'Meister's Musings: The End of the Crisis

Well, Infinite Crisis finally ended today. I figured some exit comments would be appropriate. It’s not a long rant, but I figured I should speak my mind, and I’d also like to invite others to do the same. So if ever you were to leave a comment on a post, let it be this one, and let’s have ourselves some discussion!

Some minor spoilers for #7 are discussed, but there's a clear warning before and after. So you have absolutely no reason not to contribute your thoughts. I WILL find out where you live...

For over 2 years now, DC has made one of the best attempts at creating a cohesive universe that I have ever seen, and likely ever will see: the DC Universe has meshed incredibly well since Identity Crisis, and I’m now a DC fan because of it. I enjoy reading DC and Marvel because they essentially are their own mythologies, with entire universes and decades of history backing them up. I think that’s truly amazing for a company to be able to do that. And DC, I would say, has pulled it off marvelously in recent years.

Everything about DC lately has impressed me; this is due, in large part, to their editorial staff, as they have made a universe out of a collection of different titles operating in the same world. When something happens over in Superman, Batman knows about it; if Batman’s having a bad day, Supes knows about it. It’s been great. While Marvel used to have Thor fly overhead and tell you to read Thor’s book (although that’s much more effort than their editorial staff has put into inter-book continuity in years), DC doesn’t have to do that. It’s much more subtle, and it fits together so much better. I’ve loved every minute of it.

As for Infinite Crisis itself, I would have to say I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. Despite my lack of knowledge of all of the B-, C-, D-, etc. tier characters, I realized that the entire universe was there, and all of the heroes were at their best. Just like the original Crisis 20 years ago, we got to see the heroes of the DC Universe be just that: true heroes, who are willing to put everything on the line to save innocents. Furthermore, all of the plot points that have been building up for years now in DC have finally come to a head, and I thought it was truly enjoyable seeing a series truly mindful of its history and roots. I liked it. Heroes were heroes, some major stuff happened that will undoubtedly have ramifications for months or years to come, and we got to see that DC’s heroes are icons, even if they have been a little bit darker in recent years.

I do have one rather major complaint about the end of Crisis 2, though:

*RELATIVELY MINOR INFINITE CRISIS #7 SPOILERS FOLLOW*





The sonsabitches over at DC have pulled a Spidey: since the Earth of the DC Universe is a new one, due to all of the mucking around Alexander Luthor and Superboy Prime were up to, DC decided to introduce their equivalent of organic webshooters. Batman Begins and Smallville are hugely popular, and it looks like DC decided to retcon their way into movie continuity since they’re essentially whores. Remember how Joe Chill was caught in Begins? Well, according to good ol’ Alex Luthor, in this new Earth ‘Batman still fights for Gotham, even though his parents’ killer was caught.’ Furthermore, ‘There are recorded rumors of Superman’s activities before his appearance in Metropolis.’ Smallville, anyone? Don’t get me wrong; I thought Infinite Crisis #7 was a great end to the series, and it was packed with truly heroic and just plain kickass moments (the Supermen fighting Doomsday was incredible), but those 2 little retcons pissed me off. Not only does it insult the intelligence of new readers, as they apparently can’t understand that comics and TV shows are slightly different, but it felt like it cheapened the entire issue a bit. Now, I think that’s actually one of the cleverest retcons I’ve ever seen, as they actually had a somewhat legitimate excuse for it; better than Superboy punching on the walls of time to justify anything you want. I just think retcons are stupid in general, and this was a rather cheap, obvious way of changing comic continuity to reflect mainstream media. They could have at least said those things in their respective titles, and tried to be more subtle with vague allusions to the past. Bleagh.




*END SPOILERS*


Other than that little gripe, I’d say DC has really gotten their act together over the last few years. Hopefully I’ll be able to write another column next year (assuming we’re still here, of course) that will reflect the same idea about 52. For now, DC definitely has my interest piqued, even if it was through a massive company-wide crossover. While Spider-Man’s still a good character, I’ll take an entire cohesive universe over Peter’s financial problems any day. For now, make mine DC.

Agree? Disagree? Please, let me know. As I said before, this seems like it could be a fun topic to debate, so by all means, leave some comments and let’s have a talk. Always feel free to email me, too, at aswindle@gmail.com and I’ll get back to ya right away. As always, this and all of my previous 'Meister's Musings columns are archived at meistersmusings.blogspot.com.

--The Almeister