Review: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 by Roy Thomas et al.

DC's JLA/JSA / Earth-One/Earth-Two crossovers were an annual tradition from 1963 to 1985; several years ago, I read the Crisis on Multiple Earths trade paperbacks which collect them in their entirety... except that in classic DC fashion, they stopped publishing them when just one volume more would have collected them all! As I neared the 1985 crossover in my reading of Infinity, Inc., I realized that I ought to bung in the two before it and thus get the experience of what that nonexistent volume 7 would have been like...

Unfortunately, they're not the series's best work, even allowing for the fact that I was never particularly wowed by most JLA/JSA crossovers to begin with. Each one has the germ of a good idea, but it isn't really realized. I really enjoyed reading part one of Crisis in the Thunderbolt Dimension!, where Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt goes berserk and begins attacking the heroes of Earth-One in the midst of the annual JLA/JSA team-up. The writers do a pretty fun pastiche of how these things usually go; as it often is, the best part is when the members of the two super-teams are just chilling on the JLA satellite before things begin to go south, as we get to see (for example) Firestorm moon over Power Girl. Part one is credited to both Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, but I would guess that they plotted it together and Conway wrote the actual script; Conway was responsible for what were in my opinion the best of these crossovers (see volumes 5 and 6).

You wouldn't need the credits, however, to know that part two is entirely the work of Roy Thomas, because everyone immediately begins speaking in continuity and exact dates, telling each other things they already know and/or don't need to know.

• "It's Sargon the Sorcerer-- another who was born on our Earth and later migrated to this one."
• "I left the world of my birth for this one, in 1950."
• "Before you wandered onto the scene in 1947, Black Canary."
• "And who took his place in spring of '48? A certain wig-wearing wonder we all know-- called the Black Canary!"
• "The Wizard's idea, I'd guess. He's the one who dreamed up that 'patriotic crimes' caper in the late 40's, remember." "I don't-- because I was retired back then."

from Justice League of America vol. 1 #219
(script by Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway, art by Chuck Patton & Romeo Tanghal)

It's not just the dialogue, though; the entire story is constructed around explaining how Black Canary could have debuted in the 1940s but still be young enough in the 1980s to date Green Arrow (and was still drawn the same) while most of the other JSA members had aged. This is an okay thing to explain, but the actual explanation is so convoluted it beggars belief. Apparently, Dinah (Black Canary) and her husband Larry had a daughter also named Dinah, but she was cursed with a sonic scream, so she was transported into the thunderbolt dimension, where she aged normally but was comatose, and Dinah and Larry had their memories wiped of her! Like, what!? But wait, there's more when Larry died and Dinah moved from Earth-Two to Earth-One, Dinah began to die of radiation poisoning, so Superman detoured into the thunderbolt dimension and switched the consciousnesses of the mother and the daughter, so the mother has actually been in her daughter's body since 1969, as the daughter remains trapped, comatose, in her mother's radiation-ravaged body in another dimension! Only Dinah had no idea this happened to her. So much for informed consent! What is all this? It's terrible. Like, c'mon Roy, just say she got zapped with a youth spell. (Indeed, during his run on All-Star Squadron, Thomas would establish that many JSA members had had their aging slowed.) It's a terrible idea, and it makes for a terrible story. There may have been some JSA-related downsides to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but one of its upsides was the new generational history for Black Canary that was developed.

from Justice League of America vol. 1 #232
(script by Kurt Busiek, art by Alan Kupperberg)

I felt that Family Crisis! started strong, with narration from an unknown narrator testing some of the heroes of Earths-One and -Two during their annual team-up. The whole thing is about a scientist whose mind gets taken over by an alien conqueror, but also his family was involved. Part two devolves into a pretty generic punch-up, though, and the family thread never really takes off, unfortunately.

The last JLA-JSA team-up actually took place during Crisis on Infinite Earths. As JLA-JSA crossovers go, there's not much to it; the JSA barely features in favor of Infinity, Inc., but Infinity, Inc. barely matter to the story: it clearly slots into and partially resolves an ongoing story in Justice League of America. There's not much to it outside of that. In the first part, some aspects of Infinity, Inc.'s recent "Helix" three-parter (#16-18) are tied up, and then Commander Steel (also a star of All-Star Squadron, just forty years younger) comes to ask Infinity, Inc.'s help against what he claims is a bunch of renegades using the name of the JLA. They travel to Earth-One and fight the JLA (now in its "Detroit" phase). Then in part two, the JLA goes to the wrecked satellite to use its transmatter to get help from the JSA, and everyone whales on Commander Steel-- who doesn't like how his grandson Steel or the new JLA have turned out-- together. (Commander Steel is aided by Mekanique, the robot from the future who would also bedevil the All-Star Squadron.)

