Infinite Crisis

First, these are some of the great artists and writers in the comic book world. It almost doesn't get any better than these men. Now, you had to know this was coming. There's no way DC could let those 'alternate' characters just continue to live in exile, especially since one of them is a Luthor. It had some weak moments and flaws, but overall, a welcome addition to the DC lore. Let's just hope they don't screw it up from here.

DC cleans up, again.. Too many characters and too view titles, or too many titles and too view writers and artists? Either way, the attempt to clean up the roster was somewhat of a disappointment. But, it was due time to see the same-old, same plot of Earth I, Earth II, Earth III, etc. revamped. Was this cleanup by democratic reader vote? or single author vote? I was directed to this edition by reading a latest edition of Superman and Flash graphic novels which referenced demises and events affecting some old favorites. Having left the regular comic book reading phase, I am the infrequent collector/buyer, so it was disappointing to see some favorite characters eliminated and phased-out. The plots and dialogue of the new image, however, are in line with today's rougher and grittier events and entertainment.

"Infinite Crisis" is one of those storylines that are supposed to delight the fan-boy types but anger old-timers like myself by messing with our long established views of the DC Universe. But what long-time fans like me (over 30 years!) have to realize that change has always been essential to the comic book world. This is basically what DC realized in the late 50's and early 60's when they conceived the updated versions of characters like The Flash, Green Lantern, The Atom, Hawkman, and others. Ironic since these updated versions are what led to the chaos of multiple worlds addressed in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline over twenty years ago. Now, writer Geoff Johns is a very smart man. Johns uses Infinite Crisis both as a sequel to the first Crisis, but more importantly, to address a problem with superhero comics that has been festering for nearly two decades. Beginning with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns in 1986, superheroes have become increasingly darker, fraying the line between good and evil. The 80's and 90's saw the rise of the anti-hero with characters such as The Punisher, Lobo, Guy Gardner, Wolverine, and The Ghost Rider enjoying enormous popularity among comic fans. Johns is clearly making his own feelings well known with Infinite Crisis. Frankly, superheroes these days just aren't that heroic. At the same time, I think Johns is also taking a clear shot at other modern day comic book writers (Bendis?) for the way they've handled superhero titles as their own personal amusement parks (Avengers Disassembled?). Johns is one modern comic writer who seems keenly aware that these characters will be around long after he is done writing their stories. Thus, the plot of Infinite Crisis isn't quite as important as the motivation. As such, we can judge the story strictly on its merits alone, but I think it's more prudent that Infinite Crisis be judged a year or two down the road to see if things "stuck". As the story begins we learn that there were four survivors of the original Crisis, long thought dead. Superman and Lois Lane of Earth 2, Alexander Luthor of Earth 3, and Superboy of Earth Prime; these four have managed to survive in a pocket universe and have been observing the surviving Earth 1 all along. They are not happy by what they've seen! They've seen heroes actually kill or wipe the minds of their foes. They believe Earth 1 is infected and rotting from the inside, and it'd infecting the world's heroes and they intend to do something about it, namely bring Earth 2 back in existence which they believe should have been the one, true Earth all along. As one might expect, Alexander Luthor has even darker designs and we find that it was his machinations that led to the events in the Infinite Crisis lead-ins "Day of Vengeance", "Villains United", "Rann-Thanagar War", "The OMAC Project" and the others. For his part, the Superman of Earth 2 plays the always hopeful yet hopelessly naive Boy Scout, duped by

