Infinite Crisis #1

[history79]

"That scene with Uncle Sam - the embodiment of America - face down in oil... was amazing. So symbolic."

- Group Editor Eddie Berganza




10 pages of 32

Comments

[redmagpie]

much symbolic. much.

[thanekos]

Geoff Johns, ever a master of " I'm summing up my character in this one line here! "

[informationgeek]

I like Infinite Crisis, but boy did it have some problems and was it kill happy (I think Blackest Night had a lower body count and that featured zombie heroes and villains).

[mtoastly]

I still consider Sinestro Corps War as my favorite event by Johns, mostly because it was self contained with the occasional fantastic tie in like Blue Beetle. I still don't think he's topped it since.

[informationgeek]

My favorite event of his and favorite event in general is Blackest Night. It's super dark and it has problems, but I really enjoy it. There's a lot of great moments constantly, artwork is fantastic, it brought several characters back to life, the majority of the tie-ins were pretty great to me, and I found to be pretty creepy and memorable.

[lego_joker]

Man, does anyone else get the feeling that Johns and company are trying to put out a fire they (in part) set themselves with these pages?

With very few exceptions, I think that a particularly crappy/disliked take on a character should just be ignored; addressing it, even to (nominally) fix it, gives it a new sense of importance and encourages more people to take it seriously.

[silverhammerman]

Absolutely.

I've always thought that Marvel's general policy wrt retcons was better; anything that's not relevant to the current stuff is more or less mutable, so unfortunate or dated elements can be quietly forgotten or overruled. DC's tendency towards explicit retcons and reboots is just clunky.

[locuatico]

they did it right once with COIEs and could never let it go

[q99]

"Man, does anyone else get the feeling that Johns and company are trying to put out a fire they (in part) set themselves with these pages?"

Yes. They had Wonder Woman kill a human for the first time in post-crisis history so they could make a story about how the heroes were too dark and kill happy- when in her book emphasis was on how diplomatic she was.

[mtoastly]

For as many things I didn't like about this series, there were just as many things I did enjoy. Vague spoilers but J'onn's speech about there being a reason he's the last surviving Martian, all the GLs helping at the end, and the scene at the church with all the heroes of different faiths and beliefs with Zauriel giving a sermon (among other things). Oh and that one character getting the last laugh at the end.

[informationgeek]

That final scene is just great.

[locuatico]

"and eternal gratitude to Marv Wolfman and George Pére for building the foundation that all super-heroe epics come from"
boy is that lkine hilarious in hidnsight.

[lego_joker]

To paraphrase Bob Ingersoll: are you sure you haven't confused epic with ipecac?

[q99]

It is? I'm lacking the context for the hilarity.

[locuatico]

Aside from all the things DC will do/did to some of their most iconic works. By the time Nu52, Wolfman's "New Teen Titans" will be erased from existence and Azzarello would create a Wonder Woman that is the complete opposite of George Perez's work
"we are very grateful...now watch us as we disrespect your work!"

[q99]

True. But they sure do love copying the Crisis on Infinite Earths mold!

[starwolf_oakley]

1. Clark, Diana and Bruce were mad at each other, and then stopped being mad because the story was almost over.

2. jaybee3 said in a reply that DC kept writing Batman as a jerk to other superheroes, realized there was no reason for it, tried to retcon in ways to explain it (IDENTITY CRISIS).

3. INFINITE CRISIS seemed to be DC getting mad at fans who didn't like IDENTITY CRISIS, and having Kal-L, Superboy Ppime and Alexander Luthor as complaining straw men.

[q99]

1) Without actually addressing/resolving the original conflict particularly, because that would be too much effort.

3) Yea, there's a shade of that.

[bruinsfan]

Well, they succeeded in helping me quit their comics cold turkey with the final blood-soaked issue, which Identity Crisis wasn't quite offensive enough to do.

[icon_uk]

I am rarely moved to bad language by comics, but I have such a desire to say "Eff the eff off!" to this whole thing...

A few good character moments are just so completely overshadowed by the ongoing killfest.

The sheer tastelessness of showing a character who dates back to the 1940's in one persona or another, stabbed between the breasts for dramatic effect beggars belief (Though it would be later trumped by the death of Damian Wayne's Robin where the same thing happened to a 10 year old)

[informationgeek]

Yeah. This scene was the lowest point of the comic for me (followed by Superboy Prime killing a lot of the Titans). Otherwise, I did like my time with the comic and it was my first event comic as well.

To his credit, I do think Johns' events after this one were all much better... with maybe the exception of Brightest Day...

[trooper924]

Infinite Crisis was one of the first comics I picked up, so I bit of a soft spot for it--even though I am very much aware of it's flaws.

And apparently the real reason behind the oil was a coloring error: it was actually supposed to be just water with Uncle Sam's blood mixed in, but the colorist somehow accidently went and colored all of the water as blood. For obvious reasons, they recolored it as oil as a last minute change.

[matrix_dragon]

That last page. Even if I disagreed with the leadup to some extent (And I disagree a lot more these days), that shot of Earth-2 Superman, essentially the original Superman, returning to the DCU to fight the good fight? That page was awesome, and had me so hyped up for what was coming. What came next did not live up to that potential.

[lyricalswagger]

Apparently the symbolic meaning was "DC Comics hates America," or at least that's what Fox News would say.

[q99]

Hm... this does remind me that the Freedom Fighters or the battle that resulted in their death has no particular further consequences in the story. They show up, die, showing how serious things are, and get nary a mention.

[beyondthefringe]

Poor Freedom Fighters. This really was not their finest hour. :(

[lordultimus]

Don't worry Freedom Fighters - you'll get the respect you deserve in Battle for Bludhaven!

Wait, where are you going?

[bradygirl_12]

I love that last panel. Everything else? Not so much. Bleah!