|
-
Hivemind social net
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
Infinite Crisis by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis and Andy Lanning
01/01/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Titan Books/DC Comics. 264 page graphic novel hardback. Price: £19.99 (UK), $24.99 (US), $33.99 (CAN). ISBN: 1-4012-0959-9. Buy Infinite Crisis in the USA - or Buy Infinite Crisis in the UK  check out website: www.titanbooks.com and www.dccomics.com
It's hard to believe its some 20 years since DC did the multi-part saga 'Crisis On Infinity Earths'. At the time it was regarded as too complicated to have so many Earths and with so many characters and the plan was to merge them all into one and reduce the number of players. This didn't exactly get away with teething troubles for the fans, especially as popular character Supergirl was bumped off and little thought given to the Legion Of Super-Heroes given that there would be no Superboy for them to use as a template, let along bring forward to their time although the writers did neatly get around this. The important thing was that it served DC Comics purpose in tidying up their reality for the new generation of fans.
Twenty years on, the desire was there again for another tidy-up. Although I missed the past decade, there's a fair bet that many readers of my generation might have as well but still be interested in seeing where everyone was today. Most of the significant characters were easily recognised, a few more obscure than others but it looks like the creators of this book managed to touch with most things. If Kirby's New Gods or the Metal Men were there, I imagine they were more background than foreground. This six part series under one cover is just loaded down with appearances of every DC super-hero and super-villains and the carnage is ripe and graphically violent throughout.
I'm beginning to regret not putting my hand up for the earlier volumes leading up to this book but I'm sure the nice people at Titan Books will do something about that if I ask. However, it's not that difficult to get the gist of what is going on.
Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are in the remains of the Justice League headquarters where the Amazon had just broken the neck of Maxwell Lord. The OMAC robots are making war on all the meta-humans who are in turn, fighting each other. Behind the scenes, the original Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane, a young Alex Luthor and an alternative Superboy are watching. It's left guessing until half way through the book as to who belongs to which agenda. Reality is falling apart and the multi-Earths are returning. You certainly need a scorecard and probably several re-reads to work out just who is left. Certainly, those who deserve their just deserts get them at the end.
The commentary at the end by the various creators also points out that several pictures were not totally completed in the original schedule and were left as partial pencils but have been for this edition which will make the completests happy because they won't feel like they are buying a duplicate of the original material. There's only a couple places where the art rolls into the centre seam but doesn't interfere with the reading of the story. Telling the artists apart is a lot tougher. Artist Phil Jimenez is a fan of George Perez and Jerry Ordwell and the different art styles blend together so nothing is jarringly different. The explanation of how so many characters were drawn in layers at least explains how the artists kept their sanity with the detail being done. I'm amazed how writer Geoff Johns managed to fit in any script at all with so much going on.
I think I'm going to leave this book alone for a while and then re-read it for any details that I might have missed. Whether its completed the job of bringing things back under control in the DC Universe only the next few years will show. Certainly, its left open a way for a clearing house should it be needed again.
GF Willmetts
|
|
