This is "Can't Cross Over," a feature where I look at instances when comic book writers had to adjust their stories to deal with crossovers.
Grant Morrison's JLA is really a wonderful example of a writer just telling the stories he wanted to tell while juggling a whole bunch of nonsense thrown his way by the circumstances of the era. After the opening story arc of the series, Superman's powers change and he becomes "blue" Superman. After a storyline in JLA #9, Wonder Woman is killed in her series and so Morrison has to eventually replace her with her mother, Hippolyta, who filled in as Wonder Woman after first having no Wonder Woman in the series at all for a few issues. So yeah, Morrison knew how to deal with what he was given to handle, but that still makes the Genesis incident an amusing one.
Okay, so John Byrne had been writing and drawing Wonder Woman while writing Jack Kirby's Fourth World. He came up with a storyline that encompassed characters from both series.
The idea is that a "Godwave" was coming back across the universe for the third time (the first two times had dramatically altered the universe) and upon its arrival, people's reactions differed, with some superheroes and sueprvillains losing their powers (even Green Lantern's ring stopped working), some superheroes and supervillains seeing their powers suddenly get amped up and some normal humans just getting hit with super-existential dread, as seen here in Genesis #1 (by John Byrne, Ron Wagner and Joe Rubinstein), with Green Lantern and Sonar's powers being affected and the cop, Mike, from Byrne's Wonder Woman run, dealing with a loss of faith...
Okay, so the superheroes get together and Martian Manhunter briefly mentions JLA #10. Then they figure out that the key is that the only person UNAFFECTED is Supergirl, who came from a different dimension (something Byrne, who created her, obviously knew well)...
So it has to do with the Source, the all-encompassing interconnected power of the universe. Darkseid is out to get this power for himself and the heroes have to stop him.
In the end, they stop Darkseid but then ARES, from the pages of Wonder Woman, steps in and takes over the power, but luckily, in one of those great "Everyone in the universe gets together to take on the villain" plots, well, everyone in the universe gets together and fixes the Source...
Everything is back to normal (including New Genesis and Apokalips being split off from each other, as they had briefly been merged) and Mike has his faith back.
So that was the deal with the Genesis crossover. How, then, did it tie in with Grant Morrison's classic "Rock of Ages" story arc with artists Howard Porter and John Dell?
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In JLA #10 (by Morrison, Porter and Dell), Lex Luthor leads the Injustice Gang in a "Corporate takeover" of the Justice League. They attack the League and kill a bunch of civilians using "hard light" creations made by Doctor Light while they monitor the reactions of the Justice League so that they can test the good guys and see their reactions and abilities. Meanwhile, Luthor is all about his new fancy magic rock...
So this is all part one of the story. In the middle of it, Martian Manhunter mentions that he is sensing something and he wants to go investigate it...
And so, at the end of the issue, J'onn encounters the "Godwave," the wave I mentioned from Genesis #1...
That's a crazy cliffhanger for part one of a story arc, right? But get this, THAT'S IT FOR THAT!
Yep, Morrison just drops it and picks up right with the Corporate Takeover plot in the next issue...
There is just a quick mention about how, "Oh, yeah, we settled that whole Genesis thing" (referenced as the "Ares" incident)...
The main story is all about Luthor's magic stone, which is actually the Philosopher's Stone...
As it turned out, the whole story is about Superman trying to destroy it and in doing so, he sets up an awful future where Darkseid takes control of the Earth (we see that future for a couple of issues and how Batman and a makeshift Justice League eventually DO stop Darkseid, but only after billions are wiped out).
So the Genesis stuff doesn't play a role at all, it is just this weird unaddressed cliffhanger at the end of the first issue. It is really kind of in-sane.
If any of you have any suggestions for other good examples of comic book writers having to alter their stories to adjust to major comic book crossovers, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!