It's mostly a couple fights. The most effective part is the segment where the JLA drift through the wreckage of their old satellite headquarters, which is atmospherically written by Conway and atmospherically pencilled by the ever dependable Joe Staton.

I look forward to reading this story in its JLA context when I get around to reading my Justice League: The Detroit Era Omnibus in its entirety, but as the final JLA/JSA team-up, it's a whimper. The JSA are barely in it, and I feel like there was some mileage in teaming the upstarts in Infinity, Inc. up with the upstart new version of the Justice League, but Thomas and Conway get nothing out of it; they barely interact meaningfully. How would these two group of youngsters remake an old tradition?

I'm glad I read these, but I feel like the last few JLA/JSA team-ups were victims of the concept's success. Because the concept had been so popular, it had spawned ongoing Earth-Two stories in All-Star and Infinity, Inc.-- but that meant those series were carrying the weight of Earth-Two, resulting in the last few crossovers being largely inconsequential side shows that couldn't do much of note.

Crisis in the Thunderbolt Dimension! originally appeared in issues #219-20 of Justice League of America vol. 1 (Oct.-Nov. 1983). The story was written by Roy Thomas (#219-20) & Gerry Conway (#219), pencilled by Chuck Patton, inked by Romeo Tanghal (#219-20) & Pablo Marcos (#220), lettered by John Costanza (#219) and Cody (#220), colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Len Wein.

Family Crisis! originally appeared in issues #231-32 of Justice League of America vol. 1 (Oct.-Nov. 1984). The story was written by Kurt Busiek, illustrated by Alan Kupperberg, lettered by Ben Oda, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Alan Gold.

The Last JLA–Justice Society Team-Up! originally appeared in Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #19 (Oct. 1985) and Justice League of America vol. 1 #244 (Nov. 1985). The story was written by Roy Thomas (#19) and Gerry Conway (#244), pencilled by Todd McFarlane (#19) and Joe Staton (#244), inked by Steve Montana (#19) and Mike Machlan (#244), co-plotted by Dann Thomas (#19), colored by Anthony Tollin (#19) & Adrienne Roy (#19) and Gene D'Angelo (#244), lettered by Cody (#19) and Albert De Guzman (#244), and edited by Roy Thomas (#19) and Alan Gold (#244).

This post is the ninth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers issues #11-53 of Infinity, Inc. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
   

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part LXVII: Convergence: Crisis, Book 2

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Borrowed from the library
Read May 2017

Convergence: Crisis, Book 2

Writers: Larry Hama, Len Wein, Fabian Nicieza, Marv Wolfman, and Dan Abnett

Art: Joshua Middleton, Aaron Lopresti & Matt Banning, Kelley Jones, ChrisCross, Nicola Scott & Marc Deering, and Federico Dallocchio
Color: Joshua Middleton, Tanya & Richard Horie, Michelle Madsen, Jeromy Cox, and Veronica Gandini
Lettering: Sal Cipriano, Tom Napolitano, Rob Leigh, and Carlos M. Mangual

This volume of Convergence mostly concerns more pre-Crisis Earth-1 heroes, none of them being characters I particularly care about. Well, with the exception of the greatest DC character of them all, Elongated Man.

The continuity doesn't always add up, and I suspect that the format for Convergence sometimes works against the ideas here. For example, the Wonder Woman of this era was (as far as I know) pretty undistinctive; my guess is that they wanted the 1968-73 powerless version of the character, but since all these characters come from the time of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, that version of the character was long gone and can only be approximated. It does seem a bit contrived that there's a point where all the characters from the first two volumes of this series would be chilling in Gotham. Most of the writers don't even bother to explain it, but when Len Wein does explain it in the Swamp Thing story, it's even more out of place, because he explains that Swamp Thing came to Gotham to ask Batman about the mysterious red skies, meaning these characters weren't just plucked out of time near the original Crisis, but during it-- yet no one other than Swamp Thing brings this up. There are also a lot of differences on how the interurban conflicts start; in some stories people are told who to fight, in some they are teleported to the fight, and in some they just fly to another city and start breaking stuff. For a series that's by design only going to appeal to continuity nerds, there's a weird lack of continuity.

