Crisis on Infinite Earths

Crisis on Infinite Earths (Collected Editions)

by Marv Wolfman

This massive fictional history that has become a piece of pop culture history. Continuity is the idea that a fictional universe, like the one in which DC's superhero comics take place, operates with a certain logic and is internally consistent. In an attempt to attract new readers, the DC universes needed to be simplified into a single universe and duplicate characters eliminated. That became this Crisis series and has remained controversial ever since. No matter which side of the fence you fall on this book is an amazing collector's edition.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was supposedly THE EVENT that kicked off the trend of events in comics.
I'm just going by what the foreword said, feel free to correct me.

There's a lot of pages here and I'm sure it was absolutely a nailbiter when it was first published. But in reality, it was the same fight scene over and over and over in an attempt to cram all the various heroes into the story. And there's nothing wrong with that!
Especially since this was literally a world-ending event for fans of the DC universe at that time.
Would your favorite hero survive? If not, would they go out in a blaze of glory? Maybe they would even get to ride off into the sunset?
I can see why it would matter to those who had been following these characters for years and years.

It was a big deal and fans probably thought the deaths would stick.
If, or should I say when, they hype up big deaths in the present day events, nobody gives a shit. Fans know it's only a matter of time before {insert dead hero here} comes back to life due to {insert contrived resurrection device here}.
DC has kind of blown their wad too many times as events have piled up in the corner like used Kleenex.



But. Back in the day, this was special and new. And while I didn't actually enjoy reading it, I can see why it's an important comic. Most of my problem with it stems from a lack of nostalgia glasses and an excessive amount of word bubbles. When I see this much text in a comic I feel like it's going to give me seizures.
On the other hand, you are definitly getting your money's worth.


Ok. The gist is that DC had a bajillion universes with a bajillion Earths. This meant that every conceivable story could be told about every hero. Old Superman in one universe, young Superman in another. A Wonder Woman who married and had a daughter, a world of cowboys with Jonah Hex, a world of soldiers still fighting WWII - anything was possible on these Earths. And for long-time fans that was great! But in an effort to streamline their stories for new readers, they needed some way to pull everything into ONE universe.
A Crisis, if you will.



Enter the Anti-Monitor! A villain so evil he's actually got the word anti right there in his first name! And when he starts up with his shady shit, everything DIES!
All of the Earths are colliding and disappearing one by one and it's up to the heroes of the multiverse to stop the destruction before everything they love disappears.
Can they do it?
Apparently not...



But hey, that was sort of the point, right?
So a lot of these older/weirder versions of the heroes are gone (a lot of them get some really sweet HEA's, by the way) and a new version of all the Earths remains.
Some things stay the same, some things change slightly, and most people don't remember anything ever being different.
Ta-da! And welcome aboard, new readers!

In the end, I'd say this was somewhat readable if a bit long and drawn out, but definitely worth taking a peek at if you are interested.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every year I read at least one “classic” book, despite knowing it’ll probably stink, because sometimes they surprise me by showing why they’re considered classics in the first place. So I picked up the granddaddy of event comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and unfortunately it didn’t surprise me. In fact, it wasn’t just bad – I think this is the worst superhero comic I’ve ever read. Classic piece of shit more like!

The DC Universe at the time of this book was a mess of confusing, mind-numbingly tortuous continuity - NOT LIKE TODAY AMIRITE?!?1 So, hack writer Marv Wolfman masterminded this storyline which would smoosh everything together into place, kind of like cramming the contents of a buffet onto a single plate, hoping it’d bring coherence and uniformity to DC’s line. It didn’t. It just looked like pigslop.

This is how creative Wolfman was: his approach took the form of the blandest, most overwrought, ironically most incoherent, bloated, moronic storyline ever. The various Earths are literally colliding into one another for some reason; a dude called The Monitor is doing something while another dude called The Anti-Monitor is the Big Bad. He’s after ultimate power over the universe or something. I can’t make sense of this twaddle and I refuse to go back and re-read any of it – it was horrible enough the first time!

An annoying weeny called Pariah shows up to uselessly warn everyone of impending doom, then a vague, all-powerful menace appears and heroes everywhere gather to punch it. This mindless scenario – each time stretched beyond tedium by Wolfman – repeats itself throughout the book and it never gets interesting once. The target switches from vague menace - like an ever-advancing cosmic fog - to The Anti-Monitor, who’s invincible until the plot needs him to be vulnerable, and the heroes similarly take the same unimaginative approach to every obstacle they encounter in this book: hit it. Hard. Didn’t work? Do it again you idiot, we got pages to fill!

Along the way are some utterly pointless sub-plots like: Killer Frost falling in love with Firestorm because Psycho Pirate; Sgt Rock fights Nazis; heroes climb a tower; heroes fight in a castle; there’s a new Wildcat; Psimon is up to something pstupid. And that’s when you realise: DC has a metric shit-ton of embarrassing characters, all written in pretty much the same style, and they’ve all been included in this book, regardless of relevance! Harbinger, Doctor Polaris, Geo-Force, Wildcat, The Creeper, Aquaman, to name just a few. They even literally have an Uncle Sam walking about talking in a punch-worthy folksy voice!

Oh and the dialogue, the worthless, corny, stream-of-diarrhea ‘80s dialogue! There’s way, way, wayyyy too much exposition in general and the pages are bursting with captions and speech and thought bubbles, redundantly stating the obvious and/or repeating themselves over and over. Any page is an example of its irredeemable awfulness. Here’s The Anti-Monitor spouting standard cartoony supervillain crap: “You whimpering fool, it already is too late! From the moment you set foot on Qward --- you sealed your own fates! This is the day the universe dies!” Here’s Aquaman thinking things he’d never be thinking during a fight but needs to for the reader’s benefit: (Thought bubble) “The JLA wants me on the surface… but I won’t abandon Atlantis, not again. I’m not sure there’s going to be an Atlantis left, but if necessary I’ll defend its last ruins with my life”. Useless rubbish. Then Mera: (Thought bubble): “Arthur and Lori aren’t having any greater success than I am --- even with my ability to form hard water. I can drive these things away for a moment, but they come back with a vengeance.” It’s like a child wrote this drivel.

Characters die in an attempt to provoke a completely unearned emotional response, which is ineffective anyway given the joke every reader is in on that nobody in superhero comics stays dead but Uncle Ben. And the main characters who die here have come back to life, died and returned again at least once more since this book was published anyway!