I hated the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was too long, too convulated, the conversations bordered on cheesiness etc...the only redeeming factor in my opinion was that it cleaned out the multivese and set foundations for a more coherent continuity. Fast forward 20+ years and the Crisis has returned. This book has a lot going for it and has foundations based on many previous events. The plot is not simple but I will try my best to provide a synopsis. After the original Crisis, the four surviving memebers were Superman and Lois Lane of Earth 2 (from The Golden Age type comics ); Superboy from Earth Prime (the Superboy from the early Superboy stories) and Alexander Luthor of Earth 3 (son of Lex Luthor who is actually a good guy amongst the CSA which has evil versions of the JLA, Owlman, Ultraman, etc). After surviving and playing pivotal roles in the original crisis, these folks have been on a self-imposed exile in "paradise" and have been watching Earth 1 (this is the Earth with our regular characters). But much to their disappointment, despite their sacrifices, the heroes of Earth 1 have lost their ways...i.e. Batman being mindwiped, JLA is disbanded, Superman can't lead, Wonder Woman kills Maxwell Lord, Batman's Brother I satellite turning on the superheros etc.). They decided to break out and return to Earth 1 to teach the Earth 1 heroes what it means to be heroes...at least that's what Earth 2 Superman wants. Superboy Prime simply misses his old world, his parents, his girl and wants to return home. The real culprit here is Alex Luthor who channels these emotions as a fuel to get what he wants....a perfect Earth. We also find out that Alex has been impersonating the real Lex Luthor and creating the Society of Villains to round up heroes such as Powergirl, Black Adam, Martian Manhunter to fuel a tower he is building to restore the multiverse and then pick and choose the Earths he wants and combine them to form the perfect Earth. That's as far as I am going to go with the synopsis, since I felt that this was the ultimate motivation for Infinite Crisis going off the ground. There's many more stories going on. You have Superboy prime vs. everybody, Superman Earth 1 vs. Superman Earth 2, Supermen of both Earth 1 & 2 vs. Superboy Prime, Batman vs. Bother Eye, Alex Luthor takes on the Titans...it's basically an epic battle where every DC characters are thown into. There are also changes that occur as a result of the Crisis. The big three, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are taken back to their roots. I can go on but there's too much stuff and trust me that it's well worth the read. The story is very well done. As someone who was not very familiar with the original Crisis, Geoff Johns does an excellent job of filling in new readers on the stuff that has gone on before. And he manages to tie up almost all the loose ends from The Omac Project, JLA: Crisis of Conscience, etc. This is not an easy task to do but Geoff manages to do it

Having just reread this, I have to say it is one of the best 'event' books any publisher has done to date. It's a tremendously enjoyable and exciting story, very intense and very well crafted by Geoff Johns. Before getting further into the story, I would also like to say this book shows how collections should be done. It is a very nice volume that actually addresses some of the problems and concerns from the original work. The book collects all seven issues of Crisis (each issue seperated by both the Jim Lee and George Perez covers,) but it also contains corrections and changes designed to make the story read better. Several pages have been added to flesh out certain sequences, a confusing sound effect has been removed from late in the book (greatly improving the scene it was in,) and dialogue was added in other places to better explain what is going on (as well as to explain the condition of a certain character.) Several other pages were redone to take advantage of the extra time the art team now has as compared to the time they had while under deadline -- the double page spread at the end of the book showing the remaining heroes being a notable example. The volume also contains an introduction and a long (approximately ten page) interview with the writer, artist, and editor primarily responsible for the work discussing each issue, the importance of the events, what worked, and what didn't. Finally, the cover itself (not the dust jacket, but the actual hardcover of the book) shows a glossy, wrap around, enlarged version of the art from the dust jacket, minus the text. Normally I don't care about such things, but in this case, it is a nice looking cover that shows this is a high quality product. The art is beautiful, and the cover looks really sharp. All of the above, to me, is how a collection should be done. It shows that DC read the reviews of the original work (which was very well recieved) and made note of the few complaints people had, then actually addressed them when collecting the work together. It shows that they actually cared enough to put out the best product they could. The inclusion of the interview and the nice cover art just adds to the overall prestige of the story. With collections coming out as often as they do now, most of the time they are just exact reprints of the issues with no improvements, introductions, afterwords, interviews or anything -- this volume sets a better standard. Again, I really applaud DC for making changes/additions to the story in order to address reader confusion or complaints and to improve this collection. None of the issues they addressed had overly damaged the story when it came out originally, but the changes do improve/polish the story and make it read more smoothly. I'm glad DC took advantage of the chance to make the changes, and hope that policy becomes the standard for these sorts of collections As to the story itself -- it's a good, exciting, emotional story. The art is