9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strong, but better if you're familiar with the characters, February 26, 2007
This review is from: Infinite Crisis: The Novel (Paperback)
So I'm a big geek. I'm the first person to admit that. Heck, I practically revel in it. And I was a huge fan of DC Comics's Infinite Crisis saga from last year. Still, I was skeptical at the announcement that a novelization of the comic book was in the coming. Comic novelizations -- like novelizations of movies or TV shows -- are notoriously hit and miss, and most of those I've read of late have been misses. Infinite Crisis, to put it simply, falls somewhere in between.
The world is falling apart around its greatest heroes. Batman's paranoia has led him to create a supercomputer that has rebelled against him, threatening the entire world. Wonder Woman has slain a former ally to save the life of another. And Superman has lost his ability to lead, lost their faith, and lost his faith in himself. Four separate crises are converging, and the only hope for the entire Earth is that their champions conquer themselves and learn how to be heroes again.
The original story was pretty powerful and kept my attention throughout. The novel suffers from the same obstacle as most comic novelizations -- it assumes that the reader has familiarity with the characters and the situations involved. While that's true in my case, you can't assume that will be true for every reader, and that lack of accessibility is a big problem. On the other hand, Greg Cox does exactly what you hope a novelization author will do -- he delves deeper into the minds and hearts of the characters than was allowed in the comic book format. The Last Run of the Flashes, for example, pulls us straight into Bart Allen's heart and lets us feel for him in a way that the comic book -- strong as a scene as that was -- did not.
The rest of the novel is similarly hit-and-miss -- if you don't know the characters, you won't get as much out of it. If you do know them, it will hit you a lot harder. Strong, but not strong enough to recommend to the casual reader.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but potentially confusing for the unfamiliar, March 16, 2008
I'm not one for reading novelizations of comic books, but Greg Cox has taken one of the most complicated plot lines in the DC Universe and made it interesting -- even without the pictures. This book (as the Infinite Crisis comics did) has everything: heroes and villians from every iteration of DC comics, and a universe-threatening conflict. The storyline has a villian wanting to undo what had been done in an earlier Crisis; take the myriad alternate Earths that had been combined into one and rip them apart again to find the "perfect" Earth. After a rather confusing start (mostly for those who haven't kept up with comic books after, say, the age of 14 or the 1970s, whichever applies), the novel settles into a more traditional prose pace, making it work despite the cheesy dialog which reflects the book's origins. All in all, a good read, but only for those who already know about, or grew up with, the DC heroes and villians and want a good, all-encompassing adventure.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A great way to read the story if you don't have the time or money to track down all the issues, January 22, 2012
This was a completely enjoyable book telling the tale of Infinite Crisis in a way that was both understandable and enjoyable. One should have somewhat of an understanding of the DC Universe and at least bare bones knowledge of Crisis on Infinite Earths to fully understand this novel. That being said I think this novelization is more complete and understandable than any of the various collected editions of the comics available. The book is almost much cheaper and more readily available then trying to find all the comics that go into this story. Much like Rodger Stern's "Death and Life of Superman", Denny O'Neil's "Knightfall" and Greg Rucka's "Batman: No Man's Land" these books are very entertaining and don't have the confusion or lack of accessibility that the comics and collections of comics tend to. Why the comic books with these heroes can't be as entertaining, understandable or as rapidly paced as the novelizations is still beyond me.
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