DC Finest: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One by Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas, Doug Moench, George Pérez, et al.

DC Finest: Events: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One

Collection published: 2025
Contents originally published: 1985-86
Acquired: December 2025
Read: January 2026

Writers: Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas (with Dann Thomas), Gerry Conway, Jason Todd, Steve Englehart, Doug Moench, Alan Moore, Robert Kanigher, Mindy Newell

Pencillers: Curt Swan, George Pérez, Mike Clark, Arvell Jones, Rafael Kayanan, Todd McFarlane, Gene Colan, Joe Staton, Tom Mandrake, Stephen R. Bissette, Judith Hunt, Sam Glanzman, Michael Esposito, Don Heck

Inkers: Dave Hunt, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta (with DeZuniga), Alfredo Alcala, Akin & Garvey, Pablo Marcos, Bob Smith, Bruce Patterson, Steve Montana, Mike Machlan, Tom Mandrake, Tatjana Wood, Mike DeCarlo, Judith Hunt, Sam Glanzman, Michael Esposito, Don Heck
Colorists: Gene D'Angelo, Anthony Tollin, Carl Gafford, Nansi Hoolahan, Adrienne Roy, Jerry Serpe

Letterers: Ben Oda, John Costanza, David Cody Weiss, Duncan Andrews, John Workman, L. Lois Buhalis, Albert De Guzman, Gaspar, Helen Vesik
Plot: Wolfman/Wein/Greenberger

DC has begun a new reprint series called "DC Finest." Despite the name—which would seem to indicate some kind of selectivity—its aim to comprehensively reprint everything DC has ever published in various lines. One of those is the "Events" line, which reprints not just the headline event stories, but integrates them with their myriad tie-ins. Crisis on Infinite Earths has of course been reprinted many times, but never with all of the "Special Crisis Cross-overs." The core series is twelve issues long, but estimates are that its DC Finest reprinting will run four 500-page volumes! I've read Crisis a couple times before, so here I won't focus on the core story, but the various included stories.

A lot of the included issues are of Roy Thomas's Earth-Two titles: here we get issues #50-52 of the WWII-set All-Star Squadron and issues #18-19 of the present-day Infinity, Inc. (There's also Justice League of America #244, which is the second half of the story begun in Infinc #19, the last-ever JLA/JSA team-up.) Both of these titles were significantly affected by the Crisis and did a lot tying into it, so their inclusion here makes sense... though I know from past experience I will definitely be bored of A-SS's Shanghaied into Hyperspace! story by the end of it. Overall, though, no complaints; these are exactly the kind of stories that ought to be included in a book like this.

No one:
Absolutely no one:
Roy Thomas: My Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in is going to be about Mister Mind crossing between universe because he loves listening to Charlie McCarthy on the radio so much!
from All-Star Squadron #51 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Mike Clark & Vince Colletta)

We also get a bunch of one-off stories from various titles: Fury of Firestorm #41, Green Lantern #194, and Wonder Woman #327. The Firestorm one is fine, it basically just shows how Firestorm is recruited by Harbinger in more detail, which isn't particularly interesting but I guess the kind of thing you'd expect a Crisis Cross-over to do. The Green Lantern story is kind of complicated, as it's clearly very enmeshed in the ongoing stories of Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner, but I'm always happy to see some Joe Staton artwork, and I'm curious to see how it continues in later volumes. (There's a funny bit of continuity massaging; as John thinks to himself that he usually doesn't wear a mask anymore but he's going to put one on before journeying to the Monitor's satellite, presumably because George Pérez drew him with a mask.) The Wonder Woman story is clearly the wrapup of an ongoing story, and therefore pretty confusing on its own.

I'm always game for some Harbinger action, great visual design.
from The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #41 (script by Gerry Conway, art by Rafael Kayanan and Akin & Garvey)

There are a couple inclusions I didn't get. There weren't any Crisis ties in Detective Comics #555 that I detected, nor in The Losers Special, even though that does have the Crisis Cross-over branding on the cover.

