[Comics] Infinite Crisis

In case you haven't already figured it out, the past 5 comic book reviews have all be leading inevitably to this one - Infinite Crisis.

Many of the previous DC epic comic book crossovers have been not significantly well done for me and more often than not are used as clean-up devices to remove inconsistencies. The planning that went into Infinite Crisis and eventually all the other books they tied into this one event was significantly stunning in terms of its scale and for once I have to admit that I was really impressed with what DC put together this time around.

This wasn't about clean-up or forcing the characters together under a weak premise - this was truly what it meant to plan out a story with such a massive scale that it's designed to rock the entire DC universe as it was known at the time.

Infinite Crisis starts right in the middle of things - the JLA Watchtower on the moon has been destroyed and Martian Manhunter is missing. The world is swarming with cyborgs called OMACs and Wonder Woman is feared around the world as a murder after the events in The OMAC Project. The Rock of Eternity has crashed into Gotham City, thus releasing hordes of magical beasts with the Spectre continuing his mad assault against all magic after the events in Day of Vengeance. The armies of Rann and Thanagar continue to battle one another in the war started in Rann-Thanagae War as a rift in space-time has appeared near the conflict with neither side being responsible for causing it. Super villains have escaped their prisons as aided by a group known as the Society under the leadership of Lex Luthor after the events in Villains United.

Image via Wikipedia Ultimately most if not all these events were put into motion by Alexander Luthor, Superboy Prime and other survivors of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. They've been able to watch the progress made by the rest of the heroes in the unified Multiverse and have been disappointed in the results, thus prompting them to take action by finding a way to restore their version of the universe instead of the current one.

Having those four six-issue comic book series (along with the DC Special The Return of Donna Troy) send their respective ripples into the DC Universe, dragging several comic book titles in their wake only to converge into this one book in the form of Infinite Crisis was just stellar. Marvel may have done similar things by creating one central theme and having the characters respond to the environment like in Civil War or Secret Invasion, but this was more deliberate storytelling on a scale that certainly takes an entirely new spin on things.

You could argue that the core story was pretty simplistic in itself - the survivors of the Multiverse wanting to restore their world and create a somehow "better" version of the universe - however the way they opted to go about this plan and the millions if not billions of lives they either sacrificed or affected in one way or another was just beyond comprehension. When you start dealing with things on this scale, it certainly changes your perspective and determines entirely new lengths to which you're willing to go in order to fulfill your own sense of rightness.

We can argue about whether or not Infinite Crisis was truly necessary to the continued evolution of the DC Universe and all the stories related to it, but then on its own it was just a stunning project that was very well executed and for that I give it kudos and to some extent my admiration for a job very well done.

Then again, they decided on Final Crisis and perhaps that was a bit too overboard. I'll suspend judgment until I finally get to read those darned comic books.