I have been to too many funerals.
I walk among the remains of old company. Friends, foes, trusted allies, hated enemies alike. This journey began with me, alone, and it looks like it will end this way as well. As it should.
Countless nights, some that seemed like they’d never end. For a time, we seemed so strong. It seemed like it could go on forever. Justice Leagues, Doom Patrols, Teen Titans, even Justice Societies. And the parade of villainy almost as prolific. But I knew better. No matter how many, no matter how long, it doesn’t go on forever.
I have often called what I do a war. But it’s a war of attrition. For every milestone, there was something more that could’ve been done. For every venture, there’s a measure not taken. And soon you find your resolve, your resources beginning to stretch thinner. There are wrongs that go unrighted, and before you know it, your teams begin to splinter, never to be made whole. Your every choice becomes suspect, your motivations questionable. You find yourself in a state of triage, just trying to keep moving, and moving forward seems like an impossibility.
And inevitably, it comes to a close. And you’re left to wonder where it went wrong. You even become tempted to blame your allies, in moments of weakness, because as far as you were concerned, you were infallible. But you’re wrong, of course. At some point your war of attrition became a war of containment, and you slowly drifted from your center, alienating those allies, old and new alike. And like every war that came before, it winds down, and then the weight of age and time does the rest.
So, you count your victories, you cherish your wins. You hope you left inspiration for the next to take up your fight, even though you know those that follow lack your drive, your fire.
Like I said, I knew better. And deep down, you did too. It’s less important where or how it went wrong, the point is, it went. As it always does.
But we did give it one hell of a fight, didn’t we?
Rest in Peace, DC Superheroes/Universe Classics/Infinite Earths/Unlimited.