Wait, did the pre-Crisis Blue Beetle have a wife!? (It's just a joke, right?)
from Green Lantern vol. 2 #194 (script by Steve Englehart, art by Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson) 

The real highlight of the book, though, are the Batman issues: we get a continuous six-part Batman story from Batman #389-91 and Detective #556-58. The Crisis connection is technically slight, in that there's just the red skies from the Crisis... but man these stories (from the team of Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake, somehow pumping out an issue every two weeks) are great! Jason Todd is Robin, but this is before Jim Starlin turned him into an obnoxious asshole; here he's a kid trying to find his way in rough world, bereft of strong parental figures to give him guidance. Like some of the other stories I've read from this era, we're clearly at a transitional point between the Silver Age aesthetic and the Frank Miller one; unlike those other stories, I thought this really worked. It's high melodrama, but it doesn't take itself too seriously; it's dark without being grim; it's not afraid to be goofy but we get solid psychological depth for all of the principal characters. Sure, the only Crisis element is that the skies are red... but it's so beautifully used, creating a funereal atmosphere. These stories are also included in a Batman "DC Finest," Red Skies, and after reading this, I'm sorely tempted to pick up that, because I'd love to see more Moench and Mandrake on Batman.

I very much appreciated the delving into Batman's very bad taste in bad women.
from Detective Comics vol. 1 #556 (script by Doug Moench, art by Gene Colan & Bob Smith)

My only quibble with this volume is the sequencing doesn't always make sense; Detective #558 ends with Batman hearing Joker has escaped, leading into Crisis #2... but for some reason the story is placed after Crisis #2. Similarly, I think the Wonder Woman issue is also in the wrong spot. On the whole, this isn't high art, or often, even medium art, but if the point of superhero comics is their sheer interconnectedness, the creation of a massive tapestry of events that becomes a pleasure in itself, then this book captures that exceedingly well. I hope that Part Two is solicited sooner rather than later! 

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part LXIX: Convergence: Infinite Earths, Book 2

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

Convergence: Infinite Earths, Book 2

Writing by Jeff Parker, Scott Lobdell, Dan Jurgens, Brian Buccellato, and Simon Oliver

Art by Evan "Doc" Shaner, Yishan Li, Alvaro Martinez & Raul Fernandez, Phil Winslade, and John McCrea
Colors by Jordie Bellaire, Dave McCaig, Chris Sotomayor, Lovern Kindzierski, and John Kalisz
Letters by Saida Temofonte, Corey Breen, and Rob Leigh

This is the last of the Convergence books where the heroes comes from the era of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The previous books covered Earth-1 and Earth-2; this one gives us a wide range of multiple Earths, with the heroes (and villains) of Earth-3, Earth-4, Earth-S, and Earth-X(2). Plus it contains a story about the Booster Golds of both the pre- and post-Flashpoint Earth-0.

Who doesn't like superheroes who like being superheroes?
from Convergence: Shazam! #2 (script by Jeff Parker, art by Evan "Doc" Shaner)

Like all of these Convergence volumes, some are better than others. The very best, though-- and perhaps the best of all the Convergence tales I've read so far-- is the cover story, about the Marvel Family of Earth-S. It's somewhat interesting that early 2015 saw DC publish two different Captain Marvel stories in multiversal events, and in cases of both The Multiversity and Convergence, the Captain Marvel story was hailed as one of the very best ones. Like Grant Morrison's Captain Marvel story, Jeff Parker and Evan "Doc" Shaner's is a total delight, with tons of goofy concepts given a good light. Unlike some of DC's attempts to work with Captain Marvel, these tales embrace it for what it is, and are all the better for it. Shaner's art is amazing, Jordie Bellaire's coloring is beautiful, and the plot twists are excellent (I loved the reveal of who was behind it all). Plus, who could fail to like the Marvel Family versus a flotilla of steampunk air-ships? If DC had any sense, they'd have put Parker and Shaner on an Earth-5/Thunderworld ongoing series featuring the Captain Marvel characters. I know they are working on Future Quest together now, and I'm sure it's good, but it can't be as good as that would be.

