I've wondered this myself for a long time, and after reading the latest Countdown and Infinite Crisis stuff in DC continuity I have to ask again, Was the Crisis on Infinite Earths worth it?
Now I have to add first, nothing i say in this is stating that Crisis on Infinite Earths was anything but a masterpiece of writing and was a corner stone of the DC universe architecture, what I’m asking is why did they do it when everything they did it has been rewritten or just forgotten completely...
For those who have read the Crisis on Infinite Earths you will know the basic details behind it, the storyline it represented and the long lasting, or supposed to be long lasting, effects it had on the DCU.
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 Pérez's relaunching of Wonder Woman, and John Byrne's reboot of Superman 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. Green Lantern was briefly changed to Green Lantern Corps, chronicling the adventures of a group of Green Lanterns led by Hal Jordan and stationed on Earth. The Justice League of America title was cancelled, to be replaced by a new series entitled simply Justice League, featuring a new and uniquely diverse 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.
Basically they used Crisis on Infinite Earths to change the history of the DC Universe, rewriting everyone's back stories so it was all safe in one universe and there was "No travelling between earth 1 and earth 2" because the multiverse didn’t exist anymore... fine by me...
Now, not only were we treated to an awesome story with supposedly far reaching events that would change everything to come in the DC universe, but we were shocked by the deaths of two of the major DC universe characters, Supergirl and Barry Allen, The Flash.
Now while their deaths have been changed slightly this problem has never been addressed...
It was definitely stated that anyone who died in Crisis on Infinite Earths would be forgotten completely and no one would remember them, this point was further driven home at the end of the series with Psycho-Pirate, who was now imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, talking to himself in a monologue:
"I'm the only one left who remembers the infinite Earths. You see, I know the truth. I remember all that happened, and I'm not going to forget. Worlds lived, worlds died. Nothing will ever be the same. But those were great days for me... I had a good friend in the good old days, really. He was the Anti-Monitor. He was going to give me a world to rule. Now he's gone, too. But that's okay with me. You see, I like to remember the past because those were better times than now. I mean, I'd rather live in the past than today, wouldn't you? I mean, nothing's ever certain anymore. Nothing's ever predictable like it used to be. These days... y-you just never know who's going to die... and who's going to live."
So, no one remembers the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths right?
Well we know Wally West does, as he remembers Barry Allen, as does everyone else... so there's a plot hole big enough to drop George Bush’ ego through...
Not only that but the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths have actually been referenced by even low ranking characters in the DCU, showing that it is indeed remembered by everyone...
So why oh why does no one remember Supergirl?
This point was driven home at the end of Linda Danvers run as Supergirl when the Pre-Crisis Supergirl came from the past into the future to swap places with Linda. (Don't ask alright, it gave me a headache and I’m used to time travel).
Not only do we have plot problems like that but then we have yet another Supergirl who has come to the DCU as Superman's cousin...
Now we know the Pre-Crisis characters weren't just erased from continuity as the story in Linda Danvers Supergirl issues showed, they couldn't come to the future if they were erased right? Anyway, so why do we have a new Supergirl when no one remembers the last Supergirl, even though the old Supergirl is remembered by the 6th Supergirl (Linda) and others?
Ok, I’m writing this and I’m getting confused...
So basically we have too many plot holes here already, and the whole idea of Crisis on Infinite Earths was to tidy up the DCU...
Now let’s attack the other problem... the multiple earths problem...
Crisis on Infinite Earths was supposedly made to 'retcon all of the multiverse into one cohesive back story for the DC universe'. right, fair enough... so why F$$k with it now? seriously?
We were happy with the 1 earth for the DC universe to exist in and then if they wanted to play with more we had this wonderful thing called Elseworlds... that was fine, we all liked that...
But no, that wasn't good enough apparently, we now have 52 separate Earths in the DCU, much like we did before Crisis on Infinite Earths, and they all exist separately but there are crossover stories that are happening between the earth’s, much like we did before Crisis on Infinite Earths...
Hold on, let me just check...
So the characters haven't changed because all the characters that died in Crisis on Infinite Earths have come back in one form or another...
The universe hasn't changed because we still have the multiverse with crossover stories linking Earth 1 and Earth whatever...
So I have to ask myself, what was the soddin' point in the Crisis on Infinite Earths in the first place?
M
Posted 1 year, 8 months ago
