| Title | : | Crisis on Infinite Earths: Deluxe Edition |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401258417 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401258412 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 496 |
| Publication | : | Published October 13, 2015 |
Written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez, with inks by Dick Giordano, Jerry Ordway and Mike DeCarlo, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS finds the alternate worlds that once were a hallmark of the DC Universe under
siege by a mysterious force powerful enough to wipe out the lives of billions.
This Deluxe edition includes History of the DC Universe #1-2, Wolfman's plot outline and some pencilled pages by Perez.
Crisis on Infinite Earths: Deluxe Edition Reviews
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Walls of antimatter are destroying the worlds of the multiverse and it's up to the superheroes of many earths to band stop them and their maker, the villainous Anti-Monitor!
I read a handful of issues of this miniseries over the years but never read it in its entirety. Imagine my delight when my mom got me this for Christmas despite me being "hard to buy for."
Crisis was created to get rid of the multitude of parallel earths and just have one DC earth in the name of simplification. In retrospect, I don't think kids had nearly as big of a problem with the multiverse as the adults. Anyway, the story had a lot of heavy lifting to do. How do you go about destroying universes, killing off characters, and telling a good story at the same time?
Fortunately, Marv Wolfman and George Perez were up for the task. Coming off their revolutionary run on New Teen Titans, Crisis was the assignment of a lifetime. While the story is hokey by today's standards, in 1985 it was pretty revolutionary. By the time the dust settled, Supergirl and the Flash were dead, along with a lot of other characters. Unlike today when heroes don't usually stay dead for longer than a year or two, those deaths stuck around for a while, over two decades in the case of Barry Allen.
George Perez was George Perez, the dynamo that still doesn't get the credit he deserves. Panel after panel is packed with characters, dozens at times, AND he stuck the deadlines. Not only that, the characters looked how they were supposed to look thanks to meticulous research.
The Monitor and the Anti-Monitor battling for the fate of the multiverse made for some tense moments. The heroes and villains go through the meat grinder and the multiverse was very nearly destroyed. Pretty heavy stuff for 1985. You know when Darkseid has to help out, the shit has really hit the fan.
I should also mention how coherent the story was. The last crossover of this magnitude I attempted to read, Final Crisis, was the dog's breakfast. This one was tightly plotted and made as much sense as a story featuring hundreds of people in costume punching things can. There were also some heartfelt moments, most notably Superman holding Supergirl's body and Wally West taking up the mantle of The Flash. With a couple more decades of reading under my belt, Crisis feels like an episode of Doctor Who or Star Trek with some Michael Moorcock thrown in.
Crisis was done in the name of simplifying the continuity of the DC universe and fully integrate the Quality, Fawcett, and Charlton heroes they acquired the previous couple decades into the fold. However, "simplifying" the continuity had some unforeseen repercussions. Firstly, it created a multitude of continuity issues of its own that would necessitate further tweaks every few years. Secondly, and much worse, it created the popular mass crossover storylines that encompass the entire company's books but are ultimately unsatisfying in the name of grabbing fat stacks of cash.
While I don't think Crisis on Infinite Earths stands the test of time as well as some books from the period, it does mark a transitional point in the DC Universe and much of the modern DCU starts here. 3.5 out of 5 stars, though it would have been a five if I'd reviewed it as an eight year old in 1985.
2019 Read: For some reason, I thought the impending birth of my son would be a good time to re-read Crisis. Instead of focusing on all the problems it caused and fun it eliminated from the DC universe, I intended on focusing on the story itself, the creation of a new universe from the ashes of thousands of old ones.
Thirty eight hours later, my son is about to be shot from my wife's loins like a cannonball, as I understand the birthing process, and I finished the story in a haze sometime early this morning.
Crisis is pretty fucking good if you like Bronze Age stories. Marv Wolfman had literally hundreds of characters to work into the mix and he did a fantastic job. The Anti-Monitor is a damn believable threat and the way the story unfolds is masterful. There is nothing I would call filler in this. The premise is worthy of a Doctor Who series finale. One godlike being is destroying universes and another godlike being is assembling a force of heroes and villains to oppose him.
