Michael
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Roger Ash
PUBLISHER
John Morrow
DESIGNER
Rich J. Fowlks
COVER ARTIST
George Pérez
(The art originally appeared as the cover to the Crisis Index. Scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions.)
COVER COLORIST
Glenn Whitmore
COVER DESIGNER
Michael Kronenberg
PROOFREADER
Kevin Sharp
SPECIAL THANKS
Kurt Busiek
Gerry Conway
Stephen Englehart
Grand Comics Database
Robert Greenberger
Milton Griepp
Karl Heitmueller Jr.
Heritage Auctions
Paul Levitz
Brian Martin
John Jackson Miller
Donald Propsom
Roy Thomas
Mark Waid
John Wells
Marv Wolfman
DRIVER: Editorial by Roger Ash
MY CHEST: Paul Levitz of How Crisis Came to Pass
Explore the many worlds of DC
FLASHBACK: Crisis at
From concept to series and beyond Crisis Original Art Gallery
BACK ISSUE™ issue 159, June 2025 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614
Michael Eury, Editor Emeritus. Roger Ash, Editor-In-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Roger Ash, Editor, 2715 Birchwood Pass, Apt. 7, Cross Plains, WI 53528. Email: rogerash@hotmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $102 Economy US, $127.60 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork by George Pérez. TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2025 TwoMorrows and Roger Ash. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING
by Paul Levitz
Some context, before you go deep diving into forty years ago. The newsstand era of American comic books was drawing to a close, and everyone involved could feel it. Long established companies that relied on it, like Harvey Comics, were dwindling from twenty-odd Richie Rich comics to…er…none. The marketplace had moved to the smaller, more concentrated modest number of comic shops, perhaps 1/25th of the locations that had offered comics only a few years before. But the good news was, the customers there were serious about their comics, buying more of them, more knowledgably, and willing to support a better product. But the bad news (at least for everyone else) was that Marvel dominated sales in these shops. Most of the store owners had grown up feeling Marvel were by far the best comics, and X-Men had become the dominant franchise in the field.
Mystery, and replacing them with interesting new experiments aimed at older readers. It had even taken its two best-selling titles in the shops, Teen Titans and Legion Of Super-Heroes, and relaunched them in fancier format. Swamp Thing had quit the safe world of the Comics Code and the newsstands altogether. But there was clearly a long way to go.
DC was doing a lot to catch up. Behind the scenes, the company was offering deeper discounts to pump funds into the new emerging market and improve distribution. More visibly, it was canceling titles that had thrived on the newsstand for decades, like G.I. Combat and House of
One aspect of the gap as diagnosed by then-conventionalwisdom seems absurd now, in the era of Everything Everywhere At Once. Marvel’s mythology seemed simpler, with a timeline extending back a mere twenty-off years as opposed to DC’s five decades, and was set in a more or less consistent single world. DC had resolved its complex past with a series of parallel worlds, labeled EarthOne, Two, Three…and on and on. Many people involved in the field creatively, or at retail, believed that the DC universe was just too damn complicated, an untangleable canon full of debatable contradictions and unknowable details. Healing that seemed like a necessary part of the catch-up plan.
The solution wasn’t an entirely new idea. A decade before, Gerry Conway had suggested DC should have a ‘big bang’ and simply blow
(top) The incredible cover by George Pérez and Alex Ross for the Crisis on Infinite Earths collection. (inset) The coming of the Crisis is hinted at in DC Comics Presents #78 as Harbinger and the Monitor briefly appear. TM & © DC Comics
by John Wells
Earth-One. Earth-Two. Earth-Three. Earth-S. Earth-X. DC fans of a certain age can rattle off the major parallel worlds of the DC Universe. As a certain mini-series once declared, however, there were infinite Earths, and they were a far greater presence in the DC cosmology than even many longtime readers are aware. Join us now in a look back at some of the other alternate realities where history played out differently.
Note that the Earth numbers in quotes were not present in the originals. Most were coined by me in a feature for 2005’s Crisis On Infinite Earths: The Compendium. Some of my 2005 designations have since been reclaimed in DC’s Multiversity Guidebook and Dark Crisis: Big Bang. The numbers here have been updated to reflect them.
