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Infinite Crisis is the title of a seven-issue comic book mini-series published by DC Comics beginning in October 2005. It is written by Geoff Johns, with art by Phil Jimenez. Each issue features two different covers, one drawn by George Perez and the other by Jim Lee.
Infinite Crisis is a sequel to the successful 1985 mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. In addition to the similar name, it reintroduces or revisits characters and concepts last seen in the earlier series, including the existence of a Multiverse with alternate versions of characters. One of the major themes is the nature of heroism, contrasting the "darker", and conflicted heroes of recent years with memories of "lighter", more noble, and collegial heroes of the past.
Although the first issue of Infinite Crisis was released on October 12 2005, the plot threads, and various precursors, had been explored for a long time in many major events, such as the 2004 mini-series Identity Crisis. DC officially began leading up with Countdown to Infinite Crisis, a one-shot issue written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick. Afterwards, four mini-series intended solely to tie-in to Infinite Crisis were launched. A trade paperback entitled Prelude to Infinite Crisis, released in late June 2005, collects a number of earlier story references to Infinite Crisis.
At the end of the mini-series, in March 2006, nearly all ongoing series set in the DC Universe will jump forward a year, an event DC refers to as "One Year Later", giving the writers of these series an opportunity to make substantial changes in the situations of their ongoing stories. A weekly series titled 52 is scheduled to begin publication in May 2006, to fill in that missing year in "real time".
Synopsis
The series begins in the aftermath of the leadup mini-series and several stories in other titles. The Justice League Watchtower has been destroyed, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are feuding, the OMACs are hunting down heroes and villains alike, a rift in space and time has opened in deep space, the Spectre is hunting and destroying magic, and the villains of the DC world have banded together into the Secret Society of Supervillains, killing prominent heroes like the Freedom Fighters.
In response to this, the Superman of Earth-Two breaks out of the world in which he departed at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, accompanied by Earth-Two's Lois Lane, Superboy of Earth-Prime, and Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three. Upon his return, he finds Power Girl and is able to restore her memories of Earth-Two. He then declares his plans and intentions—to reverse the decision made during the Crisis on Infinite Earths to save Earth-One, and make Earth-Two the dominant and primary Earth again.
Power Girl struggles with whether to support the returned heroes on this venture, knowing that Earth-Two must be restored for Lois Lane-Kent to live. Kal-L visits Batman to enlist his support, stating that the mistrust and hostility Batman has developed — leading him to create the Brother Eye satelite — was due to the selection of Earth-One over Earth-Two. Batman refuses to coperate, and subsequently learns that it was Earth-Prime's Superboy who intercepted the Martian Manhunter when the JLA Watchtower exploded. In the meantime, the two Luthors confront one another, only to have the blue-eyed Luthor reveal himself to in fact be Earth-Three's Alexander Luthor. Power Girl learns that the returned heroes have created a machine, using kidnapped heroes and villains as well as the remains of the Anti-Monitor from the original Crisis, presumably to restore Earth-Two.
Meanwhile, the other known survivor of the multiverse, Donna Troy, gathers a group of heroes (including Animal Man, Airwave, Jade, Green Lantern Alan Scott, Shift, Starfire, Herald, Bumblebee, Firestorm III, Supergirl, and Cyborg) to New Cronus for a mission into space to fight an unknown menace to the cosmos.
Leadups to Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis was announced at the end of March 2005, with the release of Countdown to Infinite Crisis (which had previously simply been solicited as "DC Countdown" to keep the title and nature of the upcoming miniseries a secret) followed by four six-issue miniseries.
Countdown to Infinite Crisis
Countdown to Infinite Crisis is a one-shot publication and the official start of the Infinite Crisis storyline. It was released March 30, 2005, sold out, and quickly went to a second printing. It was included as part of The OMAC Project trade paperback collection published November 2005(ISBN 1401208371).
The main plot concerns Ted Kord, the superhero and former Justice League member known as the Blue Beetle, investigating the theft of funds from his company that has left him nearly bankrupt. Most of the other DC heroes dismiss Kord's concerns, either politely or outright. Only Booster Gold, another second-string superhero and Kord's best friend, eventually decides to help complete the investigation, but before he can he is seriously injured by an explosive trap.
Alone and unaided, Blue Beetle continues to follow the clues to Switzerland where he infiltrates the castle base of the Checkmate organization. There he confronts Maxwell Lord, who is revealed to be using his Justice League files and Batman's satellite, the Brother MKI, to keep an eye on the superhero community, which he considers a threat to the human race. After Kord's refusal to join the anti-metahuman strike, Lord shoots the Blue Beetle in the head, killing him.
