How would you have done the Crisis differently.

[SiegePerilous02]

They needed a big, attention grabbing event with lasting changed regardless. But I'd prefer if the event happened without altering continuity. Just play it off as an epic event that killed off some big name characters like Barry and Kara, and set up new overhauls for the big name books. Leave the Multiverse intact, because I don't think the Multiverse was ever actually a source of confusion for readers. It was more that DC's writing style was corny and outdated for the most part compared to Marvel, and that didn't need a continuity re-set to fix.

So put Byrne on Superman and Perez on Wonder Woman, but don't have them do a continuity reboot. None of their big changes really required a reboot to happen anyway: Lex can just shift gears and try to be a "legitimate" businessman, Clark's relationship with Lois can evolve, Kara is dead anyway so why go the extra step of wiping out her entire existence, etc. Diana just needs to drop her secret ID and get a power upgrade so she has full flight; the mythological elements already got some serious attention in NTT, so Perez could have overhauled them further within the confines of continuity. New cast like the Kapatelis women and Myndi? So what, just add them onto the ever changing status quos Wonder Woman had any way. Same with the villain revamps. Barbara Minerva is the third Cheetah in publication history, might as well just have it be reflected in-universe as well. And there wouldn't be the domino effects all of this had on the Legion, Justice League and Donna.

Alternatively, if there is meant to be a reboot no matter what? Don't screw around and try to have it both ways. Just hit the re-set button across the board. Have the Earths be merged in the story to stop the Anti-Monitor, and then un-merge them when he is defeated. And from that event, a new Earth is created from their merger that combined aspects of all of them. This New Earth would be the focus of all ongoing stories: new iterations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. with all new histories. The classic Earths would be understood to still be existing, but they wouldn't be touched upon anymore.

[Gaius]

Infinite Crisis - Batman suffers consequences for his own actions.

I know, probably the hardest pill to swallow.

[SiegePerilous02]

Infinite Crisis - Batman suffers consequences for his own actions.

I know, probably the hardest pill to swallow.

I would rather he be revealed to have been replaced by a White Martian circa War Games and the real one comes back just in time for Morrison's run

[kingaliencracker]

The problem was Crisis was needed. DC was in a death spiral in the late 70s early 80s. Out side of a very few books most people were not reading DC because they were seen as old fashioned and corny. If they had not done something as radical as Crisis to get more (and younger) eyes on their books DC would probably not be around today, and if it was it would be very simple stories aimed at very young kids like Casper or Disney comics.

I just don't agree. Many of the things that set DC on a better path post-Crisis would have happened with or without Crisis. Even Superman's changes could have happened with his original history in tact. Don't want any more Kryptonians? Well, you just killed off Supergirl, and you could have destroyed the Phantom Zone in Crisis. Want Superman depowered? Come up with some deus ex machina explanation that depowers him. No Krypto or Buck Rogers Krypton? Just don't reference them.

And the stories that REALLY put DC on the map in the 80's - The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Killing Joke - would have/could have been done without Crisis.

I guess you may be arguing that Crisis was some kind of placebo that allowed DC to break some kind of creative rut. If that's the argument, then you could be right. But it still doesn't change that the majority of what DC accomplished post-Crisis really had nothing to do with Crisis itself - they simply wrote better stories. And it definitely doesn't change that DC's continuity has been an utter disaster since.

[Jon Clark]

I just don't agree. Many of the things that set DC on a better path post-Crisis would have happened with or without Crisis. Even Superman's changes could have happened with his original history in tact. Don't want any more Kryptonians? Well, you just killed off Supergirl, and you could have destroyed the Phantom Zone in Crisis. Want Superman depowered? Come up with some deus ex machina explanation that depowers him. No Krypto or Buck Rogers Krypton? Just don't reference them.

And the stories that REALLY put DC on the map in the 80's - The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Killing Joke - would have/could have been done without Crisis.

I guess you may be arguing that Crisis was some kind of placebo that allowed DC to break some kind of creative rut. If that's the argument, then you could be right. But it still doesn't change that the majority of what DC accomplished post-Crisis really had nothing to do with Crisis itself - they simply wrote better stories. And it definitely doesn't change that DC's continuity has been an utter disaster since.

I don't think it was the specific changes from Crisis that were the reason the series was needed. It was the clear change of direction that the series provided. DC could have changed the books but without the hype from Crisis to make new readers look what would it matter? No one was going to pick up Superman #424, Wonder Woman #327, or even Justice League International #1 to see the changes if DC had just published them as next issues alongside the X-men .

[scary harpy]

I just don't agree. Many of the things that set DC on a better path post-Crisis would have happened with or without Crisis. Even Superman's changes could have happened with his original history in tact. Don't want any more Kryptonians? Well, you just killed off Supergirl, and you could have destroyed the Phantom Zone in Crisis. Want Superman depowered? Come up with some deus ex machina explanation that depowers him. No Krypto or Buck Rogers Krypton? Just don't reference them.

And the stories that REALLY put DC on the map in the 80's - The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Killing Joke - would have/could have been done without Crisis.

I guess you may be arguing that Crisis was some kind of placebo that allowed DC to break some kind of creative rut. If that's the argument, then you could be right. But it still doesn't change that the majority of what DC accomplished post-Crisis really had nothing to do with Crisis itself - they simply wrote better stories. And it definitely doesn't change that DC's continuity has been an utter disaster since.

Agreed, kingaliencracker.

The stories that REALLY put DC on the map in the 80's - The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Killing Joke - were damn dark and tainted the comics for the next decades. Those three stories should have been 'imaginary stories' or a mature label should have been created for them! This was an awful time to try to escape into comics; most everything was grimdark.