Someday I'll read the Booster Gold series that leads up to this and actually know what is being referred to by the pre-Flashpoint Booster.
from Convergence: Booster Gold #1 (script by Dan Jurgens, art by Alvaro Martinez & Raul Fernandez)

The best of the rest is the Booster Gold story, which shows some of what the pre-Flashpoint Booster Gold has been up to since the events of The World of Flashpoint and Futures End, and has him meeting the New 52 Booster Gold, who hasn't come as far character-wise as his counterpart. I enjoyed this story a lot even if I didn't understand it; more Booster Gold is always a good thing, especially when you build in some tender Ted Kord moments. Does the story of Booster Gold go on anywhere from here, though?

Ted knows how to prioritize.
from Convergence: Blue Beetle #2 (script by Scott Lobdell, art by Yishan Li)

The other stories are meh, not really doing enough to make you care about them, even if you're predisposed to like the characters, as I am with the Earth-4 Blue Beetle (not to be confused with the Zero Hour-era Earth-1 Blue Beetle who appears in the Booster Gold story, and in the next volume too).

Next Week: The Justice League International, Catwoman, Superboy, Green Arrow and Green Arrow, and the Suicide Squad battle for their lives in Convergence: Zero Hour, Book 1!

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part LXVIII: Convergence: Infinite Earths, Book 1

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

Convergence: Infinite Earths, Book 1

Writers: Justin Gray, Len Wein, Dan Abnett, Jerry Ordway, and Paul Levitz

Art: Claude St-Aubin & Sean Parsons, Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz, Tom Derenick & Trevor Scott, Ben Caldwell, June Brigman & Ron Richardson, Jim Fern/Roy Wagner & Joe Rubinstein/Wayne Faucher/José Marzán Jr., and Shannon Wheeler
Color: Lovern Kindzierski, Chris Sotomayor & Felix Serrano, Monica Kubina, Veronica Gandini, and Paul Mounts
Lettering: Steve Wands, Travis Lanham, Dave Sharpe, Rob Leigh, and Tom Napolitno

I'm assuming that what divides the "Crisis" volumes of Convergence from the "Infinite Earths" volumes is that though the characters in all the "Crisis" volumes are plucked from Earth-1, they come from the other pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earths in the "Infinite Earths" volumes. All five stories in this volume are about characters from Earth-2, as the Earth-2 Metropolis was one of the cities scooped up by Telos for his series of battles outside time and space. Power Girl, Robin, and the Huntress represent Earth-2 Metropolis against Moscow from Red Son, the Justice Society of America and the Seven Soldiers of Victory fight the Weaponers of Qward (the first alien planet we've seen on Telos... and not just an alien planet, as Qward was in the antimatter universe pre-Crisis), and Infinity Inc. fights, um, Jonah Hex but he's from the future and has a flying saucer for some reason.

Hippolyta Hall: always badass.
from Convergence: Infinity Inc. #1 (script by Jerry Ordway, art by Ben Caldwell)

The mechanics and rules of Telos's tournament are still vague and inconsistent, and the set-up of Convergence itself is contrived. Like in the previous volume, Len Wein tries to explain why the characters in his story are in a particular city, but he doesn't do so well: Robin and the Huntress are summoned to a JSA meeting in Metropolis to deal with the red skies of the Crisis, but as they point out, JSA HQ is actually located in New York City! No one in the story explains why the JSA HQ is suddenly in Metropolis, and I'm not sure things are better for flagging it up. The whole book probably could have just used Earth-2 New York, actually, and it would have been less awkward. (Wikipedia informs me Infinity Inc. was based in Los Angeles, so it makes as much sense for them to be in any of these cities. Their story doesn't explain why they're not in LA.)

