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    Infinite Crisis

    Story arc »

    In the chaos ensuing after the unleashing of the OMACs on Earth, the Spectre's vendetta against magic, and the Rann-Thanagar War, four beings decide to try and save the universe: Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two, Superboy of Earth-Prime, and Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three. What resulted was the *Infinite Crisis.*

    Short summary describing this arc.

    Infinite Crisis last edited by cloudguy on 07/04/19 06:00AM View full history

    Plot Summary

    The story begins in the wake of the four lead-in limited series, with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman feuding, the JLA Watchtower destroyed, and the heroes of the world all facing a variety of menaces. Over this backdrop, Kal-L (the Earth-Two Superman), along with Earth-Two Lois Lane, Earth-Three Alexander Luthor, and Superboy-Prime escape from the pocket universe where they had been left at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Kal-L seeks out his cousin, Power Girl, also a survivor of Earth-Two. Believing Lois' health will improve on her native world, he hopes to replace the current Earth-One with Earth-Two, which he considers perfect.

    Kal-L tries to enlist Batman's support, stating that the Post-Crisis Earth's inherent "bad" nature caused Batman's recent mistrust and hostility. Batman refuses. Afterward, he learns Superboy-Prime destroyed the JLA Watchtower.

    Alexander reveals to Power Girl that he and Superboy-Prime had been leaving their "paradise" for some time, manipulating events to help create an inter-dimensional tuning fork. Using the Anti-Monitor's remains and captured heroes and villains specifically attuned to former universes (Power Girl among them), Alex restores Earth-Two, un-populated except for the Earth-Two heroes transported there.

    Superboy-Prime attacks Conner Kent, this world's Superboy. Multiple super-teams intervene. Superboy-Prime accidentally kills several heroes before the Flashes and Kid Flash force him into the Speed Force, assisted by speedsters already within it. Jay Garrick, the only speedster left behind, says the Speed Force is now gone.

    Seeking to create a perfect world, Alexander restores many alternate Earths. The Earth-Two Lois dies, and an aggrieved Kal-L and the younger Superman Kal-El fight until Wonder Woman separates them. Bart Allen (wearing Barry Allen's costume and aged to adulthood) emerges from the Speed Force, warning that he and the other speedsters were unable to hold Superboy-Prime, who returns wearing Anti-Monitor inspired armor that stores yellow sun radiation to empower him, making him even stronger.

    Batman's strike force destroys Brother Eye, a satellite AI created by Batman that had gone rogue and begun transforming civilians into nano-infused robots. Alexander selects and merges alternate Earths, trying to create a "perfect" world, until Firestorm blocks his efforts. Conner, Nightwing, and Wonder Girl release the Tower's prisoners. Fighting each other, Conner and Superboy-Prime collide with the tower, destroying it. The multiple Earths recombine into a "New Earth" as Conner dies in Wonder Girl's arms. Power Girl soon arrives and asks Kal-L what happened to Lois. The answer causes her to break down prompting her to ask Kal-L why. His answer is because he chose the wrong Superboy.

    When a horde of supervillains attack Metropolis, heroes, current and retired, fly off to the rescue. They are joined by the National Guard. The battle results in multiple deaths on both sides, including many by Superboy-Prime himself, who kills villains and heroes alike. During the battle, Superboy-Prime takes off to destroy Oa, planning to collapse the Universe, and recreate it with himself as the only superhero. Superboy-Prime breaks through a 300-mile thick wall of willpower, and then kills thirty-two Green Lanterns before Kal-L and Kal-El carry him toward Krypton's remains, now essentially a huge cloud of kryptonite. Flying through Krypton's red sun Rao destroys Superboy-Prime's armor and causes all three Kryptonians' powers to dissipate. Landing on the sentient planet (and Green Lantern Corps member) Mogo, they fight. Kal-El finally knocks Superboy-Prime out and the older Superman Kal-L dies of his injuries in the arms of his cousin, Power Girl.

    Back on Earth, Batman, struggling with Superboy's death and Nightwing's severe injuries sustained during the Metropolis battle, contemplates shooting Alex. Batman is discouraged by Wonder Woman. Alex manages to escape.

    Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman later meet up in Gotham. Wonder Woman plans to find out who she is. Batman plans a similar journey of self-discovery, revisiting the training of his youth, this time with Dick Grayson, now healthier, and Tim Drake joining him. Superman retires from superheroics until his powers return. He is just Clark Kent a reporter and also spending time with his wife Lois Lane and family and reporter on the missing year [See 52 comics to find out]

    Hiding in an alley in Gotham City and making new plans, Alexander Luthor is found by Lex Luthor and the Joker. The Joker deforms him by spraying acid onto his face, then kills Alexander as Lex mocks him for making the mistake of not letting the Joker play in the Society.

    The Green Lantern Corps imprison Superboy-Prime inside a red Sun-Eater. The series ends with him carving an S into his chest with his bare hands and declaring that he has escaped from worse prisons than this.

