CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS (Trade Paperback) (Dec 2000) DC Comics   CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (Apr 1985) DC Comics

CRISIS COUNCELING: Wizard Unvierse presents Crisis On Infinite Earths Director’s Commentary Bonus Material Part One!
October 26, 2005

For the exclusive commentary on the major moments of DC’s 1985-86 mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths, pick up Wizard #170 on sale now! In the meantime, enjoy these extra scenes with commentary by co-creators Marv Wolfman and George Pérez that we couldn’t fit into the magazine!

(excerpt)

Crisis On Infinite Earths #1, pp. 6-7
THE SALVATION OF ALEXANDER LUTHOR

WOLFMAN: If we had just had Alexander Luthor appear later on at some point full-grown, he may not have seemed like anything special. But by introducing him in this way, now people are trying to figure out how a couple-day old baby is going to have an effect on the rest of the series.
PÉREZ: I thought the way it echoed Superman’s origin, Kal-El being shot to Earth from Krypton, was a nice touch. The last surviving child of a dying planet was the beginning of the DC Universe and now as we are tearing that universe apart and putting it back together again, we give a nod back to that beginning.

Crisis On Infinite Earths #1, pg. 14
HARBINGER

PÉREZ: The primary function of Harbinger at the start of the series was to provide us with a way to progress the action without having to give away the Monitor too quickly. I also think Marv did a wonderful job of creating a dynamic between Harbinger and the Monitor that let you know these characters had been around for awhile even if they were only just being seen by us for the first time.
WOLFMAN: The fact that Solovar is the first character Harbinger recruits is not a coincidence. The Flash was the first character of DC’s Silver Age, so we wanted somebody from his supporting cast to be the first established character brought into the Monitor’s mission, and Solovar fit the bill.
PÉREZ: And it’s always nice when you first introduce a pretty female character and put her in a scene with a gorilla. The beauty and the beast dynamic are always appealing.
WOLFMAN: Hey, there are never enough monkeys.

[ Read more CRISIS COUNCELING: Wizard Unvierse presents Crisis On Infinite Earths Director’s Commentary Bonus Material Part One! ]

Teen Titans at 25, Crisis at 20
The Main Event, Scoop, Friday, September 16, 2005

Teen Titans at 25, Crisis at 20: The Enduring Duo of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez

DC COMICS PRESENTS #26 (Oct 1980) DC Comics NEW TEEN TITANS #1 (Nov 1980)   CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (Apr 1985) DC Comics

(excerpt)

The legendary creative duos in comic books include two teams - Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby - of whom it is generally safe to mention only their last names. Others may well someday be added to this pantheon and still others probably already belong to it, but while Simon & Kirby helped define the 1940s and 1950s and Lee & Kirby certainly defined the 1960s, another team defined the 1980s and in many ways helped set the groundwork for the superhero comics we have today.

Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, who this year celebrate the 25th anniversary of New Teen Titans and the 20th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths, have impacted the superhero genre as have few other pairs of creators. Though both worked extensively with other partners before and since those efforts, there is undeniably something compelling and special about that period and their collaborative labors.

[ Read more Teen Titans at 25, Crisis at 20 ]

COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1565 (14 Dec 2003)

RETROVIEW: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS
written by Jim Johnson
published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1565 (14 Dec 2003)
website: www.comicsbuyersguide.com

DC editors bestowed four-color godhood upon Marv Wolfman, when they OK'd his proposal to revamp the company's incomprehensible 50-year history in the early 1980s. and, like an angry deity come judgment day, Wolfman waved his hand and wiped countless redundant universes from existence, making the DC universe a more accessible place for new readers.