Actually, let's talk about Wein's story, because his having characters comment on things is out in full force here: the Huntress spends the whole story advocating violence against the Red Son Superman while Robin takes a more diplomatic tack, and then at the end, she's like, "Geeze, I don't know I was so violent. I'm not like that." So why did Wein write it that way to begin with? It actually didn't seem particularly over-the-top to me, so I feel like the story would have got away with it if Wein hadn't lampshaded it. At least there's some nice, moody Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz art, which is always a treat, and well-suited to the Red Son Moscow scenes especially.

Aw, Communist Dictator Superman is so misunderstood.
from Convergence: Detective Comics #1 (script by Len Wein, art by Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz)

This was a so-so volume on the whole, with the Power Girl and Infinity Inc. stories being pretty meh, and the Seven Soldiers of Victory one being flagrantly uninteresting. I did really like the Justice Society of America story, though; it was actually kind of touching to see these oldsters go into battle one last time, knowing it could be the last, and then walk off into the sunset at the end. I haven't read very much JSA stuff, but I always enjoy it when I do-- that sense of legacy is one of the best parts of DC, and in this legacy-free "New 52" era, Convergence allows for a little touch of it once again.

Why doesn't DC bring back the proper JSA, anyway?
from Convergence: Justice Society of America #2 (script by Dan Abnett, art by Tom Derenick & Trevor Scott)

Next Week: Captain Marvel, the Blue Beetle, the Crime Syndicate, Booster Gold, and the Freedom Fighters battle for their lives in Convergence: Infinite Earths, Book 2!

Faster than a DC Bullet: Prose Fiction #6: Project Crisis!, Part XV: Crisis on Infinite Earths [novelization]

Hardcover, 310 pages
Published 2005
Borrowed from the library
Read August 2013

Crisis on Infinite Earths
by Marv Wolfman

Thirty years after he wrote the original comic, Marv Wolfman revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths by retelling the story in prose. It's less a retelling, though, and more an alternate perspective or side story. The book is narrated in the first person by the Flash, Barry Allen (with the occasional third-person limited interlude from other characters, mostly to give a sense of scale), after his death. When the Flash runs so fast he freakin' disintegrates, he essentially becomes unstuck in time, bouncing back and forth through the events of the Crisis, mostly unseen but always seeing. The novel is his attempt to put together the big events that lead up to his death, at the same time trying to make contact with his wife, Iris.

The novel gives a lot of glimpses into parts of the Crisis we didn't see in the comics-- there's a lot more material on Lyla/Harbingers (one of my favorite characters!), for one-- while glossing over much of the other action. I don't know how well it would stand alone, but as a companion piece that doesn't retread the original, it actually works very well. Barry is a great viewpoint character, a reasonably ordinary fellow, just a police investigator doing the best he can in progressively more impossible circumstances. I found myself getting a little misty-eyed at the novel's conclusion. What an ending! I know Barry comes back to life during the Final Crisis; I find it hard to believe that it'll be worth undoing what a great death he received.

It's interesting to note that Wolfman has revisited the events of the Crisis three times-- in Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (1999), in this novel (2005), and in "New Day, Final Destiny," his tale for the 1980s DC Retroactive: Superman issue (2011). In all three cases there's an association between the Crisis and the increased grimness of comics after 1985. In the Legends of the DCU issue, Earth-D, already a more joyous and optimistic world than Earth-One, is destroyed,* and in DC Retroactive, the pre-Crisis Superman receives a vision from Destiny of the Endless (actually Harbinger in disguise) of all the terrible things to come after the Crisis, like The Death of Superman, Knightfall, Identity Crisis, and Blackest Night.

