Post Crisis Post

A recent Newsarama story revealed a HUGE spoiler for the Crisis Aftermath: Battle for Bludhaven mini-series -- Captain Atom dons Monarch's armor!!! That probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but for me, someone who started coming of age as a comics reader during the big 90s boom (regrettably), I was privy to all the Armagaedon: 2001 references 'cos I was there reading that shit back in '91, dog. If yr confused by this, read the aforementioned Newsarama article or check out Julian Darius' write-up on the DCU crossover at Sequart.com (while yr at the site checking out my column anyway). But this kind of brings me to my big point...

Infinite Crisis has been a damn entertaining read. As a complete & whole work? Well, it's not supposed to work on that level. The beauty of the serialized comic is that it's serialized. You can read that month's installment for 10-15 minutes at a time on the train ride home. But it doesn't work as one of the great standalone comic works of all time. But then again it's not supposed to. It's supposed to supplementing a larger ongoing mythology, that as far as DC & Warner Bros. are hoping, will never end. You really have to look at it in that light in order for it to seem good. I love me a good crossover, but it's got to be a good story. I'm not 9 years old anymore & turning Hawk into a villain doesn't do it for me. But if you live up to the promise you set up 15 years ago & have a big plot point like the one in Battle for Bludhaven, then maybe yr crossover was worth it.

I'm actually in the process of re-reading all my Infinite Crisis books, starting w/ Identity Crisis and Green Lantern: Rebirth. Those are both really good solid stories on their own, and following that up w/ Countdown, OMAC Project, and Sacrifice kind of makes the work as a whole suffer. If you tie too many things in, the lackluster facet makes the really good facets seem bad. Even if the lackluster facets are still good stories, they don't compare to the better parts. W/ a story this huge in scope, it's hard to attain that kind of consistency. Even among the mini-crossovers like Sacrifice, the change in personel made the story suffer, as good as the other creators were, they didn't gel w/ Rucka & Saiz the way I was hoping they would. But that, again, is the nice thing about crossover events. When people are initially dropping money for this stuff, they are not reading it the way I was last night - in one sitting. They are reading it in sections, & if one issue stands as satisfying or even good, & compels you do feel one way or another, then that should be good enough. I didn't pick up all the comics tied into Arm2001, but I did pick up what I could, & judging from that when I was 9, it was an awesome comics story & I doubt few others will live up to it exactly. I guess that's just the fanboy in me.