Crisis On Infinite Earths

[tbondrage99 0]

Ok, both were pretty big and fixed up DCs fucked up continuity, but both still confuse the hell out of me. Ive been reading comics since the late '80s, at around the age of 7. Crisis had already happened and I never even heard of it until I started collecting comics seriously around '95. At that time Zero Hour had happened.

 

Now I know a bit about Crisis, you know all the big stuff, that it whiped out all the crap and put it all in one continuity, no Earth 2, no Earth X or any of that crap all of it was one. I also know that The Flash died saving the world/universe, I know Supergirl wound up dead (dont know how though), and I know that Supermans time line up until then had been whiped out like it never happened and everything was started anew for him.

 

Thats about all I know about Crisis. So I got a few questions, what happened to the rest of Superman continuity, did this happened to any other heros (Im not sure but Ive heard Batman & Wonder Woman got the same deal) and well...Actually the best thing might just be to tell me what happened in each issue, cause Im confused as hell about it.

 

As far as Zero Hour, I have no idea in the slighest what happened there. So any info on what happened there would be nice.

[starvenger 0]

Well, Crisis did fix continuity... until DC decided to reboot various titles at different times, beginning with Superman.

 

They had John Byrne rewrite Superman's origin, and as a result, Supes was now the sole survivor of Krypton - a good thing - but didn't become Superman until adulthood (a la lois and Clark), which was not so much a good thing, as now Superboy didn't exist, and never existed. Which screwed up the Legion of Super-Heroes, as Superboy was a full member in the 30th century. So they had to retcon that. Lex Luthor was also now more Kingpin than Doc Ock.

 

Later on, they rebooted Wonder Woman, which caused her appearances in the old Justice League and Justice Society comics to actually be Black Canary. More recently, they retconned that to be Diana's mother as the Wonder Woman of that era, so I supposed that was fixed.

 

So anyways, post-Crisis was still a cluster, and DC took advantage of the mega-crossover era to try and again fix everything with Zero Hour. With Zero Hour, they tried to fix everything (again), and this time had EVERY title produce a #0 comic to explain their new continuity. The titles that probably benifitted the most were the Legion titles, which were completely rebooted and started over (easy to do when you're talking about Y3K.

 

Anyways, I did some looking around and this site seems to be a good starting point to find out about Zero Hour and Crisis.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

Ok, both were pretty big and fixed up DCs fucked up continuity, but both still confuse the hell out of me. Ive been reading comics since the late '80s, at around the age of 7. Crisis had already happened and I never even heard of it until I started collecting comics seriously around '95. At that time Zero Hour had happened.

 

Now I know a bit about Crisis, you know all the big stuff, that it whiped out all the crap and put it all in one continuity, no Earth 2, no Earth X or any of that crap all of it was one. I also know that The Flash died saving the world/universe, I know Supergirl wound up dead (dont know how though), and I know that Supermans time line up until then had been whiped out like it never happened and everything was started anew for him.

 

Thats about all I know about Crisis. So I got a few questions, what happened to the rest of Superman continuity, did this happened to any other heros (Im not sure but Ive heard Batman & Wonder Woman got the same deal) and well...Actually the best thing might just be to tell me what happened in each issue, cause Im confused as hell about it.

 

As far as Zero Hour, I have no idea in the slighest what happened there. So any info on what happened there would be nice.

This is all pretty spoilerific, but to shed some light on Crisis and some of the questions you asked, I'll go ahead and shoot. First off, the TPB of it ain't too hard to find, and both Supergirl and Flash died in battle by saving the Matter universe aganist the Anti-Matter's Anti-Monitor's attacks.

 

The Anti-Monitor had a fortress in another realm of existance, and the greatest heroes of the 5 remaining Earth's (Shazam, Martian Manhunter, both Supes, Wonder Woman, etc.) head through Luthor's son's portal (I can explain more later if you wish) to attack the Anti-Monitor's fortress. Well, physics is different there, Superman can be hurt, and different people's powers are acting differently. The fortress is essentially "alive" as it's statues of demonic stuff come to life and attack everyone. Firestorm and Green Lantern (the original) and Jade and the rest fight off the statues and Superman, Pariah, and Dr. Light (the hero, not the rapist) get through to the Anti-Monitor. On the way, Pariah was trapped, and the Anti-Monitor easily defeats Superman and Dr. Light.

 

Supergirl hears Kal-El getting his ass kicked, and she flies on through all the fortress and attacks the Anti-Monitor, and in probably her best showing ever, she pounds the Anti-Monitor--a being that just took out Superman. However, she does get harmed, and he shoots her with a death ray before escaping--she did enough damage that his body was basically destroyed and he forms a new shell for himself (Personally I liked his first body better than his second).

