Main Menu

DC 'Crisis Events'

Started by Tjm86, 16 November, 2023, 05:14:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Tjm86

I have to admit to being a bit ambivalent when it comes to DC's superhero output.  I've dabbled with Batman from time to time, even tried to get into Superman without much success.  I've always enjoyed their more eclectic stuff from the Vertigo imprint, Kelley Jones' Deadman work, the criminally under-rated pre-Vertigo Wasteland ...

One series I've always been curious about is Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Having not paid much attention to it back in the day, seeing it come up as often as it has in people's lists, I decided to give it a plunge.

... which inevitably led on to trying out some of the related series.  Having read Court of Owls and Batman Year Zero and being utterly baffled, I've been trying to make sense of some of the resets DC have played with.  This has led to an exploration of the related series: Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis and Flashpoint.

Unfortunately this has turned into a bit of a rabbits warren as each series works with so much baggage I found myself even more confused.  A bit of digging around turns up the sequence that links much of this together.  So Infinite Crisis leads into 52, which leads into Countdown to Final Crisis and then to Final Crisis itself.

That said, Infinite Crisis comes across as a story you are very much starting in the middle of and that is hardly surprising since it builds on events from about half a dozen mini-series plus the JLA linked Identity Crisis.  So there is more backtracking to get to a point where things actually make sense.

At least Identity Crisis seems to stand on its own.  As stories go it is fairly typical super-hero stuff but with a crime-noir sensibility.  At the heart of it though is a rather uncomfortable secret for the members of the JLA which is where things link to Infinite Crisis.  A decision made with regards to Batman has significant consequences.  (for those who haven't read it, I'm not going to say much more than that).

I have to say that overall it works quite well. Unlike many of the other series mentioned here, it's not trying to address myriad plot threads.  The artwork is a much higher standard than I've seen from DC in the past.  The plot moves along nicely, twisting and turning on its way, before dropping its ultimate bombshells.

Repercussions from events follow through the JLA title up to Infinite Crisis which is what I'm working through now.  It's interesting to see how the morality of the decisions made in Identity Crisis play out and actually makes for a far more engaging story than I'd ever given DC credit for.  Certainly worth a look.

Colin YNWA

#1
I've read pretty much all of those series, most of which came out as I was getting back into comics and when doing so was a real DC fanboy. I still have a real soft spot for DC characters and if I'm honest some of the convulted 'multiverse' stuff its swamped in. So very briefly here a quick summary of my thoughts.

Crisis on Infinite Earths - the original and not the best. Lovely art but really showing its age and the dialogue is Wolfman doing Claremont at his worst!

...Loads of events from my wilderness years I've not read...(well I've read Millenium and that was rubbish and Invasion was pretty poor too but neither of those were Crisis events)

Identity Crisis - Not read it for some time, must get around to it, not really a 'crisis' story cos as you say it really just a superhero crime story, but pretty good fun.

Infinite Crisis - its okay as I recall, been a long time since I read it and given how much I don't really like Geoff Johns' work I kinda think on re-read I might hate it now?!?

52 - not a Crisis event but a bridging piece as you suggest but I remember really liking this and thought it was creeping up my reading list, but just checked and its not. Which is a shame as I fancy giving this another go. One day.

Final Crisis - My favourite big mainstream comic event of them all. I love this. It feels like the comic all of Morrison's DC work was building up to and the story he always wanted to write (just look at Zenith Phase 3). Chock full of Morrison imagination. I'll have more to say about this one in the future on a thread somewhere!

Flashpoint - there were some interesting ideas in the various mini-series and some not so interesting ideas. The key series itself was a checklist really. Not a fan.

And that's where I jumped ship from DC events on the whole. Lasted about 18 months of Nu52 (a couple or three titles longer) and then all but stopped getting DC comics.

Amongst all that there was also Blackest Night (inbetween Final Crisis and Flashpoint). Not a Crisis event rather DC trying to cash in on the zombie crazy of the time. See my thoughts on Flashpoint really. 

RookieNerd

As a new DC reader I treat everything in isolation. Looking for consistency continuity in DC is a joke for a new reader. Just Batman alone so many variants/variations. Just hunting for the best stories across several characters and JLA stuff.