Hang on, does this mean all the cities are going to get put back? Otherwise how could these characters go on to participate in Crisis on Infinite Earths?
from Convergence: Swamp Thing #1 (script by Len Wein, art by Kelley Jones)

Also isn't it kind of weird that in nine stories about something bad happening to Gotham, Batman never does anything of significance? The most he gets up to is having a lunch date with the Flash.

No one draws pretty people (of either gender) quite like Nicola Scott.
from Convergence: New Teen Titans #1 (script by Marv Wolfman, art by Nicola Scott & Marc Deering)

Nothing here is as good as the Legion or Green Lantern stories from book 1. Kelley Jones on Swamp Thing is of course a match made in heaven, and the return of Len Wein to the character he originated is nice too, but the story itself (Swamp Thing vs. vampires) is merely okay. If I had any nostalgia for the New Teen Titans, I'm sure it'd be nice to see Marv Wolfman write for them one last time, but I don't, and so it's not, though Nicola Scott's heroic stylings are a good artistic fit for Wolfman's classic scripting. I feel like she hasn't been up to much post-Birds of Prey, so it's good to see her here. I did like how Dan Abnett wrong-footed me in the Flash story with a seeming anachronistic reference by Barry Allen to the Speed Force.

Maybe the reason this story didn't do it for me is the creepy facial expressions.
from Convergence: Justice League of America #1 (script by Fabian Nicieza, art by ChrisCross)

I wanted to be more excited by the Justice League Detroit tale. Ralph and Sue Dibny have been favorite characters of mine ever since Justice League Europe, but this is only an okay showing for them-- probably because Fabian Nicieza is an okay writer on his best days. There's nothing wrong with it, and it tries to have heart concerning a Justice League team for whom very few people are nostalgic, but this story ultimately didn't do much for me, leaning a little bit too hard on the perception that this version of the League was made up of losers. Just tell a good tale about them, don't tell a story about how you're telling a good tale about them, it comes across as defensive and undermines your point.

Next Week: Power Girl, the Huntress, the Justice Society of America, Infinity Inc., and the Seven Soldiers of Victory battle for their lives in Convergence: Infinite Earths, Book 1!

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part LXVI: Convergence: Crisis, Book 1

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Borrowed from the library
Read April 2017

Convergence: Crisis, Book 1

Writers: Stuart Moore, David Gallaher, Marc Andreyko, Marv Wolfman, and Jeff Parker

Art: Gus Storms/Peter Gross & Mark Farmer, Steve Ellis & Ande Parks, Carlos D'Anda, Roberto Viacava & Andy Owens, and Tim Truman & Enrique Alcatena
Colors: John Rauch, Gabe Eltaeb, and Jon Kalisz
Letters: Pat Brosseau, Dave Sharpe, Steve Wands, and Rob Leigh

The basic premise of Convergence is that some as-yet-unknown foe has plucked cities out of time from all across the multiverse. Not out of the multiverse just explicated by Grant Morrison in The Multiversity, but from the continuities of bygone days. The series thus becomes a way to visit characters and premises that don't fit even within Morrison's meticulously mapped multiverse of 52 Earths. I actually picked up some of these stories in single issues as they came out: ones I had particular affection for, like the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Connor Hawke Green Arrow, the Justice League International, Oracle, the Renee Montoya Question, and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle.

Yes it did mean something. Just let it go, Marv!
from Convergence: Adventures of Superman #1 (script by Marv Wolfman, art by Roberto Viacava & Andy Owens)

This volume, for example, features characters from shortly before Crisis on Infinite Earths trapped in two different cities: the Giffen/Levitz-era Legion of Super-Heroes are in 30th-century Metropolis, while three different Green Lanterns, Batman and the Outsiders, Superman and Supergirl, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl are all trapped in Gotham. The stories are somewhat formulaic: the first issue establishes what the status quo has been beneath the dome (usually it has made folks mopey), then the dome comes down and the heroes have to fight it out with the denizens of another city, only one of which can survive. As a result, some of these tales prove forgettable-- I don't give a shit about the Outsiders or the Hawks, and the Superman/Supergirl story is only interesting as yet another attempt by Marv Wolfman to atone for the sins of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Was this building on a preexisting ship, or was this original to Convergence?
from Convergence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #1 (script by Stuart Moore, art by Gus Storms & Mark Farmer)

But the best writers really make something of this. Like I said, I'd bought the Legion tale here, so it was a reread, but I was still surprised by how much I liked it. It starts a little on the mopey side, but as the Legion is forced into a battle with the Atomic Knights, from DC's postapocalyptic setting of the Great Disaster, there's a nice little affirmation of both groups' commitments to peace, and how difficult that can be in trying circumstances, yet it is no less important. Brainiac 5 gets some good jokes, and I like how the story discusses the transition of Superboy to Superman. The only thing to not like is that the artwork, especially that in the first issue by Gus Storms and Mark Farmer, is jarringly unlike the actual art of the era this story is replicating, too light and airy.