This nonsense is around 350 pages long and feels 10 times that thanks to the shocking abundance of Marv Wolfman’s inept writing splattered across nearly every page. The only way I could get through this book was to read a few pages a day and it took WEEKS to slog through! And it didn’t need to be this long given how wafer-thin the story is – it’s your bog standard “superheroes punch supervillain” formula. Even more agonisingly, there are numerous “endings” and a never-ending epilogue like it’s Return of the bloody King! But then the longer it is, the more money DC made due to its supposed-“importance” at the time to suckers, sorry, “fans”, everywhere, a method DC/Marvel are still following to this day.

No wonder event comics are so bad if this and the first Secret Wars are the template! I can understand nostalgia so I appreciate that older readers who read this when they were wee will like this regardless, but I can’t see how anyone else – particularly modern readers – could possibly enjoy something so convoluted, boring, repetitive, contrived and obnoxiously overlong; I certainly didn’t!

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this probably more than I should (and maybe teared up once or twice...)

It was mostly from the excitement of reaching a huge comics goal of mine! I’m up to the event that changed the comics industry!!
Plus that introduction by Marv Wolfman was nostalgic (talking about how he'd thought of a story like this when he was just a kid) and I’m just a sucker for that.

Ok, now on to the actual event.
I knew this wasn't going to be totally amazing and well balanced and all the other things great stories are.
I will say, I probably (definitely) enjoyed this story a lot more than others. I thought the pacing was done well enough although, the classic wordy pages did stick you in one place for a bit.

I also enjoyed the art. That two-page spread of all the heroes and villains was awesome!

There were some issues where I thought certain moments or plots could’ve been condensed or left out entirely but hey, event of the year, why not go all out?

As much as I try to read as many series as I can, there were characters that I had literally never heard of before. There was this group in particular (the Losers?) that reminded me very much of Sgt. Fury and the Commandos.
We were with that group for what felt like an unusually long amount of time.

I had decided before starting this event that I was not going to read the tie-ins. I didn’t want to be distracted, I just wanted to read the event and that was it. (I did also want to finish this event in two days.)
Unfortunately, as I was reading, there were moments where I came to regret that decision.
Comics love to plug their other titles and these comics were no exception.
One day, I’ll reread this with the tie-ins!

I felt this event wasn’t too overwhelmed by fighting and boasting. That did appear towards the end but after all the build up, the story had actually earned it.
When there was exposition, it was to the point which I appreciated.

I knew characters died in this event. But I think that knowledge actually made me more emotional when it did happen.
Especially The Flash’s death. When he was saying his goodbyes...ugh, I’m tearing up just thinking about it!
Also, the way that Supergirl died, as a true hero was incredibly inspiring which made it even sadder.

Something else I appreciated was that the (Anti-)Monitor (he wasn't actually called the Anti-Monitor in the comics) was NOT easily defeated. He kept getting back up.
I’ve always disliked when a hero struggles against a villain but in the final few pages, they do something simple and the villain is vanquished.
I felt the (Anti-)Monitors end was truly earned!

Speaking of endings, those final few panels with Earth-2 Superman was another moment that made me cry! (Yes, I am that sentimental.)
I thought I could explain a little more - I felt that this Superman, who had been around for so long, being the hero his world needed, finally able to get the peace he deserved with the one he loved...There was no better ending.
Even one suggested by Chris Claremont! 😱

As someone who has read, what feels like quite a lot of the older comics, it was a great experience to read something that totally changed the comics industry (for better or for worse…)
I really enjoyed this event (controversial, I know). It had its ups and downs but I’m glad I read it.

What’s even more exciting is that I am finally up to everything that comes after the Crisis!
I just hit a huge goal of mine and I’m going to enjoy that but now I can really delve into the good stuff!

For the probably none of you who actually read this stupidly long review, I applaud and thank you

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

A universe reinvents itself!


This TPB edition collects “Crisis on Infinite Earths” #1-12.


Creative Team:

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Illustrator: George Pérez

Special Anniversary Cover: Alex Ross


RICH HISTORY… JUST TOO RICH

It’s 1986 and DC Comics already had 50 years of history generating not only millions of stories, but also…

…an infinite number of “Earths”.

Crisis on Infinite Earths wasn’t technically the first time that DC Comics had been a process of reinvention. Batman had began as gritty to become campy to get gritty again. The Flash and Green Lantern not only changed costumes but the heroes inside were different people. Wonder Woman had lost and get her powers. Superman started leaping tall buildings to soar into space without trouble. Green Arrow lost his fortune but find his teeth. The Joker died in his very first tale, to get back in campy mood, and finally become a serial killer. Luthor and Brainiac got massive modifications too…

…but nothing was become “non-canonical” per se, 50 years of history where a crafty solution was found in the iconic tale of “A Flash of Two Worlds”, introducing the concept of parallel earths with Earth-2, and that was…

...the tip of the iceberg.

Since with Earth-2, soon enough was followed for Earth-3, Earth-X, Earth-S, Earth-Prime, etc, etc, etc…

So, every single tale published by DC Comics had happened, just some of them had happened in other Earths. Piece of cake. Well, infinite pieces of cake, actually!

However, in 1986, after 50 years, DC Comics thought that it was time to “clean the house” and “to make simpler”…

…now it would be just ONE Earth.

Well, good luck with that!

Since in the following years, that tendency would be more and more common by DC Comics, “cleaning” more and more often, but ironically at the same time, getting back a lot of the "cleaned" stuff.


EPIC STORY… JUST TOO EPIC

Certainly the project of Crisis on Infinite Earth it was the more ambitious storytelling comic book project ever done so far until 1986 where as they promoted…

Worlds lived. Worlds died. And the DC Universe was never the same.

Loved heroes fell. Cunning villains changed. And certainly DC Comics was never the same.

Since, even with several “reboots” after the first Crisis, some elements introduced in that first crossover event have remained. But it’s clear that some big changes were just “erased” in the following “reboots” so…

…how relevant still is the first Crisis?

Also, because the very event was just too epic, too many characters, too many things happening and if this Crisis was to get simpler the 50 years-history of DC Comics, well, it wasn’t that simple to read and to follow.

There is an evil force of anti-matter “eating” the multiverse, each Earth after Earth, and soon it will reach the core Earths: Earth-1 and Earth-2 and after that, everything would be done. So, The Monitor, a powerful being aware of this crisis, is calling a group of heroes to deal against this disaster.

The crossover event take you from a simple premise to a humongous story where you have a lot of Earths, each one with a multitude of characters, happening just too many epic things at once.


BIG CAST… JUST TOO BIG

I think that the biggest sin in the Crisis on Infinite Earths is not having a clear main cast.

