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Crisis on Infinite Earths was a twelve issue comic book event maxiseries/crossover, produced by DC Comics in 1985 in order to simplify their fifty-year-old continuity. The series was written by Marv Wolfman, and illustrated by George Pérez (pencils/layouts), with Mike DeCarlo, Dick Giordano, and Jerry Ordway (who shared inking/embellishing chores). The series eliminated the concept of the Multiverse in the fictional DC Universe, and depicted the deaths of such long-standing superheroes as Supergirl and The Flash II.

The title of the series was inspired by earlier crossover stories involving the multiple Earths of the Multiverse, such as "Crisis on Earth-Two" and "Crisis on Earth-Three", but instead of lasting two to five issues and involving members from as many superhero teams from as many parallel worlds, it involved virtually every significant character from every parallel universe in DC's history. It has in turn inspired the title of the late-2005 DC crossover series Infinite Crisis.

Overview

The series (usually referred to as simply Crisis) was highly successful from a marketing standpoint, generating renewed interest in the company's books, enticing readers with the clichéd -- but in this case accurate -- promise that "things will never be the same". The story itself was rooted firmly in the cliché of "superheroes battle to save the world", but its unprecedented scope and its great attention to both drama and detail satisfied most readers with its story. Along with Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, it contributed to the commercial and creative revitalization of DC Comics, which had been dominated in the market by Marvel Comics through the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Crisis also helped popularize the formula of the line-wide "crossover" comic book series (a concept first seen in Marvel Comics' Contest of Champions (1983) and Secret Wars (1984)). Since 1985, superhero publishers such as DC and Marvel have had frequent "summer crossover" series designed to tie many of their comic book titles together under a single storyline (and thus sell more comic books).

Origins

The title was originally conceived to be a celebration of DC's 50th anniversary; however, Marv Wolfman saw it as a chance to clean up DC's rather convoluted continuity (which was thought to have put many new readers off buying DC titles) that had built up over that time.

Wolfman came up with an idea which would reach across the entirety of the DC Universe and its 50-year history. First of all, he came up with the character of the Monitor who was initially a faceless character used in many of DC's titles over the course of a year. The Monitor supplied DC's villains with equipment in order to test its heroes for the Crisis ahead. As a result, the character was seen to be a villain himself and his real reasons were not revealed to the reader until Crisis #1.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The story introduced readers to two near-omnipotent beings, the good Monitor and the evil Anti-Monitor. The Monitor had made cameo appearances in various DC comic book series for two years preceding the publication of the series and at first appeared to be a new supervillain, but with the onset of the Crisis, he was revealed to be working on a desperate plan to save the entire Multiverse from destruction at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. The Crisis series highlighted the efforts of DC Comics' superheroes to stop the Anti-Monitor's plan. Under the initial guidance of the Monitor, a select group of heroes was assigned to protect massive "tuning forks" designed to hold off the antimatter that had already annihilated untold numbers of alternate Earths. Eventually the conflict grew, and nearly every DC hero became involved in the battle.

The Monitor was murdered, but his death released enough energy to save the last five parallel Earths (the homes of the known DC Universe) long enough for the heroes to lead an assault on the Anti-Monitor. The villain retreated, but at the cost of Supergirl's life. This lull in the war provided some breathing room for the heroes, but the various supervillains joined forces under Brainiac and Lex Luthor to attempt the conquest of Earth, while the second Flash died stopping the Anti-Monitor's backup scheme of destruction. The Spectre halted the hero/villain conflict, warning that the Anti-Monitor was traveling to the beginning of time to prevent the Multiverse's creation. Heroes and villains joined forces in response with the heroes traveling to stop the Anti-Monitor, and the villains traveling to the planet Oa in antiquity to prevent the renegade scientist Krona from performing a historic experiment that would have allowed the Anti-Monitor to succeed in his efforts.

The villains failed, and Krona proceeded with his experiment, while the heroes supported the Spectre, whose battle with the Anti-Monitor created an energy overload that shattered space and time. With that, a single universe was created and all the superheroes returned to a present-day reality where the various elements of the five Earths were fused into one. The Anti-Monitor attacked one last time, but fell to a carefully planned counter-attack with some unexpected last-second help from the New Gods' adversary, Darkseid.

Post-Crisis

Characters and other elements established before Crisis (especially those eliminated by it) are considered "pre-Crisis" and revised ones are considered "post-Crisis".