Of course, fandom would have settled for no one other than George Pérez to illustrate such an epic, and Pérez superceded all expectations by turning in one of the finest efforts of his career.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (Apr 1985) DC Comics Wolfman wastes no time getting started, beginning the culling of the multiverse on the second page. With the ironically heroic demise of Earth-3's Crime Syndicate immediately thereafter, Wolfman also kicks off the first of many emotionally intense and beautifully constructed death sequences. It's a bit unfortunate that the remainder of the issue is little more than exposition for the rest of the series, but riding along while various heroes and villains from different Earths and eras are brought together is, nonetheless, a fanboy's delight.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #2 (May 1985) DC Comics

It's another fairly slow issue, action-wise. But that's barely noticed amid the excitement generated from the intermingling of such characters from different Earths and time periods as Kamandi and Earth-2's Superman, for example. Amazingly, among the dozen of characters utilized (so far), Wolfman still manages to squeeze in panel time for individual characters, like The Flash and Psycho Pirate, who eventually play important roles. And, as if that weren't enough, he jams a few intriguing plot developments into an already-packed issue. Astonishing.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #3 (Jun 1985) DC Comics

It would be easy to criticize the fact that all Wolfman does here is fill another issue with unlikely, ragtag alliances plopped into random time periods. Except it's just too doggone cool not to like, and this is what we all paid 75¢ to see, after all. This is fun, plain and simple. But it's obviously none are having as much fun as Wolfman and Pérez themselves, who are making the most of the limited playtime allotted to them In comicdom's biggest sandbox.

[ Read more CBG's Retroview: Crisis ]

Comic Book Ages: The Discussion Continues
The Main Event, Scoop, Friday, October 10, 2003

(excerpt)

Kirk Mills: The Copper Age was when comics grew up. DC relaunched most of its main heroes, stories became quite sophisticated, and super-writers transformed the industry. Crisis could be a good starting point, but would there have been a Crisis if Marvel hadn't introduced the mega-crossover with Secret Wars?

Personally I think it goes back even farther. DC's first hugely successful relaunch came 4 1/2 years before the Crisis (and by the same creative team) with the New Teen Titans. A few months later, Marvel gave us the "Days of Future Past" storyline in X-Men which opened the Pandora's box of alternate X-futures and the title started becoming the complex world we know and love. That same month, Frank Miller took over the writing of a title he'd been drawing for a year or two and started the classic Daredevil/Elektra/Kingpin/Bullseye saga that opened the door to gritty drama in super-heroes. Those three titles created the popularity of teenagers, mutants, and ninjas that would later inspire a terrapin parody. Six months later John Byrne began his run on Fantastic Four. So my vote for the start of the Copper Age is 1981.

Wizard is offering some semi-cheap CGC Graded Comics that includes either CRISIS #1 or CRISIS #7. Seven comics for $99.95 for 9.4 or $129.95 for 9.6 Grades.

According to CGC's website their Modern Age comics grading is about $15 (with 10 or more submissions), so you are saving quite a bit of money if you're thinking about starting a CGC collection.

Alternatively, you can also buy CGC graded books at Mile High Comics, if they offer them.

Personally, I believe you should buy comics to read, not to put on slabs :) Unfortunately, it looks like the trend of CGC is here to stay.

WONDER WOMAN #1 (Feb 1987) DC Comics

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #12 (Mar 1986) DC Comics

CATCHING UP WITH DICK GIORDANO
written by George Nelson
as published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1540 (23 May 03)
websites: www.comicsbuyersguide.com and www.futurecomics.com

(excerpt)

Though several of the revamps that followed were successes for DC - George Pérez's Wonder Woman represented one of the few times the characters sold well, he remarked - the fixes in some cases created as many problems as they solved.

"I have to admit that, after Crisis was over, I wasn't watching things as closely and we got new continuity glitches built in by the writers and editors who were there," he said.

Giordano said that one mistake he made was not following writer [Marv] Wolfman's suggestion to restart the entire line with new first issue following Crisis. However, he said he didn't feel that he had the creative personnel for such a comprehensive relaunch.

