Crisis on Infinite Earths #12

March 1986
"Final Crisis"
Marv Wolfman (writer and editor), George Pérez (pencils), Jerry Ordway (inks), Carl Gafford (colors), John Costanza (letters), Len Wein and Robert Greenberger (editors), Jenette Kahn (editor-in-chief)

Rip Hunter's team quickly discover that Brainiac is alive, but doesn't remember his actions during the Crisis. Still, they convince him about the Anti-Monitor's existence and the threat he poses to the universe. Brainiac proceeds to transport himself and his passengers to a mysterious location. Back on Earth, the Anti-Monitor declares to the world that he has taken the Earth into the anti-matter universe in order to destroy it and its heroes, so that he can eradicate the rest of the universe unopposed. From the Anti-Monitor's speech, Wally West learns that the Flash is dead. After the image of the Anti-Monitor vanishes, the Earth is covered in darkness, which turns out to be the result of shadow-demons covering the sky. The Harbinger enlists the two Supermen, Dr. Light, both Wonder Women, and some of the other heroes for a final assault on the Anti-Monitor. Meanwhile the shadow demons attack all over the planet, with the remaining heroes defending the people, and the world's sorcerors try unsuccessfully to revive the Spectre.

Brainiac takes Rip Hunter and the others to Apokolips, to ask for Darkseid's help against the Anti-Monitor. During the shadow demon attack on Earth, the heroes Dove, Lori Lemaris, the Lieutenant Marvels (possibly), the Earth-2 Green Arrow, Prince Ra-Man, Kole, Sunburst, the Huntress, and the Earth-2 Dick Grayson are killed, as are the villains Clayface (Matt Hagen), the Ten-Eyed Man, and the Bug-Eyed Bandit. After giving up on awakening the Spectre, the sorcerors, with Alan Scott (the Earth-2 Green Lantern) and Doctor Occult acting as the nexus, entrap all the shadow demons in a mystical net. On Qward's moon, the Harbinger's heroes find the Anti-Monitor's fortress practically deserted and Wally West discovers the Flash's costume and ring along with a totally insane Psycho-Pirate. Suddenly the Anti-Monitor appears, ready to attack. The Harbinger and Alexander Luthor coordinate the heroes' attacks, which culminate in Dr. Light absorbing the energy of a star and unleashing it on the Anti-Monitor, seemingly killing him. After Alexander Luthor uses his powers to get the Earth and many of the heroes out of the anti-matter universe, the shadow demons sealed away by the sorcerors are absorbed by a still living Anti-Monitor, who blasts the Earth-1 Wonder Woman, seemingly out of existence. However, the Anti-Monitor is weakened because the sorcerors also "poisoned" the shadow demons, anticipating that the Anti-Monitor would draw his energy back from them.

Only Lady Quark and the two Supermen are left in the anti-matter universe. The Earth-2 Superman knocks the Earth-1 Superman and Lady Quark unconscious and has the Superboy of Earth-Prime take them through Alexander Luthor's portal to the positive matter universe before it closes. Superboy refuses to leave while Alexander Luthor realizes he has to stay in the anti-matter universe in order to fully close the portal. Superman and Superboy keep fighting a wounded and furious but still powerful Anti-Monitor. Darkseid observes the battle through Alexander Luthor and projects a blast of energy through Luthor's eyes, knocking the Anti-Monitor into the heart of a star. Rip Hunter thanks Darkseid for his aid, but Darkseid replies that he only helped because cooperation was necessary and that next time he will be Earth's enemy. However, Darkseid's attack was not entirely successful: a dying Anti-Monitor reaches out to kill Superman, who finishes him off with a punch. The death of the Anti-Monitor causes an explosion that threatens to kill everyone in the vicinity. To save them, Alexander Luthor reveals that his powers still allow him to open a portal to a paradise dimension where the Lois Lane of Earth-2, who was rescued by Luthor, knowing that the Multiverse would be erased from existence, awaits. Alexander Luthor, Lois Lane, Superboy, and the Earth-2 Superman disappear into the new dimension.

