusion that someday he WOULD escape.

PSYCHO-PIRATE – The Psycho-Pirate was later seen in Grant Morrison’s run of ANIMAL MAN. The Pirate was still ranting about different earths and at one point when another character entered the room, he asked "Did the wolf man send you?" Get it? Anyway, Animal Man arrived and found the Pirate creating character seemingly from his mind, though readers recognized them as either Pre-Crisis characters who no longer existed or new alternate universe versions who’d never existed before. The Pirate tried to explain to Animal Man that they were merely stories and that they were killed or destroyed at the whims of writers who existed beyond their realm. It’s an insane and wonderful storyline that is collected in 3 tpb editions now, so go buy them before I give away the ending.

The Psycho-Pirate later got control over his powers and a new look (along with a seemingly saner disposition) during UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED, thanks to selling his soul to the demon lord Neron. He wasn’t seen again for a while, but then showed up again in Belle Reeve prison during JOKER: LAST LAUGH. Here, he seemed to have regressed to his old insanity and was ranting about how he’d witnessed the deaths of so many universes and versions of Earth. Recently, he has set his sights on Power Girl and has been attacking her with illusions, mimicking the power he exhibited during Animal Man’s run. What his purpose for Power Girl is and what he’s going to do in INFINITE CRISIS is something we’ll see soon enough.

LADY QUARK – Lady Quark joined Vril Dox II’s L.E.G.I.O.N. group and stayed with them for a while. She was later killed on a mission and then replaced by a parasite that took on her appearance. The parasite was then later killed as well.

Vril Dox’s L.E.G.I.O.N.

Years afterwards, she recently showed up in VILLAINS UNITED. Apparently Luthor sent Sinestro after her for some reason. Exactly how she is alive when we saw her killed years ago and what Luthor plans for her is still unknown. I suppose that with the time anomalies that happened during and after ZERO HOUR, it’s possible that Lady Quark’s death was undone.

HARBINGER and PARIAH – Remember that history of the DCU that Harbinger put together? Well, seems she kinda just left it in a ball all by its lonesome (still not sure why) and it was found by the robot Manhunters, enemies of the GL Corps, who now knew nearly everything about all the heroes of Earth. This culminated in the crossover called MILLENIUM which was not that good honestly. During the story, Harbinger and Pariah showed up again and wound up joining up with a group of humans who had been chosen to be "new" Guaridans of the Universe. After that, they were regular characters in the title NEW GUARDIANS before it was cancelled.

With the exception of a couple of cameos in GUY GARDNER REBORN and GREEN LANTERN, Harbinger wasn’t seen for quite a while until JLA 80-PAGE GIANT #3, entitled "The Century War." In that story (and an entertaining one it is), Harbinger and Pariah show up in the JLA Watchtower on the moon and reveal that they’ve been exploring the universe for quite a while now, trying to learn how to PREVENT something like the Crisis from ever happening again. After extensive research into the space-time continuum, they built a self-generating MAP of the universe itself, containing information on everything that had ever happened. With this map, they could detect and locate tears in the fabric of the universe, time anomalies, etc. This map was called the retro-chronometer or "ret-chron" for short (an obvious joke on the term retcon). Using the ret-chron, Harbinger and Pariah helped the JLA on an adventure against a villain called the Centurian.

Soon after that, Pariah vanished again whereas Harbinger showed up in WONDER WOMAN and found a new purpose in assuming the duties of librarian of Themyscira. Not long after that, Kara Zor-El was taken to Themyscira to train and she and Lyla became good friends. Later, Darkseid sent a small army of duplicate Doomsdays to attack the island as he captured Kara. Lyla was apparently killed, but since he ability was to split off into several copies, it’s uncertain whether she’s really dead or if she was able to split off at least one copy who died instead. Pariah recently showed up again in VILLAINS UNLIMITED when it was revealed that Lex Luthor had the Fearsom Five find him. Exactly what Luthor plans for Pariah is unknown but he is very interested in why Pariah is on Earth again, believing that the man knows about an oncoming threat that is dangerous to all of Earth. Pariah has claimed that there’s a "predator" coming and that Luthor won’t survive its arrival.

OOOOH. Ominous!

As you can see, at least in the case of Pariah and Lady Quark, events of the Crisis may be leading into DC’s new INFINITE CRISIS, described as a sequel to the Crisis on Infinite Earths. I guess we’ll have to wait and see exactly what that means, but one thing we have learned is this. Donna Troy, one of those characters who had her history TOTALLY messed with as a result of poor editing choices after the Crisis, has recently rediscovered her memories of the multiverse itself and that the current universe is actually a MERGED version of what came before. She has also detected that something terrible is going to happen soon and she needs to stop it. What this all means is something we’re all going to have to find out together. And I, for one, am excited.

Until next time, cheers!