Crisis on Multiple Earths, Vol. 2

Crisis on Multiple Earths #2

by Gardner Fox, Dennis O'Neil, Mike Sekowsky (Illustrator)

Presents the tales of the Justice League througout multiple worlds.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Wonder Woman

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"

Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a while but I have finally finished this volume! I enjoyed these stories and how different they were to the other story lines that came before as well introducing new characters!! Overall, I liked that I was able to read these issues and see how well the Justice League and the Justice Society works together!

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the volume where the JLA comic starts to grow up a bit. The first two stories, like those in the first volume, are written by Gardner Fox, but the last two are by Denny O'Neil; as a result, they may have less of a reliance on science and sci-fi concepts, but the plotting is far less ridiculous, and much moodier and more character driven. And as good as Mike Sekowsky had been, Dick Dillin's art shows a parallel depth. Finally, finally, the stories of the JLA start becoming good - without also being hilariously dumb.

[Emilio Arias H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historias bien realizadas, pero anticuadas (las escritas por Gardner Fox) y menos anticuadas (las de Dennis O'Neil), de cruces entre los superequipos la Liga de la Justicia y la Sociedad de la Justicia.
Lo mejor es la iracunda (e hilarante) carta de Martin Pasko que se transcribe en el apartado final de correo enviado en la época —cuando Pasko simplemente era un lector de las revistas y aún no trabajaba para DC—.
Tomo prescindible, solo para fanáticos acérrimos.

[allowableman2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE NEGATIVE-CRISIS ON EARTHS ONE-TWO! was so bad it knocked this mostly good collection down a star.

[Index Purga · Rating 4 out of 5]

TABLE OF CONTENTS (pendiente, tomado de las páginas 5 y 6)
CRISIS BEHIND THE SCENES
by Martin pasko
Collects JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #55-56, 64-65, 73-74 and 82-83 (pendiente)

[Mati G. W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

De a poco le van poniendo un poco más de trasfondo y personalidad a los personajes, que es algo que todos los fans de DC vamos a terminar agradeciendo.

[Adam Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four of the annual crossovers between the JLA and JSA that occured in the late Silver Age between 1967-1970. This book collects the last two crossovers written by Gardner Fox and the first two by Dennis O'Neill while also including the final book penciled by Mike Sekowsky and the first three by Dick Dillon.

The Super Crisis that Struck Earth Two/ and the Negative Crisis on Earth One/Two: Black spheres turn four average people of various moral standing into powerful supervillains the JSA can't defeat, so they turn to the JLA for help and ultimately a solution is reached that involves exposing Flash (Earth One), Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Earth One), an Hourman to the same spheres which could turn them evil. This is the weakest story in the book, partially because there's no real explanation for the source of these black spheres. There's also the introduction of an adult Earth Two Robin who is in a costume half way between the Robin and Batman costumes and its the worst of both worlds. However, there, are some fun superhero fights and other interesting moments to make this not a bad read. Grade: B-

The Stormy Return of the Red Tornado/T.O. Morrow Kills the Justice League Today: A robot appears at a JSA meeting claiming to be Red Tornado, a hero last seen in the pages of All Star Comics #3. However, things start going wrong for the JSA and we learn it's the plan of Dr. Morrow, a Golden Age villain out for a rematch. Once he's finished with the JSA, he's ready to go after the JLA. This is a fun story. Morrow is a formidable foe with some cool tricks that make him a credible threat. The story moves at a great pace and is very fun to read. Grade: A-

Star Light, Star Bright, Death I See Tonight/Where Death Fears to Tread: Earth Two is Imperiled when people start going randomly beserk. The root cause is the evil influence of Aquarius, a star creature who was punished thousands of years before by his fellows. Now he sets to wreak havoc and the JSA sends for help because they have little choice. This is a really compact but epic story with a great sense of imagination. We have some heroes fighting that goes on long enough to give us some cool moments, but doesn't harm our heroes' image and leaves time for several other good moments, such as the Earth One Green Lantern reciting the Earth Two oath. I have mixed feelings about the death at the end, but this one is sold. Grade: A

Peril of the Paired Planets/Where Valor Fails...Will Magic Triumph...The Earths are in the crosshairs of an alien being whose bands who plans letting Earth One and Two to be destroyed so he can build a new planet for his clients. It's up to our heroes to stop them and it is an epic struggle with many heroes trying, but ultimately a line of mystical heroes is given a chance to shine. Overall, great story with some grat battles, een though there a few logical lapses. Grade: A-

Overall, the stories in here hold up as truly memorable and imaginative tales. Definitely worth a read.

