Stormwatch #6 (April, 2012)

The Eye of the Storm, the headquarters of Stormwatch, went boom. Some of the debris was promised to hit Earth in an upcoming issue of Superman. Having left Hyperspace and entered the regular kind, military authorities became aware of the spaceship's presence. Jenny Quantum created a forcefield bubble around herself, the Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor and Martian Manhunter, the latter having established a telepathic link for communication. Midnighter was blown out into space, but was rescued by Apollo, who flew him back to Jenny's bubble. "God, you're hot."

The Eye was large enough to qualify as a city, so Jack Hawksmoor made contact with its avatar, an irate Daemonite. "--You humans stole me-- bound me. And made me into a slave!" J'Onn J'Onzz maintained a mental rapport, and painfully acknowledged of the artificial intelligence consciousness, "He has woken it! Its psychic presence-- it is enormous!" It had been switched off since Stormwatch "stole" the station, and would "joyfully die" in service to the "holy cause" of killing these jerks. The Engineer somehow powered-up Jack's synapses, making his consciousness strong enough to rival the Daemonite's. Instead of a brawl, Jack convinced the intelligence to "repurpose the millions of tiny forcefields that keep the station running" to "haul it back together." As a reward, the Daemonite would not be shut down again, and would have opportunities to aid its people. "Worthless unbeliever. I shall be your "city"-- but remember, you are parasites to me."

The Eye restored and in Hyperspace, Midnighter needed medical assistance, but demanded it for Jenny first. The Engineer wanted Harry Tanner's blood, as did Midnighter, who agreed to join Stormwatch with her as leader. As for Apollo, "Oh, if I join up-- he will too."

J'Onn J'Onzz did not know how to contact the redubbed "Shadow Lords" with Adam One gone. "I presume the Projectionist would have been told, being our new leader. She might know now. Which is worrying. But it is the way things have been done for centuries." J'Onzz was stressed over his inability to decipher what the horn was, and the betrayal of Tanner. "I considered him a friend. This is what he used to kill us. The Projectionist, whom he took to hide himself and limit us-- I was starting to enjoy her company a great deal. She is a warrior. If she can, she will contact us." J'Onzz noted Apollo, "said I was 'with the Justice League'-- a shorthand for 'public hero' that many humans use. But I have never actually attempted to join them. Because then I would have to keep secrets from them-- because the part of my life in Stormwatch means I would have to betray them!"

The U.S. military locked into the space sector where the Eye had appeared, intent on attacking it and taking its Hyperspace technology should the opportunity present itself again.

A meeting was called. For the first time, Stormwatch was on its own, and put leadership to a vote. Jack abstained with a caveat about loyalty to Adam One, while J'Onzz would support the consensus in this time of crisis. Apollo, Midnighter and Jenny approved the Engineer's nomination of herself. Their new mission: Securing alien artifacts and other objects of power previously known only to Adam One, but now accessible to the Eminence of Blades for his own plans. "To find them, we're going to need to become... explorers of what might have been."

Meanwhile, Harry Tanner held a sword to the Projectionist's throat, ordering her to cover their tracks from Stormwatch. Accessing media from another world through this realm's amplification of her powers, she noted that the team would be busy saving the universe from an upcoming threat...

"The Dark Side: Finale" was by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda. Talk about ending with a whimper. It was also something how all the forward momentum of an already limp plot petered out halfway through the issue, so that readers were treated to whole pages of random army guys at computers talking over coffee. It's such a treat to see Jack Hawksmoor look at grid coordinates for another full page. Yeah, you super heroes sit at that conference table like you really mean it.

New 52's Day

• The Huntress #5 (April, 2012) @ Diana Prince is the New Wonder Woman
• Aquaman #6 (April, 2012) @ Justice League Detroit