Back on Earth, the Earth-1 Wonder Woman is regressed into clay, which falls on Paradise Island. The Greek gods offer a home on Olympus to the Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor of Earth-2. Wally West decides to take on the mantle of the Flash. The Harbinger, Pariah, and Lady Quark set out together to explore the new Earth. Finally, in a cell at Arkham Asylum, the Psycho-Pirate raves to himself that he's now the only one alive who remembers the Multiverse.

What's Important?

Presumably the last page finally sets up post-Crisis continuity proper where the Multiverse is not only gone but (mostly) forgotten. It's still not clear when (and even how) the characters forget the Multiverse and the various rebootings take place, but presumably it happens after the final fight with the Anti-Monitor and as a result of the cosmic "reorganization" the Harbinger hints is taking place.

It's also where the characters mentioned above are killed, although as of this writing the original Huntress, Prince Ra-Man, Lori, and the Lieutenant Marvels have all been brought back in one form or another. Two new Doves (Wiley Wolverman and Dawn Gragner) have appeared since "Crisis" while there's also been a new Sunburst, although he may have died in the first issue he appeared, Doom Patrol #26, as a victim of the Brotherhood of Dada. At any rate, the second Sunburst hasn't appeared since. And there have been various Clayfaces following Matt Hagen (who was himself only the second Clayface), but Hagen himself has not (yet) been resurrected, unless you count his appearances in "Batman the Animated Series" and "Justice League Unlimited."

I should also mention that, like trying to guess where pre-Crisis continuity really ends and where post-Crisis continuity really begins, fitting in the deaths that take place here into current continuity can be headache-inducing. For instance, Lori was eventually brought back as a "new" character with a new history, "reborn" as a result of the Crisis. However, even though most characters don't remember the events of "Crisis", Matt Hagen is known to have lived and died, even though the circumstances of his death are usually unmentioned in later stories. Why did Hagen's death "count" while Lori's didn't? Well, if you really need an explanation, just take Harbinger's words from #11: "There are many paradoxes, and not all can be explained."

For the most part, though, the deaths that took place through "Crisis" aren't remembered in the main continuity. This fact has even been used to good storytelling effect, as in 1989's "Christmas With The Superheroes", when Deadman encounters the spirit of the original Supergirl, who explains to him why he should continue doing acts of heroism:

"We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition. We do it because it needs to be done. Because, if we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed."

"I... I don't even know your name..."

"My name is Kara, athough I doubt that'll mean anything to you."

Comments

So "Crisis" draws to an appropriately epic close, although it doesn't quite provide the bridge between pre-Crisis continuity and the post-reboot DC universe that might still be expected. As mentioned above, most of the deaths in this issue are obviously not there for any sort of dramatic reason, but to clear away unpopular characters or ones who are inconvenient leftovers from the Multiverse, which makes it somewhat difficult to read this as just a story and not a maneuver by DC management.

That "Crisis" was a cornerstone not just for DC Comics, but for the entire genre - perhaps the entire medium - is not in doubt. It was arguably the very first time either of the Big Two really took advantage of their large, diverse universes by spinning a story that would draw in a large range of their unique characters and locales as well as the complex elements of their histories. Also it was the first time one of the Big Two had used "event storytelling" to change aspects of their universe and continuity in order to appeal to fans, but the scale of what DC did here - effectively pruning most of a 50-year old continuity and more or less creating a brand new starting point for most of their characters and titles - hasn't really been replicated, even by DC itself and even after two sequels, "Zero Hour" and "Infinite Crisis." If nothing else, Marv Wolfman with "Crisis" exhibited a genuine, heart-felt love for this universe and its very long and very rich history, as well as setting a template for ambitious stories that exist just to explore and take full advantage of these fictional worlds.