Sure, The Monitor started with a compact number of “champions” to deal about the crisis, but if you keep reading, you’ll notice how that first selected team won’t be longer relevant and many of those heroes will no longer appear, just to be replaced for other self-appointed “champions” but even that will be in constant flux, making impossible to identify or even care for the characters in the story per se, sure, you may have personal feelings for some of the characters, but because you already care for those characters in their own titles before the Crisis, not exactly because what they’re doing in the story at hand.

One positve thing is that Batman isn’t a relevant character in the Crisis, since logic was still working in 1986 where a non-powered guy in a bat suit won’t be a challenge against a deity made of anti-matter able to eat entire universes.

I like Batman, don’t take me wrong.

But it was kinda shameful that since Batman later became the money-making machine for DC Comics, that in following crossover events, not matter if the menaces were involving super-powered beings with god-like status, Batman is always not only in the middle of things, but he’s the key factor in many of those events.

[Blaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not a big comic book reader as a kid. Crisis on Infinite Earths is the third graphic novel I’ve read as an adult. The first was Watchmen, which was every bit as good as the hype. The second was Identity Crisis, which I picked up because it was written by an author I really like, Brad Meltzer. So, I decided to try this one.

The backstory of this 1985 series is pretty interesting. DC Comics had decided to whittle down its properties to make its story lines simpler for new readers. So it crafted this battle royale to literally eliminate universes of heroes.

Crisis on Infinite Earths itself is just ok. It is pretty straightforward. Supervillain tries to destroy the world. Superheroes unite and stop him at great personal cost. Maybe it would have been more meaningful if I had known all of the characters going into the book, though there were so many that I can’t imagine keeping them all straight. Not bad, but not great.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a classic of the superhero genre, truly getting your money's worth featuring every single DC character up to 1985 in what still hold's up as one of the most ambitious crossovers of all time.

I'd only recommend Crisis on Infinite Earths, however, for the true superhero aficionado. This is not an introductory course.

Structurally this high-concept story doesn't make sense except steeped in the context of the already decades-old DC multiverse. But it's still a very fun ride.

Monitor vs. Anti-Moniter, with every guest star ever. And, lastly, the art! George Perez is simply a legend.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars

(4-5 if you are a die hard DC fan)

Nel corso dei suoi primi 50 anni di vita editoriale, la DC Comics ha fatto ampio uso del concetto di terre alternative fino ad abusarne.
Avendo inoltre acquisito molte altre case editrici minori, inserendone i personaggi in universi separati all'interno del proprio multiverso, questi si erano moltiplicati fino al punto da risultare di difficile comprensione al lettore, lo stesso dicasi per incongruenze ed errori di continuity.
C'era quindi bisogno di qualcuno che mettesse ordine al caos provocato da 50 anni di storie variegate e fantasiose, ma spesso confusionarie e contrastanti, complice la mancanza di un unico supervisore capo: alla Marvel all'epoca Jim Shooter dettava legge col pugno di ferro (impose addirittura a Claremont & Byrne di cambiare il finale della Saga di Fenice Nera perché troppo buonista), ma l'universo Marvel risultava compatto e preciso, senza incongruenze; alla DC c'erano invece tanti supervisori ognuno indipendente dagli altri, con il risultato che vi erano N Atlantidi l'una diversa dall'altra per fare un esempio.
Troppi universi narrativi con personaggi spesso identici tra loro.
Perché in alcune storie compariva il Superman che tutti conosciamo ed in altre un Superman anziano?

Con l'aumentare delle terre alternative la confusione del lettore occasionale aumentava, il fan accanito trovava sempre maggiori incongeruenze, e gli stessi autori iniziavano ad avere problemi.
Crisis fu quindi una saga monumentale ed epocale che coinvolse tutto il multiverso DC, dandogli una bella ripulita e sistemata, riducendo le terre infinite ad una, rendendo le storie piú comprensibili ed appetibili a nuove generazioni di lettori.
I disegni di George Perez sono stupendi e ricchi di particolari, ma la storia non é invecchiata altrettanto bene a mio parere.
I personaggi coinvolti sono centinaia, il lettore occasionale di fumetti DC ne riconoscerá a stento 4 o 5 e le loro morti non gli faranno né caldo né freddo.
La morte di Flash é epica e tutto quanto, ero un fan della vecchia serie tv, ma avendone letti si e no un paio di fumetti quando ero ragazzino mi ha lasciato quasi indifferente. Idem quella di Supergirl.


Saga epica e monumentale quindi, datata e non per tutti, ma che ogni appassionato di fumetti dovrebbe leggere almeno una volta.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crisis on Infinite Earths is unquestionably a landmark moment in the history of DC, and comics in general. At this point, the expectations for new readers are either sky-high or in the basement. The reality is somewhere in between.

First of all, this is such a product of its time that it's kind of funny. Lots of dated posturing, dated art, and really dated character designs. But the art really is quite good, for the time. And the concept is ambitious enough that I'm able to forgive quite a bit in execution. But it's also repetitive and neck deep in exposition. It's a long book, and it feels it. But it sure was a heck of an idea.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This 1980s book is famous as the first attempt to radically overhaul a sprawling, unmanageable fictional mythos: the DC Universe. I was interested to see how they did it.

The answer is, 'with superheroic levels of cheese'. This book is exactly what non-comic-readers think comics are. A colourful costume parade with Kirby crackle everywhere, firework-displays of energy beams, cheesy exposition - a bad guy wailing, 'NO YOU ARE DESTROYING ME' - shallow characterisation, severe ADD, and largely lacking in humour (the few moments of 'zing' humour stand out as sparks of hope in the po-faced grandiosity).

This was the first book to take seriously the idea of killing off beloved characters. Turns out this is predictable: there's only one way for a hero to die, and that's valiantly sacrificing themself to save others. So the big unstoppable bad guy of the week gets taken out, but with one parting shot that kills off Supergirl, Flash, whomever. Then the gravitas is pointlessly wasted by bringing them back in some form a year later.

There were great books in the 80s; this wasn't one of them. The good news is they did this stuff much better in the 90s.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me long enough. And it was the perfect comic to finish reading on my birthday ( hip hip hooray ).

I really don't know how to get into reviewing this. But the artwork was amazing (if you're into the older style of art). The dialogue flowed well. The plot... Oh, boy. The plot was amazing. Basically a positive matter being known as the Monitor is trying to keep an anti-matter being known as the Anti-Monitor from converting all matter into negative matter, thus destroying all earths. He destroys almost all of them, but the main five earths begin merging together. So the heroes (and even some villains at various points) have to come together and fight the Anti-Monitor.

Overall, I think it accomplished it's goal of simplifying the DCU. But I was still left a little confused. For instance, how did four of my top five favorite DC characters die and come back to life years later? I'll have to peruse the Internet for that.

