"Crisis On Infinite Earths" at 30

[CBR News]

On the 30th anniversary of its debut, ROBOT 6 looks at the game-changing - and universe-destroying - series that remains thrilling, despite its clunkiness.


Full article here.

[gbryantlucas]

So... I know that the first Crisis was a game changer, but man... it is a hard read. I usually like big stories; in fact, I loved the sequel, Infinite Crises. This was a 12 issue behemoth that could have accomplished the same goal with 6-8 issues. By the end of it, I found myself speed reading because I was frustrated. Maybe I'm not used to such decompressed storytelling, but this one was a slugger.

[colonyofcells]

Hopefully, dc can relaunch Titans, Outsiders, a 21st century Legion, JSA, Infinity Inc, etc. on prime earth. Dc should probably have both a teen titans book and a titans book with adult metas. An adult titans book of metas can probably be used to compete with the x-men.

[upgrayedd]

I am reading this again, just got through the first issue, I read it a lot faster when I was a kid just to know what happens nexts, taking my time now and savoring the great Perez art this time.

[colonyofcells]

coie was needed to unclutter the pre-coie universe. Dc had haphazardly assigned their superheroes into the various earths so some important properties were stuck on earth 2, some golden age heroes like tnt were on earth 1, etc. It was much simpler to have all the superheroes on 1 clutter earth universe. After coie, we had a JL with batman (from old earth 1), dr fate (from old earth 2), captain marvel (from old earth s), blue beetle and captain atom (from old earth 4), mr miracle (new gods), etc. Later on JL also had Ray (from old earth x).

[The Darknight Detective]

coie was needed to unclutter the pre-coie universe. Dc had haphazardly assigned their superheroes into the various earths so some important properties were stuck on earth 2, some golden age heroes like tnt were on earth 1, etc. It was much simpler to have all the superheroes on 1 clutter earth universe. After coie, we had a JL with batman (from old earth 1), dr fate (from old earth 2), captain marvel (from old earth s), blue beetle and captain atom (from old earth 4), mr miracle (new gods), etc. Later on JL also had Ray (from old earth x).

Except nobody was really complaining about the Multiverse back then. I know not everybody likes to hear this, but COIE was created to boost sales and nothing more (as was also the case with the DCnU reboot). If sales had been good 30 years ago, there might have been a soft reboot to fix certain aspects of the original universe (either for modernization or to make better sense of whatever), but not a full-blown reboot.

[colonyofcells]

Coie seems to have started as a way to unclutter the pre-coie universe and or maybe the writer just liked to do a story featuring almost all the superheroes (altho he seemed to have forgotten to include most of the new gods in the coie story). Of the many new gods, only Darkseid seems to have a role in coie. DC should probably do a New 52 weekly featuring most of the New 52 characters in 1 big story. A big weekly could be used to show the interaction of JL, wildstorm groups, milestone groups, freedom fighters, Charlton superheroes, Fawcett superheroes, reboots of golden age superheroes, space heroes, magic heroes, new gods, villains, etc. similar to coie and Infinite Crisis.

[Montressor]

It was a great time to be reading DC--you had this and Swamp Thing to look forward to every month (and of course other great books, but these were my main two draws). I loved the build-up--all the mysterious appearances of the Monitor, in literally every DC book, across worlds, across timespans--and we had no idea who he was, what was going on. We had no web to dissect it, either. I looked forward to every issue and had no problem with the depth of the story. It was just stunning, epic storytelling at the time. The only thing that takes me out of it now is th ethought bubbles, they date any story they appear in, in my opinion.

Thanks for the link, however, I read anything I can on the Crisis (and there are some great podcasts out there, too, here's one: http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/crisis-964.php).

[Jim Kelly]

The irony of COIE--which we see also in subsequent big events that try to change the status quo--is that it shows just how great the thing is that it's supposed to be changing.

There's probably no better illustration of just how awesome and magnificent DC's Multiverse concept truly was. No series before it used the multiple realities--and the almost limitless concepts--with such bravado. And yet at the end of it, the thing that made the book so compellling has been junked.

All the big crossover events that happened like clockwork at DC every year after wanted to be as big and as important as COIE, but they couldn't because that book had ruled out the Infinite Universes that it exploited.

[colonyofcells]

Convergence seems to have expanded the multiverse so it is possible to do a big coie story again.

[Mike]

While Crisis On Infinite Earths was a great series I feel it fixed things that didn't need to be fixed.
I started reading Marvel books around 1975 and DC around 1979. As a kid I never had any trouble understanding the DC Universe.
I kind of liked it. Sure Superman and Wonder Woman need some work but they could have been fixed without a "Crisis" event.

[The Darknight Detective]

While Crisis On Infinite Earths was a great series I feel it fixed things that didn't need to be fixed.
I started reading Marvel books around 1975 and DC around 1979. As a kid I never had any trouble understanding the DC Universe.
I kind of liked it. Sure Superman and Wonder Woman need some work but they could have been fixed without a "Crisis" event.

Basically how I feel about COIE. While I thought the story was really good, it went down a path it didn't need to.

[Lee Stone]

I think I looked forward to each issue of Who's Who almost as much as the next issue of Crisis when I was a kid.
I was introduced to a lot of characters through Crisis, such as Obsidian and Kole (I don't think she had appeared in Tales, yet), but even more through Who's Who.

[colonyofcells]

Who's Who was a great guide for coie. I also enjoyed DC Challenge which also featured lots of characters. Dc challence had more new gods characters, son of Vulcan from charlton, etc.

[AJBopp]

Except nobody was really complaining about the Multiverse back then. I know not everybody likes to hear this, but COIE was created to boost sales and nothing more (as was also the case with the DCnU reboot). If sales had been good 30 years ago, there might have been a soft reboot to fix certain aspects of the original universe (either for modernization or to make better sense of whatever), but not a full-blown reboot.

COIE was done to expand the potential future storytelling options, rather than merely to restart things from a single point. With the multiverse, there were great stories that simply couldn't be told because the setup of getting heroes from one earth to another was simply too cumbersome.

And contrary to modern opinion, I can attest that, being of prime comic reader age in the years leading up to COIE, there was actually quite a lot of complaining about the multiverse back then. I don't think it was the reason for doing COIE, but the complaints were there and growing louder yearly. People, especially new readers, were tired of trying to figure out who was where. It was a problem that was exacerbated by the fact that experienced people - including the creative and editorial teams at DC themselves - were sometimes unable to keep things straight. So you'd end up with an issue of The Brave And the Bold with Earth 1 Batman teaming up with Wildcat, with no universe-hopping at all.