Even with a premise like that, Crisis could have easily shat the bet without George Perez on the art. George Perez is the best artist of the Bronze Age and possibly of 1980 to the present. Every panel is crammed with characters and details and George doesn't skimp. Some panels have over a hundred individual characters in them.
Crisis reads like a loveletter to everything that came before at times. Wolfman and Perez work Anthro, Kamandi, Enemy Ace, and hundreds more characters into the mix, even to just show them in a panel or two. The character deaths that appear on screen are meaningful and powerful. THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE BROUGHT BARRY ALLEN BACK!
One of the things I loved is that Marv Wolfman didn't build the story around the usual suspects of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Superman gets more screen time than the other two but it's the Superman of Earth-2 that gets his moment in the sun. The Monitor recruits people like Blue Beetle for his initial team rather than Batman and it isn't Batman that saves the day, which seems appropriate since Batman is a detective and not Reed Richards.
Anyway, at the end of the day, this should be the measuring stick for blockbuster events and I shouldn't hold it responsible for all the imitators. I'll go back to my wife's side and get ready to catch the kid as he comes flying out of her uterus.
I did not give Crisis a fair shake on my last read. It's the grand daddy of them all and should be treated as such. 4.5 out of 5 stars. -
Epic, tragic, inter-dimensional space opera, the penultimate event that started all events and changed DC history forever.
The plot: Anti-Monitor versus the known universe.
The cast: The DCU in its entirety.
The artwork: Mind-boggling, hand-illustrated macroscopy.
The writing: Prosaic but incredible.
Read Crisis On Infinite Earths for twelve issues of hyperbole perfection. -
Pretty entertaining but needed more Batman.
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DC Comics proudly presents....
The most Risky, Confusing, Over-populated and Important comic book event of the 80's.
Welcome to pre-crisis multi-verse containing Earth-1, Earth 2, Earth 3, Earth-Prime, Earth-S, Earth-X and whatever alphabets you can think of. Ah, Never mind, they are all being destroyed anyway.
But the question is by whom and how can the heroesssss stop them?
Why the multiple S in heroes, you ask? Because the story is criminally full of them. Superheroes from five different Earths Plus superheros from past and future are featured in this 13 chapter long mega crossover event. I must have read at least 200 distinct superhero names in this run!
Plus it is the 80's. The story telling style of that era is a bit difficult to read as well as a bit outdated.
Exhibit A : Everyone narrates their own actions for simple folks like us to understand
Exhibit B : If they are too busy to narrate, someone else will do it for them!
Exhibit C : Nightwing looking like Elvis Presley
Now about the plot! Well, it started with a bang (literally) and from there started my saga of confusion! Hell, even the characters were confused!
But the middle chapters really pulled it off by telling the origin of multi-verse and by explaining what the hell have been happening since the beginning. At this point, i was more like Robin!
And the ending chapters once again slipped into the realms of confusion as tons of characters started talking at once.
Nevertheless, this is a revolutionary event which changed everything in DC universe. But on a pure enjoyment standpoint, the story is lacking in places. -
Crisis on Infinite Earths is very much a product of its own time, an ambitious, convoluted, massive, 12-issue crossover event, the first of its kind, and I can see how it worked as a template for future crossover events, Jim Starlin for example stole a lot of ideas from it and created a much better version of it, the Infinity Gauntlet, which was illustrated by the same artist, George Pérez.
I just don't think Crisis have much revelance today unless you're a massive DC fan, I've always been a Marvel guy myself and had a really hard time trying to care for the colossal amount of characters that were in this book, I didn't knew who half of them were, which I think is where this book fails, in trying to give everyone some paper time, the main story becomes a slog to read, and it doesn't help that Anti-Monitor, the main villain, is super boring, just your regular baddie who wants to destroy the universe, but the series does have some memorable, exciting moments, such as the death of Supergirl, the death of Flash, and the Spectre final battle, and it was fun to get a look at this golden age.
