Customer Reviews

Crisis on Infinite Earths

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This is an excellent adaptation of the epic DC comic story. For those who do not know, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was a 1985 story where all of the DC comics heroes and villains from different universes teamed up to stop the all powerful Anti-Monitor. Because of the story, numerous characters died in their battle, different multi-verses unified as one universe and DC comics rewrote its history.

This audiobook seems almost like a radio play with sound effects and superb voice acting. It also contains updated pop culture references of today even though it was originally written in 1985 (e.g. Homer Simpson, etc.). Unlike other books or radio plays, it has numerous actors and actresses for the various roles, unlike cheaper productions using fewer voice roles to save costs.

I plan to buy more of these audiobooks. This is great for the comic book fan or just the person who makes regular long commutes.

For those who are unfamiliar with Graphic Audio's work, it's top notch and includes multiple actors, great sound effects, and generally top-notch production values. The audiobooks are generally adapted from prose stories (which are themselves often adaptations of comic stories), which is good and bad. I've listened to Crisis on Infinite Earths (this one, for which you're reading my rambling review), Infinite Crisis, and 52. Of those, Crisis on Infinite Earths is a strong second place for me. Marv Wolfman (the writer for the original comic mini-series) wrote the novelation years later. To his credit, he decided to adopt a completely different point of view from the 12-issue limited series, and wrote the novel in the viewpoint of Barry Allen, aka the Flash. I commend him for trying something new and different, but it didn't really work for me... at least not as well as the original mini-series. I think the reader who's read the original Crisis comic series will get a bit more out this than somebody coming to the series cold (this is in contrast to Infinite Crisis and 52, where I think it can easily be ones first exposure). Wolfman tried to update the Flash's dialogue with contemporary phrases--this annoyed me, since (a) to me, Crisis on Infinite Earths defined comics of the mid-eighties, and (b) anytime you try to make such an effort to make something hip and contemporary, it quickly becomes dated.

Despite my criticisms, this *is* a very entertaining audiobook. For the record, I thought that 52 was the best superhero audiobook I'd ever listened to; but that's in two parts, while Crisis on Infinite Earths is in single set. So... while I definitely recommend 52 to any reader (listener?), if you're unsure about paying twice the money, or just love that Alex Ross cover of Superman holding his dying cousin, you won't go wrong with this one. If you've read the original Crisis maxi-series, it's an interesting perspective on the events depicted there.