I feel like reading this made me a genuine comic fan. I can understand that some people wouldn't like it, because it is VERY long and very confusing at times. But I really enjoyed this. And if you can stick it out for the first hundred pages or so, it will be worth it.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I had to read this classic storyline as I had never read it until now. I have to say it was not as good as I had hoped. It really has too much going on with all of the different earth versions, and I guess at this time DC also had a lot of different characters some of which I had never heard of. Very similar to Marvel's Secret Wars.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Crisis event opens with the Anti-matter wave, that has destroyed universe after universe, heading towards Argo city of Earth 38 (Supergirl’s universe). There is nothing either Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) or Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) can do to prevent it’s destruction as the wave marches towards Earth 38. Fortunately, the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) saves both Superman and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch), who had sent their son away in a ship believing they were going to die. The Monitor summons various heroes from Earth 1 including Green Arrow (Stephen Amell), Batwoman (Ruby Rose), Flash (Grant Gustin) and White Canary (Caity Lotz) among others. He explains that the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) is attempting to destroy the multiverse and replace it with his own Anti-matter universe. The group splits into several teams as they attempt to fend off the Anti-monitor’s forces and save as many people as possible, while Lois and a small group travel to another Earth to save baby John. After the destruction of Earth 38, the remaining heroes start jumping from earth to earth to find the seven paragons needed to defeat the Anti-monitor with many fun and unexpected cameos from long-forgotten TV shows and film franchises. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) of Earth 38 has been resurrected and has stolen the book of destiny, jumping from earth to earth killing as many Supermen as possible. After finding all seven paragons the heroes fail to prevent the death of the multiverse and the paragons are sent to the vanishing point, a place outside of time and space. The Spector appears and summons the paragons to the dawn of time to battle the Anti-monitor and reignite the multiverse. The paragons succeed, at the cost of Green Arrow’s life, and the multiverse is remade, with some changes. Earth 1 and Earth 38 have become folded into Earth prime with Black Lightning (Cress Williams) also on the same earth. Before the heroes can come to grips with Oliver’s death the Anti-monitor returns for one last attack before being shrunken down into the micro-verse until the end of time.

The Pros

Each episode was gripping as they opened with a different Earth as they are destroyed, this provides a sense of wonder in how the characters would survive this apocalyptic event. Every actor brings they’re A-game to the event and work hard to sell every scene on screen. Overall, it was a successful event with the five-part event feeling like one long film more or less. The biggest highlight was the wide and far-reaching range of cameos from beloved classics like Burt Ward as Robin (Earth 66), to unexpected deep cuts like Ashley Scott as Helena Kyle/Huntress (Earth-203) and John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen/Flash (Earth-90). My person favourites were Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar (Earth 666) acting against Matt Ryan as John Constantine (Earth 1) in a fantastic scene that would have both Lucifer and Constantine fans cry out for a new TV series featuring the two characters if not more crossovers between the two. Kevin Conroy as an antagonistic Bruce Wayne (Earth 99) in his first live-action portrayal of the character and Brandon Routh returning to his Superman portrayal (Earth 96) were both fantastic and brilliant extensions to their previous depictions of the characters.

The Cons

Despite the overwhelming positives, there are some negatives to mention. Chifley and this is a result of the event is the sum total of five different shows rather than one long film but in parts three and five it was very clear it was another episode of the Flash and Legends respectively as more of their casts appear where they were not involved before. Flash is the biggest proprietor of this as Hartley Sawyer as Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man stands around the Waverider doing nothing before being shuffled off on a side plot and Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Frost and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe appear to simply support Flash emotionally as they attempt to stop the Anti-monitor’s Anti-matter cannon. The other main issue is many characters from the various shows simply don’t appear such as Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance (Earth 2) who seemed to have an important role after season 8 of Arrow and Tom Cavanagh as Reverse-Flash (Earth 1) which was especially disappointing after his appearance in Crisis on Earth X as he informed the Flash that he would see him in the next crisis. However, the many cameos do distract from the lack of these characters as it wasn’t until after the event ended that their lack of an appearance was noticeable.


Crisis on Infinite Earths was an ambitious project that met the expectations of fans the world over. It is the Arrowverse’s magnum opus bringing together every character within its own world and many more from previous depictions of DC characters. It has left many fans weighting with bated breath for next years crossover, wondering how they will top Crisis on Infinite Earths.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the seven seas, Crisis on Infinite Earths is a long read for a comic book trade paperback. What is meant to be read for a year is not meant to be read for a few days. A maxi-series of epic proportions, Crisis on Infinite Earths literally destroyed universes and traveled dimensions even beyond space and time for an epic series that simplified the DC universe and paved the way for other publishers to do line-wide crossovers - something which was unheard of during that time.

The year was 1985, the same year I was born when Crisis on Infinite Earths was published. Even without ample knowledge about the gold, silver and bronze ages of comic books, I can say that this a very well-researched piece of work. I discover at least one new DC hero, superhero and villain at every page. Kudos to Wolfman and Perez, they managed to fit in all those characters in one story. The story is simple: all DC characters must unite against a single foe to save their whole multiverse. The salvation comes with a hefty price. There are so many catastrophes and deaths here. Whole universes are annihilated in just a few pages.

Infinite Earths has so many meta-comments that tell the survival of life as the survival of DC itself. It kinda makes me wonder how really big this event was during the year it was originally published, how many characters and stories you have to kill (some may have been built for years) just to clean the slate and simplify the DC line of publications for new readers. It was effective for me when we are talking about DC's new 52 as I am picking up Bats, WW and Aquaman until now.


Aaah.


You cannot blame Wolfman for making an otherwise straightforward story a bit crowded and convoluted. We are talking about 50 years of history here. And they must have some degree of respect by making sure that each patch of history is shown here, albeit rather short. The plot progressions felt formulaic and repetitive at the final chapters, making the end a little anticlimatic. Moreover, many character (especially hero-villain) pacts are made to be overly fast just to conveniently move the plot forward. This is understandable but awkward.

Almost 30 since its publication, the DC multiverse is alive and well again. The Crime Society is back, Supergirl still flies, Earth-2 exists, Barry Allen is still running and many more. Infinite Earth's effects may have faded. And it has to be that way because for something to survive, it has to progressively evolve. So yeah, DC forever.

[FunkyPlaid · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star for the effort of cleaning up the very messy DC universe. But seriously, reading this again as an adult was like homework; I simply couldn't wait to be done with it. Every single page has some DC hero shouting out his power and calling all the other heroes by their names after every interaction - just so we're clear who's who in this childish morass of a storyline. Too many trite Great Scotts! and Hera Help Mes!