“Earth-59”:
It was writer-editor Robert Kanigher who set things spinning in March 1955’s Wonder Woman #59 (illustrated by the H.G. Peter Studio). For the first time in DC history, a character traveled to a parallel world and met their counterpart. In this case, the alternate world twin was Princess Tara Terruna, an exact double of Wonder Woman and whose name translated to same. A “warp in time”
somehow linked the two’s physical movements before a lightning strike temporarily propelled WW into TT’s world.
“Earth-Three…?”:
Kanigher and Peter returned to the concept in WW #89 (Feb. 1957), this time pitting Wonder Woman against the master of a parallel Earth “which, unlike yours, crime—not justice—triumphs!”
Bearded with pointed ears, the Vandal Savage lookalike seemed to be describing a world later known as Earth-Three.
“Earth-238”:
Editor Mort Weisinger joined the parade with January 1958’s Action Comics #238, specifically in an Otto Binder/Jim Mooney tale where the 21st century’s Tommy Tomorrow of the Planeteers was thrust into a ghostly dimension that ultimately led him to an alternate Earth. Tommy discovered that everything there was the mirror reverse (including printed matter) of other Earths…and that events took place 24 hours after they did in his universe. Saving the life of his doppelganger, Tommy used the dimensional device to send himself back home.
Rip Hunter, Booster Gold, and Daniel Carter observe the myriad of parallel Earths converging to form a new Multiverse in the conclusion of the mega-series 52 #52. TM & © DC Comics.
“Earth-258”:
Kanigher and Peter were back for Wonder Woman #97 (Feb. 1958), where the Amazing Amazon embarked on a test run of a transporter than could propel its subject anywhere in space or time. Responding to a distress call, Wonder Woman landed on a parallel Earth whose physical laws were different than her own and made a battle with the dictator Blunt more challenging.
“Earth-146”:
In May 1961’s Superman #146 (by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino), Superman was astonished that he’d seemingly overcome the immutable rule that time could not be changed. After preventing the sinking of Atlantis and the Lincoln assassination as well as evacuating the planet Krypton before it exploded, the Man of Steel finally realized he’d been shunted to another dimension and had changed the history of another Earth rather than his own.
“Earth-661”:
Manifesting hitherto unknown mental abilities, Suicide Squad member Karin Grace began transmitting—through painted images—plans for an invasion from a parallel Earth in June 1961’s The Brave and the Bold #37 (by Bob Kanigher, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito). Pushing her newfound powers to the limit, Karin teleported the Squad to the parallel universe dominated by super-intelligent dinosaurs. Discovering that the giants were being controlled by extraterrestrials, the Squad severed the link and dispersed the impending invasion before Karin teleported everyone home.
Earth-One and Earth-Two:
With July 1961’s The Flash #123, editor Julius Schwartz joined the festvities with a seminal adventure by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Giella. Acting on fan interest in the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick and the fact that successor Barry Allen had been depicted as a comic book reader, the team devised a story where the younger Flash accidentally vibrated to a parallel Earth that was home to an older, married Jay Garrick.
A giddy Barry became fast friends with the elder Flash. Their reunions spiraled outward to embrace other 1940s heroes from the Justice Society of America—including annual team-ups with the modern Justice League—and explore other herofilled Earths in a growing multiverse.
Barry and Jay’s worlds were respectively dubbed “Earth-One” and “Earth-Two” in 1963’s Justice League of America #21. Properly, Jay and his elder teammates should have been the ones on Earth-One, but Schwartz and Fox were thinking in terms of where most of DC’s comics were taking place. The editor and writer followed their habit of referring to Jay and company’s home as that “second Earth.”
(top) When Wonder Women meet! Diana meets her Earth-59 doppelganger in Wonder Woman #59. (2nd row) Action Comics #238 lands Tommy Tomorrow in a literal mirror image of his universe. (3rd row left) Wonder Woman struggles with the laws of physics on the parallel Earth of Wonder Woman #97. (3rd row right) The Man of Steel meddles with the history of Earth-146 in Superman #146. (bottom) Great Spielberg’s Ghost!! The Suicide Squad must prevent an invasion from a dimension of super-intelligent dinosaurs in the bizarre The Brave and the Bold #37. TM & © DC Comics.
