CRISIS OF REBIRTH, PART ONE: It All Starts With Her

We're a good deal into the Rebirth of the DC Universe. Lots of exciting things have happened, and there's a great deal more to come. But where did it all begin? What has happened so far? Where will it all end up? These and many more questions and answers will be explored in the days ahead with CRISIS OF REBIRTH.

It all began here. At the Dawn of Time. When there was nothing. And then...something. A hand, grasping a cluster of stars.

But it wasn't just any hand. The Hand of Creation, as it's called, belonged to the Mother of All Creation. The entity called Pandora.

How insignificant she apparently seems. But she is indeed the Mother of All Creation. In the beginning, she created the DC Omniverse. At some point, Pandora was birthed into this creation of hers, without memory of who she was and what her role was in the overall scheme of things. But as the centuries passed, she would begin to remember. She was immortal, magical, and scientifically knowledgeable. She was trained in martial arts and other forms of fighting and became a proficient weapons expert. All of this came back to her, but not before a more innocent time would damn her for all eternity.

One day in Macedonia, circa 8,000 B.C., the young Pandora ventured forth to find berries to help make herbal medication to help her ailing son. However, her inert need to explore caused her to stray off-path until she found a golden skull in the forest. Unbeknownst to her, this golden skull contained a portal to Earth-3, a planet nestled within one of the most evil dimensions in the known multiverse. She curiously opened the skull, and it released what would become known as the Seven Deadly Sins: Avarice, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, and Pride. But little did she know that these very Sins actually came from within herself.

As time went on, the Seven Deadly Sins infested the world, beginning with her village, which was ravaged by the time she returned. And her son had become possessed by Wrath. It was then that Pandora was mystically taken to the Circle of Eternity, along with Judas Iscariot and another unrecognizable being whose identity was unknown to all, even him (something that will prove to be the undoing of everything as the Crisis of Rebirth draws ever so closer). Pandora and the other two were branded as the greatest transgressors of all mankind and sentenced to an eternity of loneliness and torment. For Pandora in particular, for her crime of releasing the Seven Deadly Sins upon man, she was branded with facial scars that always burned without relief, to walk the world forever to experience the pain she had wrought that day she opened the golden skull. She was then returned to Earth, where she wandered for centuries, always trying to help man escape the grip of evil but always grieving in the long run when the spirits killed more.

Eventually, Pandora tracked down all the Sins, and it was then that she remembered it all. She remembered who she truly was and what her purpose would always be. There was a great battle between her and the Sins, and in the end only one would claim victory. This victor would then recreate the multiverse, birthing it anew using all of their power, always assisted by whatever grave crisis that was ravaging the world at the time. The Anti-Monitor, Parallax, Alexander Luthor...those titans of destruction who cursed her name as they fought to remake the universe in their names, whose vast cosmic abilities were unknowingly harnessed by Pandora in the recreation of known reality. It was what she was. What she would always be.

However, Pandora didn't always win the battles that restarted the universe. Sometimes one of the Seven Deadly Sins won. In the case of the event called Zero Hour, caused by Parallax, one such Sin won the final battle with Pandora and remade reality into a much darker place. The heroes who are always bound to come were remade much darker. The hero Batman became more violent in his ways. Wonder Woman murdered a man called Maxwell Lord. Superman still suffered great guilt from murdering three Kryptonian criminals during the reboot that came before Zero Hour (aka the Crisis on Infinite Earths). Jean Loring went insane and murdered Sue Dibny, who had been raped by Dr. Light some years before her demise. Brother Eye constantly came back to wreck havoc with the world.

However, there was one battle where Pandora did defeat the Seven Deadly Sins. When she sensed the calamity of what is known as Flashpoint, she also sensed another great power was preparing to complete its own grand design by taking advantage of said multiversal disaster. She also realized that this same force had previously shattered the History of Heroes into three (Earth-0, Earth-13, and Earth-50) to prevent any opposition. And so, Pandora acted quickly. She used the power of the Flash and his ability to tap into the Speed Force to bring the three worlds back together as one, to unite them against the mysterious force.

The multiverse was born anew, and Pandora hoped that her plan had worked. But that hope was false, for her unknown adversary took advantage of what she had done to further its own ends. The heroes she had placed her expectations upon weren't what they were supposed to be. They had all been changed into something new, different, and entirely unexpected. And so, another rebirth was needed, and one soon came...at least partially. But to prevent any further opposition, the mysterious entity destroyed Pandora completely.

But she is the ultimate force. She is the Mother of All Creation. Without her, there would be nothing. So Pandora isn't truly dead. As is her fate, she will be reborn and begin her life anew, amnesiac and innocent, until the time comes when she is needed once again. And eventually, she will succeed in her task to create a universe willed with hope and peace...

...but that is something that will not happen for some time to come, in the far distant future. Presently, the Rebirth has only just begun, and the evil loneliness wanting to destroy it all has yet to tip its hand.

To be continued...