As usual, spoilers ahead, perhaps.
This issue felt to me like those certain television show episodes; you know, the ones near the end of the season, when the producers have used up all their budget and resort to the lamest of plots: the characters reminiscing about things they have done in the past, so they can recycle old footage. Infinite Crisis #2 is the comic book equivalent of a clip show. One could actually argue quite convincingly, though, that all of DC and Marvel’s output in the last 20 years has been the equivalent of clip shows, though, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
This issue has the same “jump from story to story” pacing as the last issue (and much like the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. We get vignettes with Superman, Batman, the Donna Troy-led heroes, etc. But the main focus is on Power Girl and Superman. That is, the Earth-2 Superman. And you know what? It worked for me.
So we get a refresher course of what the multiverse was before the Anti-Monitor came around and how the current DC universe was born. There’s a lot of exposition going on in this issue, and I don’t know how confusing it would be for new readers: I had no problem (though, when I was buying the issue in the comic shop, a patron was complaining about the confusion of the multiverse previous to the Crisis, which I always find mystifying, since I’ve never had a problem with multiple Earths). Superman walks Power Girl through her unknown history and there’s an unbridled joy in the art when Power Girl finally remembers it all.
There is something a little wrong, though, with Superman deciding that the current state of the universe is dark and sinister and the way to solve that problem is to bring back the Earth 2 universe in place of it. That’s a little harsh. On the other hand, Earth 2 did get the shaft in the last Crisis, so perhaps turnabout is fair play. I do have a hard time thinking that this Superman is considering the destruction of the universe, but love can make a man do some very strange things.
I’m still cautiously optimistic about this series: we’re only two issues in, but the plot is moving along nicely, with all the various plot threads given some time to progress. I’m also quite happy that this series isn’t being “written for the trade.” Each issue progresses, with a nice cliffhanger at the end to keep us coming back for more.
I also recommend reading Focused Totality’s Infinite Crisis #2 review, in which Mark Fossen makes some great observations on this issue, going into more detail on the “Earth 2 Superman as Villain” set up.
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