Comic Report: Infinite Crisis

Every so often, the world of DC gets so borked up the only thing you can do is flip over the chess board and so sulk in your room.

The first time this happened, Crisis on Infinite Earths, a whole bunch of heroes died (heroically, of course) and the many different Earths were all squished together into one. Just one, that's it, there's the world, take it or leave it.

Except it's not.

Four survivors of the crisis (the Golden Age Superman and Lois Lane, Earth-Prime's Superboy and Alex Luthor, the sole survivor of a world where Lex Luthor was the world's greatest hero) have been chilling out in a paradise bubble all this time and watching the DC world like it's The Truman Show.

But after events like the destruction of the JLU, Bats getting a brain wipe and Wonder Woman capping a guy, they're no longer reality TV fans. They want to fix things.

Oh, and did I mention that Superboy is batshit crazy and Alex Luthor is a megalomaniaical super villain?

Yeah, I thought that would be important.

So you get Superboy Prime vs. Superboy, Superboy Prime vs. the Flashes, Superboy Prime vs. the Teen Titans, Superboy Prime vs. damn near everybody, Superman-1 vs. Superman, Superman-1 and Superman vs. Superboy Prime (are you sensing a theme here?), Batman vs. his super computer, Alex Luthor vs. the Titans ... smackdowns abound, and there are plenty of those splash pages chock full of heroes that George Perez does so well.

Geoff Johns (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic writers) ties together way too many loose ends in a competent fashion, and even readers who aren't completely up on what's been going on will be able to follow the story.

The action is brutal, though, and at times over the top. People just don't die -- they get splattered across three pages. There's so much blood it could be a horror comic. In comparison to the original crisis, the brutality is shocking.

But all is kinda OK in the end, and there are a bunch of Earths again.

Until there's not. DC is already setting up for another crisis.

Sigh.