In this novel, Superman at one point realizes that in order to combat the threat to the multiverse, the heroes are going to have to become more like the villains, and learn how to kill. The implication being, to me at least, that this determination became a defining aspect of the post-Crisis single universe. One wonders if Wolfman blames the grimness of superhero comic books-- which began around the time of the Crisis with Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, The Longbow Hunters, et al.-- on himself in some way. One can kinda see it: a lot of that unnecessary grimness is born out of the requirements of "event"-based storytelling, and that model of storytelling was ushered in by Crisis on Infinite Earths and hasn't really gone away since. I guess what I'm asking is, does Marv Wolfman blame himself for Trinity War?

That's it for Crises for now-- before I tackle the onslaught that is Infinite Crisis, I'll be taking a break from superheroes by journeying into... the Houses of Mystery and Secrets!

* The events of which are kinda alluded to in this novel-- the Flash mentions seeing Earth-D destroyed and describes its superheroes. He doesn't mention helping save its civilians, but the recounting is vague and brief enough that the stories could fit together.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part IX: Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium

Hardcover, 96 pages
Published 2005 (contents: 1986-2005)
Borrowed from the library
Read July 2013

Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium
by Murray Ward, Lou Mougin, Mark Waid, and John Wells

This book comes in a slipcase with Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition, and this is what-- other than the larger pages-- really makes the book "absolute". There's a wealth of special features here, beginning with "Anatomy of a Crisis," Robert Greenberger's writeup (albeit uncredited in the book itself) of how Crisis on Infinite Earths was planned, replete with extracts from contemporary memos. Fascinating to see how far back it went, how it got approved-- and see the note where Jenette Kahn approved the death of Supergirl! It explains a lot of things about the book, in particular why the earlier chapters lack incident while the later ones are jam-packed with continuity references: the editors of the other books weren't into the idea... until it all started selling. Crisis was the first comics crossover event (other than Secret Wars, but everyone in here is always dissing Secret Wars), and much of what the creators resisted at the time has become de rigueur nowadays. In the wake of Flashpoint and the "New 52" especially it's amusing to read that they didn't think they could get away with starting every series over with a new #1!

Then there's "Crisis Index" by Murray Ward, Lou Mougin, and Mark Waid, which first lists the infinite Earths-- and there sure are a lot-- and then gives an issue-by-issue breakdown of character appearances. "Crisis Crossovers" tells you where all the contemporary action was that wove in and out of Crisis. I'd like to read these now: put together a collection, DC! Admirably thorough, and they even explain some of the confusing bits.

The book ends with a few features by John Wells talking about the repercussions of Crisis on DC's stories from 1985 to the present. Again, very well done. In broad strokes, one might say I knew all of the information presented in this book, but there's a wealth of detail that I had no idea about. This is the seventh absolute edition I've read (the others being the first four Sandman volumes, The Absolute Death, and The Absolute Authority), but in terms of extras, it surpasses all the others.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part VIII: Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2005 (contents: 1985)
Borrowed from the library
Read July 2013

Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: George Pérez
Inkers: Dick Giordano, Mike DeCarlo, Jerry Ordway
Colorists: Anthony Tollin, Tom Ziuko, Carl Gafford
Color Reconstruction and Enhancement: Tom McCraw
Letterer: John Costanza

I've read Crisis on Infinite Earths twice before, I think (see a lengthy review here), but this is my first time reading the absolute edition, and also my first time reading in in context-- I've just come off reading seven volumes of Crisis on Multiple Earths (unfortunately, not eight; I had to skip the latest one because it came out too recently to get hold of via interlibrary loan). That context, to my surprise, really did add something beyond the fact that I recognized many more of the characters this time out: when Earth-3 bit the dust in the first chapter, I knew what  their deaths meant, and the demise of Ultraman was surprisingly touching.

Looking over my old review, though, I must say I have little to add, other than that the earlier chapters dragged for me more than they did last time-- man, is it clear that Wolfman did not know how to stretch this story out to twelve issues. And the later chapters are stuffed with continuity gubbins. On the other hand, the larger size shows that delicious Pérez artwork off even better than before-- man, can he do layouts like no other. There is some absolutely killer page design here. And to think he was working from dialogue-less plots!