The ideal Guy Gardner story: ridiculous and fun. As opposed to most 1990s Guy Gardner stories, ridiculous and dumb.
from Convergence: Green Lantern Corps #2 (script by David Gallaher, art by Steve Ellis & Ande Parks)

The other story I really liked was the Green Lantern one, which focuses on Guy Gardner, but also co-stars Hal Jordan and John Stewart. When Gotham was plucked out of time, Guy was in a coma; he woke up, but powerless like all the other residents of the dome-- and discovered that while he was asleep, Hal had tried to marry his fiancée! Guy is often a joke character, but Dave Gallaher and Steve Ellis take him completely seriously here, which makes him all the more awesome. He's a hothead, but that's because he's raging at the rough hand life has dealt him: here we see his nurturing side (he's working in athletics at an elementary school) and his attempts to heal (he's visiting Leslie Thompkins for regular therapy sessions). Sometimes he's too impulsive for his own good, but he means well, and all three Lanterns overcome their differences here to save the city from a dangerous adversary. It's a fun, well-executed comic that pays unexpected dividends of enjoyment and depth.

Next Week: Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, the Flash, the New Teen Titans, and Justice League Detroit battle for their lives in Convergence: Crisis, Book 2!

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part X: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 6

Comic trade paperback, 207 pages
Published 2013 (contents: 1981-82)
Borrowed from the library
Read August 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 6

Writers: Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas
Artists: George Pérez, Romeo Tanghal, John Beatty, Keith Pollard, Don Heck, Sal Trapani, Adrian Gonzales, Jerry Ordway
Letterers: Ben Oda, Phil Felix, John Costanza
Colorists: Carl Gafford, Gene D'Angelo

By rights, I should have read this between Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 5 and Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition, but the Interlibrary Loan Office had some trouble in sourcing it, and rather than delay reading what came after, I plowed on ahead. But I'm glad I was able to come back to this: Gerry Conway turns out to probably be my favorite writer of these volumes, able to mix solid character work with great plots that actually have time and space to unfold.

The first story here isn't the greatest, but it's not the worst either: "Targets of Two Worlds"/"Countdown to Crisis!"/"Crisis in Limbo!" features the Ultra-Humanite (now in a gorilla body, apparently long after I last saw him in The Superman Chronicles, Volume One) putting together a new Secret Society of Super-Villains in order to take on ten superheros on Earths-One and -Two, the removal of which will apparently set off an historical chain reaction that will remove all superheroes from one of the two Earths. Why? Science, apparently. This results in one of those formulaic stories where (like in some of the Gardner Fox ones) we see villains take on heroes in turn. It's okay, but where it gets kinda fun is when the Ultra-Humanite cheats half of the villains out on their due and they turn on each other. I don't know why he does it-- it seems like a whole planet ought to be enough to split between ten villains-- but I liked the change of perspective, and the final throwdown in a delight. There's some George Pérez art here, but he's not well-served by John Beatty on inks, who obscures Pérez's trademark detail work.

The real fun of this volume is the five-part "Crisis on Earth-Prime!", which weaves between Justice League of America (set on 1980s Earth-One) and All-Star Squadron (set on 1940s Earth-Two), and also manages to work in Earth-Prime in the 1960s and 1980s and the villains of Earth-Three! It's a blast, and I read the whole thing nearly straight through because I was enjoying it so much. Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas give us a twisting, turning time travel tale, with three different groups of heroes bouncing backwards and forwards through time and dimensions to stop Per Degaton from destroying one Earth (our Earth, actually, the one of the readers!) and conquering another. For once, the time travel logic actually holds up for the most part, and with five issues, the story has time to breathe and not feel like a blob of incident.

There are five heroes apiece from the Justice League, Justice Society, and All-Star Squadron present, and Conway and Thomas prevent them from becoming indistinct; each gets character-appropriate dialogue and actions. (This seems like faint praise, but in the Gardner Fox era, you could have often switched the heroes' word balloon tails around, and I doubt anyone would have noticed.) The Crime Syndicate of Earth-Three even felt more like actual characters than they have in the past. Firestorm's attempts to make it with Power Girl were amusing, and I even felt sorry for Per Degaton at the story's end.

