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Crisis Tapes 15 Talkback: Crisis on Infinite Earths #3, Part 2

The forces of oblivion press on across DC Universe timespace, from World War II Markovia to the American Old West to 30th Century Metropolis, as more heroes meet their doom! Meanwhile, your hosts share some speculation about the upcoming DC Rebirth special event! (3:06:45)

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Comments

  • DMHaightDMHaight Posts: 23
    Another great episode of fun filled facts about the Crisis. In spite of having read this story dozens of times over the years you both bring several new and interesting nuances to each issue that make these review episodes a true joy to listen to. A few comments about some specific topics you covered...

    On the four characters in the Old West being the equivalents of the Fantastic Four - I think that's brilliant, and I agree it can't be a coincidence. Marv wrote the FF in the late 70s, and this may be nostalgia on my part talking but I happen to think it was one of the better overall runs on that title. Heck, in interviews when he talks about creating the New Teen Titans, Wolfman has been quoted saying that he thought of the Titans as DC's answer to the Fantastic Four as opposed to most people thinking it was DC's version of the X-Men. I really think Wolfman has a fondness for the FF, and wouldn't be surprised at all if he saw the likeness of Psimon, Cyborg, Green Lantern and Firebrand to Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny when he laid out the plot of which of the 15 were going to work together in the various time eras.

    I like your explanation on the last page of the issue with the middle panels showing the Monitor similar to the other images on the left side that are clearly monitor screens instead of the characters shown being physically present, whereas Harbinger's panel on the right is on close inspection square instead of rounded. I recall there were a lot of reviewers at the time (Amazing Heroes 91 comes to mind for example) that took Wolfman to task for this as an error, but I'd like to think Wolfman and Perez didn't just forget the conclusion to this issue while writing out the next.

    In regard to using the Crisis characters (i.e. Pariah, Harbinger, Alexander Luthor, and Lady Quark) and Wolfman's comments in Amazing Heroes 66 (which I'm now looking for a copy of btw :)), this discussion makes me think of how other post-Crisis articles discussed the original plans to literally start everything over from scratch immediately after the Crisis with new issues of all DC titles starting over at #1 and all characters revamped and not even remembering that the Crisis ever took place. If DC editorial had allowed that plan to proceed, I suspect the Crisis characters would have been written out of existence. In fact, I wonder if their continued presence in the pages of the DCU contributed to the notion of "leftovers" or "vestiges" of the Crisis remaining that ultimately resulted in the likes of Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, or even the more recent prelude to the Darkseid War storyline in the current Justice League title where Geoff Johns has Metron talking with the Anti-Monitor about how the DCU can't withstand "another Crisis".

    In regard to Dan Mishkan's providing input to Marv in the Crisis and his several page memo on Amethyst's role in the Crisis ...I'm surprised by this too considering that I didn't particularly like the direction they took the character in with that crossover. I LOVED the original Amethyst series, but this shift took her fairy tale world and basically shoehorned in other concepts like Dr. Fate's Lords of Order and Chaos and ultimately Mordru from the LOSH and their "Sorceror's World". I'm still not convinced that was the right way to go with Amethyst and the Gemworld characters.

    As I'm reading along in your coverage I've started pulling out both the individual issues and the trade paperback, which has the same changes you've noted from the hard cover editions. They're pretty noticeable when you really stop to look at them, and I gotta say in most cases I prefer the original (not withstanding the flexograph printing errors in issue 1, or when you get to issue 10, that whole bottom section of the Monitor Tapes). I remember noting when #10 was published how hard that section was to make out...the hardcover/TPB really helps.

    Anyway, that's all for now...looking forward to next time!
  • DMHaightDMHaight Posts: 23
    DMHaight said:


    As I'm reading along in your coverage I've started pulling out both the individual issues and the trade paperback, which has the same changes you've noted from the hard cover editions. They're pretty noticeable when you really stop to look at them, and I gotta say in most cases I prefer the original (not withstanding the flexograph printing errors in issue 1, or when you get to issue 10, that whole bottom section of the Monitor Tapes). I remember noting when #10 was published how hard that section was to make out...the hardcover/TPB really helps.

    ...forgot to give my example of preferring the original over the TPB colorization...the Shadow Demons - in the original issues they're all black, but in the TPB version, they're colored like a light gray. Definitely prefer the black...; not sure if there was a challenge to re-printing the solid black in that hard bound or TPB format, but the gray just seems wrong. Any other thoughts or comments on this?
  • Okay, here's an interesting what if that crossed my mind while listening to this episode...

    What do people think, would DC continuity be better off today if - instead of doing the Crisis - they had just shifted focus to say Earth-7 (or whatever number had never been used) and started over from scratch there? People say that the multiple Earths were "too confusing", but really the solution to that is just not to mention them. Shift to a new Earth, give that it's own unified continuity similar to the post-crisis DCU, and rarely bring up Earth 1, 2, etc. Seems simpler to me.

