Crisis Crossovers Past and Present
Somewhere kicking around in the dark corners of my brain is a well-thought-out essay on the pros and cons of shared comics universes and the big crossover events they have spawned. This is clearly not that essay, but it will compare the various Infinite Crisis tie-ins to their ancestor, 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Twenty years ago last month, I decided to get back into comics on a serious basis. Being a high school sophomore meant I was more comfortable with my nerdishness than I had been in (shudder) junior high, when I "put away childish things." Besides, DC Comics was giving me a great opportunity.
I knew about Crisis on Infinite Earths from house ads in the only comic I was then reading, DC's Star Trek. After borrowing the first four issues (and the first four Who's Whos) from a buddy, I marched down to the local comics shop for my own copies. Crisis #5 thus represented the first regular $0.75 of what would become a familiar drain on my disposable income.
Of course, the story didn't stop with Crisis' twelve issues. Crossovers with virtually every DC book (yes, I expected cameos by Kirk & Co.) distracted from the main story, and expository dialogue often slowed what remained. Crisis isn't for DC newcomers. It's a time capsule, preserving a single critical year of DC's publishing history. Ultimately, though, Crisis was a transition first and a narrative second.
For this summer's Infinite Crisis lead-in miniseries, it's tempting to say those priorities have been reversed. Each is responsible for a different DC "fiefdom" -- traditional superheroes, magic, supervillains, and space opera -- and as such each can focus on a discrete group of characters without having to worry about too much overlap.
However, while the biggest problem with COIE was its scattershot plot structure, the biggest problem I am finding with the post-Identity Crisis DC is the undercurrent of paranoia running through the books. I'm not just talking about the "who will the JLA mindwipe next?" angle, either. When Batman and Wonder Woman have a disagreement over tactics in JLA #113, are we readers to assume it comes out of a moment's stress, or a relationship more deeply fractured? The message coming out of DC these days seems to be that we readers need to buy every single superhero book it publishes, because the fallout from Identity Crisis was so pervasive. IC has become the comics equivalent of the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon and causing tornadoes in Kansas -- except that it took seven double-sized issues to get those wings a-flappin'.
Moreover, the other seeds of Infinite Crisis have been hidden in books we didn't even know we had to read. I gave up on 2002's Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day after the second issue, but with Donna Troy coming back felt obliged to pick up the paperback. I was reading the Adam Strange miniseries anyway, only to see that it leads naturally into The Rann/Thanagar War. I thought the current Superman/Captain Marvel fight with Eclipso was just an ordinary excuse for the two heroes to fight, until this week's Superman #216 told me to read Day of Vengeance #1. (Still haven't found a copy of that yet.) Readers of The OMAC Project might have had to revisit Bruce Wayne: Murderer? to familiarize themselves with Sasha Bordeaux; and although I've Googled her, I still can't figure out who Scandal of the new Villains United miniseries is, or where I might have seen her before.
On a basic level, this kind of thing is nothing new. Crisis on Infinite Earths' Monitor was sprinkled throughout various DC books before his grand introduction in Crisis #1. Once COIE got started, it didn't take much to make a crossover -- just some red skies, antimatter, or time-displaced antagonists. Still, as loose as Crisis' individual issues were, on the whole it had well-defined boundaries. These Infinite Crisis lead-ins aim to be self-contained, but they also assume that the prudent reader has been keeping up all along -- which necessarily expands their scope to include all these other unwitting prequel series.
There's a lot of keeping up, too. Even only the clearly marked miniseries and tie-ins add up to over thirty issues, all to lay the groundwork for Infinite Crisis itself. Sweet fancy Moses! If it only took twelve issues (and assorted crossovers) to squeeze five Earths into one, DC had better be planning something really spectacular for this go-round -- preferably something with a definite ending which can be considered an honest-to-goodness story.
That brings me back to my earlier point; namely that this time the emphasis does seem to be more on story than on plot gymnastics. Crisis on Infinite Earths had a clearly defined objective and took a roundabout way to get there. Thankfully, these new miniseries appear to be stories first, more concerned with taking care of their own business than enabling the larger event. I hope this is the case, because otherwise Infinite Crisis and all its feeders have the potential to be an even bigger mess than their collective inspiration.