[Kafka · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are not for everyone. You can't really judge them on the quality of writing: it's heavily dependent on what would now pass for absurd scenarios and really cheesy plots, and there's almost no character moments anywhere. However, if you, like me, have a fondness for comics when they never aspired to be anything except fun entertainment for kids that didn't take itself very seriously (but in another sense, it did, what with how the heroes' abilities intersect and the lore), this is heaven.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 2

Featuring the strange return of Red Tornado and the death of Larry Lance, this second set of summer crossover magazines are a bit of fun in the sense of all team ups.

The plots may be a bit suspect, but the art is great and is a great example of the state of comics from the late sixties.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this volume isn’t off to any better a start than the previous one. While these stories all come from the late 1960s, that really isn’t much of an explanation when one compares the quality of material being produced by Marvel over the same period of years.

Justice League of America #55-56 (1967) is just as awful (if not even more so) as the stories in the previous volume. It is filled with plot holes, inconsistent characterizations and power manifestations and uses that don’t jive with previous continuity. Either the writer and editor didn’t think to bother with any kind of continuity (even within the span of 2 issues) or they didn’t have a very high opinion of their readers. In either case it’s a pretty sad accounting for the creative teams.

Justice League of America #64-65 (1968) this pair of issues is marginally better, but is still seemingly ten years behind anything DC’s competition was doing at approximately the same time period. But after how horrible the previous two issues had been, I don’t feel like this is even much a compliment. As a side note: I also hadn’t realized that the new Red Tornado actually appeared two months before the debut of the Vision in the pages of the Avengers. Although considering how little thought was put into this new Red Tornado’s background, it certainly seems like one of the biggest rush jobs imaginable. But, like the X-Men/Doom Patrol or Swamp Thing/Man-Thing comparisons, I don’t think either company was intentionally trying to poach a concept off their rival.

Justice League of America #73-74 (1969) okay, now I feel like we’re getting somewhere. After six years of annual team-ups, I feel like this story (the 7th such team-up) finally lives up to the hype. Except having even said that, there’s still a lot of mediocrity in here. Nothing says “earth shaking menace” or that the stakes are raised here, except we do get some real change occurring this time. There’s the death of a supporting character and some actual continuity and consequence. The writer actual did some research and followed through on power limitations and capabilities. Apparently DC was finally leaving the 1950s behind, and only 10 years too late.

Justice League of America #82-83(1970) still not much of an improvement, the stories got a bit better, but they’ve just stagnated on a new plateau. And this one also features some sequences that are a bit too similar to those from a couple years back. A new writer and they’re already stretched out too far for fresh ideas? Not good.

I was hoping that with some new creative talent added to this volume, things might improve over the surprising lackluster initial volume. No such luck. While there is some improvement, the overall result still isn’t worth much at all.

[Robert Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not For: Anyone who doesn't enjoy DC's often silly Silver Age style.

For: Nostalgia, fans of Earth-2, anyone looking for a sweet Jerry Ordway painted cover.

This collection is definitely not for everyone. It is silly, old school DC at fair to middlin' at best. Gardner Fox earned his place in the Golden Age, but rarely seemed to jibe with how things changed in later decades. Art, other than the occasional Joe Kubert or early Neal Adams cover is nothing to get excited about.

The fact is, JLA was never a cutting edge or experimental book. It was a staid, dependable book with a whole bunch of heroes for your nickels. It really didn't become a well-executed concept on a regular basis until after the Crisis event in the mid-1980s.

But these are the little scraps you get from that era if you're a Golden Age/Earth-2 fan. What can I say, I have a soft spot for the whole multiple earths concept. And these annual team-ups were fun. Silly by today's standards, but fun.

[Roadshow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third volume of these DC parallel earth crossover collections I’ve read and the initial goodwill and enthusiasm I had based on the novelty of the stories and the interest I had in learning about these Golden Age icons has curdled into eye-rolling as Gardner Fox churns out another zany plot where the characters are completely interchangeable and the only interest arises from what crazy power Fox will give to the Flash this time. I know, I know. I have to understand the context it was written in and where comics were at at the time so hey, maybe I need more patience but there were moments, especially in the first half of the book where I was groaning on every page, if not every second panel.