Only recommended to hardcore superhero fans, or DC completists. -
Si uno tuviera que poner un solo ejemplo de épica en el mundo del comic, sin duda sería este. Nueva relectura que me permite dimensionar un poco más la maravillosa construcción narrativa que implica con la enorme cantidad de personajes que tiene. De todas formas, la lectura se hace más fácil al darnos cuenta que todo ocurre alrededor de Pariah, los Monitores, Harbinger, Alexander Luthor y el Superman de Tierra 2; esos son los que mueven toda la trama; el resto acompaña.
Me gusta que se vayan presentando de a poco los sucesos, la estructura circular, las reales consecuencias que tiene el evento, el dibujo y ciertos diálogos y situaciones que quedan para el recuerdo. Respecto al dibujo, si bien el mérito de George Perez está más que establecido, me gustaría mencionar el entintado del maestro Jerry Ordway, que se refleja principalmente en las caras y gestos de los personajes.
La edición que tengo es el típico oversize hardcover con sobrecubierta yanqui, que además de la historia tiene unos extras con dibujos, bocetos y el pitch de la historia (que a mí todo eso me importa poco, la verdad). Igual es un hermoso tomo para tener.
En definitiva es una placentera lectura que recomiendo repasar cada tanto porque no pierde con el tiempo, sino que gana enteros, más con las porquerías que se escriben hoy en el género de superhéroes. -
An extra star for George Perez's art.
I remember when this came out, I was already more than halfway done with comics, and I never read it all the way through. If anything, it confirmed why I was done. At 18, I was too old for such foolishness.
(In college, someone gave me Watchmen to read, and out of respect for Frank Miller, I kept up with Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, but other than that, I lost touch)
Lately, however, I have been catching up with the 30 years I missed, and so much of current DC refers back to this that I felt obliged to read it all the way through.
It's bad, y'all. It's repetitive. It's pointless. It's corny as hell. It keeps stopping and starting again as if no one really plotted it.
One thing I was thinking as I read. When this came out, Jim Starlin was still the paradigm for cosmic 'events.' It would be possible (but tedious) to map out the ways this was bound to follow in the footsteps of Starlin's Captain Marvel and Warlock.
Watchmen was a paradigm shift, and that's why this decadent Starlinism strikes us as so alien and barely comprehensible.
Finally, let me say: Headband Supergirl had to die. She was a fashion disaster. -
I've read the Crisis story long ago. I liked it but wasn't blown away by it. But, recently having spoken with my GR friends Jayson and Chad, I decided to give this a reread (and read the Crisis books in order). I bought this really nice Deluxe edition which came in HC. It not only has the 12-issue Crisis on Infinite Earths and the 2 issue History of the DC Universe. Also included are some very good background notes on the whole creation process. All of the artwork was redone so, George Perez's artwork really shines and certainly holds up the test of time.
Crisis was the first great mega-event crossover story in comics. It was an attempt by Marv Wolfman to bring all the various continuities caused by decades of comic stories into some semblance of order. In Crisis the Monitor seeks to gather a force of heroes and villains to help him defeat the anti-monitor who seeks to destroy all life in the universe. This epic conflict will see the destruction of worlds, the extinction of famous groups and characters, and a few deaths that were shocking.
I really liked the restored artwork. It really looks good. I really enjoyed this story the 2nd time around and armed with more knowledge. If you've never read this seminal work-then this is the volume I would recommend. -
Cheesy, confusing (not in a good way), desperately trying to be EPIC and IMPORTANT. To be fair, I don't have any real history with most of the characters or the worlds they strut around in, and I much prefer stories and art that are a bit more grounded. Oh well, still glad I read it.
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What a Comic Epic that introduced me to characters and storylines I never knew about even as they came to a close. The art is timeless and the story unfortunately is quite confusing for someone who wasn't up to date with 1980s DC but after 100 pages I started to know the characters better and the pace began almost immediately to pick up once it introduced the multitude of heroes.