Twenty years ago last month, I decided to get back into comics on a serious basis. Being a high school sophomore meant I was more comfortable with my nerdishness than I had been in (shudder) junior high, when I "put away childish things." Besides, DC Comics was giving me a great opportunity.
I knew about Crisis on Infinite Earths from house ads in the only comic I was then reading, DC's Star Trek. After borrowing the first four issues (and the first four Who's Whos) from a buddy, I marched down to the local comics shop for my own copies. Crisis #5 thus represented the first regular $0.75 of what would become a familiar drain on my disposable income.
Of course, the story didn't stop with Crisis' twelve issues. Crossovers with virtually every DC book (yes, I expected cameos by Kirk & Co.) distracted from the main story, and expository dialogue often slowed what remained. Crisis isn't for DC newcomers. It's a time capsule, preserving a single critical year of DC's publishing history. Ultimately, though, Crisis was a transition first and a narrative second.
For this summer's Infinite Crisis lead-in miniseries, it's tempting to say those priorities have been reversed. Each is responsible for a different DC "fiefdom" -- traditional superheroes, magic, supervillains, and space opera -- and as such each can focus on a discrete group of characters without having to worry about too much overlap.
However, while the biggest problem with COIE was its scattershot plot structure, the biggest problem I am finding with the post-Identity Crisis DC is the undercurrent of paranoia running through the books. I'm not just talking about the "who will the JLA mindwipe next?" angle, either. When Batman and Wonder Woman have a disagreement over tactics in JLA #113, are we readers to assume it comes out of a moment's stress, or a relationship more deeply fractured? The message coming out of DC these days seems to be that we readers need to buy every single superhero book it publishes, because the fallout from Identity Crisis was so pervasive. IC has become the comics equivalent of the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon and causing tornadoes in Kansas -- except that it took seven double-sized issues to get those wings a-flappin'.
Moreover, the other seeds of Infinite Crisis have been hidden in books we didn't even know we had to read. I gave up on 2002's Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day after the second issue, but with Donna Troy coming back felt obliged to pick up the paperback. I was reading the Adam Strange miniseries anyway, only to see that it leads naturally into The Rann/Thanagar War. I thought the current Superman/Captain Marvel fight with Eclipso was just an ordinary excuse for the two heroes to fight, until this week's Superman #216 told me to read Day of Vengeance #1. (Still haven't found a copy of that yet.) Readers of The OMAC Project might have had to revisit Bruce Wayne: Murderer? to familiarize themselves with Sasha Bordeaux; and although I've Googled her, I still can't figure out who Scandal of the new Villains United miniseries is, or where I might have seen her before.
On a basic level, this kind of thing is nothing new. Crisis on Infinite Earths' Monitor was sprinkled throughout various DC books before his grand introduction in Crisis #1. Once COIE got started, it didn't take much to make a crossover -- just some red skies, antimatter, or time-displaced antagonists. Still, as loose as Crisis' individual issues were, on the whole it had well-defined boundaries. These Infinite Crisis lead-ins aim to be self-contained, but they also assume that the prudent reader has been keeping up all along -- which necessarily expands their scope to include all these other unwitting prequel series.
There's a lot of keeping up, too. Even only the clearly marked miniseries and tie-ins add up to over thirty issues, all to lay the groundwork for Infinite Crisis itself. Sweet fancy Moses! If it only took twelve issues (and assorted crossovers) to squeeze five Earths into one, DC had better be planning something really spectacular for this go-round -- preferably something with a definite ending which can be considered an honest-to-goodness story.
That brings me back to my earlier point; namely that this time the emphasis does seem to be more on story than on plot gymnastics. Crisis on Infinite Earths had a clearly defined objective and took a roundabout way to get there. Thankfully, these new miniseries appear to be stories first, more concerned with taking care of their own business than enabling the larger event. I hope this is the case, because otherwise Infinite Crisis and all its feeders have the potential to be an even bigger mess than their collective inspiration.
posted by Tom Bondurant @ 3:37 PM
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