There's even some brief philosophizing here-- Per Degaton (seriously, he's supposed to be an ordinary guy from 1947, how did he get such a weird name?) uses nuclear warheads from the Cuban Missile Crisis in his plan, and the characters of both the 1980s and the 1940s comment on the amazing destructive power this presents-- including President Roosevelt himself. Small moments, perhaps, but nice ones that stop the story from being just another slugfest. This is the last Crisis on Multiple Earths volume (for now, hopefully; one more will collect all the existent Earth-One and -Two crossover stories), and it's nice to see the series end on a high note.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part VII: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 5

Comic trade paperback, 173 pages
Published 2010 (contents: 1978-80)
Borrowed from the library
Read July 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 5

Writer: Gerry Conway
Pencillers: Dick Dillin, George Pérez
Inker: Frank McLaughlin
Letterers: Ben Oda, Todd Klein

I had been burning out on these collections, but volume 5 turned out to be the most successful one in a while. The first story here ("Crisis from Yesterday!"/"Crisis from Tomorrow!") is maybe not great-- more heroes fighting each other under mind control (seriously this is the dullest thing ever, stop writing it), but any story that gives a principal role to the Elongated Man is a story that gains my appreciation to some extent. The Huntress, too, which makes this some of my first real experience of the Earth-2 Huntress.

I did quite like "The Murderer Among Us: Crisis above Earth-One!"/"I Accuse...", which forgoes the usual throwdowns for a murder mystery aboard the JLA satellite during the joint JLA/JSA meeting. It's a fun idea, and it lets the personalities of the characters come to the fore more than they're usually able to in these stories.

The best story here, though, is "Crisis on New Genesis, or Where Have All the New Gods Gone?"/"Crisis between Two Earths, or Apokolips Now!"/"Crisis on Apokolips, or Darkseid Rising!" (yeah, really). It maybe is your standard throwdown, but with three issues, the story actually breathes a bit, and the characters' personalities actually do come through. Of course, it involves Darkseid and the New Gods, who are awesome, and I enjoy almost anything that plays with those concepts by default. It's perhaps a standard superhero story, but it's one well told; there's some great stuff in particular with the children in the underground resistance on Apokolips.

Conway gets Darkseid, too.  He's resurrected in this story, having apparently been dead, and he observes: "My brief 'death' has given me a new perspective on life, gentlemen. As I floated in the spiritual limbo where Desaad's uni-cannon blast propelled me, I came to treasure the memory of living things... the soft glow of the sun at dawn, the gentle waft of a breeze across one's brow, even the scent of a flower in bloom. Yes, even a god may be affected by his own 'death.'" Darkseid then pauses for a moment, and smells a flower in his hand. "I shall never forgive myself for such weakness! Never!" he shouts, crushing the flower. Perfect.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part VI: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 4

Comic trade paperback, 165 pages
Published 2005 (contents: 1975-77)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 4

Writers: Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, E. Nelson Bridwell, Martin Pasko, Paul Levitz
Artists: Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin

The first story in here is one of the weirdest crossovers yet: "Where on Earth am I?" starts on Earth-Prime, which is our Earth, where DC Comics is based. Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, at a loss for a Justice League plot, are sucked into Earth-Two, where Cary Bates promptly (for some reason) becomes a supervillain. Whoops. It's a bit by-the-numbers, despite the premise, but fun enough. The best part is probably the way they write their cranky old editor, Julius Schwartz.

The last two tales are co-written by Martin Pasko (the first with E. Nelson Bridwell, the second with Paul Levitz), and boy are they dull. Lots of fighting to no clear purpose, lots of mind-control so that heroes fight other heroes. Who knew that Superman finally meeting Captain Marvel could be so uninteresting? Worse, who knew that the freakin' Legion of Super-Heroes turning up could be very uninteresting!? And overcomplicated. I don't know if I'm running out of interest in these kind of stories, or if the writers are. Well, just two more volumes of this series to go.

It's worth noting that the last story shows Power Girl flirting with the Earth-One Superman. I guess that if you're gonna try to make out with your cousin, restricting it to his parallel self is a sensible option...