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In 1985, Crisis was the most ambitious comic series ever. Certainly, Secret Wars preceded it as a 12-part story focused on shaking up the status quo, but nothing before had ever had the scope of Crisis, a story which fundamentally shifted the entire DC setting.
This was the book that brought the Captain Marvel family and the Charlton heroes into regular DC continuity, that merged Earth-1, Earth-2, and Earth-X into a single timeline. Just look at the importance of characters like Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, and the Big Red Cheese to later DC history, and you can see the impact. This was the book that slew Barry Allen and Linda Danvers, that made Wally West the Flash and that made Guy Gardner a regular member of the Lanterns. It's a shame that so much of this has been undermined and reversed by later comics like Flashpoint and various Rebirths, but Crisis absolutely defined the DC universe in the '80s, '90s, and '00s.
The plotting itself is a little less notable. Every couple of issues the heroes get a new quest: defend some big machines, invade the anti-matter world, destroy the big gun, fight the villains, etc. There's not a lot of foreshadowing, so the story at times feels a little arbitrary. But the scope, that's amazing. Wolfman and Perez do a great job of really bringing the whole DC universe together, the whole EXTENDED DC universe, and that's part of what makes Crisis as amazing of a read 35 years later.
And it's also great to have History of the DC Universe collected with Crisis in this newest iteration. Under any circumstances, History would have been a magnificent melding together of the stories of an entire comic line, but as the melding together of the stories of Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-X, the Charlton heroes, and the Captain Marvel heroes, it's even more amazing. (Admittedly, the Shazam! family gets short shrift). And the artwork on these full pages is outstanding. Let's admire for a moment that DC had a coherent chronology ... for about 2 minutes, before it started falling apart to the problems of Hawkman and others. -
First part of my re-reading of all DC Comics crisis events. Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985). I think I haven’t read it in 30 years. It stands the test of time.
An epic battle of the whole multiverse against the anti-monitor. A roster so large that it’s impossible to keep count. Every character of the times gets a part. Sergeant Rock and The Losers, in their original incarnation, before Andy Diggle and Jock turned them into a blockbuster to be. Anthro, the first man. Kamandi, the last one. A young John Constantine, and many others... Some deaths occur. Some permanent. Some lasting for decades. DC wasn’t joking at the time.
The anniversary edition has been remastered and recolored. The work has been done with great care, and is mostly exempt of faults often seen in such attempts. There are a few lines missing here and there, some others a little thick, a few lettering issues in some captions but, overall, it looks pretty good in digital. Of course, purists will always prefer the 4 color offset newsprint original.
This edition contains foreword and afterwords of previous collections, some original lineart, and the one shot history of the DC universe that was published in the aftermath.
In the end, only a single universe remains. Some surviving characters from other earths went into a pocket dimension of their own, and will make an exploding return in Infinite Crisis.
But, before that, on to Zero Hour. -
Crisis on Infinite Earths: 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
The multiverse is imploding, universes being superimposed on each other until they converge and annihilate each other. A mysterious being known the Monitor calls on the champions of many Earths to prevent a disaster of immeasurable consequence. Guilty secrets will be unveiled and heroes will sacrifice everything to save everything they love.
The plot is epic in scope and the artists work well to differentiate the many versions of the various superheroes. But 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' is more than just this amazing story. Wolfman's seminal maxi series redefined a way of working within the comics industry. Its goal was to streamline the various books and reconcile the best of what had occurred over almost five decades of an increasingly complex web of back stories which had made the DC Universe almost impenetrable for new readers to understand.
The heroism of the characters is never in doubt and their reasons for the choices they make are clearly outlined so that readers can understand the impact of the storyline. Ironically, a series which ended an overly complicated universe became a book that everyone can read and enjoy on its own merits.
This edition also includes "The History of the DC Universe", a companion book for the storyline. -
É uma história muito braba, reunindo herói pra caralh*!! Tem uns lá que nunca vi na vida, conseguirem nem clicar e morreram. Mas no geral é boa, vale mto a pena ler para entender o reboot que a DC fez no universo para acabar com o multiverso. Único ponto é que, por ser uma história da década de 80, têm muitos balões de diálogo, que torna a leitura cansativa.