COMICS 101: AND THEN THERE WAS ONE
April 23, 2003
By Scott Tipton

(excerpt)

In the early 1980s, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman were two of the hottest writers/editors in comics. Longtime fans turned professionals, Wein and Wolfman had both had stints in the editor-in-chief position at Marvel Comics, as well as turning in extremely popular, high-profile stints as writers. Wolfman had written just about every comic Marvel had put out, including a notable run on TOMB OF DRACULA with Gene Colan, while Wein had made a name for himself on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and FANTASTIC FOUR, not to mention co-creating the new X-Men and Wolverine. Eventually, both found themselves at DC Comics, where Wein had a lengthy and well-regarded run on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, among others, and Wolfman created THE NEW TEEN TITANS with artist George Perez, a critical and commercial smash hit.

Wein and Wolfman were of the belief that the parallel Earths of the DC Universe were far too complex and confusing to the common reader, and came to DC’s Publisher Jenette Kahn with a bold proposal: a 12-issue miniseries (unheard of at the time) that would involve all of DC’s characters, past, present and future, in a mammoth, cataclysmic adventure that would result in a single, elegant, consistent DC universe. Much to their surprise, Kahn approved the idea, and set them off to begin the research for what would be the single most ambitious project in DC’s publishing history.

With both Wein and Wolfman working full-time as writers/editors, the bulk of the research fell to Peter Sanderson, a comics fan/historian, who over the course of three years or so read every comic National/DC ever produced, taking extensive notes. The research took so long that the miniseries was postponed, eventually scheduled for 1985, which just happened to be DC’s 50th anniversary. When Wolfman nervously presented his first synopsis of the series to Kahn, he feared he may have been too outrageous, asking for changes that were too radical. To his surprise, Kahn returned the synopsis, asking Wolfman to take another crack at it and be even bolder, to really shake things up. Wolfman delivered.

[ Read more on MoviePoopShoot.com ]

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #12 (Mar 1986) DC Comics

ASK MR SILVER AGE
written by Craig Shutt
published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1534 (11 Apr 03)
website: www.comicsbuyersguide.com

Bronze Age fans strike back again!

(excerpt)

Dave Blanchard: … "While I've argued that the Bronze Age ended with Crisis #12 (Mar 86) - not with #1 - and can respect (if not necessarily agree with) your notion of taking the Bronze Age all the way to the end of the 1980s, I'm not 100% sure that either of us is right. Maybe the Bronze Age never really ended, since super-hero comics haven't fallen off the radar screen the way they did in the interregnums between the Golden and Silver Ages and between the Silver and Bronze Ages.

My theory is that all the grim 'n' gritty stuff that followed Crisis, such as Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns and the rebooted and darker versions of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Aquaman, et al., were kind of that period's equivalent of the monster comics that ruled the early to mid-1970s - the cruel difference being that, this time, the monsters were the super-heroes themselves…."

Craig Shutt: "Your take on Crisis creating a new age of horror comics centered on horror-heroes is the first time I've heard it argued that way, Dave, and, in that framework, I'd give it more consideration than I do otherwise. But I've heard many anecdotes from fans who were enticed back to super-hero comics by Crisis, and they wouldn't have hung around after that, if the comics hadn't excited them. I don't know that I'd say Crisis really darkened that many heroes overall…."

TODAY'S NEWS
1/22/03
written by Marv Wolfman

I just read Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first time I've ever re-read the full 12 chapters, actually. Back in '85 I of course checked them out when we got the printed copies, but, truth to tell, when I finished writing the series the very last thing I wanted to do was look at that book again. It was and remains the hardest thing I've ever done and when I typed "The end," I pretty much got on a jet plane and spent the next five weeks touring Europe forgetting it. There were the inevitable nightmares putting it together and trying to coordinate the series with all the editors at the time. Not an easy task since it was the first time something like this was ever done. There were disappointments that the ending couldn't be what I wanted: everyone forgets the Crisis ever happened and they live their life on the new combined Earth as if it was never anything different - but, more importantly, I was just happy it was over. Imagine trying to write that thing while still writing four other books, coming into the office three days a week and editing a line of comics, and, stupidly, doing a signing tour during the summer where I flew to some city every Friday and returned Sunday... for thirteen straight weeks. No wonder I went into a writer's block. When I did the one-shot Crisis sequel a few years back I only had to read through issue four, since the story was set during issue 3. But this time I read all 12 issues.