    Deaths in Infinite Crisis

    Alex Luthor
    Alex Luthor
    • Air Wave - Split into a million pieces. Infinite Crisis #4
    • Ballistic - Vaporized by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Baron Blitzkrieg - Vaporized by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Bushido - Sliced in half by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #4
    • Breach - Exploded after his shell is ruptured by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Charaxes - Torn in half by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Geist - Vaporized by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    Wildebeest
    Wildebeest
    • Jade - Fried by lightning emanating from an energy rift in space. Rann/Thanagar War: Infinite Crisis Special #1
    • Lois Lane of Earth-Two - Died of old age. Infinite Crisis #5
    • Alexander Luthor - Shot by Joker. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Major Disaster - Neck snapped by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Mongrel - Vaporized by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Nabu - Burnt while battling the Spectre. Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special #1
    Superboy
    Superboy
    • Nightblade - Vaporized by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Pantha - Head punched off by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #4
    • Peacemaker (Mitchell Black) - Shot in the back by Prometheus. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Psycho Pirate (Roger Hayden) - Masked shoved through head by Black Adam. Infinite Crisis #6
    • Razorsharp - Vaporized by Superboy-Prime's heat vision. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Lady Spellbinder. Shot. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Stallion. Caught in explosion. Infinite Crisis #4
    • Star Sapphire (Deborah Camille Darnell). Turned into sapphire and shattered by the Spectre. Infinite Crisis #6
    • Superboy (Conner Kent) - Killed in explosion of Alexander Luthor's arctic tower. Infinite Crisis #6
    • Superman of Earth-Two - Beaten to death by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Technocrat - Incinerated when Breach exploded. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Trigger Twins - Shot. Infinite Crisis #7
    • Wildebeest - Punched through the stomach by Superboy-Prime. Infinite Crisis #4
    • Mick Wong - Split from Firestorm in space and suffocated. Infinite Crisis #4

    Chronology of Infinite Crisis

    Infinite Crisis was DC's most ambitious story arc to date, and as such consisted of seven separate mini-series, several one-shots, and tie-ins from DC's other titles. This leads to much confusion when determining an official reading order, but breaking each arc into smaller parts can alleviate this a bit. The following sequence is a high-level chronology.

    • Prelude to Infinite Crisis (one-shot) collected several stories from earlier titles that led into the main story.
    • Countdown to Infinite Crisis (one-shot) told the story of how Blue Beetle investigates the relationships between all the seemingly unrelated activities that are plaguing the world.
    • Prelude Mini-Series included The OMAC Project, Day of Vengeance, Villains United and Rann-Thanagar War. Each series was unrelated to the others in the sense that they can be read stand-alone, and only tie in to the main story after each is complete.
    • Infinite Crisis is the main story.
    • Infinite Crisis Secret Files (one-shot) tells the background story of the main players in the Infinite Crisis mini. This was published between issues 5 and 6 of the main series.
    • Four Infinite Crisis specials/one-shots were published, with the same titles as each of the Prelude Minis, in between Infinite Crisis issues 3 thru 7. These tie the prelude stories back into the events of the main series.
    • The Aftermath Mini-Series included Battle for Bludhaven and The Spectre. These also are independent of each other.
    • Brave New World comes last (see also the Impacts on DC Titles section below).

    Impacts on DC Titles

    Infinite Crisis was a wide-ranging arc that impacted much of the DC Universe. As such, many titles either ended, were rebooted, or changed titles. Several new volumes were started as a result of Infinite Crisis as well.

    Changes to Existing Series

    • Superman (vol. 2, 1987) ended with issue #226 (April 2006).
    • Adventures of Superman reverted back to its original title of Superman (vol. 1, 1939) with issue #650 (May 2006), maintaining issue numbering.
    • Wonder Woman (vol. 2, 1987) ended with issue #226 (Apr 2006), and Wonder Woman (vol. 3, 2006) rebooted the character with issue #1 in August 2006.
    • Hawkman (2002) changed its title to Hawkgirl (2006), maintaining issue numbering, starting with issue #50 (May 2006).
    • Aquaman (2003) changed its title to Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, retaining issue numbering, with issue #40 (May 2006)
    • JLA (1997) ended with issue #125 (April 2006) and Justice League of America (vol. 2, 2006) began with issue #1 in September 2006.
    • JSA (1999) ran only 5 more issues after Infinite Crisis, ending shortly after One Year Later with issue 87 (September 2006), and was rebooted as Justice Society of America (vol. 3, 2007) with issue #1 in Feb 2007.
    • Legion of Super-Heroes (2005) changed its title to Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes with issue #16 (May 2006), and eventually reverted back to its original title after running 21 issues with the new name.

    New Series/Volumes

    This section lists either brand new volumes, or titles that had ended well before Infinite Crisis and got a new volume as a result.

    Brave New World and Related Minis

    The Brave New World one-shot (August 2006) continued several stories "in the wake of Infinite Crisis," as was listed on its cover. This spawned several additional mini-series and ongoing series, including:

    Related Reading

    In addition to the series mentioned above, there are several series and story arcs that are not officially part of Infinite Crisis, but are strongly related to the events of Infinite Crisis.

    Lead-Ins:

    Aftermath:

    • One Year Later shows what happened in the chaos of the disappearance of the world's greatest heroes as a result of Infinite Crisis.

    Collected Editions

    Non-U.S. Editions

    Novelization

    No Caption Provided
    The must-have novel based on the comic event of 2006-the seven-issue story arc featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman published by DC Comics-which changed the face of the DC Universe.
    • Written By: Greg Cox
    • Publisher: Ace (June, 2010)
    • ISBN-10: 0441018955
    • ISBN-13: 978-0441018956
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