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part V: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 3

Comic trade paperback, 191 pages
Published 2004 (contents: 1971-74)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 3

Writers: Mike Friedrich, Len Wein
Penciller: Dick Dillin
Inkers: Joe Giella, Dick Giordano
Letterers: John Costanza, Ben Oda

Dennis O'Neil's run on Justice League is sadly brief, as Volume 3 of Crisis on Multiple Earths sees him replaced by Mike Friedrich for one story and Len Wein for three. Friedrich's "Earth-- The Monster Maker!" / "Solomon Grundy-- The One and Only" tries to use the parallel Earths to advantage by telling the story of an alien and his symbiotic pet stranded between the two Earths, but it turns out to be boring fight scene after boring fight scene until the heroes figure out the kid is lost, not evil. Of vague interest is some interaction between the Robins of both Earths, but vague is as far as the characterization goes. The Robin of Earth-One borrows a costume unused by the Earth-Two Robin-- I can see why, because it's godawful, even if Neal Adams (acknowledged in dialogue!) did design it.

I found both of Len Wein's big event stories ("The Unknown Soldier of Victory!"/"The Hand That Shook the World"/"And One of Us Must Die!" and "Crisis on Earth-X!"/"Thirteen against the Earth!") very uninspired. They're old-school team-ups, where the Justice League/Justice Society/whatever team split up into groups and each fight mini-battle before uniting for the finale. Depressingly formulaic. Wein pulls in more and more obscure heroes, but does nothing to make you care about them. "The Creature in the Velvet Cage" is decent, but it explains something that didn't really need an explanation: why did the Sandman change his costume back to his gas mask one (um, because it's awesome and the purple one sucked?) and what happened to Sandy Hawkins?

Dick Dillin is still pretty awesome, though. Keep rocking it out on art, man.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part IV: Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 2

Comic trade paperback, 200 pages
Published 2003 (contents: 1967-70)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 2

Writers: Gardner Fox, Dennis O'Neil
Pencillers: Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin
Inkers: Sid Greene, Joe Giella
Letterers: Gaspar Saladino, Joe Letterese, Milton Snapinn, Ira Schnapp

This volume of Crisis on Multiple Earths features four more transdimensional team-ups between the Justice League and the Justice Society, the first two by old hand Gardner Fox, the last two by new hand Dennis O'Neil-- the first time someone other than Fox has written a JLA/JSA team-up.

Fox's first story is "The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two!" / "The Negative Crisis on Earths One-Two!" It is a pretty generic Justice League story: there are some alien infestations, some bad guys, some fighting, and some really contrived villain weaknesses. Fox has done better and more interesting work, and one wonders if he is running out of steam, both on the Justice League in general and the crossovers in particular. The one potentially interesting thing here is the inclusion of Earth-Two's Robin, who is "no longer the 'Boy Wonder'"-- one would hope so, given that I think he must be about forty years old at this point! But he's just a cypher in this punchout-fest; Fox squanders all the potential of seeing what a grownup Robin would be like.

His last effort is "The Stormy Return of the Red Tornado" / "T. O. Morrow Kills the Justice League -- Today!" which is... I dunno... I guess it's there. I do like the new Red Tornado-- a robot without a soul!-- but other than the introduction of Dick Dillin on pencils (and what an introduction it is, the guy is great!) there's not a whole lot going on here. Still, it's fun-- Gardner Fox never puts one weird concept into a story when he can come up with fifteen.

Awesomely, Denny O'Neil then takes over, with some awesomely titled epics: "Star Light, Star Bright-- Death Star I See Tonight!" / "Where Death Fears to Tread!" being the first of them. A living star attacks Earth-Two. I wonder if this is where Neil Gaiman got the concept for "The Heart of a Star" from? Oddly this is one of the first JLA/JSA crossovers (if not the first) where two versions of the same person meet: the Clark Kents of both Earths are in this tale. But it doesn't really matter, as usual, because who would be interested in meeting their parallel self who is twenty years older? Evidently not these guys. Notably, though, this is the story where Larry Lance, the husband of the Black Canary dies, and so she crosses over from Earth-Two to Earth-One.