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Not sure why there is so much praise for this. I understand it would be a big thing in 1985 but in 2022?
George Perez is synonymous with 80’s looking comic art but a lot of his art is more suited for posters than for actual comic book readers. Seems convoluted.
The storyline is mediocre at best, very clustered, moves 100mph, a new thing happens on every page. There’s no pace to this, there’s nothing to hook and grab you. The writing is…eh.
Everything is “You must die” or “Meet the (insert irrelevant character here)” at the end of every issue.
I get this was the first of the crisis sagas and we all have to start somewhere but, if you look at the art that was coming out in the 80’s. “Terminator” was groundbreaking, “Back to the future” was revolutionary…stories like “Crisis of infinite earths” were simply lackluster and more so appeasing to the nostalgia affect of one’s child hood more than anything. -
I have never seen such an uneven book when comparing writing to art quality. Not only is the writing beyond dated, its too sprawling, covering far too many characters who I can't imagine even people in the 80s would have cared about.
Perez art though, spectacular. Yes, it's in an older style, but the amount of detail and emotion he is able to get in each panel, he really is special.
Also for a deluxe edition, it does offer a lot. Lots of notes, sketches, etc. Definitely worth the price point.
But overall, this story was uneven, boring, and stretched way too much. Disappointing for how lauded it is. -
DC's first big event lead by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. I'm tired lol. This was a 12 issue maxi-series that was suppose to take care of the mess that was their multi-verses. The story overall was actually really creative and I think that Marv and George find a really fun way to make an event feel so important and have some actual consequences. (for a while at least c;). This read was a little rough for me though as Marv really kinda just fills some pages with some crazy amount of info dumping and unnecessary dialogue. There are times where the book just feels slowed down but when the book is good, its good. We have some real epic moments in this series and the ending is actually pretty awesome. It just feels at times the the story isn't consistent entertaining wise. One thing that does stay consistent though is George Perez's artwork. We get some of his best work in this and I really don't see anyone else being able to do a book like this, better than Perez. This was around the time that Marvel's "Secret Wars" and I gotta say this is a lot better. Overall I think this is an important read for anyone who wants to get into DC. Has some parts that feel a little dragged but still a interesting and fun read.
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This is a general review of Crisis on Infinite Earths (CoIE): As I started reading DC in 2009 and looking back, this graphic novel has been a brilliant milestone. Not only it reshaped the DC Comics's history, but became a true definition of climactic epicosity. Without CoIE, DC would never be the same.
Yes, I endorse the old fashion texts by
Marv Wolfman and awesome sketches by
George Pérez. They are not old, they are "vintage".
Before I get into recommendations I have to mention that most of the DC's crossover-stories can be very hard to follow if you're not familiar with the concept of Multiverse. My personal recommendations for reading such epic, large follow-up stories would be going to Google and search for "DC Comics's crisis". You would get a thorough introduction of where and when to read.
Ciao!
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I can totally see now why DC needed to just nuke the whole industry back in the early 90's and start over. I'm so glad I finally had a chance to go back and read this and see for myself the brilliant way that DC reset everything. Perfect way to roll into the Grant Morrison run.
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One of the best DC stories ever written!
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It was a fun event to read. Got inspired to read this series after watching the tv adaptation of COIE on the CW.
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Edición absolute argentina. Tiempo después Ovni la reeditaría pero sin los extras, bajando mucho el puntaje final. Personajes pendientes, créase o no.
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3,5 seria mais justo.
É a primeira vez que leio esta já clássica história e é um gibizão divertido. Não acho que seja a obra-prima que muitos exaltam. Creio que boa parte da fama foi pela novidade do "super-ultra-crossover" na época (1985), tornando-se um marco importante na cronologia da DC.
Dá pra entender a história sem precisar ler algum material prévio, embora a história em si seja confusa em alguns momentos. Claro, há algumas pontas soltas, como a questão do Flash, que até antes da história estava sumido e havia sido acusado de assassinato (então você precisa ir atrás dessa história se quiser saber sobre, mas como dito antes, não é obrigatório pra entender o que se passa nesta série.)