Worst thing about it: Flash's Cosmic Treadmill!

Worst line within it: "Suddenly, [Earth:] is gone, swallowed whole, a cosmic Jonah lost to some inter-universal whale."

Watchmen was great. Wildcards was great. It wasn't that the writing of that decade was just bad. Sadly, it was Marv.

This is why I read Marvel in the 80s.

[Sans · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s finally over. That was more painful than reading textbooks.

[Benji's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's large, complex and fascinating. Originally made because DC had gotten to the point in the 1980s where there were so many timelines and universes, readers would often question the continuity, so this was to place everything together so that the DC Universe could be easier to follow (until the next major event).

Marv Wolfman does an incredible job of knowing all these characters from different times and different Earths and although I'm rating this book rather high, I would in no way, recommend this to someone wanting to jump into comics or DC for that matter.

Marv Wolfman understands these characters, but even I, a Comic book reader for many years, had a hard time following it, with how the story jumps around a lot. Eventually, it all came together. George Pérez' artwork for this series was superb as always too, so that's all Ill say about that!

Anyway, not knowing all of these characters found within the story did cause me not to really care for them while reading, but upon further reading, I got the idea of who they were (somewhat).

So, I guess I would recommend this, but not if you're just getting into comics.

On a side-note, be sure to check out Legends of the DC Universe: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS no. 1, released back in 1999, if you can get your hands on one. It's a pretty cool tie-in that shows what the Flash was up to in between issues 4 and 5 of this Crisis on Infinite Earths story.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

[image error]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

When it comes to superheroes, you tend to discover them in their personal life trajectories as they confront various obstacles that lead them to perceive life differently to other mortals. While some find themselves in front of incredible adversity with the occasional homework to take tough life-threatening decisions, others are driven to face what is often known as destiny as their faith and perseverance are tested beyond the ordinary strain we all encounter throughout life. There are, however, circumstances where their routes cross paths with others only to further expand the dilemmas they are confronted with. It isn’t just about the people they love or care for the most or the citizens of their hometown that turn out to be the center of their attention. The threats oblige them to look a good way off and apprehend the existence of other heroes, other civilizations, other planets but also other universes where the stakes are sometimes far worse than what they seem. In 1985, DC Comics unleashed one of the first and most colossal companywide crossovers that altered the franchise in unimaginable ways and it is a ride to remember forever.

What is Crisis on Infinite Earths about? This graphic novel collects the 12-issue series that tragically doomed the DC Multiverse by delivering some of the most iconic moments that fans will never forget. The story serves as the end and beginning of an era with a central focus on the powerful cosmic entity known as the Monitor. With the duty to reconnoiter all the parallel universes and alternate realities in his realm, he one day encounters his malicious archnemesis, the Anti-Monitor, who successfully plunges one reality after the after into oblivion. In order to put an end to his wretched plans, the Monitor recruits heroes from different times and worlds to help him out while the Anti-Monitor proceeds to recruit his own secret villains to sabotage any attempt of heroism. As the story unfolds, worlds are destroyed, others are born and some are reconfigured to ultimately pave the way to the DC Universe rather than the complicated DC Multiverse that reigned for countless years. But for this to occur, huge costs are met by our favourite heroes.

Right at the footsteps of the Modern of Age of superhero comic books, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez team up to deliver what might be one of the most important and respect-worthy cosmic crossover events in the history of superheroes. To be able to oversaturate a whole narrative with heroes from multiple worlds is a task that is beyond a man’s fancy as it wasn’t a complete disaster although it can be incredibly tedious to sort through all of these heroes or to even understand their relevance. While many of the heroes and villains that are part of this event might be unknown to the reader, the story allows a certain hope of discovery even if it is plunged in a narrative of destruction and chaos. While it is a geeky pleasure to see countless heroes and villains assembled together on the same pages of the story, it doesn’t always help the reader to be impaled with insane amounts of dialogue even if it is an inevitable and necessary condition to having this many heroes in this existence-threatening event.

Unsurprisingly, this graphic novel does explore themes of dread, defeat, and death with the grandiose spectacle that is expected of such an event. The repercussions of the crisis that unfold are felt throughout the universe in unimaginable ways but set the table for new story arcs and crossovers in the years to come. The artwork demands to be addressed for its ability to colorfully display the epic scale of the event as well as the intriguing and sequential panel configuration that allows the creative team to exploit both the artwork and the writing as much as they want. The style is a bit dated but iconic of the era in which the story was created. There’s no denying that it is the perfect style on which DC could end a generation of fantastic stories before embarking on a new adventure. While the visuals can get hectic and often feel populated, the character designs and the action sequences allow the story to breathe and develop in its entirety. It is no doubt that this graphic novel will never be stripped away its achievement as a sturdy and complete crisis.

Crisis on Infinite Earths is an epic scale crossover event that weaves together countless years of continuity to deliver a tragic and unforgettable change to the DC Universe.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Controversial Opinion: This... was done a lot better in Rebirth.

Again, reading books deemed "the greatest comics of all time" is always a mixed bag for me. I don't think I've read any one of "the greats" and actually found it to be great. It's like Citizen Kane for me - I feel like a lot of the hype is due to the concepts being fairly new at the time, not so much whether they were done well.

I'll get straight to the point (ironically, something this book doesn't do): this book is too. damn. long..

It just is. I thought this story ended 7 times before it finally did. So much of what goes on here could have been trimmed down or cut out completely. There's way too much of Harbinger gathering everyone. There's too much of Pariah running around being distraught everywhere. There's too much of the Monitor examining Lex Luthor Jr. There's just so much that doesn't feel important enough to go here. Hence me saying that Rebirth did these concepts a hell of a lot better.

I will give props where props are due:
- this is an event that actually matters and was huge. Worlds collided, a few big characters (like Kara and Barry Allen's Flash) die and don't return for quite some time. The universe is forever changed and it can't be reversed (at least for some time). I'm sure a lot of civilians died with some of the chaos going on.
- I didn't hate the art. There were points where I realized there must've been a template for anguished faces because the same 3 versions were used over and over again. However, for the most part, I liked the art
- some of the emotional moments land like Clark with Kara and Starfire and Superman holding each other together over fear of losing another world
- I liked female Dr. Light. She was the only female character that really stood out to me here. Didn't love that she kept doing things thinking she needed to atone for being selfish (I didn't think she was?) but I like her origin

But overall, I got bored quite a bit. This length for an event wouldn't fly this way in today's comics and that's for a good reason. It's just overlong. There was so much that could've been cut out to make this a more succinct and impactful story. Sure, Rebirth wouldn't have had the idea for such a plot were it not for this book, but sometimes newer versions of stories are improvements. I can't help but think how much more effective this story would've been if it'd been about 200 or so pages shorter.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the works that has affected me deeply. More importantly, it is something that has caused considerable harm to my wallet and bank account, as I have been collecting comic books for almost twenty-five years now, and it's all because of Crisis. I can still remember going to the drugstore after church one Sunday and seeing the cover to Crisis #9 - a classic George Perez group shot of some of the most terrible villains ever seen in the DC Universe. You name the baddie, I guarantee he or she was in there somewhere. I was hooked. Of course, coming into a 12-part series in issue 9 meant that I was really lost as to what was going on, but some effort and visits to comics shops eventually got me up to speed. Unfortunately, once I understood Crisis, I realized that there was much more that I didn't understand.