Now that I've read more, it's a little odd how the timeline changes happen here. Once Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-4, Earth-S, and Earth-X are all integrated, no one's history seems to have really changed: Captain Marvel is still around, Supergirl still existed, &c. It's only later, apparently, that they were wiped from continuity. Poor guys-- one imagines a desparate Captain Marvel watching his family slowly wiped from existence, one by one, as the way is paved for Roy Thomas's Shazam! The New Beginning. Or that one day, Superman wakes up and discovers no one remembers Supergirl... and then the next day wakes up and he doesn't remember her, either.

I do have a new favorite moment. When Brainiac and the Earth-1 Lex Luthor create their time-filling alliance of evil, the Earth-2 Luthor is offended that he wasn't picked. Brainiac just disintegrates Luthor-2, which made me laugh, but what nails the whole thing is the way Luthor-1 doesn't even really react. He gives a small smile, says, "Good," and is on with the business of plotting multiversal domination. I love you, Lex.

"...THE DARKNESS IS ALIVE!" is still one of the most chilling things I have read, though.

Faster than a DC Bullet, Issue #6: Crisis on Infinite Earths

Comic trade paperback, ~368 pages
Published 2000 (contents: 1985-86)
Borrowed from a friend
Read October 2008

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Penciller: George Pérez
Inkers: Dick Giordano, Mike DeCarlo, Jerry Ordway
Colorists: Anthony Tollin, Tom Ziuko, Carl Gafford
Color Reconstruction: Tom McCraw
Letterer: John Costanza

DC Universe Timeline: Six Years Ago
Real World Timeline: July 1985

(We've vaulted straight over the early careers of the modern superheroes-- it's been seven years since Superman For All Seasons and The Superman Chronicles, six years since The Long Halloween. It also happens to be the MONTH I WAS BORN. Coincidence that a multiverse-shaking event happened at that very moment? I sincerely doubt it. Though, going by DC Universe time, it's 1991 and I'm only six years old right now. Or maybe my body was infused with antimatter and I grew at a fantastically accelerated rate. In any case, I must be posting this on Usenet.)

It's a well-known fact that by the 1980s, the continuity of the DC Universe-- sorry, Multiverse-- was in such a state that students of Russian hermeneutics were rejecting it as too confusing. But Marv Wolfman was a man with a plan: destroy it and replace it with something even more bizarre and inexplicable. The vehicle for this transformation was Crisis on Infinite Earths, an twelve-issue miniseries that would change the state of comics forever, subjecting us to poorly thought out crossovers on a regular basis for the next 25 years and beyond, I'm sure. Actually, I've never read any of the other "crises", but my perusal of Internet bulletin boards has confirmed that I'm supposed to hate them.

Actually, I find it bizarrely hard to pass judgment on Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's not so much a work of art as a fact of life. It's not something you can judge, it just is. It's known for what it did, not how it did it. Because even if it had done it all poorly, it still would have been as famous and influential as it is today.

But I don't think it did do it poorly. Sure, it's melodramatic as possible sometimes, but it's a comic book crossover dealing with the collapse of an infinite number of universes, what do you expect? Most of the time, it's just plain fun-- Marv Wolfman has an encyclopedic knowledge of DC characters and continuity, and that shines through here in the ridiculous number of characters who appear in this comic. In fact, he knows so many obscure characters, it frequently becomes a problem-- when the Monitor assembles his team to defend his vibrational forks (whatever), he brings together Superman, Blue Beetle, Dawnstar, Green Lantern, Psimon, Geo-Force, Cyborg, Obsidian, Firebrand, Firestorm, Killer Frost, Psycho Pirate, Doctor Polaris, and a giant gorilla. Who the heck are these people? Obviously I known Superman and the other heavy hitters, but Geo-Force? Firebrand? Doctor Polaris, the Master of Magnetism? I don't think anyone yearning for a crossover of DC's infinite characters was ever clamoring for a Psimon/Doctor Polaris teamup.

