Retro Vision: Infinite Crisis


The world was coming to an end.

The Trinity no longer trusted one another,

and heroes were no longer trusted by the people.

But the villains had become united.

Magic was in a chaotic flux.

And Universes died.

In today’s episode of Retro Vision we take a peek into the multiverse with Infinite Crisis.

OMAC robots are rampaging, magic is dying, villains are uniting, and a war is raging in space. And in the middle of it all, a critical moment has divided Earth’s three greatest heroes: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It’s the DCU’s darkest day, and long-lost heroes from the past have returned to make things right in the universe…at any cost. Heroes will live, heroes will die, and the DCU will never be the same again!

The world is in disarray, Batman’s OMAC robots have shunned their programming and have begun hunting superheroes, Superman no longer has the respect of his peers, & Wonder Woman is now hated & and feared by the community after killing supervillain and former JLI (Justice League International) ally Maxwell Lord live in front of millions. The universe itself is also in a state of chaos, The planets Rann & Thanagar have entered a bloody war, the paranormal entity known as the Spectre (now without a host) has begun a war on magic, destroying the Rock of Eternity which houses mostly all of the magical power of the DCU. And just when things couldn’t get any more harrowing, all the villains in the DCU have decided to band together under the leadership of Lex Luthor (or so they think). So at this point things aren’t well for the heroes, or the galaxy, but that is only the beginning.

4 beings, each lost from their own reality have returned in order to make the world “right” again, but 2 of these 4 individuals have their own diabolical agenda for the multiverse. Spanning over 7 issues, Infinite Crisis was an event of epic proportions not seen since it’s predecessor, Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 1980’s.

Written by now-famous Green Lantern (as well as Justice League & Aquaman) scribe Geoff Johns, Infinite Crisis is a worthy sequel to the 1985 story, while not quite as EPIC is C.O.I.E., it still tells a good story of heroes trying to save their world and villains trying to destroy it. There is and interesting element however as two of the world lost travelers (Superboy-Prime & Alexander Luthor) are sort of tragic villains since they are trying to reshape the universe in order to find a “perfect” world, where no one would be out of place or hurt. While, the actions they take to further their goals are less than sympathetic, it is still an underlying theme that adds another dimension to the story.

Legendary artist George Jimenez illustrates this story just as he did with C.I.O.E., and he hasn’t lost a step. Detailing each and every character in the story without cutting and corners (which is hard to do when this story has a cast of literally thousands). The battles are well drawn and the scale feels big. He is able to infuse both energy & gravitas when needed for each scene which help add to the world shattering atmosphere. He also does a great job of giving each of the alternate worlds shown in the story their own environments and characters.

Infinite Crisis, while suffering from some narrative problems, and some pointless character deaths, is an enjoyable story that accomplishes what it sets out to do. With a good script, fleshed out characters (with the exception of SB-Prime), and great art and action. This is one of DC’s better event comics and while it’s not as big as C.I.O.E. (I.C. having 7 issues while the original crisis had 12), a story like this would have been a better lead into the New 52 reboot, than Flashpoint. If your a DC fan or a comic fan in general, i recommend this story.

3.5/5

 


 

S#!T Talking Central

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15935803 Fats Mclemlich

    Great write up. I had no idea that the orginal COIE was 12 issues long! I thought it was only a 2 part. Can’t imagine reading something that dense and DC-rich nowadays. Agree about Final Crisis. For a book that was created to solve a publishing error (continuity), it does a pretty decent job. BUT… i’ve always thought it weird that the largest story arcs in the DC universe weren’t born out of an organic story, but as a way to fix their broken continuity