Customer Reviews

Superman: Infinite Crisis

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Think back to the end of DC's 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths: Alexander Luthor led the Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane, and the Earth-Prime Superboy, to a heavenly dimension in order to escape the effects of the Crisis. There, these characters would supposedly live out their days in happiness. Well, now we find that since COIE, heaven isn't exactly what they thought it'd be, and they've watched helplessly as events such as the death of Superman and the coming of Parallax, have made the DC Universe a darker place. So Earth-2 Superman decides to do something about it, bringing about... the Infinite Crisis.

I guess I'm at a disadvantage since I don't collect monthly comics but instead wait for the trade collections. It could be that if I would have read each monthly tie-in to DC's Infinite Crisis, I'd have a better understanding of what's happening in SUPERMAN: INFINITE CRISIS. Regardless, that really shouldn't be an issue. In the case where it's necessary to throw together stories from several different titles, DC usually helps the reader somewhat by providing text pages that explain "the story so far", and even what may be happening inbetween. This was not one of those cases. The stories are disjointed, the art highly inconsistent from one story to the next, and whole pages of story seem to be missing. Honestly, I'm fairly familiar with DCU history and the developments in Infinite Crisis, and I had a really difficult time with this book; however, it does bring about one very interesting development, giving an explanation for exactly WHY the DC Universe has become such a dark place over the past 20 years. So, well-played on that front - I just wish that there were more story here to explain what is going on. It seems like a random collection of stories, as if these were the fragments that didn't fit into any of the other numerous trades DC has planned around Infinite Crisis.

This book collects SUPERMAN #226, ACTION COMICS #836, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #649, and stories from INFINITE CRISIS SECRET FILES 2006. Writers include Joe Kelly, Marv Wolfman and Jeph Loeb; with art by Ed Benes, Lee Bermejo, Howard Chaykin, Ian Churchill, Karl Kerschl, Phil Jimenez, Dan Jurgens, Ed McGuinness, Jerry Ordway, Tim Sale, and others. Great roster of talent, but overall not a very reader-friendly collection.

Segments from Infinite Crisis Secret Files & Origins, Infinite Crisis # 5, Superman # 226, Action Comics # 836 and Adventures of Superman # 649 form the viewpoint of both Supermen -- "ours" and the aging one from Earth-2 -- about the Infinite Crisis. A unique way to share with the Men of Steel and their relatives the disintegration of the one arid, single-Earth universe, along with the grandiose attempt to bring back to life a Universe That Was. Love, glory, misery & conflict in a nostalgic examination of the Superman myth. Also, in my point of view, one of the best comics about post-9/11 reality. For Superman fans; best enjoyed after reading the complete "Infinite Crisis" saga and related matters. More than the four official Countdowns to I.C., this is to me the the item to collect, along with the special Countdown which featured the Blue Beetle and Golden Boost. All in all, a poignant way to remember us that, twenty-plus years after the original Crisis (or Crime), the Multiverse is still THE narrative device around which the whole DC reality spins.

The comics collected in this Superman: Infinite Crisis TPB attempt to focus on the original, Earth-2 Superman and his dying wife Lois Lane during the cataclysmic main events of Geoff Johns' universe shattering Infinite Crisis. What we get here is an incredible roster of talent in terms of both writers (Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly, and original Crisis on Infinite Earths mastermind Marv Wolfman) and artists (Ed Benes, Tim Sale, and the great Phil Jimenez who lent his pencils to Infinite Crisis), who all do nothing more than conjure up one big mess. Due to the varying creative minds, this TPB feels so uneven and incomprehensible that newbies to the event will be mind boggled, and even some veteran fans may be as well. The overall story adds absolutely nothing to Infinite Crisis, not to mention that no one's interpretation of the original Earth-2 Superman is as heart felt as Johns'. Possibly worth a look for die hard collectors needing every Infinite Crisis tie-in TPB, but for the rest, this is best left on the shelf.

This volume reprints Infinite Crisis Secret Files & Origins 2006, Infinite Crisis #5, Superman #226, Action Comics #836 and Adventures of Superman #649. The action begins on the extra-dimensional place that the Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane went to after the original Crisis, along with Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime. They have been watching the unified Earth that resulted from the original Crisis, and have decided that they saved the wrong world, and set out to escape. Luthor appears to have turned either evil or loony, warps Superboy, and cracks the very fabric of space-time, resulting in Superman-2 taking a trip through a cascade of alternate Earths, trying to make the world a better place. He fails. I found the story to be quite confusing. If it is just a start-up to the main event, then fair enough, but it doesn't hold up for me as a stand-alone volume, and there is no explanation as to what was going on or where to go next. I know that Superman-2 ended up in the Justice Society for a while, and that Superboy-Prime has become a recurring villain, but that's about it.

The other people who reviewed this comic made it out to be very confusing for new readers. What they don't mention, is that the book wasn't supposed to be accesible for the new readers, and the book never said such.

In this book the shifts in reality that the Infinity Crisis had caused are shown, specifilly from the view point of two different Supermen. Both have the same morals, but have gone through different events in life. We see both Superman shifting through time in what is to them alternative universes (which really are the other Superman's Earth) and what these Supermen, one very experienced because of his battles in World War II, and the other, while experienced, had made certain enemies that he didn't really have to make. Both make decisions that the others didn't, and it radically changes their worlds. What the two don't realize however, is that these changes in history end up causing the ends of both worlds, teaching both Supermen that the other made the right choices in protecting their world.

Overall this storyline is good and also has secret files explaining the histories of KEY characters from the Infinite Crisis. So overall a very underrated storyline that really deserves a little more respect.

UPDATE ON 12/07: There are now sufficient reviews so that this warning is no longer necessary (and Amazon has apparently cleaned the reviews up as well). In hindsight, probably more of a 3-star title: it does repeat the storyline from other books and is a bit confused at times. Still, a solid story for Superman fans.
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They refer to "Day of Doom" (published in 2003), not "Superman: Infinite Crisis". While I have not read the latter yet (just published at the time of this review), I was exposed to some of it and it is actually pretty good. Apparently this was some sort of glitch on Amazon's review system -- we'll have to wait for other reviews to get a better understanding of how good this work really is.

as a superman fan i found this graphic novel to be a great story its good to see a take on lex luthor that is different from the usual one of him being and out and out bad guy the art was good and i understood the story with no problems im still waiting for crisis on infinite earths to come down to a decent price recomend this to any superman fan

Having picked up many graphic novels over the years I come to look forward to the collection of stories that tie together a year or thread of a long running story. Lately it seems that for the publishers these novels are just becoming an excuse for lumping a single hero, updates, or to fill in the holes from another story line.

Sadly this is the case of the Superman: Infinite Crisis. Disjointed and meant to help the reader understand what was going on at the same time of the Infinite Crisis (IC)series you would have to have read and reference back to the IC book at different points to make sense of it all. Having read the Green Lantern book it did a much better job of catching up than Superman.

It makes you wonder why they didn't just go and pick up all the treads and put it into one or two volumes instead.

This is a companion volume to Infinite Crisis, though it seems a bit outside of everything. There isn't much point to the story, which is decent.

This book is part of DC's big Infinite Crisis series of books. Off all of them, this is the weakest ones. The stories are disjointed and some are merely reprints of parts of the the Infinite Crisis graphic novel. Buy it only if you want to have the total collection of Infinite Crisis but not by itself. It isn't worth it.