By: Marv Wolfman, George Perez Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 368 Publication Date: January 01, 2001 Release Date: January 01, 2001 Studio: DC Comics
Product Description: The 'event' storyline that started it all - collected for the first time! Back in 1985, when huge multi-part crossovers and 'event' storylines were unheard of, Crisis on Infinite Earths rocked comicdom with a literally Earth-shattering epic that impacted on every character in the DC Universe and beyond. Realities were turned inside and out and classic heroes met fearful deaths. It was the end and beginning of the DC Universe, and now at last it can be seen again, collected in all its glory for the first time. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Supergirl and a host of other heroes and villains must face a threat from an anti-matter universe, a foe intent on wiping out Earth again and again, in all its alternate froms. Battles and sagas come no bigger than this!
Perfection. ^ This is hands down, one of the best, most beautifully drawn, most satisfying comics reading experiences ever produced. If you like superheroes, and DC heroes in particular, you need to own this. If nothing else, you'll come away from the series intrigued by DC's vast and colorful history, and the sheer inventiveness of the people who worked there, building the modern myhts that so many of us love. Highly recommended.
The book that ruined the DC Universe. ^ You read it right, apart from having great Perez & Ordway art, this filth ruined a great history of DC characters written by many such as Gardner Fox, Robert Kanigher and trashed Julius Schwartz's concept of alternate Earths. This also paved other EVENTS book hopefully ending with a real... FINAL CRISES.
Crisis On Infinite Earths Is Simply Awesome ^ Crisis On Infinite Earths is possibly the best comic book I've ever read. There are so many characters and stories that you get thrown into, you can't help but fall in love with something, if not everything. Crisis is also great because it introduces you to the massive DC universe. You could seriously not know anything about DC characters and pick up Crisis, love it, and use it as your platform for every DC book you get afterward.
Epic. ^ Epic DC superhero saga. If you don't have this book, you need to get it.
Historically Important, but Underwhelming ^ This is historically important to the DC universe, as any comic book fan knows. And for that reason I would say it should probably considered a must read (at least for DC fans). However, recently having re-read it for the first time in about 12 years (when I was about 13) I have to say I wasn't that impressed (it certainly wasn't as good as I remembered it).
It was defiantly an achievement in that they managed to work in almost every hero that existed at that time (happily unless I missed him Plastic Man was no where to be found). However, that was also part of the problem for me there were a number of times where there were a few panels that (even sometimes a page or two) that seemed to exist just as an excuses to have a character appear. For example John Constantine is in it for about three panels in which basically all he does is say he can feel that something unusual is going on (or something to that effect). It does forward the plot what so ever and really the only purpose it serves is to have him appear in the story. This kind of thing just ends up jumbling up what is a pretty convoluted story line to begin with.
Also, there are some really obvious logical problems. First, it's called Crisis on Infinite Earths. They even talk about how there is a multiverse with infinite parallel universes. But it's almost like they don't know what infinity means, because if there were truly an infinite number it would be impossible for all of them to be destroyed since there would be a never ending number of them. I mean could a finite number of universes exist in a multiverse? Sure, why not you are making it up after all. But that is sort of what bothers me; you're making it up so if you want there to be a limited number of them then don't imply that there is infinity.
Another problem I have with the logic in the story is matter vs. antimatter. It seems like they knew that when antimatter and matter collide they are destroyed (at least it seemed like they knew that based on the `wall of antimatter' that destroyed the universes). So I'm not sure why this fact was pretty much ignored at various points in the story. For example when our heroes enter into the multiverse I don't care how powerful they are when their matter comes in contact with some antimatter they would be destroyed. Similarly this would seemingly make it easy to defeat their antimatter foe(s) since all they need to do is throw some matter at them. Also, antimatter does exist in our universe it's just that matter is dominant. Besides in a true multiverse of infinite universes there would be an infinite number of universes where antimatter was dominant, just as there would be an infinite number where matter was dominant.
The final logic issue I have is when the universe is remade for some reason; some things are inexplicably not changed and are clearly from a time line that no longer exists. For example even though Solovar was not involved in the final battle, after history is rewritten he still is suffering from injuries from an event that from his POV never happened. Similarly the deaths of major characters (such as Barry Allen and Supergirl) are rendered irrelevant since in the new universe either they didn't exist or they never would have been involved the incident resulting in their death (and there for should still be alive). Maybe it's just me that is bothered by these types of things. But these kinds of obvious problems with logic bother me, especially since they are problem that easily could have been corrected by tweaking the story a little bit.
This is not to say that Crisis doesn't have its good points. Just getting to see some of the alternate Earths was enjoyable. I mean who doesn't like seeing an Earth where Lex Luthor is Earth's only protector? The art work was pretty good, and at times gave the store a sense of importance that the writing didn't. Though I had problems with the writing, I liked some of the ideas. I like this all encompassing threat which got basically everyone to work together. I liked seeing some confront an alternate version of them self. And though I did have several problems with the story, I did still enjoy it most of the time but it could have been better.
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