This book comprises eight issues; the four two-parters that took place each Summer from 1967 to 1970.

As background, the superhero craze of the ‘30s and ‘40s had died out by the onset of the ‘50s except for a few of the big hitters like Superman and Batman. Comics had largely moved on to westerns, romance and other genres. But DC editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz had the idea to revive the old superhero line and in 1956 started to bring them back but in new garb. He kept the name and general idea (Flash is the fastest man alive) but otherwise started anew.

And so audiences were once again introduced to these powered vigilantes and somehow, it worked a treat and superheroes took off again. The Justice League was formed and then in 1961 writer Gardner Fox added a brilliant new twist when he had the Flash vibrate through the dimensional barrier to “Earth Two”. There all the original heroes of the '30s and '40s were alive and kicking as the Justice Society of America and readers learned that those old 1930/40s adventures weren’t wiped away - they had happened on another earth which our current heroes could go visit.

These days, multiverse stories are so common, it may seem hard to understand what the fascination was but there was a big audience for these crossovers; people loved seeing the old iterations (which may have been new to them) team-up with their familiar Justice League heroes as these cross-overs became an annual event between 1963 and 1984.

Why did they end?
As writers kept adding more and more earths to play in, partly to find new angles and partly as DC bought other publishers like Fawcett and the rights to their characters, the whole edifice became unwieldy and it was resolved to shrink it down to one earth through 1984’s "Crisis on Infinite Earths".

But that’s all ahead. This is 1967 to 1970. Luckily this represents the end of Fox’s tenure as writer. 1968 was his last hoorah on "Justice League" title and writer Denny O’Neil took over. There’s an immediate change in the 1969 two-parter (“Star Light, Star Bright, Death Star I See Tonight” and “Where Death Fears To Tread”). Sure, the plot is just as mad as any Fox joint but we finally get some characterisation even if it’s mostly through Black Canary’s husband Larry - which is obviously to set up the final shock death but it works and some of the panels depicting the grief of those left behind conjure more genuine emotion than any ten issues from Fox.

The final pair of issues from 1970 (“Peril of the Paired Planets” and “Where Valor Fails, Will Magic Triumph?”) show signs of moving away from the stupidly zany to a related brand of sci-fi silliness. They continue to improve on all that’s come before but the finale is a rushed deus ex machina with the Spectre appearing and Green Lantern (of Earth One) happening upon the lonely Red Tornado who is the unwitting cause of the crisis.

All the same, O’Neill is picking up plot threads from previous stories and creating a genuine sense of a DC universe. He even introduces some romance between Green Arrow and Earth Two’s Black Canary. Great work that takes the medium seriously and hints at possible directions to come.

So while some of this was a chore, the change in writer reinvigorated the team-ups and made me once again curious to pick up the next volume.



Random Thoughts:

- Prior to the change in writer by Summer 1969, there was a change by Summer 1968 of long time penciller Mike Sekowsky to Dick Dillin. Dillin stayed on the book until his death in 1980. A feat perhaps unequalled since. I can’t say I’m as attuned to the art as I am to the writing but it was another big change to a long-running team.
- The 1967 issues (“The Super Crisis That Stuck Earth-Two” and “The Negative Crisis of Earths One-Two”) are so ridiculous they have one average citizen accidentally given super-powers, becoming a super-villain and immediately going on a rampage to destroy all sporting stadiums. Really.
- At least that made a change from Fox’s usual bank and museum robberies.
- Funny how Wonder Woman always ends up facing the sole female bad guy.
- My first introduction to Johnny Thunder was in Geoff John’s 2016 "Rebirth". There, an elderly and infirm Johnny whose Justice Society past was wiped away has something of his memory restored and climbs onto a hospital roof and screams the summoning words into the rain. It was quite emotional. But here? Ugh. Johnny Thunder is the worst character. He has no actual powers; just a genie he can command. Which is fine but he’s always berating the genie and acting as if he it is him who is the valuable team member. The Justice Society should free the thunderbolt from it's slavery to this doofus.
- At least, he’s not quite as egregious a team member as Snapper Carr who had no powers and no business being on the league anyway. Thankfully he only appears briefly in Fox’s final story.
I knew DC had all but trademarked “crisis” with "Crisis on Infinite Earths", "Infinite Crisis", "Final Crisis", "Identity Crisis" et al but I realise now they were the crisis guys from way back.