    (Of course then we wouldn't have gotten Crisis, or this podcast, both of which I love.)
  • AlpinemapsAlpinemaps Posts: 20
    I'm about 90 minutes into the episode. I always love when an episode comes out - I stop listening to whatever I was listening to, and immediately queue this up. I really enjoy the in depth descriptions and analysis. As a Crisis Kid, I love reliving this, and "talking" (listening) COIE with others.

    I had to comment before finishing the episode because Peter - your theory of Superman of Earth-1 and Rebirth....BLEW. MY. MIND. Wow. I love it, and I really hope that it happens.

    However, I'm convinced it will NEVER happen. I don't think they will ever acknowledge that our pre-Crisis Earth-1 Superman is a different character than the post-Crisis / Byrne Superman. That slight started with Who's Who, and continues to this day. The only hope I've had is from Convergence, when we did get to see pre-Crisis Earth-1 Superman and Supergirl acting in tandem.

    I will hold out hope though, that this will be true. If there's one character that we haven't seen in 30 years, it's Earth-1 Superman. Peter, your logic is sound. I sure hope it plays out that way.

    Okay, here's an interesting what if that crossed my mind while listening to this episode...

    What do people think, would DC continuity be better off today if - instead of doing the Crisis - they had just shifted focus to say Earth-7 (or whatever number had never been used) and started over from scratch there? People say that the multiple Earths were "too confusing", but really the solution to that is just not to mention them. Shift to a new Earth, give that it's own unified continuity similar to the post-crisis DCU, and rarely bring up Earth 1, 2, etc. Seems simpler to me.

    (Of course then we wouldn't have gotten Crisis, or this podcast, both of which I love.)

    That was my preference back in 1985. And I'd say even to this day, I would have been fine with that. Just shift focus to a new Earth. It happened organically in the late 50s. Just make it happen now (well, 1985 now).

    In Infinite Crisis #5, Alexander Luthor talks about Earth Eight. It's mentioned that characters that came into being after COIE, would have existed on Earth Eight, had the original multiverse continued. Specifically called out were Breach, Firestorm Jason Rusch, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and Helena Bertinelli Huntress. Wikipedia references an interview with Geoff Jones from Wizard Magazine 174 confirming this.

  • AlpinemapsAlpinemaps Posts: 20
    Ah, something I forgot to mention, was that Nighthawk is mentioned on Legends of Tomorrow. I won't spoil anything else about it, but there is a name drop.
  • alienalalienal Posts: 508
    Hmm, I'm listening to Part 2 and you guys are talking about how the Legion of Super-heroes, with it's size, didn't have any more members die in Crisis except for Kid Psycho. I always thought of Supergirl as a member....? Maybe you just consider her a reservist. Or maybe you just meant the deaths in or up to #3? If so, pardon me...
  • i_am_scifii_am_scifi Posts: 784
    Looking forward to hearing your combined thoughts on DC Rebirth, as it is very much in the vein of a Crisis title. And I totally CALLED IT! So did Murd, as his second option. :D
  • hauberkhauberk Posts: 1,511
    alienal said:

    Hmm, I'm listening to Part 2 and you guys are talking about how the Legion of Super-heroes, with it's size, didn't have any more members die in Crisis except for Kid Psycho. I always thought of Supergirl as a member....? Maybe you just consider her a reservist. Or maybe you just meant the deaths in or up to #3? If so, pardon me...

    Likewise, Superboy.
  • DMHaightDMHaight Posts: 23
    Hey all, just had to leave another comment since I found a copy of the Amazing Heroes issue #66 :smiley:, and while reading through it I found a very intriguing tid-bit I'd like to hear Adam and Peter (and any others) comment on. Marv Wolfman is describing what the post-Crisis Earth will look like, and the third paragraph reads as follows:
    Although the overall plan is to have all DC's multiple earths collapsed into one, they will still be a part of DC history. Earth-1 and Earth-2 will have existed, will have mattered. We're not denying them. All-Star Squadron will still be place on [Earth-2]. There will be some past that will never have existed - not much. It's being done with the best of intentions and as much care as possible.
    Now, correct me if I'm mistaken, but that's not ultimately how the post-Crisis history panned out. That said, I would have LOVED to have seen this idea explored more. Can you imagine -- a DCU where from 1985 onward was integrated into a single universe, while the past still acknowledged the presence of multiple earths? Now I know that's probably why they ended up choosing to not do it - the potential for such a turn to make things even more complicated -- but then, as I said in my earlier post, I never found the multiple earths concept to be the problem.....and frankly, given the current state of the modern DCU, I think most people feel the same.

    What do you all think? Would it have been better to allow the past to have kept the multiple earths references?
  • DMHaight said:



    What do you all think? Would it have been better to allow the past to have kept the multiple earths references?

    Well, they kind of did in Animal Man, but I can see why they decided to have all references to the multiple universes leave: Why have a Big Event that changed everything, if you will keep referring to what you were trying to eliminate?

    For all of the talk about how the DC Universe's continuity got messed up by Crisis, the vast majority of the issues were from editors and creators who didn't want to buy in to the "clean slate" approach used on Superman and Wonder Woman.

    Even the "yeah, it's there but we won't ever mention it" of Batman worked well.

    It's the stuff like Hawkman that caused the endless revisions that have had to be done since.

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