Crisis on Infinity Earths. Get it?

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:59 pm

Well, I WANT to try and read books fromt he DC universe outside of Batman but every time I try I just get confused to tears. Like I never knew there were three Flashes and a Wonder Woman besides Diana, etc.

Will reading hte Crisis on Infinity Earths TPB help me to understand the universe better? It's the most important event in the DC universe ever, right? I know it erases parts of the DV history and...f*ck, I have no idea what it did.

So will it clear up confusion or just make more? Cuz I'm pretty clueless here...

Silly Cow · Post by **Silly Cow** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 12:15 am

I'd say no.

In generak, Crisin on Infinite Earths just erased most of the alternate earths. If you've read the issues after that you aldready know who survived, so there really isn't anything new.

Don't get me wrong. Even though I hadn't read anything other than the "silver age" stuff I really enjoyed it. It wasa great cross-over, would've been even better if I had some sort of connection to the characters in the series.

And since you mentioned Flash, all the Flashes die in CiIE. So there.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:31 am

id generally say no aswell, im reading crisis at the moment only cos of a few things

1. ive got scans of them so theyre free
2. ive got zero hour and am interested in what lead up to zero hour
3. it passes the time

Post by **Hound** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:08 am

Crisis will create far more questions than it will resolve, that's for sure.

I'll explain as best I can.

DC had the Golden Age comics back in the '40s, Superman, Flash, Justice Society and such. Well after WWII superheroes weren't so popular anymore so they stopped making comics featuring them, with the exceptions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Towards the end of the '50s DC decided to start making superhero comics again. So they created a new Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern and such and decided to ignore the past superheroes that had those names.

Then it was someone's idea to use those characters again. So they started using the idea of alternate Earths. There is Earth-1 and all the Golden Age characters are from Earth-2.

Well, then someone came up with the idea of more than one alternate Earth. So now you've got the world of the Crime Syndicate. I forget what tthey called it.

Then DC bought out a couple of old comic companies like Fawcett, Charlton and Quality. So they had to say that the characters from those companies were from worlds of their own too.

Pretty soon you've got so many alternate Earths that no one can keep track. So they decide to get rid of all the crap and start the whole damn thing over.

Pretty much everything that happened before Crisis on Infinite Earths didn't really happen unless there is a post-Crisis story that confirms whether or not it happened.

A whole lot of the DC characters got a much needed fresh start as a result...

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 9:27 am

the crime syndicate were qwardians from the planet qward i think... that name was given in flashbacks of them post crisis

Post by **Hound** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 1:47 pm

Are you talking about the same Crime Syndicate?

The one with Ultraman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, Owlman and Power Ring? They were evil versions of the Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman and Green Lantern respectively.

As far as I know they weren't from Qward. I think it's Earth-3 but I could be wrong.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:04 pm

Originally posted by Hound
Are you talking about the same Crime Syndicate?

The one with Ultraman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, Owlman and Power Ring? They were evil versions of the Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman and Green Lantern respectively.

As far as I know they weren't from Qward. I think it's Earth-3 but I could be wrong.

from dcuguide.com [Pre-Crisis, this Ultraman and his Crime Syndicate were from the parallel world known as Earth-3. Post-Crisis, they had a few flashback cameos as Qwardians.]

much prefered morrisons CSA though

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 5:09 pm

Pre-Crisis, the Crime Syndicate was from Earth 3.
Post-Crisis, the Crime Syndicate originated on one of Qward's moons.
Then Morrison wrote "Earth 2", and now the all-new, all-different CSA (also to be seen in JLA/Avengers #1) instead comes from "Earth 1", which is located in the same antimatter universe as Qward (the CSA's enemy Lex Luthor called the regular DC Earth "Earth 2").

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 9:26 pm

Oh god, this sounds horrible.

Maybe I should just pass...

Post by **Hound** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:19 am

Originally posted by DrSpengler
Oh god, this sounds horrible.

Maybe I should just pass...

Oh don't do that. On it's own it's a wonderful story with fantastic art by Perez.

Just don't read it expecting it to matter in any current continuity. It's pretty much the story that because it happened, it never happened...

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:20 am

Crisis still did happen in the post-Crisis DC Universe, it's just the characters remember the events a little... different.
See the Flash story "Chain Lightning" for more.