Man, who are some of those characters? I don't recognize a whole slew of them. Literally. There are tons of sub-plots I can't for the life of me recall. I read it more like a reader than the writer as I didn't remember half of what the characters did. I was impressed by the story's complexity and structure, but appalled by my over writing. There must be 50 million balloons a page. On the whole, though, I actually enjoyed the book more than I thought I would, which for me is rare.

STOPPING THE BRONZE AGE
published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1509 (18 Oct 02)
written by Craig Shutt

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (Apr 1985) DC Comics   WONDER WOMAN #1 (Feb 1987) DC Comics

Gerry Sorek and Dave Blanchard argued that it was actually Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (Apr 85) that ended the Bronze Age. Gerry noted that DC "was changing direction and leaving the past behind and creating a new version of things (whether they were completely successful or not). This was the first of several companies' retooling projects, leading into a new era." As a result, he says, it indicates "a fitting place to mark the end of that previous time period."

…

I understand their point, because Crisis certainly was a change, and a new ages are invoked by great change. But I believe the changes added more superhero excitement to what was there; it didn't stop it. Sure, to a long-time fans who had embraced the multiple Earths and loved the characters as they were, the changes could have been a disappointment and even a betrayal. But in the last 10 years, I've heard a lot of fans say they returned to reading comics because of Crisis.

Comics' ages are about excitement and about super-hero comics. That's how both the Golden Age and the Silver Age claimed their names, and it's why another age would lay claim to the title of Bronze Age. And the bottom line is that Crisis (and Secret Wars before it) added excitement and new fans to super-hero comics.

Besides, Crisis actually didn't change too many characters. It killed some of the duplicated Earth 2 characters who had caused confusion (mostly for editors). It also passed the Flash mantel to Kid Flash. But the major DC reboots didn't occur during or as a result of Crisis.

Only Wonder Woman truly was rebooted based on events from Crisis, and it took one year before her new #1 (Feb 87). Superman was rebooted a few months after Crisis, in the Man of Steel mini-series, but it just happened with no precursor (negating Supergirl's Crisis sacrifice and making the effort to revert Wondie to clay for a fresh start seem wasted)….

[ Read more in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1509 (18 Oct 02) ]

When was the Bronze Age?
written by Craig Shutt

Crisis: Some fans believe this series ended an era by creating the one-world DC view. But Crisis brought many new fans back to super-hero comics. The grappling with various threads that came out of a Crisis compares with the declining years of the Silver Age, 1968-1970, when a host of oddball comics were produced in an effort to find another winning direction. In the Bronze Age, the compaies again were searching for new ideas, but they searched primarily within the super-heroes. It's also difficult to believe the third great super-hero era ended before Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen appeared.

(Vu: Two other important comic books mentioned (and discussed) in this article was NEW TEEN TITANS #1 and CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1. Incidentally, according to this article, the Bronze Age took place between 1975-1989.)

[ Read more on COMICS BUYERS GUIDE #1497 (26 July 2002) ]

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #7 (Oct 1985) DC Comics

WHAT TH--?
Sunday, July 7
By Marv Wolfman

Letters. We've Got Letters!

(excerpt)

Q: Why didn’t DC Comics stop you from killing Supergirl/Flash/ Earth 3/The Green Stringbean, etc. in Crisis On Infinite Earths?

A: Well, the truth is I went behind the backs of the company; the president, publisher, proofreaders, assistants, production department, curious bystanders, my dog, Tala, and random others and see if I could sneak in the deaths of major characters, all by myself, without anyone noticing. Also, because I don’t like green stringbeans and he deserved to die anyway! Final also, I personally get a visceral thrill in taking things that don’t really exist in the first place and murdering them.

There! At last I’ve told the truth. I’m glad to have gotten that off my chest after all the years. You have no idea how many times I’ve lied about this when I repeatedly said I worked hand-in-hand with the company in choosing our “death list.” Fortunately, nobody believed my lies and you’ve now forced me to come clean. I already am sleeping better. Thank you.