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Breaking the Fourth Wall

Evidence of Deus ex Machina in JLA Annual # 3

Although not a reference to Hypertime per se, the appearance of Animal Man in the 1999 JLA Annual # 3 (the first part of the JLApe storyline) does cause one to wonder if "breaking the fourth wall" (i.e., letting comics characters in on the little secret that they're just characters in a story) could somehow be related to Hypertime. The most famous example of this phenomena, of course, occurred at the end of Grant Morrison's run on the Animal Man series. Since Morrison is one of the architects of the Hypertime concept, I wouldn't be surprised if he finds someway to use deus ex machina within the framework of Hypertime someday.

Actually, there is huge similarity between Hypertime and deus ex machina, at least the way that Animal Man viewed the concept. With Hypertime, you have the idea of mingling timelines, which cause the histories of entire universes to change, potentially from one moment to the next. Were a person to find out that this was happening, it may cause that person to feel insignificant, and question the sanity of his own reality. This is exactly what happened when Animal Man discovered his "true" nature. Since writers are the true source of Hypertime, I have to wonder if someday DCU characters will figure out that their continuity is being played with by the writers.

My friend Adam "OMEGA" Arnold, who has a fantastic fan site of his own that chronicles all sorts of DC Comics phenomena at Omega's Vanishing Point, put together his thoughts on the Animal Man appearance in JLA Annual # 3, and with his permission, I'd like to share them with you here...

JLA Annual # 3 -- Animal Man Scene Annotations

By Adam "OMEGA" Arnold

Well, the overall story of the first part of the JLAPE storyline is a great read, and there is one major surprise.... Animal Man appears.

Martian Manhunter is sent to get an 'expert opinion' on the league's 'current' situation and he meets up with Buddy Baker (aka Animal Man) in Southwest America. J'onn flies over to Buddy who is siting on top of a hill mumbling about something. J'onn grabs Buddy's shoulder and Buddy is starteled and screams. J'onn tries to explain himself but Buddy interupts with... 3.21.5 - "You don't understand! Explanations are meaningless-- --Babble thrown together at some cosmic four A.M.-- --God's way of making his deadline!"

3.21.6 - "I know... I've seen the beginning... and the end! We're all nothing but freaks of nature --But nothing's natural! Universes live and die by committee!"

3.22.1 - J'onn reasures Buddy but Buddy wimpers out, "Oh, God... I'm important to the plot..." J'onn then sends out a telepathic blast to Buddy which calms him.

3.22.2 - "Uhh. I'm...I'm sorry... I've been having these...episodes... ...weird visions, memorites of things that didn't happen...a nightmare about an anthropomorphic coyote being the savior of mankind..."

3.22.3 - J'onn telepathicly says, "?! I must remeber to ask Zauriel's opinion on that concept." The rest is Buddy & J'onn getting down to business until J'onn is allowed yo assimilate Buddy's knowledge on the subject of Morphic Resonance.

3.22.6 - J'onn flies off thinking, "Animal Man's subconscious has a truly unique perspective on the nature of reality. I think it would be wisest not to share it with the others. They might find it disturbing..."

After the rest of the story on the final page J'onn is talking to Batman and Batman demands J'onn tell him the rest of what he knows. But, J'onn refuses to tell him and vanishes. Kaminski was more than likely, deliberatly putting the mentions to Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man #1-26 in the comic for the fun of it. But if you really look into the fact that J'onn now knows exactly what Buddy knows about the fictionality of their existance... then this could in all actuality be a sub-plot to something major later on. Only time will tell.

Annotations © 1999 Adam Arnold