Infinite Crisis
For those that dunno, Infinite Crisis was DC's big once in a decade type event. :O This wasn't just a crossover, it was THE crossover, supposedly building over 2+ years. :| It started in late 2005 and finished in May 2006 and was 7 issues long. Basically the idea was that the DC universe over the past few years had gotten very dark and the heroes weren't acting like heroes nemore. :| B/c of this, the survivors of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman Earth-2, Superboy Earth-Prime, Alexander Luthor from Earth-3 and Lois Lane Earth-2 returned. :O
However it turned out that Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime were behind many of the problems plaguing the DC universe as they sought to remake the world in their image, finding the "perfect" Earth. At the end, the DC heroes united together to stop them and our Superboy as well as Superman Earth-2 sacrificed their lives to stop Superboy Prime. :(
What I liked:
There was a lot to like about Infinite Crisis, esp the first few issues. :O The story began on a very low note, with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman no longer being able to agree on nething, and Batman's infamous line to Superman that the last time he inspired nebody was when he was dead. :O Issues 1-4 rly left us going "wow" and wondering what was going to happen. For a while it seemed like NETHING could happen, NEBODY could die, and that DC was rly going to make huge changes. sadly, they didn't. :( But I'll address that when I talk about what I didn't like. :
I thought the writing was rly good as well and Johns did a great job capturing the different characters, esp given that he was basically tasked with writing for EVERY character in the DCU. The art was generally good too, tho the last few issues suffered from what looked like incomplete pages and multiple artists. :(
I rly liked having Superboy Prime and Alex Luthor be the villains as Superboy Prime is extremely powerful (possibly the most physically powerful entity in the DCU) and Alex is extremely intelligent. But both are also sympathetic villains. They were taken away from their homes and when they saved the universe, they lost their homes forever. :\ Superboy never got to enjoy his life and Alex never got to have a childhood. It's very clear that both are not evil in the traditional sense, they're just wounded. :( However, they go further and further towards the "dark" side as the story progress and as they become increasingly desperate. :| It's actually a very well written change and at the end we rly do want to see them defeated b/c of how malicious they've become. :o
Having all the heroes band together was nice to see too given how much they seemed to hate each ohter before. :\ I rly rly liked how Johns made the plot in a way that made it SEEM like all the screw ups and bad plot decisions DC's made in the past decade or so, were INTENTIONAL. Like "see we did the rape plot on purpose!" XD The whole series read like an acknowledgement of their bad writing. :O It was a bit refreshing and also clever. :)
It was great to see Batman trusting other heroes again and working with ppl. :) It was nice to see all the heroes support each other and working to save INNOCENT PEOPLE as the world was falling apart around them. :o It's nice to know that even as they face the end of the world they care more about the regular people than themselves. :) And I think that was the "message" of Infinite Crisis, that being a hero is about helping others, not about having super powers, and that in the end, real heroes will put aside their differences and work together for the common good. :)
What I didn't like:
The ending. Altho when I first read it, I rly liked it, on hindsight, it was rushed and unfortunately DC didn't go ahead with everything they wanted to do. :| Like kill Nightwing. :O Imo, the whole story was leading up to killing Nightwing. His character had rly plateaued and he was never going to become Batman, so there rly wasn't nething else for him to do. :\ He had finally admitted his love for Barbara Gordon and proposed. He wrapped up everything in his life, and when he went toe to toe with Superboy Prime, I thought, this is it. :o But sadly, he didn't die. :| I have nothing against Superboy dying (except he acted like he had an IQ of 90 even in death), but I think seeing a man with no powers fighting the most powerful person in the DCU would have been very inspiring. :)
Issues 5 and 6 were also very dissapointing, esp 5 where NOTHING happened. :( The appearance of Diana Prince from Earth-2 was a very deus ex machina move that made no sense and seemed to be there just to get Wonder Woman to help Superman. :| And rly, all she did was tell Superman Earth-2 to stop being stupid. >:| There wasn't a lot there and sadly it seemed like they just needed some excuse, ne excuse, to get Superman E-2 to stop fighting E-1. :
Of all 4 plots (Villains United, The OMAC Project, Day of Vengeance, Rann/Thanagar War) only the OMAC project seemed to RLY play an important part in IC, while DoV barely had NETHING to do with it! :O That was sad. :( It was rly interesting when it seemed like all 4 plots would be extremely important to the story.
Given that there's been some internet outcry about the death of Phantom Lady to Deathstroke in an incredibly disturbing scene (she is impaled on a spear and most of her clothes are ripped off), I'd like to point out that Panthra was also the first killed by Superboy Prime (beheaded). :| Now, I dun think there's nething OPENLY misogynistic about this. I dun think Johns has snuff fantasies or WANTS this to happen to women. Actually I believe he DOESN'T want this to happen to women, which is why it does. :|
Women are an easy target in comics and fiction in general, not b/c the male authors hate us, but b/c violence against women is generally accepted as being BAD and rape esp. These are things where there doesn't need to be context, it's just BAD. You can't rape in self defence, you can't rape by accident and you can't rape to feed your family. So there doesn't need to be context or explanations, you can put it there and everybody will go "OMG THAT'S HORRIBLE" and the villain will be hated. 100% No arguments. So it's more a symptom of lazy writing, and an audience filled with guys whose biggest fantasy is to protect helpless women. So I think having 2 women (Phantom Lady and Panthra) be killed in exceptionally gory ways isn't that Johns hates us, or that he even consciously thought about it, it's just the comic convention of adding a little more 'emotional impact' to an emotional scene by making the victim female.
I'd like to point out also that since a lot of MEN died and were maimed as well in IC, I'm not going to just point to those 2 examples like they're the only things that happened.
So neways.. altho the story started out great it was a bit sad that it kinda died at the end. :( Issue 7 almost saved it as it was packed with stuff and lots of heroic sacrifices and twists and turns, but it was still rushed. :| Like why did Doomsday suddenly appear out of nowhere and why is he stupid and mindless again? And why did he get dispatched in 1 page? It was very confusing ;-;
Oh and one last thing I didn't like: Superboy and Wonder Girl's smex scene. Why? Cuz it read like a teenage male fantasy, complete with girl being in the boys clothes afterwards. :| Superboy was written EXTREMELY accessibly, so that every guy reading it could pretend they were him, and Cassie (I've just realized there's an awful lot of girls in the comicverse named Cassie XD) was written like the head cheerleader every guys wants. :O And.. yah.. it was kinda unnecessary. :| I dunno.. I'm not against smex in comic books, but the way it was drawn and portrayed didn't read like it was there as nething other than cheesecake and to give Cassie a reason to join a cult later. *sigh* Emotionally fragile girls, yub yub. When my boyfriend dies I'm gonna join a cult too! *rolls eyes*
Final Thoughts:
I think that 2006 will still be remembered as the year of Infinite Crisis b/c despite it's kinda dissapointing finish, it was still huge in scope and rly attempted to tell a story that encompassed all of DC history. It was a good attempt and I think Geoff Johns did his best with 7 issues and a whole lot of story to deal with. :) I still do break out all 7 issues and read it, and it still does enthrall me. It rly is a story that drags you in and you rly do care about what happens. :) I think it's out in TPB now (or will be soon if it's not), so nebody interested should check it out ^-^
No comments:
Post a Comment