Worlds lived. Worlds died. And the DC Universe was never the same.

Back in 1985, DC celebrated its 50th anniversary of publishing comic books. 50 years is a long time for anything. Celebrating your golden wedding anniversary is a feat all onto itself. Discovering moldy cheese in the refrigerator after 50 years is also a feat of another kind. So how did DC Comics, home to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, a company with a long, luscious history, celebrate this monumental occasion? The only way possible… let’s destroy everything!

But why?



In The Beginning…

At the dawn of time a huge explosion occurred resulting to the birth of the universe. This is commonly known as The Big Bang Theory. Now imagine during the big bang, millions of universes were created. They all exist beside each other but separated through its’ own unique, vibrational frequency. As a result instead of just one Earth, many Earths existed.

On one Earth, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Spectre and others formed the Justice Society of America in World War II fighting alongside the Allies against the dictatorial Adolf Hitler and his Nazi army.

On another Earth, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and others formed the Justice League of America.

Yet on another Earth, Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters are continuing to fight the Nazis on their world that has been going on for 50 years.

Confusing?

The writers at DC Comics believed so because there was so much history to contend with in their 50 years of existence. At first it was a great idea having multiple Earths. In 1938 Superman made his comic book debut and set the stage for the birth of super-heroes. Batman followed along with Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern Hawkman, The Atom and many others. This period of time is dubbed as “The Golden Age” of comics. However, with the exception of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, the publication of these characters faded and readers lost interest.

Cut to the late 1950s when revivals took place with science fiction themes. A new Flash gave birth to the advent of “The Silver Age”. Instead of his 40s counterpart who dressed more like Mercury, this one was clad in a crimson outfit. Green Lantern in the 40s had magic ring based on mystical origins. The new Green Lantern obtained his power ring from a dying alien who belonged to an interstellar police force that patrols the universe. Familiar names, different origins.

To distinguish all the differences that has happened throughout the years, DC invented the “multiverse” theory. The Golden Age of super-heroes and their WWII heroics live on Earth-2. Their Silver Age counterparts, the ones we are most familiar with, live on Earth-1. Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters live on Earth-X. Captain Marvel (the guy who shouts the word SHAZAM!) lives on Earth-S. In fact there is an Earth where there is no super-heroes at all, the one we live on, called Earth-Prime.

The more Earths that were created, the bigger the headache became so much so that even having a scorecard wasn’t going to help anymore. DC finally decided to do the impossible… streamline all the Earths to one single Earth. 50 years of DC history was going to be rewritten to make things easier.

So who were going to be the lucky winners to take on such an arduous task?



The Duo That Beat The X-Men

Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez were given the dubious task on making this event happen in time for DC’s 50th anniversary. Wolfman was once a former editor at Marvel Comics, DC’s competitor, and created characters such as Blade and Bullseye, and even let Robin grow up to become Nightwing. Pérez is the master of the group shots packing more characters into one panel of a comic book page that you could never fathom. It explains how he always managed to work on titles such as The Avengers and the Justice of League of America. Both he and Wolfman revived The New Titans at DC which became the number one selling comic book of its time, even narrowly beating out another teen book put out by Marvel called The Uncanny X-Men. You may have heard of it.

Together, this duo worked tirelessly on this project known as Crisis On Infinite Earths and the impact of that event is still reflected on today’s storylines. This monumental 12-issue maxi-series redefined Comics’ Original Universe and dramatically altered DC’s most well-established super-heroes.



No One is Safe, Not Even Superman

Crisis On Infinite Earths finds the multiple worlds, once was a hallmark of the DC Universe, under siege from a mysterious force that quickly claims the lives of billions of people. But a strange being called the Monitor has gathered heroes from many of the endangered worlds in hopes of thwarting the force, controlled by his evil counterpart, the Anti-Monitor.

As the battle rages and the true stakes are revealed, even the sacrifices of Supergirl and the Flash are not enough to stop the universe-shaking transformation that lies in store — a change that made the DC Universe more accessible than ever before. What it did was streamline the DC Universe into just one. No more multiple Earths and no more headaches... at least that was the plan.



R.I.P.

Crisis was to give DC a fresh, new start and if Marv Wolfman had it his way, he would have started to DC Universe from scratch right after Crisis. But the idea has too radical at the time. It’s a shame, too, considering that the status quo was significantly changed.

Supergirl was the first major causality and it was met with a lot of resistance. Long time fans balked at the idea of the demise of The Maid of Steel. Supergirl took away that unique flavor of Superman’s mystique as the sole survivor of Krypton. Add Krypto the Super Dog, Beppo the Super Monkey, the Phantom Zone criminals, and the bottled city of Kandor, well, you could see how polluted the environment was with Kryptonians. Originally, it wasn’t Supergirl who was supposed to die but Superman. At the time, the executives of DC weren’t willing to kill off Superman since they didn’t know what direction to take with him after Crisis. Considering how John Byrne revamped The Man of Steel’s entire legend after Crisis, it would have made sense to use Superman instead, and boy, what a death of Superman story it would have been.

The Silver Age Flash also met his fate. You may remember this particular Flash from the old Super-Friends cartoons. Barry Allen sacrificed himself to save the universe and it’s something that is continually remembered in the DC Universe. Readers at the time lost interest in the Flash, and the sales of his book proved it, so DC decided to let Flash meet his maker. As we all know, good writing can always create interest back in the character. Wolfman had a dilemma on his hand. After the Flash died, Wally West took up the mantle from Barry Allen. Now we had a new Flash, something that couldn’t be avoided. How would readers take to this Flash if the Silver Age one proved to be a bore? As sales would tell you right now, quite well. In fact, it’s one of the best books around, and it was all because of Barry’s death. Go figure.

Even Wonder Woman met her fate. She actually de-evolved back into the clay from which she was created. George Pérez, in a masterful stroke, revamped Diana and developed a startling rich history to Wonder Woman, one that was deeply rooted in Greek mythology which was never really explored in the past.

Some books were rebooted and revamped. Superman got a fresh new start as the only survivor from Krypton. He was depowered from über-god to just god, maybe even demi-god. No more multi-colored kryptonite, just the familiar green one. Lex Luthor wasn’t an evil scientist bent on destroying Superman. Now he was a savvy, multi-billionaire businessman bent on destroying Superman. Batman went back to his more deep and dark roots with results showing in both Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, both written masterfully by Frank Miller.



Epilogue

The effects of Crisis On Infinite Earths is still being felt 20 years later in the DC Universe. The impossible was achieved by making a single universe; however, it is not without its' problems. Continuity is still being plagued as writers try creative ways of making DC’s history to make sense. To the casual reader it’s non-existent. To the hardcore fan it’s frustrating at times.

But all will agree that Crisis On Infinite Earths is an event that can never be achieved again. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that presented itself to DC, and they took the risk to run with it. Both Wolfman and Pérez were at the top of their game, and succeeded in delivering a fantastic project on all levels. Pérez especially elevated his art to another level, one that I totally appreciate and still emulate today. But that happens when the man happens to be one of my favorite artists of all time.

Multiple universes, different planes of existence, an array of counterparts… sounds like Visdo’s mind to me.

Recommended: Yes