When this comic was first published, the fate of Blue Beetle was kept secret and the cover did not reveal his death. When the comic received a new printing a few months later, the cover was modified to clearly show the corpse of Blue Beetle.
The OMAC Project
The OMAC Project is the most direct follow-up from the Countdown to Infinite Crisis special, picking up the story where it left off. This six-issue miniseries is written by Greg Rucka with art by Jesus Saiz. While the OMACs look similar to the 1970s Jack Kirby creation OMAC, these are quite different, with a different acronym than the original One-Man Army Corps. Currently, the acronym stands for "Omni Mind And Community" (though the acronym for the OMACs first stood for "Observational Metahuman Activity Construct").
In this miniseries, the OMACs are modified humans who work as sleeper agents, a product of the Checkmate organization, now led by Maxwell Lord. They possess the Brother Eye spy satellite built by Batman following his realization, after the events of Identity Crisis, that his fellow Justice Leaguers had wiped his memory some years before. The OMAC Project ended with an autonomous Brother Eye having command of over 200,000 OMACs and seemingly planning war on the superheroes, starting with the worldwide broadcast of Maxwell Lord's death at the hands of Wonder Woman.
Rann-Thanagar War
Rann-Thanagar War is a six-issue miniseries written by Dave Gibbons with art by Ivan Reis and Marc Campos featuring Adam Strange, Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Kilowog, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and other DC space adventurers. It follows on from the events of the 2004 Adam Strange miniseries where the inhabitants of Rann, Adam Strange's adopted world, and Thanagar, Hawkman and Hawkwoman's homeworld, find themselves living in close proximity.
The series follows the war between Rann and Thanagar, two planets that are forced to orbit the same star. At the end of the series the war has not ended, but Hawkwoman is dead, the main villain of the series is rendered in seven pieces and a rip in the space-time fabric emerges. The rip resembles similar rips seen in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Villains United
Villains United is a six-issue miniseries written by Gail Simone with art by Dale Eaglesham and Wade von Grawbadger. The series focuses on the new "Secret Society of Supervillains", organized by Lex Luthor in the wake of the revelation that the DC heroes had altered the memories of several supervillains. The Society is resisted by the Secret Six, a group brought together by a mysterious figure known as Mockingbird.
The Six fail to destroy the Society. The central revelation is that Mockingbird is actually Lex Luthor, and that the Luthor organizing the Secret Society is actually an alternate-universe version of Luthor.
Day of Vengeance
Day of Vengeance is a six-issue mini series written by Bill Willingham with art by Justiniano and Walden Wong. This series deals with The Spectre's quest, inspired by Eclipso, who has now merged with Jean Loring, to destroy all magic in the DC universe. The series follows a ragtag bunch of magical heroes called the Shadowpact and magic-based superhero Captain Marvel in their attempts to stop The Spectre, a quest which they fail at, although they do manage to stop Eclipso.
The series ends with The Spectre attacking and killing the Wizard Shazam, leading to the scattering of many magical artifacts, including the old Blue Beetle Scarab, throughout the world. Shazam's death also leads to a particular crisis over Gotham City when his lair, the Rock of Eternity, splits into many pieces, freeing many magical forces and threats.
Other key tie-in issues
Though this article is by no means a complete checklist of Infinite Crisis, below is a list of key issues of other titles that have crossed into the story.
- DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1-4. Donna is ressurected by the Titans of Myth as the Goddess of the Moon. With the help of the Teen Titans and the Outsiders, her true memories are restored. Donna has a crucial role in the upcoming events and it is revealed that she is a living embodiment of all the Donna Troys that have ever existed in the multiverse and possessed all of their memories.
- JLA #115-119 "Crisis of Conscience". This story covers the breakdown of relationships within the Justice League of America over events that occurred in Identity Crisis, and ends with the destruction of the lunar Watchtower, which leads directly into Infinite Crisis.
- Flash #215-Present. Beginning with the events following Identity Crisis, the Flash confronts his mentor's past, a Rogue War, and the birth of his two children. More recently, Wally fought Vandal Savage, a villain who's appearance near the end of "Villains United" has brought about large amounts of speculation over the Flash's future.
- JSA Classified #1-4 "Power Trip". This story deals with Power Girl and her post-Crisis origin, establishing that she "survived" the original Crisis, and that her origins somehow are re-established as being from the Krypton of Earth-Two.