This is followed up on in the last story, "Peril of the Paired Planets" / "Where Valor Fails... Will Magic Triumph?" Something I've been doing as I read these is imagine how they would play out in the new universe formed after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where there is no multiverse. Some of these stories wouldn't work at all, of course, but others would. One of the most notable changes is that the Black Canary becomes two characters: mother Dinah Drake Lance and daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. It's relatively easy to imagine the elder Dinah being the character in all the crossovers up to this point (serving with the JSA), and the younger in the ones after this (serving in the JLA). But this story gives us a Dinah who was both married to Larry Lance and is now dating Green Arrow, which never happened in the new timeline of course. It gives one some cognitive dissonance if one attempts to imagine these events in the lives of the post-Crisis characters. I was interested, though, that this story takes place during the infamous "Hard-Traveling Heroes" era: Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary have to be recalled to assist with the current crisis. There's an increased focus on their characterization, as Black Canary frets that her crossing between universes may be what destabilized the realities, and thus she will have to die to fix it.

This story establishes, "Every twelve months, the temporal matrices of the Earths come together briefly! For 21 days, super-powered men and women can cross to the other existence... can and have!" It's a valiant attempt to explain why the JLA/JSA team-ups happen on a yearly basis, but it doesn't really make much sense. In the previous stories, it seemed as though people (heroes or villains) crossed at will, and the idea is never alluded to again, either. And in between the JLA/JSA team-ups, individual heroes (especially the Flash) seem to cross over all the time.

Also this story in some ways reads as a rewrite of "Crisis between Earth-One and Earth-Two!", with the Spectre trying to stop the two Earths from colliding with one another. Only this time he gives his life in the effort!  Kinda-- it's weird. In the first chapter, he's chairing the Justice Society meeting and helping deal with the crisis like a normal superhero; in the second, he lives in a crypt and has to be summoned to help by Doctor Fate. So who knows what's going on. I did like both of O'Neil's stories: Gardner Fox madness mixed with a bit of O'Neil's overblow style: fun stuff, too.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part III: Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups, Volume Two

Comic trade paperback, 199 pages
Published 2007 (contents: 1965-68)
Borrowed from the library
Read May 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups, Volume Two

Writers: Gardner Fox, John Broome, Mike Friedrich
Artists: Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Sid Greene

I liked the first volume of Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups all right... the second one is much less successful. Can we all promise to never speak again of the two John Broome stories here that make use of Doiby Dickles? Ugh. Other than that, there's a couple good Flash stories here (Fox and Infantino are pretty dependable) and some so-so stories about the Atoms of Earth-One and Earth-Two. Not much else of interest, except for that beautiful Murphy Anderson art of the ever-lovely Black Canary.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part II: Crisis on Multiple Earths

Comic trade paperback, 206 pages
Published 2002 (contents: 1963-66)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths

Writer: Gardner Fox
Penciller: Mike Sekowsky
Inkers: Bernard Sachs, Sid Greene 
Letterers: Gaspar Saladino, Milton Snapinn, Joe Letterese

With the door between Earths-One and -Two having been opened by the Flash, not only did characters start crossing between Earths, but whole groups of them-- the annual team-up of the Justice League and the Justice Society quickly becoming a staple of the comics of the 1960s and 1970s.

There's a lot of fun to be had, of course, and Gardner Fox has it, though two teams of six-plus characters means that the characterization often has to be put on the back burner to the punching and the shouting and the improbable twists. Why do villains who can transmute elements need to rob banks? Fox never stops getting creative with the characters' powers and abilities, though-- there are some great, odd fight scenes here.  "Crisis on Earth-One!" and "Crisis on Earth-Two!" are pretty typical team-up stories once you subtract the alternate Earth element.

"Crisis on Earth-Three!" introduces the first alternate Earth that did not derive from a previous comic book: Earth-Three, the home of the evil Crime Syndicate of America, evil versions of the Justice League. It's a weird story-- Power Ring's power ring is so powerful as to beggar belief. At first he uses it to put vibrational energies into the Crime Syndicate so that when they touch someone and say a certain word, they'll be vibrated into Earth-Three. I can just about buy that. But then he rigs things so that when the Justice Society says that they've won a fight, they'll be vibrated away.  What the--!? If it can do something so powerful and specific, then surely it can do all things! How can you ever beat someone with a power ring? I did like the idea put forth in this story, though, that one's home Earth is intrinsically biased towards one. Thus, a fight between the Justice League and the Crime Syndicate will be won by the League on Earth-One and the Syndicate on Earth-Three-- it can only be neutral on Earth-Two!