[C. John Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This covers the second four of the annual JLA/JSA team-ups, specifically the years 1967-1970. I read the stories for 1967 and 1968 when they first came out, but not the other two, as they fall in the brief period of time when I had stopped reading comics for the most part. The most interesting story is the second one, as that was the story that re-introduced the Red Tornado, sort of. The original Red Tornado has been a middle-aged woman, by the name of Ma Hunkel, who wore a uniform of sorts and appeared in the Scribbly feature. This Red Tornado was an android who had been created by a villain as part of one of his schemes. It backfired on him.
There are other things to note regarding a couple of the stories in this volume. The first one saw the JSA induct a new member, namely Earth-2's Robin, replacing Earth-2's Batman who had retired. Oddly enough, neither Batman nor Superman had appeared in any of these team-ups. The third story is of note as finally the Earth-2 Superman made his re-appearance. They differentiated between the two Supermen by giving the Earth-2 version grayer hair.
As for the stories themselves they are not bad. The best is probably the Red Tornado's reintroduction but the others have their good points as well. With Superman's appearance I believe Batman was the only JSA member not to appear, save for the original Red Tornado who had only made a cameo appearance in one of the original JSA stories, the first one I believe. In conclusion if you enjoy comics, and especially superhero comics, then this volume will probably make a fine addition to your library. Happy reading.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contains the last two JLA/JSA team-ups written by Gardner Fox and the first two written by Denny O'Neil. Both writers pretty much throw logic to the winds and introduce wild threats to both Earth-One and Earth-Two that barely make sense even when Comic Book Logic is applied.

And this is how it SHOULD be. If the most powerful superheroes in the DC Multiverse are going to team up, then the stakes really need to be high.

Within these stories, we are introduced to Earth-Two (and grown-up) Robin in a new costume and the new Red Tornado. We also witness the death of Larry Lance, followed by the newly-widowed Black Canary's decision to move to Earth-One. Also, at one point, we get to see two Supermans beat each other unconscious. These are nice bonuses within stories with over-the-top threats to all reality and cast of a dozen or so superheroes per story.

[Sheldon Wiebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun collection Justice League of America/Justice society of America team ups from 1967-1970.

The last two of the Gardner Fox team ups and the first two Denny O'Neill team ups. Also the last tem up penciled by Mike Sekowsky.

Great fun.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 - Solid collection of JLA/JSA crossovers. Need to prepare for Crisis on On Infinite Earths? This trade is a perfect primer. It also is a fantastic introduction to the Red Tornado as all of his first appearances (minus one cameo) are in here.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun trip down memory lane. The first comic I ever got is in this collection.

[Seth McGregor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few issues were so hard to get through the story wasn't very interesting and the writing was just describing the art, but after I pushed through that the story picked up.

[Cata Plasma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divertimento sano para todas las familiar de Tierra Uno y Tierra Dos.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Vol. 2 leaves zero room for naive trust, as Gardner Fox systematically dismantles every comfortable justification for expanding top-down surveillance.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomo 2 de 14 del Box Set y segundo de seis de los plateadísimos Crisis on Multiple Earths en una edición hardcover preciosa, aunque los tomos individuales no tengan ISBN propio.

[Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I stated in my review of the previous volume the insanity of a comic multiverse is one of the things that I fell in love with when I starting reading comics around age ten. As a child who also enjoyed Choose Your Own Adventure books, this makes some bit of sense, since those books always made you aware of the road not taken and the possibilities of alternate universes. The stories in this collection are from the annual Justice League/Justice Society "Crisis" team-ups that happened in the pages of Justice League of America until Marv Wolfman's Crisis on Infinite Earths reset the DC continuity (for a little while at least.)

