Mabfan's Musings

This week Infinite Crisis #7 was finally released, bringing to a conclusion a comic book story that had its seeds in a year-long miniseries published a little over twenty years ago. Ever since 1985, if DC Comics were to call something new a "Crisis," we knew it had to be an earth-shattering event. If you've been reading my posts on this new Crisis from the beginning, you know how excited I've been by these developments in one my favorite fictional universes.

So did the new Crisis live up to my expectations?

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One final thought. Back when this all started, I pondered what we would call the new era, since we use the term pre-Crisis and post-Crisis to describe the DC universe. After having read all of Infinite Crisis, and the beginning of the One Year Later books, I'm guessing that in the end, Infinite Crisis is only going to be as significant in the big picture as Zero Hour was. Infinite Crisis appears to have been meant as a convenient and useful reboot to help clean up continuity. But it is not something so important as to require us to consider it a major branching point in the history of the DC universe.

[Spoilers for Infinite Crisis #1-4]

I didn't have time to post about Infinite Crisis #4 when it came out last month, partly because I was still processing how I felt about the story. On the one hand, I have a "fan boy" perspective on how cool it is that they brought back Alexander Luthor-3 and Superboy-Prime.

On the other hand, I really dislike the way those two characters have become villains.

Well, the moving finger writes on. Now that we've made it to the halfway point of the series, I think I have an idea of where the story is heading. So, it's the return of Infinite Crisis Speculation Day!

For those of you who have been reading, you know that by the end of issue #4, Earth-2 has been recreated, and the heroes of Earth-2 seemed to have been summoned back to their "native" universe. This has been the goal of Superman-2, to get his own universe back, so Lois will be cured of whatever ails her.

But it's not the goal of Luthor-3. In issue #4, Luthor-3 implied that recreating Earth-2 is only a step along the way. What could he possibly have in mind?

Here's my current theory.

Luthor-3 convinced Superman-2 and Superboy-Prime that they could recreate the entire Multiverse, or at least their own universes, so that they could all go back home. But I bet that Luthor knows that there's only enough "chronal energy" or whatever to support the existence of one universe. Because of the events of the original Crisis twenty years ago, the existence of two or more Earths has become inherently unstable. Luthor, Superboy, and Superman all want their own worlds back, but only Luthor knows that in the end, there can be only one.

Luthor-3 has chosen to recreate Earth-2 first, to get Superman-2 out of his hair. As far as he's concerned, Superman-2 is completely oblivious as to what is going on. Furthermore, I think he sent Superboy-Prime off to confront the current Superboy because he knew that would get Superboy-Prime out of his hair as well. Now that the two of them are out of the picture, he's going to allow the two current Earths to fall apart, using their energy to recreate Earth-3...and therefore allow himself to finally meet his parents and have a normal life.

So I think in the next few issues we're going to see some major conflict, as the current heroes try to keep their universe from being destroyed, while Superman-2 and Luthor-3 also come to blows over whose universe will get to survive. And in the end, I think after all is said and done, we're going to see Superman-2 sacrifice his life so that the current Earth will continue to exist, but possibly changed for the better.

Remember in issue #1, when Batman told Superman that the last time he inspired people was when he died? I think the death of Superman-2 will become the inspiration to the current heroes to restore hope to their universe, and we'll finally move away from the grim and gritty direction that DC Comics has taken in the past few years.

This would actually go a long way toward explaining the cover for the upcoming Infinite Crisis #6 that appears to show the two Earths merging together and destroying each other....

Wow.

What a fantastic issue.

And even better, I was right.

Well, I think I was close enough to right.

Over the course of my speculations and predictions, I suggested that the villain behind the current Crisis might be forcing everything apart in order to restore the Multiverse. And back on September 30, I proposed that the "villain" who wanted to restore the original Multiverse was the Golden Age Superman of Earth-2.

Well, yesterday Infinite Crisis #2 came out. And here's one of the things that happened....

( spoilers for issue #2 )

So looking back at my Infinite Crisis Predictions Round-Up #1, I think I can safely move some of the unresolved predictions into the YES column. My score of YES-NO-UNRESOLVED now stands at 2.5-1-2.5.

So last week, Infinite Crisis #1 finally came out. I picked up my copy just before Yom Kippur, and because of the holiday and work haven't had time to write up my thoughts until now.

The upshot is that I loved it. This new Crisis is definitely rooted in all the stories that have led into it. And the final page just blew me away. I've been obsessing over this comic, and can't wait to find out where it's going.

(I've also been blown away by the actual full cover for Infinite Crisis #2. Be advised, this cover contains spoilers for the end of issue #1...and I reference it later on.)

But, of course, the main question on my mind is: how well did my predictions pan out? So I went back to my Friday speculations and pulled out the six main predictions I made about the Infinite Crisis. Now, some of these predictions actually contradict each other, as I based each one on the new information from that week's comics. Despite that, I still think I can attempt to score myself via the following system: Right-Wrong-Unresolved.

Be advised -- there are spoilers for the first issue of Infinite Crisis here. If you haven't read it yet, you probably should stop now.

Then again, if you haven't read it yet, you're probably ignoring all these particular posts anyway.

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For those looking for my next Infinite Crisis speculation post, I'm afraid that you're going to have to wait until Sunday or Monday. A combination of Rosh Hashana and the Ig Nobel Award Ceremony made it difficult for me to read through all the tie-in comics deeply enough to make further speculations. (Although I am amazed at the revelation of Donna Troy's status as the Anti-Harbinger.) So to give everyone something to think about while waiting for my final speculation before Infinite Crisis #1 hits the stores next week, I thought I'd open up a discussion about the recent choice made by Wonder Woman.

