Infinite Crisis #6

by Scott Cederlund

If DC wanted to use Infinite Crisis to get away from these darker tones, why did they create so many just to lead up to Infinite Crisis?  Infinite Crisis almost seems to be cleaning up a mess that intentionally created just to be cleaned up? 

---

After last issue’s breather (if you can call an issue of two Supermen beating up on each other a “breather”,) Infinite Crisis #6 kicks into high gear as the series begins to wrap up.  As Alexander Luthor tries to find the “perfect earth,” Superboy and Nightwing stage an under-manned assault on Luthor’s Monitor Tower while in space, Donna Troy’s rag-tagged group also have their own battles with Luthor.  Batman, Booster Gold and their collection of heroes head into space to finally deal with Brother Eye.  The mystics of the DCU, including all-too-quick appearances by the Swamp Thing and Stanley & his Monster, try to reason with the Spectre one last time.  The only group that we really don’t see at all in this issue is Luthor’s Secret Society, hopefully a subplot that will be resolved next issue.

With the scope of the remaining issues of Infinite Crisis, there’s little breathing room in this issue, no place for the reader to pause, catch his breath and then plunge back into the book.  A brief rest at the beginning of the issue and at the end is all we get.  As Batman’s group heads off to battle in space, Hal Jordan and Green Arrow talk about something as mundane as the start of the baseball season.  Hal sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to himself.  With a simple moment and conversation between friends, Johns reminds us that these characters are human.  In Batman’s group particularly, there are no aliens or monsters or other dimensional beings.  These heroes are humans, are friends and most importantly, are good at their job.  It’s actually refreshing to see a group of heroes being brought together and not really having the albatross of Identity Crisis hanging over our heads.  There’s no bickering or angst or anger.  Even when Green Arrow questions Batman and why he was summoned with this group, Batman’s answer is to see if he would come.  Nothing sinister there but the rebuilding of relations that have deteriorated over the past couple of years.

The other “breather” we get is at the end of the issue.  It is not so much a breather as a moment we linger on.  Without going into spoilers, let’s just say that a post-Crisis character who really had no purpose for the last couple of years is dealt with and in the final page, the reader should pause.  While some may see Crisis as DC cleaning their house of poorly defined characters, you could also read this as a reminder for DC and its creators that their job is to give the characters a purpose and to give the readers a reason to care about the characters. 

In between the first page and last page, Infinite Crisis turns into a sprint as we race through the assault on Brother Eye, the aftermath of the Supermen battle on Earth 2 and the assault on Alexander Luthor.  This miniseries have been about the post-Crisis DC Universe, retconning in explanations for the dark events and inconsistencies over the past twenty years.  By using the original Crisis on Infinite Earths survivors who remember the Crisis- Alexander, Superboy Prime and the golden age Superman- Johns comments on the darkening of the DCU over time.  What’s weird is that over the past three years or so, it seems like a lot of the events that make us think the DCU is darker now have been created just to lead up to Infinite Crisis.  While Brad Metzler’sIdentity Crisis may have originally been conceived to stand all on its own, did events need to be forced into it to make the DCU seem a lot darker and more dangerous?  Looking back at it, can anyone even tell me why Donna Troy had to die in “Graduation Day?” If DC wanted to use Infinite Crisis to get away from these darker tones, why did they create so many just to lead up to Infinite Crisis? Infinite Crisis almost seems to be cleaning up a mess that intentionally created just to be cleaned up? 

I’m amazed that the collection of artists that are working on this book mesh as well as they do.  Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis and their myriad of inkers actually manage to create unified looking book even though the artists seem to change every three or four pages.  Most of the time, this type of rotating artist duty creates a disjointed, fractured reading experience but by giving each artist their own aspect of the book and their own set of characters,Infinite Crisis avoids the usual downfall of too many artists.  My biggest concern about the upcoming 52 was that the jamming of different artists together in the book wouldn’t work but after seeing how the different artists on Infinite Crisis gel together, I have a bit less concern about the upcoming year-long event.

When it was coming out, Crisis on Infinite Earths felt fresh and vibrant.  We had not seen this type of big, universe spanning cross over story before.  Twenty years later and Infinite Crisis feels like a necessary evil, a story that needs to be told.  We’ve had a front row seat for the lead up to Infinite Crisis through various storylines like “The Return of the Red Hood”,Identity Crisis and four or five miniseries.  Personally, I’m glad this is almost over.  Three years of reading some depressing and long stories are finally paying off inInfinite Crisis.  The current One Year Later storylines going on in DC’s regular books shows a return to good storytelling over event-driven storytelling.  Events have their place now and again but it is time for DC to get back to building up or rebuilding their characters again.

Infinite Crisis #6
Touchdown

Written by: Geoff Johns
Penciled by: Phil Jimenez, Jerry Ordway, George Perez & Ivan Reis
Inked by: Andy Lanning, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert, Marcos Campos, Drew Geraci, Sean Parsons, Norm Rapmund & Art Thibert
Colored by: Jeromy Cox, Guy Major & Rob Reis
Lettered by: Rob Leigh