The other problem is that when you've got a threat that's big enough to bring all these people together... it's a threat too big for them to actually handle. The protagonists in this story are little more than tools for the Monitor, who is privy to a plot that is never really fully revealed, jerking our heroes from point to point, having them run contrived little tasks, such as guarding his vibrational cutlery. Often, threats are contrived just to spice things up, such as when Lex Luthor, never to be outdone, decides that he's going to take over four Earths at once with the help of every supervillain ever, prompting a protracted battle to fill page space while the heroes fight back.

The deficiency of our own heroes in such cosmic occurrences is really shown fully in "Death at the Dawn of Time", when our heroes stand around watching the Spectre do all of the work that it takes to defeat the Anti-Monitor. Well, one of the times-- the Anti-Monitor comes back from the dead about three times after this, sometimes a mere page after his most recent demise. I was so happy when the Superman of Earth-2 punched him so hard that he exploded. Though why this should have killed him when the power of Darkseid could not, I have no idea.

I guess these are just the natural problems of writing a crossover this big. And most of the time, Wolfman is solid enough to keep you from realizing that the main characters aren't actually doing much other than looking at the oh-so-slow moving walls of antimatter. There's certainly a lot to like here, too. One of the biggest deals that of course happens in this book is that Supergirl is killed off. (Which is convenient, since she doesn't exist in the new continuity at the story's end. Indeed, all of the characters who don't exist in the new timeline are killed off at some point, all of them just happening to get in the way of one of the Anti-Monitor's blasts.) This didn't really affect me a whole lot when I read the story for the first time-- I knew it was going to happen (it's on the cover, for crying out loud), and I've never been attached to the Silver Age Supergirl.

But what did get me was the death of the Flash-- I had no idea! And it's such a great death, too. Despite everything that's happened to him, to his world, he just keeps on running and running and running, doing his best to stop the Anti-Monitor from making a giant cannon or whatever the heck it is, running so hard and so fast that he dissolves. How freaking awesome is that? I was genuinely moved the first time I read the book. Barry Allen, I'll miss you. Even if I've never read another story featuring you.

The other weird thing, but mostly in retrospect, is all the sideplots that were obviously setups for what was going to happen in other comic books. What's all that nonsense about the Red Tornado, anyway? And the blue dude with the horns meeting those guys in space? And you know I'm never going to pick up New Teen Titans #15 to read about Starfire's wedding plans. As for the new Wildcat? Who the crap cares?

I've been remiss-- all this time and I've yet to mention George Pérez's artwork. Because that, more than anything else, is what sells this story. I find it amazing that the man could pump out work of this caliber on a monthly basis-- and some of the issues are double-sized! The level of detail is extraordinary. Some of his panels feature Every Character Ever-- and all of them are recognizable! Well, recognizable to someone much more well-versed in DC minutia than myself. And as for his layouts... some of these pages feature more than a dozen panels! All of them clear and distinct. A Pérez comic does not waste space. He chooses his full-page panels carefully. The destruction of entire universe can sometimes be one panel out of many-- when he does a two-page spread, you know it's important! I wish I could say more about his artwork, but I don't know a thing about artwork, and the best I could do would be to say "It's awesome" again and again. (Oh, I really dig the black-and-white extracts from "The Monitor Tapes" at the bottom of the pages of "Death at the Dawn of Time!" Obviously Pérez was a master of any color scheme.)

Great Rao, this review has been all over the place. But I think that's appropriate for a story like Crisis on Infinite Earths, one so big it could scarcely be contained or summed up in an effective manner, thanks to Marv Wolfman's encyclopedic knowledge and cosmic plotting and George Pérez's masterful artwork and incredible layouts. One can only hope that like Crisis, the legacy of this review will live on... forever! Or at least the next 25 years of Faster than a DC Bullet.

Note that this originally appeared on my old LiveJournal and included pictures back then. Sadly, the pictures are lost in the mists of the Internet.