First off, a few notes about the site. Yes, I tinkered with the appearance a bit, bringing it a little more in line with What Had Come Before. The post titles are now all caps again, we’ve got serif fonts back, and most importantly, I’ve brought the comments and category links to the top of each entry. Honestly, that last bit was driving me crazy ’til I fixed it.
I also enlarged the size of the text in the body of the posts a little, so I hope that helps with readability.
Anyway, I appreciate all your comments and thoughts on the new design. Coming up next…a musical background for the site that continually loops “Hamburger Lady” by Throbbing Gristle. That’ll improve the ol’ experience!
Following up on my Absolute Crisis post from Wednesday:
Somehow I didn’t clock that the cover to the main book in the set was the original George Pérez wraparound drawing produced for the previous hardcover edition, only without Alex Ross’s paintjob and now inked by Jerry Ordway. Here’s a bit of it, since the book is too big to fit onto my scanner:
Ooh, nice, right? Thanks for pointing that out, Greta!
And Daniel T notes some other reprintings of the Crisis series, such as this big ol’ box set:
…and if you peek your peepers at that link, you’ll see that box set has everything. Hardcovers for all the Crisis on Multiple Earths books, all the Crisis tie-ins, all the pre-Crisis Monitor appearances, the JLA/JSA team-ups…I mean, really, the whole shebang. Yes, even that Legends of the DC Universe special I was lamenting last time.
DC is also currently in the midst of publishing paperbacks of the Crisis-specific materal as part of their DC Finest line:
…that is presenting the main mini and DC’s many, many tie-ins in story order. Thanks, Daniel, for reminding me and my aging brain.
I’ve actually made my way through a few more pages of the supplementary book since we last met. I’m kinda/sorta skimming over Marv Wolfman’s plot outlines for now, though I definitely want to go over them more thoroughly to see what’s changed. I did notice some differences already, but I want to pin down some more specific ones to perhaps discuss here at some point.
Instead, I’m favoring the in-company memos on the book, especially the novel-length ones from Roy Thomas to the Crisis team, most of which amount to “don’t screw up my future plans for Infinity Inc..” Thomas does seem cooperative and willing to help with the event, but there are so many requests to leave this, that, or the other thing alone. It’s pretty amazing.
There’s also a memo to editors reminding them that if any new characters were developed and to be included idn Crisis, they first need to be established that they are DC Comics property and that creators don’t claim ownership. I mean, I realize that’s just how things are with some of these characters at the Big Two, but it still felt semi-dystopian to see it spelled out like that.
Speaking of the Big Two, there was some bullets fired over at Marvel’s own Big Crossover Event, Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, with the book text referring to its “short-lived” changes, and Marv himself calling it a “catastrophe” in one of his memos. (But one that sold tie-ins, which he was encouraging.)
So that Absolute Crisis just keeps on giving the right gifts. Like I said last time, we’re probably getting a lightly whitewashed series of events. That TwoMorrows Crisis Companion will likely be a little more forthcoming.
“you’ll see that box set has everything”
LITERALLY.
“Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars”
I know it’s a big slug-fest, but THAT’S why it works. It’s my favorite of the two, by a mile.
DC should have contracted with Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull, to included a completed Today In Crisis History supplement (see his posts from July 2023) in that box set.
I don’t know why it matters, but my eyes thank you for restoring the serif font.
The new site looks very nice! The tweaks to it are appreciated. Like Thom mentioned, thanks for putting the links back at the top of the page. The font change is nice to. I like san-serif fonts for headlines and graphics, but for simple reading it’s hard to beat a good serif font.
Secret Wars was my entry point for superhero comics. As much as I liked it and generally disliked DC, even I could see how much more important and consequential Crisis was. I now see it as a bit of a mistake. Throwing out the multiversial babies with the bathwater and all that.
I for one really like the Alex Ross over Perez artwork. There’s more than enough (really great) Perez and Ordway crisis related artwork. So one painted piece here and there is a nice change.