Crisis was used by DC as an opportunity to wipe much of its slate clean and make major changes to many of their major revenue-generating comic book series. Frank Miller's revamp of Batman with Batman: Year One, George Perez's relaunching of Wonder Woman, and John Byrne's reboot of Superman (see The Man of Steel) all took place shortly following Crisis on Infinite Earths, and changed substantial elements of the characters' backstories.

Several other titles which were not significantly retconned were taken in very different directions following Crisis. The Flash was relaunched starring a younger main character, the previous Flash's sidekick, Kid Flash a.k.a. Wally West. The Justice League of America title was cancelled, to be replaced by a new series entitled simply Justice League, featuring a new cast, many of them drawn from what had been different universes in DC's pre-Crisis multiverse. While some of these revamps of classic superheroes were less successful than others, their new beginnings can generally be attributed to the success of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In the post-Crisis timeline, an epic "Crisis" still occurred in which numerous heroes opposed the Anti-Monitor's attempts to destroy the (singular) universe. While the Flash still died, Supergirl did not, as she had "never existed".

The majority of DC Universe characters are unaware the Crisis occurred. Although the characters who were present at the epic battle at the dawn of time (Crisis on Infinite Earths #10, "Death at the Dawn of Time") were initially treated as exceptions, this idea did not stick. There have been occasional references to the event. A 2002 storyline in the Supergirl comic book saw the original pre-Crisis Supergirl landing on post-Crisis Earth, for example, and established that the Spectre, being able to see across dimensions and timelines, is aware the Crisis occurred. In addition, Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man, heralded for its deconstruction of the concept of the comic book, initiated a "Second Crisis" in which characters such as the original Crime Syndicate of America from Earth-Three came back to life thanks to the Psycho Pirate, who remembered the original Crisis.

Deaths during Crisis

The following DC characters died during Crisis: Angle Man, Anti-Monitor, Aquagirl, Bug-Eyed Bandit, the second Clayface, all members of the Crime Syndicate of America, the first Dove of Hawk and Dove, Farmer Boy of Sgt. Rock's Easy Company, the second Flash, Green Arrow of Earth-Two, Huntress of Earth-Two, Icicle, Immortal Man, the Justice Alliance of Earth-D (in "Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths", released in 1999), Kid Psycho, Kole, Lex Luthor of Earth-Two, Lex Luthor of Earth-Three and wife Lois Lane-Luthor, Lori Lemaris, Lord Volt of Earth-Six, The Losers (Johnny Cloud, Gunner, Sarge, Captain Storm), Maaldor the Dark Lord, Mirror Master I, Monitor, Nighthawk, Prince Ra-Man, Princess Fern of Earth-Six, Robin of Earth-Two, the second Shaggy Man, Starman IV (Prince Gavyn), Sunburst, Supergirl of Earth-One, the Ten-Eyed Man, and Wonder Woman of Earth-One.

Gunner of the Losers showed up alive and well later in the comic Creature Commandos, a Hawkman issue revealed that Nighthawk is believed to have died under different circumstances, Wonder Woman was said not to have died but just been sent back down her own timeline, Lori Lemaris' death has been erased from continuity, the Crime Syndicate were later brought back into continuity in the comic JLA: Earth 2 (making their deaths in the Crisis out of continuity now), and it was revealed in James Robinson's Starman comics that Prince Gavyn's spirit actually survived and bonded with the super-hero Will Payton.

New characters and changes

Several new characters were introduced in Crisis. The Monitor's assistant, Harbinger, and doomsayer Pariah played major roles in the story. Lady Quark was introduced as a survivor of one of the destroyed worlds. A new Dr. Light, this time heroic and female, was introduced. The former Charlton Comics characters - especially Blue Beetle - were introduced to the DC Universe.

After the Crisis, former Kid Flash Wally West took over the mantle of his predecessor The Flash. Jonah Hex was transported to a post-apocalyptic future but this did not prove popular and subsequent stories brought him back to the Wild West.

Criticisms

Many readers unfamiliar with the complicated continuity of the DC universe found the story confusing, as it was written especially for readers who were intimately familiar with the countless characters created in the pages of DC comics over the space of fifty years, including multiple versions of characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman.