Still, "Crisis" may have at least helped set in stone some precedents that have actually harmed the genre over the years. Many crossovers and "spandex epics" have followed "Crisis" in being written almost entirely for the fans, with very little room for newcomers. Ironically, even though "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was put together in order to make DC Comics more reader-friendly, in the long run it inspired a slew of stories from both DC and Marvel written at best for people already familiar with ongoing storylines in various titles and at worst for fans with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of continuity. Along with this, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was the forefather of "stories by editorial decree" where entertaining readers takes a back seat to fulfilling mandates. Finally, following the trend of the '80s, the post-Crisis universe was a more serious place, with goofy and beloved oddities like Bizarro World, Wonder Tot, and Krypto the Wonder Dog written out. Significantly many of those changes have been rolled back in the past ten years or so, as DC tries to recapture the glorious weirdness of the pre-Crisis DC Universe while maintaining the "mature" storytelling of modern superhero comics.

All that's well and good, but how does "Crisis on Infinite Earths" hold together as a story? To be honest, it's more than a bit of a tangled mess, with sub-plots and teasers (namely Wolfman pushing in unrelated sub-plots from his "Teen Titans" run and the new Wildcat) that have very little if anything to do with the overall story arc. I think it still works, mainly because despite several weak chapters and the obvious editorial notes it genuinely does feel like an epic, written out of love for a universe that's grown organically across generations of writers, artists, and readers. I've seen "Crisis on Infinite Earths" described as a love letter to the fans of DC Comics, and superhero comics in general, but I think it's more apt to call it a love letter to a universe.

Footnotes

Page 14 - Apokolips (and by extension New Genesis) is not part of the DC universe proper, so the New Gods have not been affected by the Crisis at all.

Page 16, Panels 3-4 - Note the appearance of Zatara. This places the conclusion of "Crisis" before the conclusion of "American Gothic" in Swamp Thing #50, where Zatarra sacrificed his life to save his daughter Zatanna.

Page 30, Panel 8 - The point of this scene, showing Wonder Woman apparently killed by the Anti-Monitor, and the subsequent scene revealing that she was regressed into clay is a mystery to me. I suppose it was to set up the reboot of the "Wonder Woman" franchise.

Page 35, Panel 3 - Don't miss the short and sweet visual Kirby reference Perez uses Darkseid for here.

Page 36-37 - Alexander Luthor, Earth-2 Lois Lane, Earth-2 Superman, and Earth-Prime Superboy do eventually return from their "happy ending" in "Infinite Crisis" - and not all of them come back happy.

Page 38-39 - The Harbinger's tapes are a set-up for "The History of the DC Universe", which was published in 1986 and was also done by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. It wa what the title claims it is. While its value as a guide to DC continuity has suffered immensely thanks to subsequent stories like "Hawkworld", "Zero Hour", etc. it's still beautiful to look at and gives an idea of what "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was meant to accomplish.

Page 39, Panel 1 - This establishes that the "Great Disaster" timeline no longer exists in the post-Crisis universe. Kamandi still exists, although here he turns out to be Tommy Tomorrow of the Planeteers. Later stories have re-established the "Great Disaster" and Kamandi's original role and, in fact, Kamandi and the "Great Disaster" have been playing a pivotal (although as of yet unclear) role in the recent "Countdown" and "Final Crisis."

Panel 2 - Because of the Crisis (and DC's desire to try something new with the character, whose ongoing series was unpopular enough to be cancelled), Jonah Hex became lost in time and ended up in an post-apocalyptic future, featured in a new series, "Hex." This was not a successful move, although apparently "Hex" became something on an international cult classic. At any rate, Jonah was eventually returned to the nineteenth century American West.

Page 40, Panel 4 - "I'm the only one left who remembers the infinite Earths." Psycho-Pirate is wrong. Pariah, Lady Quark, the Harbinger, and the inhabitants of Alexander Luthor's paradise still remember, as do, it turns out later, the characters of Dark Angel and Donna Troy, for reasons a bit too complicated to get into.