Spengs: Too bad you don't speak German, since the German release of Crisis a few years ago had some pretty nice editorial pages that explained the history of the multiverse, the different Earths and the tie-ins in DC's other regular titles at that time... and an (official) appendix issue that was released together with a German comic book magazine also gave quick info on the major players.

Or you could try The Annotated Crisis.

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 3:13 pm

Thanks. It's just a little overwhelming. This is the first I've ever heard of the multiple earths-thing. I guess I finally understand the title.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 4:33 pm

the way i see it is in a few kind of ways..

if you're a huge dc fan then its a read
if you're a dc newbie (but know enough to understand regular comics) its not good as it will create far too many questions and will kind of send you mad
if you are the kind of person whose always inquisitive (questioning everything really) then same kind of thing, you'll just be overwhelmed by the questions it will create.

the way im reading it at the moment is as a kind of elseworlds title, throwing everything i know about the universe and characters out of the window and just reading blindly

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:01 pm

Well, right now I'm trying to get all the "must-read" titles out of the way. The books and stories people reference whenever you bring up a character.

Normally I would NEVER read a Superman book but I read Death of Superman anyway because people bring it up so often. It was terrible, but at least I know enough to talk about it. Same thing with Death of Gwen Stacy. You can't pick up a Spider-Man book without hearing about it. Actually, it was pretty good. Well, the alst two issues in the TPB, anyway. The first half, with all that anti-drug crap made me want to puke.

So now that TPBs are everywhere I'm trying to get the must-reads out of the way. And you can't open an issue of Wizard and read anything about DC without them mentioning Crisis on Infinte Earths.

But this all sounds so painfully confusing, perhaps it's best I don't try and tackle it quite yet.

Death of Superman was made, what, 10-15 years ago? I read that and at least once per issue I said "what the f*ck?" Why did Supergirl turn into Gumby? Who the HELL are these people in the JLA (Maxima? Blue Beetle? Booster? the hell?)? Why does Lex look like a Scottsman and why is he dating Supergirl?

Gah!

Maybe I should jsut stick ot Batman...

Silly Cow · Post by **Silly Cow** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:10 pm

I don't think CoIE was that difficult or confusing. I'm practically a DC-newbie. I did read a recap/review of it prior to reading the actual comic so I understood what the other Earths ment and why they were there. But aside from that I had no previous experience from the older DC comics but that didn't do any harm. As I stated in my previous post (which was made while under the influence, though) that killing all the superheroes didn't do much for me because of that but still, it was a great read.

I would recommend it.

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:12 pm

What, there's no more Blue Beetle and Booster Gold in Justice League? [/guy who stopped reading DC comics around death of Superman]

I always wanted to know who was that Bloodwynd dude who hanged out with JL then.

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:18 pm

Originally posted by Ozz
What, there's no more Blue Beetle and Booster Gold in Justice League? [/guy who stopped reading DC comics around death of Superman]

I always wanted to know who was that Bloodwynd dude who hanged out with JL then.

Though it's no mystery now (I'm sure a little interweb searching would figure it out) my money's on it being Martian Manhunter. He had similar powers and demeaner. Plus when Blue Beetle saw him he recognized him.

God, that was the worst excuse for a Justice League I've ever seen. Guy Gardner? The guy had a freaken bowl-cut and they expect me to view him as a badass? And Fire and Ice? They could've tried a little harder with the names.

Silly Cow · Post by **Silly Cow** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:25 pm

Originally posted by DrSpengler
Though it's no mystery now (I'm sure a little interweb searching would figure it out) my money's on it being Martian Manhunter. He had similar powers and demeaner. Plus when Blue Beetle saw him he recognized him.

True that is.
http://www.blacksuperhero.com/exhibitht ... dwynd.html

Funny, I was also curious as to what was the deal with Bloodwynd when I read "The Death of Superman" but never bothered to check it up.

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:37 pm

Originally posted by DrSpengler
Plus when Blue Beetle saw him he recognized him.

I was so pissed when Doomsday grabbed Beetle and didn't let him finish the damn sentence. Grrr.

We were only getting 'Batman' and 'Superman', so there was really no other way for me to find out then. Stupid Doomsday.

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:37 pm

Originally posted by Silly Cow
True that is.
http://www.blacksuperhero.com/exhibitht ... dwynd.html

Funny, I was also curious as to what was the deal with Bloodwynd when I read "The Death of Superman" but never bothered to check it up.

Cool, I was right! And only ten years late!