On my iPhone, the width of the text area becomes very small. I think the old template just reduced everything on the page which meant I could pinch-zoom the page to see the left hand text block
I say add an image of Sand Saref –but a Will Eisner art panel image, not an image from Frank Miller’s film.
Can we get a complete list of all of the characters featured on that George Perez/Jerry Ordway cover scan? It looks like from Earth -2 we have Superman, Powergirl, Starman, Robin, Obsidian, Alexei Luthor (?), and Congo Bill (?). From Earth-Charlton we have Captain Atom, and Peter Cannon — Thunderbolt. From various future timelines we have Kamandi, Tommy Tomorrow, Shadow Lass, and Blok. From Earth-1 we have Superman, Supergirl, The Flash, Black Lightning, John Stewart Green Lantern, Vixen, Animal Man, Firestorm Joker, Lex Luthor, Captain Cold, Kobra, Phobia, and Doctor Destiny (?) We have an iteration of Plastic Man from some Earth. We have a Wonder Woman– I’m not sure if that is the Earth-1 or Earth-2 version–but the chest emblem looks more like ’80s Earth-1 Wonder Woman. We have Sinestro, or Hector Hammond (?), Mister Mind from Earth – S, Darkseid, Nimbus of the Omega Men, and The Monitor. But who are some of the other floating heads, including the woman’s head next to Captain Cold, the little head by Firestorm (–or is that supposed to be Dr. Stein?), the George Washington-style head behind Power Girl (The Fiddler, maybe?)? Anybody know?
Also, can we get a complete list of all of the heroes and villains who died in COIE and which Earth’s they were from. And what about supporting characters–like, did the Jimmy Olson from Earth-2 die? Or the Woozy Winks from Earth-whatever?
Also, all of the JLA/JSA annual crisis events total probably around 50 published comics, as they were generally two-part or three-part stories–and in a few cases the stories crossed over with issues of All-Star Squadron or Infinity Inc. I think DC should publish a series of 100 Page Giants and/or treasury editions which reprint all of these in chronological order–maybe reprinting two to three annual JLA/JSA team ups per treasury edition. I get it that trades have been done which collected the material, but to see the art published at treasury edition size would be cool.
Also, more “untold stories” from the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages of comics would be appreciated.
For instance, did Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters ever cross dimensions/Earths in the ’40s and meet the Wizard Shazam and the Fawcett characters on Earth-S? Maybe a retconned story regarding this could explain how E. Nelson Bridwell made Freddy Freeman brothers with Kid Eternity?
Also, as there is at least one cartoon where Daffy Duck dons a Green Lantern suit and uses a power ring, it stands to reason that there should be an Earth-Looney Tunes where classic WB Looney Tunes characters are iterations of DC characters. If it hasn’t been created yet, but Daffy is is Green Lantern (Guy Gardner, I guess?), I nominate Bugs Bunny for Superman (Super Bunny?), Elmer Fudd for Lex Luthor, Porky Pig for Plastic Man (Plastic Ham?), Sylvester for Batman (Bat-Cat?) and Tweety for Robin (or should Tweety be Black Canary?), Gabby Goat for Green Arrow, Speedy Gonzales for The Flash (obviously !), Marvin the Martian for Martian Manhunter, Petunia Pig for Wonder Woman, Honey Bunny/Lola Bunny for Supergirl, Foghorn Leghorn for Hawkman, Miss Prissy for Hawkwoman. Cecil Turtle for Aquaman (Aquaturtle?) or else Michigan J. Frog for Aquaman (Aquafrog?), Henery Hawk for The Atom, Penelope Pussycat for Zatanna, Pepe Le Pew for John Constantine, Foxy the Fox for Firestorm, Nasty Canasta for Vandal Savage, Witch Hazel for Circe, Wile E. Coyote for Toyman, Tasmanian Devil for Red Tornado, Yosemite Sam for Terra-Man, Playboy Penguin for The Penguin, Hugo the Abominable Snowman as Mr. Freeze, Gossamer for Clayface, Road Runner for The Joker, Beans the Cat for Riddler, Owl Jolson for Music Meister.