Infinte Crisis #7
Well, it's over. Holy fucking shit. What a long pretty emotional ride. This has been one of the best comic events in ages, and honestly gives me new found faith in a medium that when I left it waaayyyy back in 1996 was becoming a pretty shitty place. Now the superheroes are back, and writers and artists are starting to question why do we need a superhero, and it's creating some great comic books. I said I would write a long article all about DC Comics so here's a shortened version expect a longer one over the summer where I can re-read the original crisis, the death of Superman, and Knightfall. BUT here's a shortned version enjoy be warned there be spoilers ahead...YARGH!
In 1985 DC Comics had a massive continuity problem on their hands. All of their characters lived on separate realities. This was odd and confusing for new readers, so they came up with a plan to unify their entire stable of characters into one universe. The result was the first comic book cross-over event, a twelve issue maxi series called Crisis on Infinite Earths. Along with the tagline "Worlds Will Live. Worlds WIll Die. And the DC Universe Will Never be the Same Again!".
Basically all the series really achieved was reboots of old characters with all star creators. Batman was restarted by Frank Miller, and Superman was restarted by John Byrne(you can collect both of these stories in Trade Paper Backs as Batman Year One, and Superman: The Man of Steel). There were still some problems, and along the way the universe became increasingly darker. In the early ninties both Batman and Superman were decimated for a brief period of time. Superman was killed by a monster named Doomsday, and Batman had his back broken by a supervillain named Bane. Depending on where you stand these stories were either brilliantly effective marketing gimmicks, or great stories. I think both episodes of the heroes lives have been important for the characters and the events showed how the characters had longevity and even with different characters taking over for them, you just can't beat the originals.
Many fans however were peeved at the darkening of the universe which just simply kept happening and then in 2004 the darkness factor took a turn for the worse with the mini series Identity Crisis. We learn that the Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny was brutally raped by Dr. Light and that some of the Justice League had mindwiped the poor Dr. because he knew all of their identities. When Batman had stumbled on to this plot the Justice League mindwiped him!
The series also showcased Tim Drake's father getting murdered, leading to a further division in the Bat-family and even more to Batman's angsty nature. DC Comics then announced the lead up to their big event Infinite Crisis! They spent an entire year laying out the frame work before they unleashed the damn thing starting with a single issue called "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" wherein we learned that the Spectre had lost it's human host, Maxwell Lord the guy who funded the Justice League was a bad guy, and then Ted Kord the Blue Beetle got his brain shot out. This led into five miniseries; Villains United wherein Lex Luthor started a new Society of Supervillains, while a character named Mockingbird created his own society. The OMAC Project where Batman had to deal with the spy satelite he created called Brother Eye becoming completely sentient, Day of Vengeance where the spectre was hunting down and trying to destroy the magic users of the DCU, ther Rann Thanagar War which detailed a galactic civil war between two opposing worlds of Rann and Thanagar, and then Crisis of Conscience which detailed the entire destruction of the Justice League leading directly into Infinite Crisis #1. Some of the miniseries were quite good: Villains United, Day of Vengeance, and Crisis of Conscience. While the others aren't bad, but not terribly interesting. The important event though, was when Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord, an act both Batman and Superman condemn her for.
And this sets us up for the earth Shattering Infinite Crisis which I will cover when the next I have time to update.
In 1985 DC Comics had a massive continuity problem on their hands. All of their characters lived on separate realities. This was odd and confusing for new readers, so they came up with a plan to unify their entire stable of characters into one universe. The result was the first comic book cross-over event, a twelve issue maxi series called Crisis on Infinite Earths. Along with the tagline "Worlds Will Live. Worlds WIll Die. And the DC Universe Will Never be the Same Again!".
Basically all the series really achieved was reboots of old characters with all star creators. Batman was restarted by Frank Miller, and Superman was restarted by John Byrne(you can collect both of these stories in Trade Paper Backs as Batman Year One, and Superman: The Man of Steel). There were still some problems, and along the way the universe became increasingly darker. In the early ninties both Batman and Superman were decimated for a brief period of time. Superman was killed by a monster named Doomsday, and Batman had his back broken by a supervillain named Bane. Depending on where you stand these stories were either brilliantly effective marketing gimmicks, or great stories. I think both episodes of the heroes lives have been important for the characters and the events showed how the characters had longevity and even with different characters taking over for them, you just can't beat the originals.
Many fans however were peeved at the darkening of the universe which just simply kept happening and then in 2004 the darkness factor took a turn for the worse with the mini series Identity Crisis. We learn that the Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny was brutally raped by Dr. Light and that some of the Justice League had mindwiped the poor Dr. because he knew all of their identities. When Batman had stumbled on to this plot the Justice League mindwiped him!
The series also showcased Tim Drake's father getting murdered, leading to a further division in the Bat-family and even more to Batman's angsty nature. DC Comics then announced the lead up to their big event Infinite Crisis! They spent an entire year laying out the frame work before they unleashed the damn thing starting with a single issue called "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" wherein we learned that the Spectre had lost it's human host, Maxwell Lord the guy who funded the Justice League was a bad guy, and then Ted Kord the Blue Beetle got his brain shot out. This led into five miniseries; Villains United wherein Lex Luthor started a new Society of Supervillains, while a character named Mockingbird created his own society. The OMAC Project where Batman had to deal with the spy satelite he created called Brother Eye becoming completely sentient, Day of Vengeance where the spectre was hunting down and trying to destroy the magic users of the DCU, ther Rann Thanagar War which detailed a galactic civil war between two opposing worlds of Rann and Thanagar, and then Crisis of Conscience which detailed the entire destruction of the Justice League leading directly into Infinite Crisis #1. Some of the miniseries were quite good: Villains United, Day of Vengeance, and Crisis of Conscience. While the others aren't bad, but not terribly interesting. The important event though, was when Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord, an act both Batman and Superman condemn her for.
And this sets us up for the earth Shattering Infinite Crisis which I will cover when the next I have time to update.