Armageddon: Inferno # 1-4 (DC Comics) (Ltd. 1992) [COMICS]

The second limited series that DC spun out of the Armageddon: 2001 crossover event in the early 1990s was Armageddon: Inferno.  Written by John Ostrander, it's clear that this was done in a hurry: the first issue has 5 pencillers and inkers, the second issue has 3 of each, and the last issue has *six* of each!  That might be some kind of record for a standard 22 page comic :)

I thought Issue # 1 was pretty good (definitely better than Armageddon: The Alien Agenda).  The time-travelling hero Waverider is drawn to a dangerous rupture in time and space: cultists have opened a doorway to the evil demon realm of Abraxas!  (hey, the PCs just encountered a drow priestess of Abraxas in Second Darkness!)  Four of the cultists are transformed by Abraxas into massive "Daemen" monsters and sent to different points in time to prepare the way for him to merge into Earth's reality.  Waverider hurries to assemble groups of heroes to stop each of the Daemen.  This issue takes place in Moscow during the (then very recent) fall of the Soviet Union and features Batman, Creeper, Jo Nah (aka, Ultra Boy), the Spectre, and the classic Firestorm.  There's lots of good action, but it looks like they're losing the fight!

Issue # 2 is pretty hard to follow.  Waverider goes to Metropolis to recruit Superman, and along with Guy Gardner, Lobo, the Red Baron (yes, really), Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Sgt. Rock and company, and some others I've forgotten, they fight an army of demons too.  I know it's a forgettable issue because I've completely forgotten it.

Issue # 3 has Superman and his team fighting in a future where the moon has crashed into the Earth!  Meanwhile, Guy Gardner is back in the dinosaur age, while Waverider and the Spectre are getting the Justice Society of America out of perpetual limbo to help out.  A lot of new named villains are introduced, and Ostrander tries to give each one a line here or a line there to explain their powers or origin, but I the artwork is pretty crappy and there's just not enough time to develop any of them.

"The Return of the Justice Society!" is heralded on the cover of Issue # 4, and I felt like the whole mini-series might have been conceived as a justification for bringing them back.  The issue is pretty crappy and feels very rushed (with the aforementioned art team of 12 people, there are five lazy full-page splashes to save them time).  The Justice Society invades Abraxas' castle.  Abraxas is a very generic "giant demon bad guy" and it somehow eventuates that he takes over the fight in limbo to prevent Ragnorak, which lets the JSA off the hook and free to reintegrate into the mainstream DCU.

I felt pretty good about Armageddon: Inferno in the first issue (and I generally like John Ostrander), but it quickly went downhill.  I guess the series is important for JSA history, but otherwise has little to offer.