Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1

[history79]

Comments

[mastermahan]

I'm disappointed Orlando didn't call the Silver Lantern or given him a glowing green surfboard. You know, something.

[beyondthefringe]

So... Last Days of the Justice Society, instead of Crisis.
Got it.
Also, another gratuitous bloodbath of Golden Age characters.
Got it.

(Not depicted: TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite being squished by the corpse of the Spectre, before Robin gets his skull exploded by a flying Dyna-ring, for... reasons.)

I expected better than this from Steve Orlando for some reason.

[tcampbell1000]

A lot of his work has been great. This... was not. I honestly wonder if this whole story wasn't a last-minute rush-to-deadline substitution, since it has barely anything to do with the Crisis on Infinite Earths proper (and it's still pushing the weird interpretation that "Earth-1 was the only Earth left after Crisis" instead of a merged Earth that was more like Earth-1 than any of the others, but don't get me started).

"What If... Green Lantern Were The Silver Surfer?"

[thanekos]

It works as " inverted Last Days of the Justice Society " - there's conflict with Surtur ending in significant sacrifice, filtered through the nature of the Dark Multiverse.

(" Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Last Days of the Justice Society " would've been a more accurate title, but relatively speaking, wouldn't have had the name recognition.)

[tcampbell1000]

Yeah, sure, and maybe it was the name that was swapped out... though it's still kind of mind-boggling to me, because if your audience wants Crisis enough that you can't sell your Last Days story with an accurate title, then why not... just... do Crisis? I mean, the Anti-Monitor and Surtur are basically the same character: a perpetually angry giant motivated only by the destruction of worlds. (The Anti-Monitor had some kinda political thing going on-- "I will be ruler of all who live!"-- but practically speaking, destroying life was all he seemed to care about. I can't really see him deciding tax policy or pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys.) You could have a holocaust-broken Alan Scott making the same offer to the Anti-Monitor, and it'd make about as much sense... except that it might conflict with whatever DC's doing with Mobius this year.

(OTOH, maybe it counts as progress that this comic didn't just make Batman the Silver Surfer?)

[lordultimus]

I honestly am kind of interested in a "Post-Crisis but the JSA are the primary superhero team".

[icon_uk]

Sadly, Infinity Inc. which would have been ideal for such a thing, never truly recovered from Crisis wiping out the Golden Age and having them on the same Earth as the JLA, the Titans and the Outsiders

[lordultimus]

I think the real problem is that the reboot had big names like Superman be focused on their Earth-One counterparts, meaning that the JSA didn't have guys like Superman and Wonder Woman. Without them, they were never really seen as the "world's greatest heroes" that the primary superhero team needs.

(Hell, Doomsday Clock had the problem where Superman was supposedly inspired by the JSA by the end, and yet has almost literal divine purpose as the beginning of superheroes.)

[scorntx]

I mean, it's got the words "Dark Multiverse" right there on the cover, and it's a What If? / Elseworlds / AU story so that alone is the comic equivalent of a packet of peanuts with the warning "may contain nuts" on it, but still...

's what happens when you get your hopes up.

Would've been interesting to see the idea of a world where Earth Two won out, rather than... well, this.

[thanekos]

I enjoyed it.

[mazway_75]

So the idea is that post-Crisis, it was Earth-1 wiped out and JLA integrated onto Earth-2 then sent to fight Surtur. But because the JLA not as large as JSA, lacking Superman (and, you know, the Detroit era), they got wiped out and Surtur was able to invade the "new" Earth-2 so it was up to all the Golden Age guys to try and stop him.

[superfangirl1]

I give bravo props to DC for giving the Golden Age heroes a story.

Even if it is in a multiverse. Where evil wins and the has theadvantage. Good does not triumph over evil in the dark multiverse after all.

[mastermahan]

I'll second that. It's good to see classic Alan Scott and poor Obsidian again.