"Earth-- without a Justice League!" introduces some interesting ideas that it doesn't quite play through. The evil Earth-One version of Johnny Thunder (the first time we've seen the exact same person on both Earths, actually) uses Johnny's Thunderbolt to rid history of the Justice League, creating a new Earth which he dubs Earth-A. Unfortunately, the implications aren't really thought through, as Johnny has to tell his gang that the Justice League doesn't exist anymore... but surely they would have never even heard of it? The idea of Earth-A isn't really explored, though, as all Johnny does in this new timeline is rob banks. Then, when the Justice Society crosses over to Earth-A, Johnny has the Thunderbolt substitute his crooks in the past for the Justice League members, turning them into replacement Justice League members... the evil Lawless League. But how does this actually work? We see one thug get hit by the lightning bolt that gave Barry Allen his Flash powers, and another surrounded by atomic energy becoming the Atom, but Superman's powers derive from him being a Kryptonian-- there's no place you could substitute a human for him to make that human into Superman!  Similar problems exist for the Martian Manhunter, the Green Lantern, and (worst of all!) Batman. An attractive idea, perhaps, but sheer nonsense as executed.

The last story, "Crisis between Earth-One and Earth-Two!" is perhaps the most barmy one yet. In addition to people randomly popping between Earths, the Spectre discovers that Earth-One and Earth-Two are going to crash into each other. This is no mean feat, given that Earth-One and Earth-Two actually exist in the same physical space, but vibrate at different rates. One could take this as symbolic... only the Spectre grows to enormous physical size to hold the Earths apart! And then, the Anti-Matter Man begins walking down the Spectre to one of the Earths! I guess it could all still be symbolic-- the Atom mentions that all of the events are happening in "warp space," not physical space. Anti-Matter Man is actually a great "villain"-- a silent, eerie explorer from the anti-matter universe (which I suppose is the same universe that the Anti-Monitor and the Weaponers of Qward come from) who doesn't know (or maybe doesn't care) that stepping foot on a planet of matter will cause massive destruction. (He can walk on the Spectre because the Spectre isn't made of matter, but it's not really explained how the Justice League and Justice Society fight him without exploding.) This story gets pretty nuts, but so much so that I felt I had to like it.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part I: Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups, Volume One

Comic trade paperback, 223 pages
Published 2005 (contents: 1961-68)
Borrowed from the library
Read May 2013

Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups, Volume One

Writers: Gardner Fox, John Broome
Pencillers: Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane
Inkers: Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Sid Greene 
Letterer: Gaspar Saladino

Having finished Birds of Prey, it's time to move on to my next comics-reading project: Project Crisis!, which is a journey through the spine of the DC Universe, its various "crisis" crossovers. Starting with the old "crises on multiple Earths," I'll then move on to Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and Final Crisis. There's a lot there, and much of it is well-regarded for what it did, not how it did it, so I'm curious to see what I'll think of it all.

Before all those big, multiverse-shattering mega-events, though, comes the stories collected in Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups, Volume One. Here we have nine single-issue stories, most of which are about superheroes crossing the dimensional boundaries between Earth-One and Earth-Two. These stories aren't exactly the most sophisticated by modern standards, but there's a certain thrill to them-- Gardner Fox correctly identifies, I think, that the idea of there being multiple Earths is just fun, and working your way through all its various permutations is guaranteed to be interesting.

"Flash of Two Worlds!" of course introduced all this parallel-Earth malarkey to DC, and is justly famous, but I also enjoyed "Double Danger on Earth!", where Jay Garrick crosses from Earth-Two to Earth-One in pursuit of a vital meteorite that was destroyed on his world but might still exist on Barry Allen's, or "Invader from the Dark Dimension!", where strange creatures from a dimension outside of both Earths, made up of pure darkness, menace our heroes. Fox never really repeats his old triumphs, continually aiming to do something new and unusual.

The only story here not written by Gardner Fox is "Secret Origin of the Guardians!", John Broome's somewhat overcomplicated tale of the two Green Lanterns meeting one another. It lacks the energy that Fox brings to his stories-- not to mention that delightful Carmine Infantino art that features in all the Flash stories.

Interestingly, there are also a couple stories here that don't feature trans-dimensional team-ups, but team-ups isolated to Earth-Two.  "Solomon Grundy Goes on a Rampage!" and "Perils of the Psycho-Pirate!" feature Doctor Fate, Hourman, and the Earth-Two Green Lantern in somewhat typical superhero team-ups, while "Mastermind of Menaces!" does the same for Starman and the Black Canary. Then there's one last story, "The Hour Hourman Died!" which has no team-up element at all, but it's called a "bonus feature," so I guess that's okay. Most of these stories are fine, but lack the certain frisson that comes from the parallel-Earth setup. "The Hour Hourman Died!" is pretty neat, though-- a clever concept.