You can't really understand this story without understanding something of the DC Comics Universe. In the late 1950s, they published a story called "Flash of Two Worlds" (Flash #123), in which the Flash, Barry Allen, managed to, using his prodigious super-speed, vibrate through some dimensional barrier or other, and meet the Flash, Jay Garrick, that he had read about as a child in - you guessed it - comic books.

The explanation for this was simple - the guy who wrote Flash comics in Barry Allen's childhood had, somehow, "tuned in" to this Alternate Earth, watching Jay Garrick's adventures and, thinking they were fiction, wrote them up as comic books which, in turn, inspired Barry Allen as a child. So when Barry was struck by lightning and chemicals, gaining super speed, he called himself The Flash, in homage to his childhood hero.

Anyway, in "Flash of Two Worlds," Barry Allen finds out that the Flash he had read about actually existed, only on another Earth in another universe that vibrated at a different frequency from ours. Personally, I think this is a really cool idea, and my personal goal in life is to drink enough coffee in one sitting to accomplish the same thing myself.

Confused yet? Well, it did help if you were an avid comics reader for 25 years before Crisis came out. But to condense the whole thing, here you go:

In the Beginning, there was One. A Universe that grew and shaped and changed. Life was created, rose from the dust, and began to think. On the planet of Oa, located in the center of the universe, life grew with great swiftness, advancing at incredible speed. The beings of Oa embraced science and research. One Oan, a man by the name of Krona, sought to know the origin of the Universe they inhabited. Despite the warnings of his colleagues, he created a device that would allow him to do so. The result was a complete rupture of time and space, for the beginning of things must never be witnessed.

So.... In the Beginning, there were Many. Universe upon universe, each moving at its own speed and vibration, separated by a shadow's thickness, but each unknown to the other.

That was the idea, anyway. The whole "multiple universe" thing, after Gardner Fox wrote his "Flash of Two Worlds" story, became one of the best plot devices the comics writers at DC ever had. Finally they could have silver age and golden age heroes meet and work together. At first, there was only Earth-1 (silver age) and Earth-2 (golden age), which was odd, because the golden age heroes of Earth-2 were older. But I guess since Barry Allen (the silver age Flash, remember) was the one who broke the barrier, he gets precedence.

Anyway, like I said - at first there were two Earths. That number grew swiftly, both for plot and copyright reasons. For example: At a certain point, DC was working on the rights to own characters from Charlton Comics (The Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, etc), and they inhabited Earth-4. Then they went to obtain characters from Fawcett (the whole Shazam line), who went onto Earth-S. As if the Hungry Beast That Was DC wasn't finished, they put characters from Quality Comics (Uncle Sam, Phantom Lady, The Ray, etc), onto Earth-X.

Hang in there, I'll get to the story eventually....

There was also Earth-3, where the doppelgangers of our favorite heroes were villains, and the only hero on the planet was Luthor. Then came Earth-D, Earth-Prime, Earth-Omega and, eventually, Earth-Sigma.

Suffice to say, by 1985, there was a huge mess.... Older readers had no problem following the continuity, but newcomers were baffled, and writers were no doubt also befuddling themselves. The decision was made to clean the whole thing up, make one Earth, one timeline, and one continuity. No more parallel Earths, no more vibrating through dimensional barriers.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it took twelve issues and the appearance of almost every hero and villain ever seen in DC Comics' fifty year history to pull it off. The research took over three years, with one guy tasked with studying every comic DC had printed since 1935 (my thought when I heard that: "What an awesome job!"). It also required the cooperation of dozens of writers and artists across all of DC's titles, and a company-wide effort to make the Crisis a truly universal event.

Our story opens with the end of the world. Or the end of a world, more to the point. A vast white cloud encroaches upon the earth, vaporizing everything in its path, without pause or remorse. Panicking, people try to flee, but to no avail. Into this horror appears a man with dark eyes and a tortured face, who watches the world die, helpless and weeping, and vanishes again as the universe becomes nothing more than a mist of free-floating electrons.

Not a bad way to start a book, eh?

The man is Pariah, and he is condemned to appear wherever great tragedy strikes, unable to help, unable to die, only able to watch. He is there when the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 put aside their evil to try and stop the wave of energy that devours their planet. Again, Pariah appears, and again the world is destroyed, but not before the planet's only super-hero, Luthor, rockets his son through the dimensions, in the hope of freeing him from his world's destruction.

Sound familiar? I thought so....

If you think you're going to know what's going on this quickly, you're wrong. A mysterious figure sends his associate, a woman named Harbinger, who can split herself among many forms, to gather heroes from Earths that have not been destroyed and bring them to a satellite that hovers in orbit. While she searches them out, one of her is corrupted by a shadowy evil that tracks her through the ice of Atlantis. She gathers them, heroes, villains and otherwise, to the satellite, where we first meet a character that had been hovering around various DC titles for a few months, always in the shadows - The Monitor.

The Monitor informs them that there is great evil abroad, that universes are perishing at an astonishing rate, and are doing so at the hand of his adversary. Waves of anti-matter are consuming the universes, and with each one gone, the Monitor's power decreases. He has a task for these heroes, spread out over millennia of Earth's history. This is the first attempt to save the worlds....

The basic rundown of the story is that there is an anti-matter universe out there, created when Krona performed his experiment, controlled by the mirror version of The Monitor. This "Anti-Monitor" wants nothing more than to see his brother dead, and to see the positive Universes brought under his control. He's a good, old-fashioned Evil Overlord, I must say.... So as each universe is destroyed by the great sweeping cloud of death, he grows ever stronger.

