Reviews - Crisis on Infinite Earths

150 reviews for:

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Marv Wolfman

3.66 AVERAGE

ckaptainkhonshu's review against another edition

5.0

A fantastic, universe spanning novel that has an engaging story replicated again and again by all crossovers that followed. A classic.

jtjfalk's review against another edition

2.0

As an ambitious editorial housecleaning to streamline DC's baffling pre-Crisis continuity, this was inarguably a success. As the first real "Event Comic," Crisis on Infinite Earths set the stage for every desperate attempt to boost sales by throwing all the superheroes into a big sandbox to smack together like a box of action figures, each time with diminishing returns. Unlike most of its successors, there is a genuine sense of unprecedented scale here that is impressive- it feels Big. But, especially if you're not super familiar with all these pre-Crisis multiverse characters, it is impossible to follow, spread over so many hundreds of characters on a single page that not one of them really gets to breathe or express their own personality. The best moments are the deaths- the iconic death of Supergirl and imo the far more upsetting gruesome death of Barry Allen's Flash. The best thing about this is that they weren't afraid to make big changes and kill off a bunch of characters.

philliam24's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

jdurden's review against another edition

3.0

A landmark comic book series that redefined everything about DC comics and popularised crossover events im comics. The sheer ambition itself and the fact that they pulled it off, breaking a lot of the unspoken rules of comic books of the time makes it a classic that will be remembered as long as there are comic books in the world. Even then this series that can be fitted into the grittier graphic novels that started in the 80s still have a lot of ridiculous concepts and characters that are hilarious even by the standards of superhero comic books but maybe not of the standards of that time. However, it was still a very entertaining read and the sheer magnitude of its ambition was reverberating through those pages. And yet the ridiculousness of a lot of it often took me out of the DC multiverse through which the story was being told, reminding not only the difference of style but also how stupidly American it shows itself to be.

freelatveria's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous fast-paced

Worlds will live, Worlds will die.

Here we have the OG of DC mega crossovers. Let's destroy the multiverse and collapse everything into one single universe. Sounds like a great idea....with the best of intentions...what could possibly go wrong?

Well I'm not here to judge the muck up DC would make coming out of this what would require multiple events to patch together this continuity. I'm just here for this story, and on it's own...I really liked it. In fact, I think I liked it more than I remember.

The art by George Perez was phenomenal. Of course. The story was a bit of a mess, which I don't think should be shocking considering the scope of this, But in my opinion it started out kind of shaky, but continued to get stronger through to the end. What really did surprise me here was some of the heart. Especially at the end. The deaths, the valiant last stands, the survivors. All of it had a lot more heart in it then I remember. Imagine waking up in a universe where you and everyone you loved never existed. That happens to some folks here and it is a gut punch.

So, ignoring the choices DC was going to make after this, this story was a solid mega event. And you can see why this style of storytelling would take over the comics industry moving forward to the good and ill.