In many ways this is a transitional volume. When Gardner Fox came up with the Earth-1/Earth-2 concept in the pages of The Flash he essentially opened a confusing can of worms--which is in full effect in this volume. Even though heroes like Green Lantern and the Flash got makeovers at the beginning of the "Silver Age" of comics, the likes of Superman and Batman didn't, which lead to a confusion as to which Superman stories took place on Earth-1 and which took place on Earth-2. But it also lead to intriguing possibilities, which were immediately exploited by "Next Wave" writer Dennis O' Neil when he took over Justice League of America from Fox, who wrote the first two arcs in this collection before making way for O' Neil. Because he could, the first thing O' Neil sets up is a confrontation between the two Supermans--because who wouldn't want to see Superman fight himself? In addition, you can tell the tone has changed--while death was rare in Fox's stories, O' Neil immediately kills off a character in his first team up. Of course, this may have been to set up a subplot in his Green Lantern/Green Arrow book, but considering the circumstances, it was pretty damned clever and was used to good effect in the last story arc in the collection.

Of course, there is a level of ridiculousness to these "Crises" but for someone who appreciates the entire history of the superhero genre, these stories are good fun. It is also interesting to see O' Neil at the start of his DC career. His best work would come later, on Batman, where he would re-engage the "Dark" part of the Dark Knight in collaboration with the also legendary Neal Adams (who provided one of the covers for one the issues re-printed in this volume.) The late sixties were definitely a time of transition for DC (Jack Kirby would show up soon) and the most compelling to read this volume is to see how writers like O' Neil started to make comics a more sophisticated read that wasn't just for kids anymore.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another collection for fans old and new concerning the Justice League and Justice Society as emergencies from these two different Earth's come together. As in the previous collection, DC Comics takes fans back in time to when certain events came to fruition to create the 70+ of enduring comic book heroes.

This collection brings forward the story of a wicked entity known as Aquarius. Fighting both groups of heroes from other Earth's its come to wreak havoc to both. Heroes fall and new heroes are made. Some great changes happen, such as Dinah Drake-Lance's husband being murdered as she ends up finding a home on Earth-1. The debut of Red Tornado as a villain turned hero. This and more.

The story-telling has improved greatly over the years and can definitely see how this material can be told in movies and TV shows. But it still feels a bit dated and silly. Its getting better. D+

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is what happens when comic book writers learn about the many worlds theory of quantum physics: two Earths, one with DC's golden age characters and another with their silver age characters (there are others as well, but they don't factor in here). So, once a year, travel between the worlds becomes possible for some reason, and they team up to fight a menace that's too big for either group of heroes (these uber-menaces never attacked at any other point, for some reason).

I've been trying to read more silver age DC stuff, as the gang currently in charge of DC have an obvious desire to revert the company's output to the silver age in as many ways as possible, and I wanted to see what the appeal was.

I don't see it. Even comparing to what was being produced at Marvel at the time, rather than modern comics, this stuff is juvenile, simplistic, lacking in characterization, and boring. I could accept getting rid of the modern stuff if it were being replaced with something more or equally interesting, but knowing that this is what they're aiming for is just depressing.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worth reading for fans of classic comic books, but otherwise, mediocre.
The team-ups between the Justice League from Earth-One and the Justice Society of Earth-Two continue in this second, trade paperback collection. Sadly, the stories presented here continue to be so-so for the most part. Worse yet, readers may find themselves somewhat bored with the stiff pacing of some of the adventures here. The historical context of these two, superhero teams crossing over is important; especially since these pairings would, in time, lead into the monumental Crisis On Infinite Earths storyline. However, these staid tales are not for all readers.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the annual JLA/JSA get team ups. These were my introduction to the JSA and are full of big, old school larger than life super hero action.
As the stories transition from the big story era to more character driven stuff, there is a bit of effort to make the stories more serious, but at their heart they stay straight forward comic book adventure stories and lots of fun.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 4 out of 5]

No me resultó tan increíblemente divertido y bizarro como el tomo 1, pero igual me pareció tremendamente divertido, aunque sí un poquito menos bizarro.
Tengo que retomar la lectura de estos clásicos cuanto antes porque si hay algo que no son para nada es aburridos.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was always a big fan of the JLA/JSA crossovers when DC had the multitude of worlds before their revamp in "Crises on Infinite Earths". Great stories and good art and a ton of heroes in each story. Very recommended

[Mark]

Justice League of America #55-6, 64-5, 73-4, 82-3
Debut of Red Tornado (Silver Age) = Justice League of America #64
1967-70

[Layla Madrox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Las verdaderas hecatombes de plata.