Infinite Crisis (IC from hereon) is this year's big cross-over event in the DC Universe, and meant to be as DCU-shaking as the original Crisis on Infinite Earths (with heavy echoes of same).

There have been several lead-in mini-series thus far, including:

(I'm going to take this "below the fold" so that those who either aren't interested or who don't want to see SPOILERS before the TPBs come out, can skip on.)

• Identity Crisis: In which a bunch of civilians associated with heroes (wives, friends, etc.) get attacked and/or murdered by someone thought to be a villain, but who turns out to be simply another insider who went whacko. During the series it came out that, back some years, various villains did learn about the JLA's secret identities -- and not only did the JLA (or a majority of it) have Zatanna remove that info from their heads, but they even did some "attitude readjustment," leading to Dr. Light becoming an inept bungler. And, it turns out, because he objected so vigorously, they even okayed the memory diddling on Batman -- who, by the end of the mini-series has regained that memory (as have the villains similarly affected).

• OMAC: In which Batman's paranoia (see Identity Crisis) leads him to build global spy satellites/computer system to monitor bad guys -- which satellites and computers are not only then taken over (of course) by a nefarious individual, but are reconfigured to control nano-tech "vaccines" in a large percentage of the population that turn them into super-powerful Sentinels hero-hunting/killing robots. The series ends with the villain, who has also taken over the covert law enforcement organization Checkmate, and who believes he is acting for the good of humanity in monitoring and potentially taking out any heroes that cross the line, and who can control minds and has been mind controlling Superman to attack and nearly kill folks getting too close to the secret (including Batman), and who also is responsible for the killing of Blue Beetle, is, himself, killed by Wonder Woman.

• Villains United: Wherein several nasty villains in the DCU, having recovered their memories and resenting having been brainwashed by the JLA, band together.

• Day of Vengeance: The whacko from Identity Crisis gets hooked up with a major occult widget and uses it to convince the Spectre (the spirit of Divine Vengeance) that the root of all evil is the magic in the world, and he must destroy it and its wielders. Hilarity, and lots of DCU third-rate magic-using villains' deaths, ensue.

• The Rann-Thanagar War: The planets Rann (Adam Strange) and Thanagar (Hawkman, etc.) go to war. Lots of cosmic stuff goes down, including the GL Corps, the Omega Men, etc.

In addition to the above, the conflict mentioned in the OMAC saga has been raging through recent issues of JLA, Superman, and Batman. It's torn apart the JLA and torn apart as well "the Big Three" heroes in the DCU -- whereby hangs the whole Infinite Crisis tale, and my main complaint.

Batman. Superman. Wonder Woman. The triumvirate of the DCU. Now currently on the outs with each other. And why?

Batman is suspicious of everyone. It's been established in the past that he's developed plans to take out any of the JL should the need arise (which plans -- detect a pattern here? -- were stolen by a villain and used against the Justice League, natch). So nobody trusts him, especially when his latest plan -- the spy satellites -- comes to light. And he doesn't trust anyone, especially when he discovers that one of his fellow JLAers tampered with his memory, and the memories of those about him, and that some of the other JLAers knew and approved (or at least acquiesced).

Superman is ticked off at Bats for not being trusted (and for the damage his hijacked OMAC system caused).

Bats and Supes are both outraged at Wonder Woman for ...

... well, killing a man.

Um ...

Okay, the situation involved was a bit contrived. The main villain -- okay, call him by his name, Maxwell Lord (who is as unlikely a maniacally scheming villain as one can imagine, so there's a strike against the whole thing), has engineered the whole OMAC takeover. He's also been using his mind control abilities to take over Superman. And, even when Diana, in a knock-down drag-out with Supes, manages to barely subdue him (her magical tiara cutting a nice swathe across his throat), and after Diana has Max apprehended and wrapped up in her magic lasso and has commanded him to release Supes, and he does ... Max still swears that, someday, he'll break free, and then he'll take over Supes again and have him kill everyone.

And when Diana compels Max to tell her how to stop him, and he answers, "Kill me," she does. Snaps his neck, right there.

Now, it was a contrived situation, and one that could have been solved in various other ways with other writers. After all, this isn't the first time we've seen mind control of the JLA's heaviest hitters, and those situations didn't end in death. Heck, straightforward enough to find some way to psychically lobotomize him, or strand him on another planet, or in the Phantom Zone, or something like that.

But be that as it may, Diana makes the call, and does the deed.

And Supes and Bats are appalled.

Excuse me? Okay, Bats is unstable enough (as currently constituted in the DCU) that he can be the instrument of taking down any hero in the League, but still "draw the line" at killing. He's not entirely rational on the subject.

But Supes? I believe it is still continuity that he actually killed some folks (three "true" Kryptonians, a long ways back, but still ...), in the most extreme situation. He'd just been released from a mind control that had him nearly kill Batman, and nearly kill WW, too, and heard the promise that next time there'd be no "nearly" about it.

Shock. Dismay. Disappointment. Grief. Yeah, I could buy those. But disapproval? Parroting Bats' "there is always another way"? Give me a break. Unless Supes is still feeling guilty over what he did and taking it out on WW. But the whole breach seems unreasonable and contrived, something to break the triumvirate in an artificial fashion.

That said, it's been alternately fun and infuriating to see this whole thing unfolding. Fun to see some big stuff happening, infuriating when it pops up with key occurrences that ring false, or that get dragged out overly long (most of the Superman "Day of Sacrifice" bits, to be honest).

Lots of promises with this one to "change the DCU forever," and I suppose that's as true as is ever the case for the big events. That said, this seems to be a lot more than the Bad Guy of the Year Provokes Giant Battle across Many Titles types of events that DC has tended to do since the original Crisis "changed the DCU forever."

Filed under :: Media - Comics