Infinite crisis/flashpoint

[M4m4g0th]

Hey ya'll. I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out what major story arcs/miniseries that I misses between countdown to final crisis and flashpoint. I know about 52 aftermath: horseman, and the various other countdown adventure, mystery ect, but what series/mini series happened in between. Thoughts?

[MykeHavoc]

Here's a simplified overview of the main events that took place over a 7 year stretch:

Identity Crisis
Infinite Crisis
52
Sinestro Corps War
Final Crisis
Blackest Night
Brightest Day/Generation Lost
Flashpoint

Now each of these featured numerous tie-ins, from miniseries to issues of ongoing titles. Most companion pieces are collected under banners that dictate their chronological placement:

Many books had tie-ins to Identity Crisis, like Flash, JSA etc. Pretty much everything written by the architects of the DCU at the time (Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Judd Winick) were leaving breadcrumb trails throughout their books, setting up the events that lead from Identity Crisis to Infinite Crisis.

Villains Unite, Rann/Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance, Omac Project, JLA: Crisis of Conscience, Superman: Sacrifice, Superman: Infinite Crisis and the Infinite Crisis Companion are all trades that fall under the "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" category, and along with the main miniseries, make up the Infinite Crisis Omnibus, which acts as a good reading order for the wealth of material. Many of these were spun off into further minis and on-goings later. There were also a few books labelled "Crisis Aftermath" (Battle for Bludhaven and The Spectre) which themselves spawned ongoing series. And many ongoing titles at the time tied into the events as well, like JSA, JLA and so on. It's really hard to narrow down every single issue that ties into each event, as they tend to be line-wide.

Though Sinestro Corps War may seem like strictly a Green Lantern crossover, it does make it's way to earth and involve many of the other heroes in the DCU. It also directly connects into previous stories and lays the path for ones further down the line. The entirety of it can be collected in Sinestro Corps War and Tales of the Sinestro Corps trades.

Most people ignore all the Countdown to Final Crisis stuff, as it ends up having little to do with the final product. The Mister Miracle miniseries from Seven Soldiers of Victory acts as a superior lead up. There were some great minis with the tie in banner (Rogues Revenge, Legion of Three Worlds, Revelations) which have varying degrees of actual connection. There were also "Final Crisis Aftermath" minis that spun out of it.

Blackest Night was a rather comprehensive crossover that touched just about everything. It can be collected in the Blackest Night trade as well as it's companion books Blackest Night: Green Lantern, Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps, Black Lantern Corps vol 1+2, Rise of the Black Lantern and Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps.

Brightest Day is a tough one. A lot of books have the "Brightest Day" banner above them, but very few really tie in to the events directly. The easiest way to look at it is that is was bi-weekly, trading off with Justice League: Generation Lost, essentially making a year long weekly between the two titles. Then, any ongoing you are interested in, like Green Arrow, Flash, Birds of Prey etc. will sort of touch upon it.

And finally Flashpoint is collected in the main mini as well as the books World of Flashpoint featuring Batman/Flash/Green Lantern/Wonder Woman. The 12 issue volume of Flash that directly precedes it could be considered a loose prelude, as well as the Flash: Rebirth mini prior to that, as it makes up the entirety of Geoff Johns' Barry Allen Flash run (itself a followup to his far superior Wally West Flash run).




Anyway...I'm sure there's a lot of holes there, but that's the best I could do off the top of my head. Good luck.

[M4m4g0th]

That was awesome thanks! I'm sure I can fill in the holes with a google search, now that I know the basics. I started reading comics my junior year of highschool, in 2005 during infinite crisis, So I have a lot of comics from that time period.

[poroto678]

Batman RIP, man! it was awesome. Well, it was Morrison's Batman + Final Crisis + Battle for the Cowl + Batman & Robin + Batman Inc. Absolutely worth it.
Johns' GL (Sinestro Corps war, Blackest Night, etc), too.

Also, you missed these, but i highly recommend you keep missing them (they're terrible).

- Both 52 afternmaths: 5 Horsemen (AWFUL) and the Crime Bible one (kinda good)
- Amazons Attack
- - JL: Cry for Justice/Rise and Fall.

Other important arcs, but better in quality (or at least i liked them):
- Flash Rebirth
- New Krypton (very long)