The changes made in the wake of Crisis were not ushered in consistently. The series itself was published over the course of a year with ongoing series continuing at the same time, and several months of stories set in the "old" continuity continued to be published following its last issue. Furthermore, revamped or relaunched versions of series did not debut at the same time, and DC continued to feature the "old" versions of characters until new versions were launched, sometimes a year or more later. The character of Hawkman was one of the most problematic, as a new version did not appear until 1989; this raised the question as to who this "Hawkman" character was who had been running around with the post-Crisis heroes since 1986. Similar problems faced the Legion of Super-Heroes, which had been affected by the removal of Superboy from DC continuity, and successive attempts to "repair" it had met with mixed results. In 1994, DC produced a mini-series titled Zero Hour, which attempted to resolve these problems by again rebooting the DCU, but this time with fewer wholesale revisions. Two major female characters, Donna Troy and Power Girl also had their place in the DC Universe become problematic.

Many fans of characters that were eliminated or dramatically affected by Crisis were unhappy with these changes. They argued that the company's five decades of publishing were a rich foundation upon which to build, and complained that the post-Crisis universe was one with which they had no connection. The complete erasure of Superman's cousin Supergirl was particularly controversial, with fans complaining that it rendered her heroic self-sacrifice in Crisis meaningless. (The fact that the Flash's heroic self-sacrifice was remembered by DC characters as almost martyrdom made her treatment seem even less respectful by comparison.) An irregular variety of similar replacement characters named Supergirl were introduced to mixed reactions. DC relented in 2004 and introduced a Supergirl who closely matched the pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El of Krypton.

Infinite Crisis

Template:Spoiler

The Infinite Crisis storyline, a seven-issue miniseries launched during 2005, revisits many elements of the original Crisis, with Earth Two's Superman Kal-L having chosen to return to mainstream "reality" with Earth-Three's Alexander Luthor and Earth-Prime's Superboy (Earth-Prime being a stand in for our "reality" in which only one super-hero existed, along with several members of the DC Comics staff). Events in this ongoing series suggest a decision by DC Comics editors to return, at least in some fashion, to either another multiverse or a different arrangement of the DC universe, and with it a return of some of the Earth-Two continuity for characters such as Power Girl.

As Crisis on Infinite Earths, in an effort to clear the perceived mutli-universal clutter, became the ultimate multi-universal story, Infinite Crisis seems to be posed as an asnwer to the perception on the part of some fans and editors alike that the DC Universe, and comics in general, has become too dark and "gritty" to the detriment of the stories, and thus, will be the ultimate dark and gritty series.

Parody

Crisis (along with other crossovers and "event" comics of the period) was parodied by Simpsons Comics' Radioactive Man series: Radioactive Man #679 (Sept 1994), entitled "Who Washes The Washmen's Infinite Secrets Of Legendary Crossover Knight Wars?" by Steve Vance.

Crisis was also parodied in Marvel Comics' Mighty Mouse comic book in 1991. Issues #4 and 5, titled "Mices on Infinite Earths" had Mighty Mouse meeting Mighty Mousette and helping the Minatour and Harebinger fight the evil and powerful Anti-Minatour. Issue #4 has a cover by George Perez that parodies Crisis #7, and Perez also drew the cover of issue #5, which parodies Crisis #12.

Crisis was again parodied in MAD Magazine issue #448, with the review of the fictional "Infinite Secret Crisis on All Earthly Worlds".

Bibliography

• Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-12 (April, 1985 – March, 1986). Reprinted as hardcover (1998; ISBN 1563894343) and trade paperback (2001; ISBN 1563897504) collections with new cover art by Alex Ross.
• Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Index oneshot (March, 1986). Contains a detailed description on each issue of the series, a list of most alternate Earths, and a history of the Multiverse concept.
• Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Cross-Over Index oneshot (July, 1986). Contains summaries of every comic book issue that connected to the Crisis storyline, descriptions of more alternate Earths, and a list of every character that appeared in Crisis.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths novelization (2005; ISBN 0743498399). Written by Marv Wolfman from the perspective of the Flash.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Absolute Edition is an Oversized Slipcased Hardcover Set due in November 2005. The first book reprints the miniseries. The second extras including scripts, commentries, retrospectives and for the first time reprints of the two indexes.

External links

• Alan Kistler's Guide To THE CRISIS - An in-depth three part retrospective by comic book historian Alan Kistler on the Crisis, including a comprehensive issue-by-issue summary, map of the multiple universes, a discussion on why the Crisis had to happen and how effective it was, various cover and interior art scans, and a discussion on Marv Wolfman's novelization.
• "Where Are They Now?" - An article by Alan Kistler discussing the post-Crisis appearances of several Crisis-centric characters such as Harbinger, Pariah and Lady Quark, as well as characters who seemingly died during the Crisis, such as the original Supergirl.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths at the Big Comic Book DataBase
• The Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths

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