I have got the Zero Hour Crisis in Time trade, DC Universe Rebirth comic & Blackest Night trade. Crisis on Infinite Earths & Flashpoint is something I am midly curious about, but no real rush to experience it yet.

In terms of interest 80's to 2012 ish stuff I like the most. Earth One was fine & N52 was mid. Not read enough Rebirth to make an informed opinion yet. Reading the points of reset I suppose is useful lore wise, but I am not really bothered how things connect or don't connect.

Tjm86

I think I'd have to agree on the consistency / continuity dimension.  As far as Infinite Crisis was concerned, the real issue was trying to make sense of events in the story.  Hence tracking down the earlier linked series.  It isn't so much about whether these tales connect or not and more about making sense of the narrative.

Going through Omac / Superman: Sacrifice, the plot points from IC make a bit more sense with respect to the Omacs.  To be fair, that story worked quite nicely.  As with Identity Crisis, it played it as a murder mystery of sorts. Lots of threads and good use of the likes of Checkmate.  The quality of artwork is much better than I recall DC being renowned for. 

The overlap with Superman: Sacrifice feels like a bit of a shoe-horn.  Of all the storylines leading into IC, it is by far the weakest on multiple levels.  It doesn't help that Superman isn't really that interesting a character a lot of the time.  Aside from Wonder Woman's rather extreme act, there is little here that matters.

The strongest of the linked series though is the Rann / Thanagar War.  Hardly surprising considering it's written by our very own Dave Gibbons.  Adam Strange has always struck me as one of the most under-rated of DCs character roster and although I've read little of Hawkman since Truman's Hawkworld, there's plenty to play with which Gibbons does with gusto.  It's got everything from mystery to epic space battles to zombies to homicidal, invincible (ish) beings.  It would not be completely out of place in Tooth and is well worth a butchers if you get a chance.

BadlyDrawnKano

I really don't like Identity Crisis because of the character who is killed of, I know I'm over sensitive to this sort of thing, and I don't care if they kill Superman or Batman as you know he'll return, but the death of this particular character sums up a lot of issues I have with DC right now.

Also, I know it probably doesn't count, but the Crisis storyline in Grant Morrison's Animal Man run is one of my favourite ever things.

Tjm86

I suppose with not having much experience with the characters in question, it didn't really mean all that much to me.  Then again, it was also very much a 'refrigerator moment' in terms of plot devices so I take your point.  Not read much DC of late but then I've pretty much given up on American comics as far as current stuff is concerned.

Moving back to Infinite Crisis, a re-read of Day of Vengeance.  One thing I've always felt DC do well is their magic stuff.  From Hellblazer through Sandman and Swamp Thing to Books of Magic (the original mini-series), there does seem to be a bit of a maturity to it that Marvel often lack.  In terms of DofV, this holds to a certain extent.  It does descend into standard Superhero fare but by and large it treads the more interesting tracks of the DC verse.  The idea of the Spectre on the rampage, decimating the coherent structure of magic, probably makes a lot more sense to someone better versed in DC history but as a relatively experienced reader it worked as an interesting story.

Having worked through all the linked mini-series, it was now time to retackle Infinite Crisis itself.  So much of it made far more sense now.  Clearly this is a weakness of this 'event'.  If readers need to dig back through a good couple of years worth of storylines just to make sense of events then something is going wrong.  At the very least there needs to be a helpful guide to point readers in the right direction and give some sense of important events.  Why is Batman so paranoid, what the hell are the Omacs, what is the problem with Wonder Woman, who is this 2nd Superman ... too many questions that need answering to follow the story.

That said, once these problems are overcome, it's okay as these events go.  Perhaps a little overloaded with the Rann-Thanagar War, the Omac crisis, Spectre going bonkers and several alternate Luthors, one of whom is trying to destroy the multiverse to create one perfect Earth.  Then you add in a psycho Superboy.  Yep, a little too busy really.

Maybe that's the real problem here.  Things got out of hand, overly ambitious.  The end result is a mediocre read rather than something impressive.  Where Crisis on Infinite Earths is still held in high regard decades later, I'm not sure this is going to last as well.  Given the ambivalence folks have towards Zero Hour, I'm still undecided on whether it is worth a punt ...