 

Now, for his next attack, he was in the Anti-Matter dimension, with the Thunderers and Qwardians and stuff. He had a HUGE Anti-Matter cannon and was just going to shoot our universes with it. In his base however, he had Psycho Pirate as a slave--someone to subvert dimensions if need be, and to keep the Flash (his captive) at bay. See, Barry Allen (the Flash in those days of course) could vibrate fast enough to go through time and dimensions, so he was a threat, the Anti-Monitor captured him and put him in a gooey substance so he couldn't escape and let the Pirate do what he wanted with The Flash. Flash escapes by spinning super fast and shooting the goo off, he easily defeats a few Thunderers and then beats the hell out of the Pirate. Flash makes a plan to beat the Anti-Monitor, using the Pirate and putting him in a half-nelsonish sorta hold, he forces the Pirate to make a lot of the Thunderers turn aganist the Anti-Monitor and attack him. The Anti-Monitor easily wins, but during the battle, Flash finds the cannon, and runs into it, and sees it's purpose. To stop it, he runs at insanely fast speeds opposite of the anti-matter, causing the stuff to become unstable and blow up the cannon, but it costs him his life. He does run so fast, that he pops up throughout various times in the past and future, he sees Wally, and Batman, and the Outsiders and some Teen Titans as well. However, when writing it, they did make an out so Flash could come back--I don't personally know what it is, but I have several guesses. Also--during this trek, Barry did go to the Marvel Universe and school all of their speedsters.

 

Also, in a Zero Hour related thing, the original Dove bites the dust in the Crisis, saving a kid. The Crisis also made Wonder Woman the newest hero essentially, like in the JLA cartoon I guess. And if you are a Speedy/Arsenal fan, he has his best showing EVER really in this book--he takes out the Shaggy Man/General.

 

Lastly, I have a Crisis question--how did Wildcat heal from his injuries sustained in the Crisis?

[Steviekick 0]

Arsenal has been greatly handled since Zero Hour.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

Arsenal has been greatly handled since Zero Hour.

Shit........ all my post was about the Crisis, I just meant Dove dying is a precursor to Zero Hour, all this stuff was Crisis--so Speedy/Arsenal takes out Shaggy Man in the Crisis.

[Zorin Industries 0]

However, when writing it, they did make an out so Flash could come back--I don't personally know what it is, but I have several guesses.

I'd like to hear your ideas on this. I have Crisis but i've never been able to come up with much on it myself.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

However, when writing it, they did make an out so Flash could come back--I don't personally know what it is, but I have several guesses. 

I'd like to hear your ideas on this. I have Crisis but i've never been able to come up with much on it myself.

The best I could come up with personally, is that if you look at it, they seem to say that Flash is going BACK in time with his apperances. He goes back to when the Titans and Outsiders where at the Anti-Matter wall, and when Batman was fighting Joker. I forget which of these came first in Flash's mind--but they were back in time. However, he also goes FORWARD in time to see Wally one last time. I think therein lies the clue. That somehow Barry was trying to escape and in doing so started going forward in time, or couldn't get a bearing on where he was going. I think by now he's "dead" to DC, but that's my opinion, I always felt it odd when he appeared later in time, it contradicts what the thinks when he's running aganist the anti-matter flow and the other apperances. I don't know if my specific example is right, but I still think that scene has something to do with it.

[starvenger 0]

I remember reading an 8 pager (in an annual, I think) once that basically described Barry travelling back in time like you said. But in this his journey ends as he becomes the bolt of lightning that turns him into the Flash in the first place...

[Guest JMA]

I feel that DC didn't really need to start over all their titles after Crisis. Nearly all the problems had already been fixed after the event itself.

[tbondrage99 0]

Thanks alot everyone Its less confusing for me now, granted I still find it confusing as hell but it is more clear at least, I can see myself bying the TPD one day to fully understand it, but hey considering the material then it only makes sence that it would be confusing I guess.

[Sass 0]

Crisis and Zero are two reasons why continuity is needed in comics because otherwise the masses will remain ignorant to the stupid and lazy writing chnages made by dick bag eating hacks.

[SuperJerk 0]

I remember reading an 8 pager (in an annual, I think) once that basically described Barry travelling back in time like you said. But in this his journey ends as he becomes the bolt of lightning that turns him into the Flash in the first place...

I think that story was told in the short-lived "Secret Origins" series from the late 80s.

 

The best thing about post-Crisis DC continuity was that all of the heroes DC owned merged onto one planet.

 

The refitted Superman and Wonder Woman were necessary evils, since DC had made both the characters too powerful and gave them both too much ridicules backstory since the 50s.

 

Unfortunately, recent storylines in the Superman titles are trying very hard to bring back some of the stupider elements of the silver age Superman's legacy (i.e. the tacky-bright colored Kryptonian history, Supergirl, Krypto).

[Guest JMA]

Unfortunately, recent storylines in the Superman titles are trying very hard to bring back some of the stupider elements of the silver age Superman's legacy (i.e. the tacky-bright colored Kryptonian history, Supergirl, Krypto).

Krypto was brought back several years ago if I recall. I wouldn't say he was recently brought back. As for Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) the majority of fans DO seem to want her back. And I think Loeb is doing a fantastic job re-introducing her into the mainstream DCU. Krypton, while once again a utopia, is not as similar to the Silver Age Krypton as one would think. Instead, it has the imagination of that Krypton mixed in with a sleeker design.

 

I was always a much bigger fan of the utopian Krypton than the cold, sterile version.

[SuperJerk 0]

Unfortunately, recent storylines in the Superman titles are trying very hard to bring back some of the stupider elements of the silver age Superman's legacy (i.e. the tacky-bright colored Kryptonian history, Supergirl, Krypto).

Krypto was brought back several years ago if I recall. I wouldn't say he was recently brought back.

When you've been reading comics for 18 years, 3-4 years ago is considered recent.