O que tirou estrelas da avaliação:
- meio cansativa, principalmente a questão do "vilão que nunca morre".
- falta de protagonismo dos heróis. Por boa parte da trama, os heróis e vilões são meros peões, guiados pelos reais protagonistas, que são personagens desconhecidos. O excesso de personagens também contribui pra isso.
- o vilão é genérico, do tipo, quero poder e ponto final (deve-se relevar pela época da série). -
The birth of modern DC Comics stems from the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Hailed as one of the earlier examples of an event, "Crisis" does a lot in the ways of crafting universe definining events while smashing every toy in DC's chest together. The story is almost needlessly complex, but still quite coherent given how many ideas are laced into a twelve issue maxiseries. There are heartfelt moments aplenty, but the crux of the conflict is a multiversal battle between the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. Dense for a comic about superheroes, the real richness of "Crisis" comes from George Perez's ability to churn out some truly imaginative panels. Primoridial origins are explored as worlds collide and superheroes die, but Perez is able to craft a gorgeous comic with utmost confidence. Though I found the overall story just okay, I was more than a few times blown away by the creative sparks demonstrated throughout by Perez. This isn't going to be considered one of the greatest comics of all time by any means, but there is something in the signficance to this first of DC's hundreds of "Crisis" storylines that makes it a worthwhile read.
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crisis! impressive how good this is considering how much of its conceit was explicitly a business decision to revamp the DC universe. that's one of the things i like about american super hero comics. the ability for the writers and artists to make interesting work among the economic and structural constraints of comics. for perez the task let him draw all the heroes he wanted, characters he'd never be able to work with on a regular series run. wolfman's story takes the need to collapse the multiverse to a mindbending saga of the creation and destruction of the universe. just great stuff. flash! the two supermans. there's a guy named psycho-pirate. fun that my pre-crisis reading helped me recognize a lot of characters and references, and yet there were so many more that i had no idea about.
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While I understand the significance of this book to modern comics, I found it was a mixed bag as a reading experience.
The core plot and resulting conclusion are interesting but it feels like you have to excavate it from the noise that is the overwhelming volume of characters. Many characters appear once over perhaps a few panels and are immediately as forgettable as a character as their presence is irrelevant to the main story.
I was underwhelmed by the art too. Some panels, especially close ups, are decent. Sadly, with the narrative insistence on a gazillion characters, many panels are from a distance, busy and lacking in detail. -
I definitely have mixed feelings about this book. It is definitely a product of its time. DC wanted a fresh start, they wanted to “simplify” their universe. They did just that. The story had some beautiful simple emotional moments. Additionally, the story was no less than twice the length it should have been. That story board was so repetitive that at times it felt like a chore. This is a shame, because there is a good story here.
However, if someone wants to understand the fabric of the DC universe they really need to start here. I just wish the story was more polished.
“Why use many words when few words do trick.” -
I’m reading this in it’s entirety for the first time. Thirty-seven years ago, I didn’t have enough investment in DC continuity to care. ( I was mainly Marvel, then.) It’s a crazy, convoluted mess, but it’s got heart. Perez’ pencilling is non-pareil. Wolfman’s dialogue is overblown, unnatural and corny. Seriously, when was the last time anyone used the word “dolt”? A long time before 1985!
Marv seems to be paying homage to Jack Kirby by placing some of Darkseid’s dialogue in quotes, but they seem randomly chosen and not the sort of words Kirby would choose. -
Me encantó, amé los acontecimientos, amé los mundos que se presentaron.
Superman y Flash, los mejores personajes, lejos. Mención especial para Supergirl. Y necesitaba más de Batman.
DC en cómics es un diez de diez. Ojalá hicieran las películas así de bien.
Le doy cuatro y no cinco porque me perdí en algunos momentos y no conozco a todos los personajes.
Fue un regalo de un amigo especial, así que lo aprecio mucho :)
A leer más cómics de quinientas páginas.
