Well, the big event is finally here. An event several months in the making and the sequel to the great Crisis on Infinite Earths Read on for spoilers.

Was Infinite Crisis worth the wait? So far, I’d have to say yes. Despite the cliches (and all of there are here: the omniscient watchers, the pointless deaths, the angst, the last page reveal), I found myself enjoying it. I avoided nearly all the mini-series running up to this, but none of them seem all that necessary to have read. The universe is falling apart, and there’s only one person who can save it all.

Like every mega-crossover, this one starts with chaos: the Justice League has effectively been neutralized: Wonder Woman has killed Max Lord, Batman has unleashed killer robots, and Superman is doubting himself. The rest of the universe isn’t doing too hot, either: the Rann/Thanagar war has spilled into a wide-scale conflict; the Guardians of the Universe are trying to control things with the Green Lantern Corp, but it’s all spiralling out of control; Superboy has given up even trying to be a hero, tainted by his connection to Lex Luthor; OMACs are running about, killing without remorse; the Spectre is insane and has killed the wizard Shazam.

This first issue seems to ably recap most of the mini-series that came before. Much is glossed over, but you do get a sense of the craziness that’s been building up.

Then there’s the requisite hero deaths, to make us believe that this conflict is worse than anything we’ve seen before. The victims this time: the Freedom Fighters, of course. When I saw the preview with them in it, I knew it was coming. Result: Black Condor, possibly still alive; Phantom Lady, dead; Damage, possibly alive; Human Bomb, dead; Uncle Sam, likely dead; Ray, captured. On the villain side: Dr. Polaris, likely dead. It was the typical brutal fight scene that seem all the rage these days. The problem is that I didn’t care all that much. When you don’t see characters for a decade or so and they suddenly show up in a mega-crossover, you know what to expect.

Meanwhile, as the Freedom Fighters are freed from life, the big three, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, angst about various things up on the moon. Their interplay is interesting (and Batman gets in a great zinger about the last time Superman inspired people was when he was dead). Another perfunctory villain fight pops up for no real reason.

And the big payoff. The omniscient watchers are revealed, survivors of the previous Crisis: Alexander Luthor, the son of an alternate Earth’s Luthor (Earth-3, if I recall); the Superboy from Earth-Prime; the Earth-2 Lois Lane, and, the greatest hero of all: the Earth-2 Superman.

I was pleased as punch when I saw that last page. They’ve been signaling it for a while, and it’s pretty obvious to me that the Earth-2 Superman feels the heroes have squandered the new timeline and means to set things right. There’s also some type of personal connection with this Superman, as well: someone he apparently wants to save (the logical choice would be Power Girl, but I expect it will be more complicated).

The art is fine, nothing really amazing here. I opted to get the George Perez cover (a lame Jim Lee cover was also available, but looked awful). I wish Perez was doing the interiors, though. Phil Jimenez is fine, but nothing beats Perez pencils to me.

Oh, and we get a cool Nightwing/Starfire moment. Starfire is, of course, now doomed. Well, probably not. :) I just always cringe when characters I like show up in these things. The usually end up in bodybags by the end.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 9:34 pm and is filed under DC Comics, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comment on this entry

The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://spandexjustice.com/2005/10/12/50/trackback