- Coming out from January to March 2006 will be four Infinite Crisis Specials, one for each of the six-issue lead-in miniseries described above.
Editorial planning and Infinite Crisis
Dan DiDio has stated that Infinite Crisis was being planned in some form for two years prior to its launch, starting with the "death" of Donna Troy. The leadup was mostly understated until the release of the Adam Strange miniseries in 2004, at which point industry press began to report that DC was planning a very large event, mentioning the titles Teen Titans, The Flash, and JSA, all written by Geoff Johns. Comic Book Resources gossip columnist Rich Johnston announced DC planned a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths with Johns and Jiminez in August of 2004, and predicted the "One Year Later" event.
It was not until Countdown to Infinite Crisis that Infinite Crisis began to actively reshape DC's editorial policy. Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison were both given editorial positions in addition to their writing duties, with Johns in charge of coordinating the coherence of the DC Universe and Morrison in charge of handling reimaginings of several characters. In Mark Waid signed exclusively with DC and was given a similar editorial role. The leadup to also saw DC change its decades-old logo with a new one that debuted on the first issue of DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy.
The strong editorial investment in Infinite Crisis also led to unusually high-profile sniping between DC and rival Marvel Comics. DiDio launched the first volley in the preface to Prelude to Infinite Crisis, asking pointedly, "Why settle for a House when you can have Universe," a shot at Marvel's "House of M" event. Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada fired back in an interview that DC's comics were "corporate" driven, whereas Marvel's were "creator" driven.
Consequences of Infinite Crisis
Deaths
The following characters died in the six-month leadup to Infinite Crisis:
- Blue Beetle (Countdown to Infinite Crisis)
- Monocle (Manhunter #9)
- Maxwell Lord (Wonder Woman #219)
- Overthrow (The OMAC Project #3)
- Rocket Red (The OMAC Project #5)
- Supermen of America (The OMAC Project #6, beaten by OMACs, deaths unconfirmed)
- Demolition Team (The OMAC Project #6, beaten by OMACS, deaths unconfirmed)
- Firefly (The OMAC Project #6, beaten by OMACS, death unconfirmed)
- Fastball (The OMAC Project #6, beaten by OMACs, death unconfirmed)
- Hawkwoman (Rann/Thanagar War #5)
- Fiddler (Villains United #1)
- Hyena (Villains United #3, executed by Deadshot)
- Cheshire (Villains United #6, shot but death unconfirmed)
- Parademon (Villains United #6)
- Pariah (Villains United #6, shot but death unconfirmed)
- Black Bison (John Ravenhair) (Day of Vengeance #1)
- Wizard Shazam (Day of Vengeance #6)
The following characters died in the course of Infinite Crisis and its tie-ins:
Heroes
- Black Condor (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Phantom Lady (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Human Bomb (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Carissa, Amazon Warrior (Infinite Crisis #2)
- Tekla, Amazon Warrior (Wonder Woman #)
- Doctor Fate (debatable, JSA #79)
- Lyta Hall (debatable, JSA #79)
Villains
- Doctor Polaris (Infinite Crisis #1)
- The Ratcatcher (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Royal Flush Gang (Infinite Crisis #2, defeated but deaths unconfirmed)
- Kite-Man (Infinite Crisis #2, death rumored)
- The Fisherman (Gotham Central #37)
- Captain Nazi (Batman #647)
- Satanus (Action Comics #832)
Along the way, at least four immortals appeared to have died in the course of this event: Wizard Shazam, Pariah, the King of the Royal Flush Gang, and Uncle Sam of the Freedom Fighters (appeared dead in Infinite Crisis #1, reported missing in #2).
Returns
The following characters returned from death or long absence either during or in the immediate lead-up to Infinite Crisis:
- Donna Troy (DC Special: Return of Donna Troy #1-4)
- Lady Quark (Villains United #5)
- Kal-L, the Earth-Two Superman (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Earth-Prime Superboy (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Earth-Two Lois Lane (Infinite Crisis #1)
- Earth-Three Alexander Luthor, Jr. (Infinite Crisis #1, but appears to have been posing as Lex Luthor of Earth-One even earlier)
- Possibly Jason Todd as the Red Hood (Batman #617, Batman #638)
See also
- 52: Weekly storyline post-Crisis, and related events.
External links
- Official Home for Infinite Crisis
- Gallery of Infinite Crisis covers by J. Lee
- Long-form study of Countdown to Infinite Crisis and Tie-ins
- Digital Webbing Index of Infinite Crisis and Tie Ins
- one_eye_ry's Infinite Crisis list with all tie-ins