To recap, as part of the events surrounding The OMAC Project, Maxwell Lord took control of Superman's mind, fooling him into almost killing Batman by making him think Batman was one of many villains threatening Lois's life. When Wonder Woman finally confronted Lord, he told her that the only way to make him give up control of Superman would be by killing him.

And so she killed him.

The repurcussions are being felt throughout the other comics. In Wonder Woman #221, released this week, the world finds out what she did before she has a chance to turn herself in to an international tribunal, and people's loss of trust in her becomes evident. Although both Superman and Batman benefited from her actions, they have distanced themselves from her. Diana has become that one thing a superhero never should become: a killer.

But is she a murderer?

Wonder Woman has often viewed herself as a soldier in a war. Soldiers in war kill without committing murder; it's entirely possible that one could justify her actions under that perspective. Even Superman seemed intent on killing Doomsday when there appeared to be no other choice.

On the other hand...she did have other options. She could have brought Lord to Zatanna for a magical lobotomy. Or she could have found a way to keep him unconscious until they had a chance to figure out a form of safe incarceration. From that perspective, her actions might be considered morally repugnant, saved only by the defense that she killed him in the heat of the moment, without really having a chance to ponder her other options.

So...was Wonder Woman justified? Were her actions moral?

What do you think?

Look! Up in the Internet! It's a blog! It's a post! It's Infinite Crisis Speculation Friday!

And what a Friday we have for you today. In our last installment, we posited that the mysterious Mockingbird might be Lena Luthor. I have nothing to add to that speculation, save that I had a few replies from people with other suggestions, and I will cheerfully admit that anyone is a possibility. But whoever it is, it had better be good. I think we'll all be upset if it turns out to be Merryman or Captain Carrot. (Well, except perhaps for those die-hard fans of the Inferior Five or the Zoo Crew.)

However, this week a few books relating to the upcoming Crisis were released, including Day of Vengeance #6, Supergirl #2, Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1, Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files and Origins 2005 and JSA Classified #3 -- which seems to confirm my very first speculation.

Let's go right to it, shall we?

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You know what today is, of course -- Infinite Crisis Speculation Friday!

When we last visited the question, the topic on my mind was the appearance of the Psycho-Pirate in JSA Classified #2. As you may recall, the Psycho-Pirate was one of the pivotal characters in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. The discovery that he's behind what's currently happening to Power Girl led me to believe that he might be behind the upcoming Infinite Crisis.

Well, DC Comics has just upped the ante.

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This post will probably mostly interest people who, like me, are avid followers of the DC Universe.

Later this year, DC's big event will be something called Infinite Crisis, which supposedly will be a universe-altering event, similar to the Crisis on Infinite Earths that they did back in 1985. For those who don't know much about Crisis, a little detail follows.

In the 1950s, DC Comics began to introduce new versions of their Golden Age characters, starting with the Flash. Eventually, it was decided that these new versions of their characters lived in an entirely different universe, which they named Earth-1. The original superheroes lived on Earth-2, where time moved more slowly. Having two different universes was a good way to avoid continuity problems between characters.

It was also a good way to accomodate other characters. For example, when DC bought Fawcett Comics and the Marvel family of heroes (the ones who shout "Shazam!"), they placed them in their own universe, Earth-S. When World War II ended but Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters still wanted to fight the Nazis, they could do so on Earth-X. When DC wanted a set of evil villains who were analogs to the superheroes, they created Earth-3 for them. And so on.

Eventually it was established that this "Multiverse" consisted of an infinite number of universes, and in 1985 DC decided to do a little housecleaning. (I'm skipping a LOT of history here.) In a year-long event, the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a villain from an antimatter universe named the Anti-Monitor decided to destroy all the other universes. The final result of this universes-shattering event was that the Multiverse was destroyed, to be replaced by one universe with, they hoped, one continuity, supposedly making it easier for new readers to dive in.

Of course, problems ensued. The housecleaning wasn't perfect, so in 1994 DC was forced to revisit their reconstruction of the universe with Zero Hour. However, that event only lasted for a month and wasn't nearly as universe-altering as Crisis. Then, a few years later, they created the concept of Hypertime which seemed to imply that other universes were still "out there" but not as easy to reach. Now, the powers that be at DC Comics are building up to a new event, called Infinite Crisis, which is supposedly going to be just as universe-shattering as the Crisis on Infinite Earths that took place in 1985.

But here's the problem I see. Since 1985, comic book fans, writers, artists, etc. have referred to events as being either part of "pre-Crisis" or "post-Crisis" continuity. If this brand new event is just as calamatous, what happens to these terms? Will we have to deal with the unwieldy construction of "post-Crisis, but pre-Infinite Crisis?" And if someone says "post-Crisis" from 2005 onwards, what will that mean, exactly? To which crisis will the speaker be referring?

I have a solution, but it only works if the fan community decides in the end that Infinite Crisis wasn't that good. If that turns out to be the case, we can abbreviate it as "IC" and pronounce it "Ick." Then we'll have four designations of continuity:

Pre-Crisis (Before 1985)
Post-Crisis (1985-2005)
Pre-Ick (1985-2005...hey, wait a minute...)
Post-Ick (2005-whenever they screw around with the universe again)

Anyone who cares about this minutae is welcome to discuss it more here.

For more information, here are links to the Wikipedia entries on:
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Zero Hour
Hypertime
Infinite Crisis