I don't think it was the specific changes from Crisis that were the reason the series was needed. It was the clear change of direction that the series provided. DC could have changed the books but without the hype from Crisis to make new readers look what would it matter? No one was going to pick up Superman #424, Wonder Woman #327, or even Justice League International #1 to see the changes if DC had just published them as next issues alongside the X-men .

The specific changes from Crisis created a steaming hot mess that we are still dealing with today. If the changes from Crisis that were not the reason the series was needed, then DC should have been undoing them a long, long time ago!

Sadly, DC seems incapable of clearing its wreckage. That's why I advocate for returning to pre-Crisis continuity. I feel that if DC could fix this, TPTB surely would have by now.

[Kirk Brent]

I agree with Marv Wolfman: I wish COIE had been a hard reboot.

I agree with other posters about keeping Earth 2. Earth 1 and Earth 2 could have been on opposite sides of the Sun; this would have simplified much.

Charlton heroes could have folded into Earth 1; Quality heroes could have been folded into Earth 2.

I am unsure about Fawcett heroes. I guess it would depend on the direction DC would want to take them.

Earth Prime's Superboy could have become the LSH's Superboy. He'd be the last survivor of Earth Prime/an Earth from a pocket dimension created by the Time Trapper. (That's how everyone would 'remember' it post-COIE.) He could have been adopted by Kal-L and Lois.

I don't know how to save Earth 3 since it was destroyed early. (Perhaps the CSA were Qwardians as suggested in a JLI Quarterly long, long ago.)

Attachment 122030

I am trying to keep this as simple as possible. (K.I.S.S.)

Great ideas here! Earth-3 could have been treated as an antimatter reality like Morrison did with E2. As for Superboy Prime, I love the idea that he'd go off into the future. He remained a selfless hero despite losing his entire world and didn't deserve to be turned into a meta-commentary on bitter fans. I could also see Kal-L and Superboy Prime depowered and living with Lois on a farm somewhere on New Earth. That could be the last we see of them but at least we'd know they live happily ever after.

I just wouldn't have done it. As great as COIE was, and it's still an epic story, all it did was muddle the DCU and slowly put us on the path we are on today, which is a cluster you-know-what of history and continuity. Ultimately it was just unnecessary, as most of the changes DC wanted could have been accomplished with established continuity, and the changes that were aggressively counter to the pre-Crisis universe (such as Wonder Woman not helping found the JL, lack of multiverse, Superman not being the first super hero) weren't well-received.

Completely agree. It was an "either/or" solution that WB/DC execs demanded rather than the best way to repair the entire line. I agree that something was needed, but not the COIE we got.

The problem was Crisis was needed. DC was in a death spiral in the late 70s early 80s. Out side of a very few books most people were not reading DC because they were seen as old fashioned and corny. If they had not done something as radical as Crisis to get more (and younger) eyes on their books DC would probably not be around today, and if it was it would be very simple stories aimed at very young kids like Casper or Disney comics.

An event was needed, but not one that destroyed the rich continuity of DC Comics. I and many people that I know (growing up and online) had zero problems understanding the Multiverse; in fact, I was exposed to it from my older brother's All-Star Squadron/JLA crossovers and was fascinated by the idea of multiple Earths and characters. It seemed like a universe of endless possibilities. We know that both Alan Moore and John Byrne had suggestions to repair Superman's continuity without a full reboot. The same could have been done elsewhere as needed. Even then, they both recognized that completely razing the DCU as it had existed since the Silver Age was a bad idea.

Personally, I think Infinite Crisis was a missed opportunity to fix several things and I've mentioned some of them before:

Couldn't agree more. Infinite Crisis really would have been the perfect story and time to fix everything. Restore the pre-COIE Multiverse, adjust continuity so that everything post-COIE happened but with multiversal travel, and introduce a new Earth to serve as an "Ultimate DC." Put the major focus on that Earth while also publishing books set on the pre-Infinite Crisis Earths. Instead, we got another classic missed opportunity from DC.

On infinite Crisis Alex Luthor wasn't trying to recreate the multiverse, he was trying to break the dark walls than separated the main earth from the rest of the multiverse, who believed than the old core earths were destroyed.

Luthor manipulated Kal-L and Superboy Prime into helping him by promising that the "new Earth" wouldn't be dark like the post-COIE Earth. His goal was indeed to recreate the Multiverse so that he could "sift" through the restored Earths to create what he considered the "perfect Earth." He accomplished both until the infinite Multiverse collapsed again. If it was the pre-COIE Multiverse, we never saw a solid indication of that in the series itself. The multiverse of 52 was specifically described as not being the same.

Assuming I don't have a choice in the matter, I would probably have redundant versions of characters "merge" and keep elements of both Earth 1 and Earth 2. So both Supermen would merge and while most of the SA elements would be thrown out, like no history as Superboy, he would probably have an modern day version of his GA origin where he still has powers from day one but not all of them. Maybe go the S&L route and have him wear the Fleischer suit early on. It would basically be the modern Superman with the GA origin. WW would merge with her GA self and she would be a founding member of the JSA who would "retire" after they broke up but still operated in secret. This would allow Donna to keep her pre-Crisis origin. The one big hang up would be the fate of Barry. I am against killing him. If the company was determined to have Wally take over, I would probably have him retire in the future and just have Wally take his place in the present. With Batman's Earth 2 counterpart dead, the Miller origin would probably happen anyway.

I prefer multiple versions myself, but your solution is far better than what we got after COIE. I also think Barry should have remained in the future, allowing him to live happily and still be available for appearances here and there. He could have even had his own book, set in the 30th century.