The Perception of Doors
Credits: Keith Giffen (plot), Alan Grant (script), Matt Smith (penciler), Steve Mitchell (inker), Gaspar (letterer), Mike Danza (colorist)
Summary: To escape his prison cell, Fate concentrates on where he’s “supposed to be.” He suddenly appears in a strange room with Amethyst and two of her followers. She tells him that his “time will come” shortly before he materializes in Arnold’s bathroom. Vera reluctantly volunteers to help him go into hiding, but Fate walks off. He’s soon greeted by Sentinel, who offers to send Fate into Exile until the mystic community clears him. In Exile, Fate meets Lobo.
We Get Letters: The editors admit in the letter column that the “Convergence” crossover was confusing and didn’t have a clear reason to exist. They seem especially proud of a crossover they edited called “Final Night,” though.
I Love the ‘90s: Vera says that Jared’s face is “better known that Princess Di’s.”
Miscellaneous Note: The title of the issue is likely a reference to a novel by Aldous Huxley called The Doors of Perception.
Review: With one issue left to go, an entire issue is squandered on merely getting Fate from Point A to Point B, intercut with a few vague, futile conversations. Knowing that the Jared Stevens Fate is one issue away from disappearing into obscurity, it’s hard for me to care about Dr. Occult lecturing Vera on the importance of Jared learning to teleport on his own, a conversation that lasts several pages. (What was the point of bringing Vera into the book in the first place? I was never entirely certain on what her brother’s role was supposed to be, so seeing him replaced towards the end of the book’s run with his nerdy sister is even more vexing.) And there’s Amethyst’s evil plot, which I doubt is going to be thwarted in the next twenty-two pages. (If anyone did bother to bring Amethyst back into the DC continuity of this era, I suspect it was to undo these changes and make her a heroine again anyway.) Finally, Sentinel appears to set up the inevitable Lobo guest shot. This may tie in with the ongoing subplot that has Sentinel suing Jared for his mystic artifacts, but it’s not as if that storyline brought a lot of excitement to the series in the first place.
One more issue…
1 comment:
Actually, Jared doesn't disappear into obscurity. He shows up again in the JSA Secret Files and Origins #1 issue in a back-up, where he teams up with Black Canary IIRC, which is to set up why he shows up at The Sandman's funeral in the first issue of JSA from 1999 (a very good series).
In that issue, he shows up pretty much dead, gets out a couple words about his murderer, and then promptly bites the dust. his artifacts revert back to the helmet and this era of the character is swept under the rug the way Teen Tony was in Iron Man after the Heroes Return mini.
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