GN of The Week: Crisis on Infinite Earths

This week’s GN of the Week is Crisis on Infinite Earths Deluxe Edition, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, inked by various, DC Comics. 2015 sees the 30th anniversary of DC’s monumental crossover which attempted to clean up all the continuity of the DC universe in one 12 issue epic series. Despite the fact that pretty much all of the crossover series that DC have published since have been unreadable and incoherent, Crisis on Infinite Earths is still an impressive piece of work. Wolfman, with the aid of arguably one of the most accomplished modern superhero artists George Perez and inkers that included Jerry Ordway, Dick Giordano and Mike DeCarlo, tried to wrangle DC’s unwieldly decades of stories while still creating an engaging tale. The villain here, The Anti-Monitor, is hellbent on destroying the worlds of DC’s multiverse and it takes the assembled ranks of pretty much every single DC hero and villain to stop him. There’s the death of the silver age Flash (Barry Allen), Supergril (Kara Zor-El) and many other characters although we all know that death in comics is a pretty temporary affair. Despite the fact that DC have disregarded almost every thing that happened in Crisis since, it’s still a very admirable piece of work. This huge hardcover also includes the History of the DC Universe, a two part story that tried to pack in every major DC character into a 96 page illustrated text story. Crisis on Infinite Earths cast a huge shadow over comics and specifically over DC’s titles for a number of years after it was published and it is appropriate that it is available in this doorstop format hardback. Wolfman and Perez managed to give their readers a cohesive and entertaining 12-part superhero story and if you haven’t read it, then this is a wonderful format to consume it in. The cover by George Perez and Alex Ross is also a suitably grand image.

JOEL MEADOWS