So, anyone else geatting geared up for DC's Infinite Crisis? First issue of the Crisis itself lands this week. For anyone not in the know, its a huge big crossover DC is doing over the next 7 months, crossing over into most of the books they publish and involving pretty much every character in the DCU in some way. Of course, part of it is probably the marketting angle of getting people to buy a s***load of DC comics so they can read the full story, but personally, I love this stuff, huge big epic storylines with far-reaching, earth shattering consequences, this is the sort of stuff that just makes sure I can't get enough.

I've become so incredibly hooked on comics the past few months, I guess it makes me a good, well rounded geek now (sci-fi, comics, computers, got it all happening here), I just love it as a storytelling medium. Reminds me more of watching a film, or a tv show, than reading a book. Its kinda like reading a visual script (I guess, like a storyboard). And so many of the characters have been around for so long, and the world has been around for so long, that theres just a ridiculous amount of depth behind everything, and I love that, it rocks. I'm a huge sucker for continuity.

Anyway, yeah, Infinite Crisis, starts this week, parallels have even been drawn between it and Crisis on Infinite Earths from 20 years ago, so its promising to be a pretty major event. If you have any interest in any characters in the DCU, you prolly owe it to yourself to follow it. You might also want to pick up the five miniseries that lead into it too (Villians United, Day of Vengeance, Omac Project, Rann-Thanagar War and Return of Donna Troy), they set everything up. And if you're an obsessive continuity nut like me theres a s***load of other stuff you can read that gives background to whats going on, but otherwise, you could get away with just those :P

Nope.

I read the crisis on infinite earths storyline.. and f***ed if i could imagine buying all those as they came out. Every comic had "this follows a, b, and c, and make sure to catch x, y, and z" and every second page had a little "As seen in Garfield 234" annotation or some crap.
The good thing i guess was it gave you a bit of a look at all the different characters and their backstories.

You didn't mention Identity Crisis which also served as a lead up. Since it triggered the events in Villains United. I've got the checklist as a text file on my other PC (which is borked at the moment) there's just a ridiculous amount of titles to collect. I wish there was some sort of grading on importance to the overall story - essential, important and peripheral.

I read Superman all the time still but I don't read many of the other titles. It bugged me when they crossed over into Wonder Woman a few weeks back after she and Supes fought. Basically because I didn't know in advance so when I went to buy a copy of WW219 they'd sold out :(

I must say though, I'm a bit cynical about the whole thing. It reeks of a money spinning event. I think the previous Crisis was worthwhile since they'd gotten just too confusing. It wiped the slate clean and let them start from scratch. I don't know that the situation is that bad now. I just reckon it's a sales ploy.

Oh yeah, prolly should have mentioned that. I got the hardcover edition of Identity Crisis for my birthday, its awesome, even outside of it being one of the triggers for IC its just a really awesome story, well written, shines a light into the darker parts of the DCU you dont normally see, I loved it.

Its definately part money spinning marketing ploy, I'm just hoping its not ALL money spinning marketing ploy. If it truly does turn out to be an epic series with huge repercussions and lives up to all the other promises DC is making, then I can deal :P

The checklist you have, is that a checklist for all the Prologue/Countdown stuff, or an actual checklist for all the titles coming out over the next 7 months that'll link into IC itself? If its the latter, could you email it to me?

skrybe seems to have hit the nail on the head. The continuity errors from the previous fifty years of publishing needed to be fixed up eventually and the COIE was a heavy handed and sometimes confusing but effective way of doing that.

This just seems like a made up storyline that will be a pale imitation. Admittedly I haven't been following the current storylines so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I dont think Infinite Crisis is really meant to fix any continuity problems though, its just a huge big crossover event. So yes, marketing ploy, but if they pull it off and its awesome anyway I can forgive their capitalist ways.

Email sent :) Not sure how good it is over the actual Infinite Crisis bit since there aren't that many titles in that section. Certainly far less than in the lead up mini-series.

Neimad, yeah there were so many contradictory stories from gold-silver age that it made sense to wipe it clean. For awhile there is was cool, with characters having nice clearly defined natures and abilities. But after awhile they went off again. Supes went from being almost all-powerful pre-crisis to strong but not god-like post crisis, then over the last couple years he's gone back to being god-like again. And other characters have done the same. The whole Green Lantern/Parallax thing bugs the hell out of me.

And as much as I like the Wildstorm characters throwing Majestic into DC and introducing The Bleed just opens up the whole multiverse/infinite Earths thing again. Although I would love to see the JLA up against the Authority :) The one where they threw them up against Planetary just didn't ring true to me.

the only comic i wet myself each quater for is planetary, in saying that Infinite Crisis does look interesting, but you will find after reading it that its really nothing but a waste of money.


*comic book recomendations*

- transmetropolitan
- preacher
- planetary


bassically anything by warren ellis is sure to please.

Infinite Crisis will only make your wallet cry.

Yeah, I read some Transmetropolitan, its really well written but I'm just not sure if I enjoyed it. Its pretty dark and miserable and depressing, by the end I'd finished reading the first volume I can't say I was in a hurry to pick up any more. Really well crafted piece of work, but yeah, maybe a bit TOO dark and depressing for me.

In some ways it's a pity Transmet and Preacher were finite stories. I really enjoyed them as something beyond "undies on the outside" style comics. Still, I think being finite stories was also good because it meant there was a definite arc and the stories wrapped up before the characters became stale and repetitive.

Khel you really should try to read the last book of Transmet. Everything gets wrapped up and while it's dark it's also damned funny.

Planetary is one of my favourite books. It's another series that I think is finite. The way it's structured it feels like they're going to solve the overarching mystery and then the series will wrap up (which would be quite disappointing in some ways). Authority is great too - basically as an "undies on the outside" team the way it'd probably be. I must say though that my absolute favourite comic at the moment is Dark Horse's Conan. The art is superb and the stories have gone back to the REH style instead of the ridiculous Marvel style that the series degenerated into a decade or so ago.