It has been pointed out to me that some people out there get all anal over this concept, thereby calling the whole damn plot into question. So, a bit of elementary physics. The above scenario cannot happen. When matter and antimatter collide, there is a huge burst of energy as the two forms of matter vaporize each other. Nothing is left - in "reality physics," both the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor would be playing at a zero-sum game. Given that these people are willing to accept, however, the existence of thousands of metahumans who can perform feats that also fly in the face of real physics, I think their arguments about the properties of antimatter are so much hot air. As a very wise man once said, "Blow."

Anyway, the Anti-Monitor's release is tied with Pariah's fate as well. Determined to do as Krona did, Pariah set up a chamber, of matter and anti-matter, so that he may see the beginning of all things. The result was the beginning of the end, and his world was the first consumed by the anti-matter wave. The Monitor, observing this, imbued him with his curse, using him as a "tracker" to see which universe might be the next to die.

So we have an unstoppable force tearing through the Multiverse, and it is up to The Monitor and Our Heroes to stop him. But the Monitor dies, and the worlds keep dying....

Of course you know that, in the end, the good guys win. But as with any good story, it is the telling of the tale, not the tale's end, that is important. Wolfman and Perez did some very daring things with this story, not only in rearranging the whole order of the DC Universe, but also in killing off some pretty heavy hitters. The best cover in the series, so good that they came out with a statue based on it, was the cover of issue number seven: The Death of Supergirl.

The other major character to be killed off was Barry Allen, The Flash, who inadvertently started this whole mess a long time ago. But he died well, and, as Marv Woflman says in the forward to the collected edition of Crisis, there was a way left to bring him back if they needed to. Indeed, Barry Allen's presence has not yet vanished. The current Flash, Wally West, has long held Barry to be the high ideal which he must match, but at the same time leave behind. In one version of the Legion of Super-Heroes books, the character of Xs, another super-speedster, is Barry Allen's granddaughter, and the character of Impulse/Kid Flash, is Barry Allen's nephew. So the Flash lives on, in his way. In fact, he's recently been resurrected in DC continuity - though how long that will last is anyone's guess.

On the other hand, no one remembers Supergirl. By the end of the Crisis, she had been wiped from existence, and was seen only once more, in a Christmas issue several years later, reminding the character of Deadman about what it means to work without reward. While several new Supergirls have appeared since then, unlike Barry Allen the pre-Crisis Supergirl is lost to history.

As you can probably guess, I really like this story. It has an immense cast of characters, without becoming unwieldy or dispersed. The storytelling, with its multi-universal scope, nevertheless allows you to feel for individuals, with their triumphs and tragedies. Ultimately we see that even the mightiest of mortals is, at heart, human. There is foreshadowing galore, mysteries abound, the plot twists and turns, and you get glimpses of what is yet to come - the hand in the swirling pool of stars, the image of the Flash appearing before Batman and vanishing with words of doom, the Green Lantern's ring sputtering and failing.... It all intertwines together so very nicely and really satisfies my inner comics geek.

The Absolute Edition was aimed at people exactly like me. Someone who would say, "I've read this story a dozen times, I could probably recite it... but I need it to be bigger. Like, big enough to club a man to death with." So yeah, they had me from the word go on this one, and as soon as the opportunity arose to buy it, I did so without hesitation. It really is very pretty - it's been recolored and everything, AND it comes with a companion book about how the series came to be. Fascinating reading.

The big question, of course is this - after nearly twenty-five years and at least two other universe-wide reboots (Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis) that have changed the changes made by Crisis, why is this story still worth reading? Well, for one thing, the writing is solid - you can follow the story without having to buy a couple dozen other titles, and there are dramatic moments that have hung in my memory for years. In addition, there's the art. George Perez has been one of my favorite artists for years. His attention to detail and his ability to draw dozens of characters to a page while keeping each of them dynamic, interesting and individual is, in my opinion, nothing short of superhuman. If I could choose to draw like anyone, it would be George Perez, and I will never get tired of looking at his artwork.

More importantly, however, this book is about the heroic ideal. On many scales, from the small-scale of characters like Hawk and Dove or the Losers, all the way up to the big guns of Superman, the Flash and Supergirl, the idea of what it means to be a good person is presented over and over again: you do good not because it's easy, not because it will benefit yourself. You do good because it is what you must do, even when you know it could lead to tragic consequences for yourself. My model of heroism was formed in these books, and the model set by these characters has guided my moral choices ever since. Where other people take their moral guidance from Jesus or Marcus Aurelius or Oprah, I take mine from Barry Allen and Kara Zor-el and from so many others who put their lives and their interests aside for the greater good.

Can't ask for much more than that.

[Joshua Adam Bain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally got around to reading this. And I loved it. Yes it was quite long, and quite wordy, and full of so many damn characters, but in the end it was such a cool intense read.

This basically has every single DC character in it. Let me say that again cause the enormity of that statement is pretty overwhelming. Many people would find this off putting and fair too ambitious, and I agree at times I found myself having to step back and reread shit, but I fits together in it own way. There's so much going on in this so I won't even begin to try explain the complexities of the plot. I'll try the most basic approach.

There was the big bang at the start of creation, instead of one universe being made there were infinite universes created. Each vibrating on a different frequency. The bad guy who the call the Anti-Monitor wants to munch up all these universes because the more he destroys, the more powerful he becomes. Now it's up to earths heroes, whether they be from different universes, to put a stop to him.

Okay so that wasn't that simple, but come on, it's not a simple concept at all, let alone from the bloody 80's! I think that's what impressed me the most about this. Yes there where some dialogue that was a bit dated, but overall it was such a new and bold concept that it still stands the test of time today. Even the art I found amazing. It's colourful and beautiful and the emotions are drawn great.

If you like your comics packed full of characters and content, this ones packed to the freakin brim. There is a reason why people made such a big deal about this book!

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This was an important mini-series in the DC uiniverse as it put an end to the multiverse as an active part of the DC universe (no more Earth II Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc). However, from a pure quality and enjoyment standpont, it was only okay. Overall, call it 2.5 stars.

[cloverina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I got a little emotional as it began, and it has it's moments, but beyond that I was frequently bored. I just didn't care about the dialogue or the stakes or the characters or their relationships. It's the same way I feel about Wolfman's New Teen Titans run. Everybody loves it, but I can't figure out why. I've even seen someone suggest that Wolfman is bad at solo stories and works better in teams, but I enjoy his Batman work and get bored with everything else. Still, I enjoyed bits and pieces of this, and it's cool to have finally read such a monumentous classic.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

So confusing and busy and bright. The kind of comics that kept me from picking them up as a kid.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible mini-series. This story has almost ever DC hero and villian in it. The death of the first Flash, Barry Allen, is a keystone event in the DC universe. Highly recommended

[Pruett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borderline nonsensical in places, occasionally profound in others, effectively epic in scope, and pulled off the big one to boot.

