By 1985, when this maxi-series first began, DC's Universe was in desperate need of help (or at least that was the prevailing wisdom at the time).The problem was all about continuity and the lack thereof in DC's titles.
It was one of the things fans loved about Marvel's Universe - the stories all fit together reasonably well, characters crossed over, and its history made sense even when it was adjusted to explain its heroes from World War II.
DC's continuity was a mess. There were heroes on parallel Earths - the Justice League on Earth-1, the Justice Society on Earth-2, their evil counterparts on Earth-3, the Quality Comics heroes on Earth-X, the Shazam (Marvel) Family on Earth-S... you get the idea.
DC's editors were smart enough to realize that something had to be done to bring the modern DC Universe into some kind of order, so they did a very smart thing: they turned the job over to two of their top creators - Marv Wolfman and George Perez, who had made The New Teen Titans a hit.
Working off a plot by Wolfman, Len Wein and Bob Greenberger (and able boosted by outstanding inks by comics legend Dick Giordano), the team crafted Crisis on Infinite Earths, a sweeping series that would touch all the corners of DC's Universe, with the goal of ultimately bringing it all together and making it more accessible and palatable to modern readers. The art by Perez was outstanding, loaded with amazing detail, excellent versions of a host of characters, and lots of eye-popping events (as the front and back pages of the cover, displayed here, clearly demonstrate).
The writing was some of Wolfman's best, pulling you into the mystery behind the destruction of parallel universes and the creature known as The Monitor, gathering an offbeat collection of heroes from different worlds and times, and hitting them with the knowledge that the end of the universe was at hand.
I really enjoyed this series, and anxiously awaited each issue as it was released over the next year. In fact, there was only one problem with Crisis - and that's the fact that they didn't go far enough.
The series mostly succeeded in organizing DC's line, but there were still problems that lingered. Superman and Wonder Woman's titles and origins were rebooted, but not Batman's. There were still continuity problems - who was Donna Troy, anyhow? Who were the original members of the Justice League? Worst of all, Superman was no longer the first superhero!
So when I say they didn't go far enough, I mean that they tried to half-reboot DC's universe, when they would have been much better off to wipe the slate clean and give it a fresh start, with new origins and new beginnings for all its heroes and super-teams.
Of course, it's easy to understand why that didn't happen. DC didn't want to lose its long history of heroes dating back to the late '30s / early '40s. Some corners of its universe didn't need fixing - Batman was working fine, and so was the JLA.
But don't let my gripes put you off of this series - it was terrific, with shocking deaths, surprising plot twists and events that shaped the DC Universe for decades to come.
It was a truly historic series, and well worth tracking down!
Grade: A
2 comments:
No, they didn't go far enough, but
the thing that made this important
series ultimately hollow was that
they didn't stick to it! DC back
pedaled almost immediately and
UN-rebooted most of what was done
in this memorable, though now imaginary series, rendering CRISIS a well-produced WHAT IF?
And now the DC Multiverse is far
more messed up than it ever was in
1986!
And don't get me started on ZERO
HOUR!
Sam Kujava
Sam, I agree - the more they tried to patch the holes, the more they messed up the continuity.
I thought they should have ended the Crisis series by merging all the alternate Earths into one reality, and then start with Superman's first appearance and grow the "new" DC Universe from there.
Of course, that might have angered longtime readers, so what do I know? But it's always fun to play armchair quarterback.
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