The Books of Geoff Johns

The epic conclusion to stories begun in 'Power Girl', 'The OMAC Project', 'Superman: Sacrifice', 'Day Of Vengeance', 'Villains United', 'Rann-Thanagar War', 'Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Death And Return Of Donna Troy' and 'JLA: Crisis Of Conscience'. 'Infinite Crisis' is the most important story event to hit the DC Comics universe in twenty years and is a direct sequel to 1985's 'Crisis On Infinite Earths'. As the story here begins the OMAC warriors are killing metahumans worldwide, magic has been devastated by the Spectre's insane purge, the Society of supervillains has united to defeat their heroic enemies and an intergalactic war rages in deep space. More significant than this, however, is the fact that Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman no longer trust one another and cannont unite to fight the growing darkness. Watching these events are characters from parallel Earths which were destroyed; Alex Luthor, Superboy Prime, Earth-2 Superman and his wife Lois Lane. Apalled by the state of Earth they decide to intervene and establish Earth-2 as the only Earth, erasing the darkness growing on Earth-1. I know it sounds complicated, but Johns makes sure we've got a full commentary of all the parallel world stuff, including a recap of the events of 'Crisis On Infinite Earths'. So much happens in this book that I can't begin to even summarise it all, but suffice to say that 'Infinite Crisis' sweeps through the entire DC universe, killing many of the characters and irrevocably changing many more. A few highlights include; two Supermen getting some payback on Doomsday, the all-out war between heroes and villains in the streets of Metropolis, the introduction of a new Blue Beetle, a psychotic Superboy going on a kill-spree and the full might of the Green Lantern Corps unleashed. Amidst all this awesome stuff (the book's packed so full you'll read it again and again and still find things you missed before), two things stand out in my mind. The first is the fact that, when things come to a head, because Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are still at odds, it is their younger counterparts (Superboy, Nightwing and Wonder Girl) who have to step up and combine their abilities to save the universe. And one of them doesn't survive. The other stand-out bit will only appeal to long-time Bat-fans like me. Early in the book the Joker is told he's too nuts to join Lex Luthor's Society. However, Luthor has made bad mistake and at the end, after the universe has been to the brink of destruction and back, the Joker (along with the real Lex Luthor) shows up to knock him down for good. I honestly can't recommend this book and the entire lead-up series enough. My only disappointment here was that there isn't enough of the Shadowpact (introduced in 'Day Of Vengeance') and absolutely no sign of the Secret Six (introduced in 'Villains United').