This series is so camp. It has its unintentionally hilarious moments and stuff that hasn’t aged well, but it’s also a pretty massive accomplishment that still holds up as a solid read nearly 40 years later.

I would not recommend Crisis on Infinite Earths for anyone but suuuuuuper diehard DC fans who wanna know how the whole Crisis trend got started, but outside of the plethora of Marv Wolfman OCs that get platinum treatment in this story, it’s remarkable how much of this has stuck around until today.

“They are evil wizards--!“
(is this line about Wolfman and Perez?)

Three star first half turned into a four star extravaganza by the end! Comics!

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty. Gibberish.

[Michael Neno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crisis on Infinite Earths may be the worst comic story I've read. By worst, I don't mean unprofessional. The most amateurish mid-'80s, self-published B&W comic published on browning, cheap newsprint can have its inadvertent charms, but there's nothing charming about this slick, corporate product. COIE was one of the first miniseries created by corporate committee (Jim Shooter, not surprisingly, led the way the previous year with Secret Wars). Reading it was a slogging chore.

COIE is a convoluted concoction designed to utilize, in one forced way or another, nearly every intellectual property the company owned. This necessitates scene after scene of characters saying "Who are you?" and "Where are we?" and "Please, what is going on here?". In fact, the 350-page work is stultifyingly repetitive. I've never read a superhero comic with so many heroes crying, weeping, wailing. I just now opened to a random page: "Now there is nothing...and the man called Pariah can only cry."

Instead of trying to describe what our heroes are up against, I'll let one of them describe it for you: "There is an enemy...The Monitor never told me WHO he is - but he seeks the total destruction of all POSITIVE MATTER UNIVERSES. You know of Earths 1 and 2...but ALL the planets are separated by VIBRATIONS...to ESCAPE the enemy's antimatter attack, The Monitor began the process of MERGING the UNIVERSES INTO ONE..as it was INTENDED to be, but somehow, AT THE DAWN OF TIME -- we were SPLIT INTO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF UNIVERSES. To SAVE all life, we must RETURN TO BEING ONE UNIVERSE AGAIN."

The reason stated for creating a work which simplified the DC universe was and is that it was confusing to then-new readers. I question that: most DC stories at the time didn't involve characters from parallel universes and those which did had no appreciable drop in sales. Moreover, the DC universe that existed after the dust settled was a worse one, with 25 years of Hawkman continuity thrown into the ditch, a much weakened and less interesting Superman and a smaller playing field with less story potential.

COIE also loses points for helping create the template for a seemingly endless series of company "events" which to this day interrupt and negate the continuity of other series written by authors attempting to tell their own slowly-built stories. As an example: over one hundred individual issues of DC's comics were tied-in to COIE before, during and immediately after its publication.

I can't discuss COIE without mentioning George Perez's art, it being such an integral part of the work and its financial success. I didn't read COIE at the time of its initial publication because of my aversion to his style, and thirty years haven't altered my view. If you like Perez's work, you'll like this book. He's a professional and clearly worked an insane number of hours on it.

COIE suffers in stark contrast to the previous work of fantasy I'd read before it - a tale which also involved multiple universes, a creepy, world-destroying villain, imperfect heroes and lots of journeying between worlds: C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew. That story had humor, whimsy, a compelling, straightforward narrative, a lightness of touch and real suspense. I'd recommend reading it instead.

[Judah Radd · Rating 1 out of 5]

This took me months.

I really have no idea why anyone considers this a classic. It’s a pure misery to read. It’s so long and so boring. I hate it. Could not wait to be finished.

Do not read this.

[Rees · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had known more about DC heroes and villains, this would have probably been an easy 5 stars, but there was so much that got lost in translation since this is the very first ever DC event I read.

Still really good. Amazing artwork.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is difficult to know where to start when reviewing this book due to the sheer scale of it. Maybe I should start by saying, if you are looking for a book that will take you for a gentle stroll into a world of make believe, a little bit of escapism to kill an hour or two, then this certainly isn't the book you are looking for (did that sound a little bit Obi Wan?). This book is complicated, and I mean headache inducingly complicated. There were times reading this book that I genuinely had to put it down and stare off into the middle distance for a few minutes trying to get my head round what had just happened. Also a lot of this book really isn't very cheery. There is a very pessimistic feel throughout the whole book. Even when it seems like good may have triumphed, it hasn't, or the cost to do so has been enormous. Like everything else in this book, the body count is also huge.

I would say that this book isn't just a read, it is a project. I started taking notes as I read just to get my head around all the different stories, plots and universes involved. I also did little bits of research here and there into the backstory of characters that I had never heard of before. Pretty much every DC hero and villain (often more than one of each) are in this story. I wouldn't say that this is necessary but it certainly gave me a greater understanding of the overall story. Now this might sound like the book is overly complicated and obstructive to the reader but I really don't think it is when you consider the size of the undertaking. If every detail of every character were explained, this book would be thousands of pages long.

I will avoid saying too much about the plot as I don't wish to spoil it for anyone else but the basics are, there is a force threatening to wipe out all of the universes and all of their inhabitants one by one. The heroes from 6 earths must fight on numerous fronts not only through the different universes but different times in order to save their respective home worlds.

Now to what I thought about this book. If I had to use one word it would be ‘masterpiece’. I don't use that word lightly either. Though some may find the complexity of it all off putting. I found it to just add to the gravitas. Yeah you have to work for it but as it all starts falling into place it's almost like when Neo first sees the Matrix. Suddenly you understand what DC comics is truly all about and isn't it beautiful in its complexity.

I read a lot of reviews of this book before I started it. Many complained that the story wasn't very good or didn't make any sense. I will have to politely but strongly disagree. I think that the story is nothing short of exceptional. I am struggling to say anything without having giving spoilers so I will say only that the story is phenomenal. The creativity on display is jaw dropping. The amount of work and research that has went into this book is evident and I think that it pays off wonderfully. There are also moments in this book that I found truly moving. Something that I find rarely happens in comics book stories.

The artwork is also stunning. Anyone who has read my reviews before will know I rarely comment on the artwork. In this day and age it should be bloody good! This is special though, especially the splash pages. It must have taken so long to produce such exquisite artwork and all drawn by hand too. Pens, remember them? That alone for me is worth the price of this book.

In summary. This book is by far the most complex, most ambitious and biggest comic story I have ever read and I absolutely loved it. I would put this up there with Watchmen as the best comic book stories I have ever read. This really is a must read for anyone who likes DC comics as its influence can be seen in everything they produce. I think if I could give six stars I would!