Rating:  -
This megacrossover mini-series of late seems to add without any necessity to the story set forth by DC Comics' Crisis On Infinite Earths, which was a far-better and cleaner megacrossover mini-series. Superman of Earth-2 with his wife Lois Lane-Kent, Alexander Luthor Jr. of Earth-3, and Superboy of Earth-Prime, last seen entering into a paradise dimension as DC's way of giving them a "happily ever after" ending, have returned from that dimension to find (at least according to the three heroes' perception) that the post-Crisis Earth they sacrificed their existences for has turned dark and corrupt, and the big three heroes -- Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman -- have done nothing but added to its corruption. Of course, time in this paradise hasn't been kind to these four either -- Superman's wife's health is fading, Superboy-Prime is extremely jealous of the Superman-cloned Superboy having the life he should have had, and Alex is living closer to the corrupt name of Lex Luthor as he manipulates everything behind the scenes in order to split the merged Earth back into its multiple universe iterations so that he could re-merge them into a "perfect Earth". The four of them break out of this dimension in order to carry out this plan, engaging various heroes such as the historically-challenged Power Girl (whom DC Comics seems to admit that they haven't given her a decent post-Crisis origin with the removal of her Earth-2 cousin Superman) in the hopes of either gaining sympathetic ears or just gaining a body that could power their giant Earth-splitting machine that has the corpse of the armored Anti-Monitor adorning it. The Earth splits to form the multiple universes again, and Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-2 reappear on "their Earth" thinking all will again be well when Lois dies, triggering a resentful anger that he takes out on the post-Crisis Superman. Meanwhile, Superboy-Prime goes totally over to the dark side, even to the point of constructing solar-powered armor similar to that of the Anti-Monitor, as he wages war against the post-Crisis Earth heroes, forever blaming them for making him as he is now. In short, the multiple universes fuse back together to form a new post-Infinite Crisis Earth universe, Alex Luthor becomes a victim of his own machinations, Earth-2 Superman sacrifices his life to stop Superboy-Prime's rampage, and three main heroes of the DC Universe decide to take some time off to do some soul-searching to get themselves back to normal again. Of course, Superboy-Prime survives inside a prison where his corrupt soul plans on an escape. While the DC Universe arguably may have needed some continuity cleanup since its last attempt to do so through Zero Hour: Crisis In Time, it's too bad that they had to use a twist on Crisis On Infinite Earth's "happy ending" in order to set forth in motion this new cleanup effort, and that's what I don't like about this story. The artwork is pretty good, though having its densely-packed moments of heroes and villains all doing what they do best, and also getting as graphic in displaying violence as the once-mighty "new comics" superheroes in the Image universe.
Rating:  -
2006 was basically The Year of Superman, what with Smallville on DVD & TV, Lois & Clark DVDs, Superman & Justice League Animated Series DVDs, the Donner Cut of Superman 2, new comics, and the new film Superman Returns... WOW! It's taken me back to my childhood in a great way, and the area I needed the most catching-up in is in the comics realm. A writer from one of the Superman websites gave me a list of favorites, including "INFINITE CRISIS". Pleased that Amazon offered the complete story in graphic novel form, I picked it up.... and really can't put it down!
INFINITE CRISIS is worth every cent you spend, and for every minute you give to it, it gives back over and over! WHAT A STORY!!! WHAT ARTWORK!!! This is on the top of my list now. I've read it three times and am still finding new nuances.
It seems like the writing is spot-on to each of the characters, and every character in the DC universe is probably in it somewhere or another. There is some gritty material - well done - especially within the Trinity - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman - quite an interesting arc there, edgy at first and a great resolve. Excellent battles, my favorite being the ones between Superboy Prime and Superboy/Colin Kent. Nightwing and Powergirl are featured alot too. And the ending is very satisfying (I don't want to say more lest I give it away)!
Any DC fan should have this graphic novel - the hardback will last for a long time, which is good since I'll be reading it ALOT - some of the detailed drawings are just amazing...
And another cool thing is that after I read this, I ordered the original "CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS" graphic novel from 1986, to which "INFINITE CRISIS" is kind-of a sequel to. Don't worry, though, INFINITE CRISIS gives you a several-page recap of the earlier story to get you up-to-speed.
AGAIN - any DC comic fan should have this epic graphic novel - it blows away nearly everything else!
Rating:  -
I read DC Comics for years and I realize`with hindsight that I should have dropped DC after the original Crisis because while the idea behind Crisis had some merit, DC should have been quite firm and said to the writers "Okay, we've got a chance at a solid continuity now and we don't want to look at any stories that will screw up that continuity." If they had done that, we wouldn't have been forced to put up with garbage like Hawkworld. DC had the chance to straighten out their screwed-up Post-Crisis continuity with Zero Hour, but they let the writers screw around with continuity again, hence Infinite Crisis.
But that's only part of the story. The other part is that DC let the writers screw up their characters by letting Identity Crisis come out, where it was revealed that members of the JLA had crossed the line and mindwiped villains. To add insult to injury, they let that story start a countdown to Infinite Crisis, thus I will never read DC anymore because I've got a sour taste in my mouth regarding DC (and Marvel's just as bad because of Civil War).
Rating: -
I'm a big fan of the Golden Age characters. If you enjoy these original heroes, and their continuing stories, you might not enjoy the last few surviving characters acting without good judgment. I'm one of the people that think the outcome of Crisis was poor. The multiverse was not so messy that we have to lose all our golden age characters. Earth 2 was a place where it was okay for heroes to age, retire, and train the next generation of heroes.
This book gives us northing original, it's boring, and abuses good characters to no good end. It uses the time tested gimmicks of having a "Hero Go Bad", "Bringing back characters that seemed forgotten", "involving everyone", "Wonder Woman kills someone(gasp...yawn)", and so on.
Been there, done that, have the bumper sticker, T-Shirt, coffee mug, snap shots, and the key chain.
Rating: -
i thought it was really good. i didn't read any of the other mini series leading up, and it wasn't too hard to figure it out. reading countdown to crisis issue helped i guess. i thought this was great. not as good as identity crisis. i'm probably not as hardcore into comics as some of the other reviews(and honestly, i think the hardcore fan boys are the ones who don't like it). the characterization was fine i thought. way more on target than marvel's civil war
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