JLA Watchtower (Archive)

There's distant thunder in the air. Jim Gordon looks up from the body of the dead old man, startled by the booming ruckus. With a grim resolve, he turns away from both the window and the body and turns his attention to the throw rug on the floor. With a nonchalant kick, he pushes it aside, revealing a trap door.

He takes a deep breath and absently reaches for the cigarettes that aren't there anymore. Scowling, he opens the door and descends, the invisible ghost travelling at his heels.

The rickety ladder descends to a stone passageway. There are no lights, but he carries a penlight in his jacket. Too many years in Gotham. There are rats, and webs, and small bits of rubble, but nothing for what feels like miles.

Until he comes to a solid oak door. It only takes a moment of picking to pop the lock -- again, too many years in Gotham. Beyond is a large room, at the center of which stands a stone altar. The bones have lain there for decades, unattended. Left to rot.

"Poor kid," says Jim, as he absently runs his gloved hands over the skull. "You deserved better than this."

He notices the drop in temperature in the room first, then an unearthly light that rises upward in a pillar, burning straight throught the roof, all the way into the night sky above. A scream seems to come from everywhere as a sickly black light erupts next, the two forces intertwined. Jim staggers backward as a claw seems to manifest from the light, clutching at him.

But before the demonic hand can grab at him, it's blocked by another -- the ghostly image of a blonde, teenage boy.

"Run," says the boy to Jim. "You've freed me, and I thank you, and now it's time for me to return the favor. Tell them he's coming. Tell them Wotan is free!"

Jim Gordon doesn't hesitate, running deep into the tunnels. Behind him there's an explosion.

Boston Brand, remaining to battle the force emerging into this world, is caught in the blast -- blinded for a moment by the sheer force of the energy wave. He blinks, and he's back in the Land of the Dead, his tie to the Earth severed.

And all across the Earth, the connection between the world and the forces of magic is severed.