(top) Temporal displacement teams Barry Allen with the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, in The Flash #123. (2nd row left) Lois Lane witnesses the demise of Earth 963’s Superman in Lois Lane #43. (2nd row right) It’s a wonderful life for Batman in World’s Finest #136. (3rd row) The Crime Syndicate of Earth-Three in JLA #29. (bottom left) Superboy #116 glimpsed at a not-so different Earth-116. (bottom right) Hal Jordan’s nuptials are interrupted as he elopes to Earth-864 in Green Lantern #32.
TM & © DC Comics.
“Earth-962”:
Before getting to that, though, September 1962’s JLA #15 (by Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernard Sachs) introduced a world populated by stone-giants that was revealed to be “separated from Man-Earth by a single minute in time” until dual bombs were detonated on each world at the same time and place. With the dimensional balance upset, the two worlds began to merge in three locations. Working the crisis from each side of the barrier, the stone-giants and the Justice League—and specifically, Green Lantern—reset the degree of separation to one minute and prevented both planets from exploding.
“Earth-963”:
Transported to a parallel Earth by an electric shock in June 1963’s Lois Lane #43 (by Leo Dorfman and Kurt Schaffenberger), Superman’s girlfriend became eyewitness to the deaths of Superman and his killer Lex Luthor. Upon learning that Atlantis had never sunk, Lois realized she was in an alternate reality before another electrical jolt sent her home.
“Earth-136”:
Continuing the trend in July 1963’s World’s Finest #136 (by Bill Finger, Jim Mooney, and Sheldon Moldoff), a freak thunderstorm sent Batman to a world where he never existed. His panic mounting, the Caped Crusader was confronted by the facts Bruce Wayne was a Clark Kent lookalike who was secretly Superman, that reporter Lois Lane was known as Vicki Vale, and that the Joker was a law-abiding comedian named Freddy Forbes. Using his powers to recreate the storm, Superman was able to open the portal that sent Batman home.
“Earth-308”:
In November 1963’s Action Comics #308 (drawn by Al Plastino), it was Superman’s turn to be transported by a freak lightning strike. This alternate Earth was a mythological mash-up where Hercules and Goliath were the same person in the same orbit as Ben-Hur… and everyone in ancient Greece spoke English. After helping Herc perform six labors, Superman shielded shepherd boy Jason (a.k.a. David) from a lightning strike and was teleported back home.
“Earths I, M, and R”:
Just months after the first JLA/JSA team-up, the evil alien Despero tapped the Justice League’s powerhouse members to create the first designer Earths of the multiverse (January 1964’s JLA #26, by Fox, Sekowsky, and Sachs). Dominated by giant insects (I-Earth), marine life (M-Earth), and super-intelligent reptiles (R-Earth), the new worlds also held good-hearted beings who helped thwart the villain.
Among the questions hanging in the air: Did Despero really have enough power to create three inhabited planets from the ether? Perhaps he simply used his chronal energy to open portals to three existing parallel Earths. R-Earth, for one, could have been the reptilian world previously visited by the Suicide Squad in 1961’s B&B #37.
Earth-Three:
JLA #29-30 (June-July 1964) introduced Earth-One and EarthTwo’s logical follow-up. Earth-Three was a world of reversals where Europe was discovered by an American named Columbus and won its independence from the USA in the Revolutionary War. And where President John Wilkes Booth was assassinated by actor Abe Lincoln. Evil triumphed over good on this Earth as exemplified by the Crime Syndicate of America: Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring (counterparts of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern). Over two issues, the bored CSA took on their JLA and JSA counterparts before being captured and imprisoned.
“Earth-116”: August 1964’s Superboy #116 (by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino) demonstrated that not every parallel Earth had differences to write home about. In this one, an alternate Boy of Steel was catapulted to Earth-One and ultimately met his counterpart. The last page revealed that a seeming coloring error was in fact a point of distinction between the two heroes. The alternate Superboy had an “S” symbol whose yellow/red color scheme was reversed.
by Robert Greenberger
Blame Gary Thompson of Dearborn, MI. His letter to the editor ran in Green Lantern #143 (August 1981). There, he caught a continuity error, which got series writer Marv Wolfman thinking. When Marv and his GL editor, Len Wein, first suggested what became Crisis on Infinite Earths to Publisher Jenette Kahn, none had an inkling of what was being created. To Jenette, hired in 1976 to save a dying company, she found too many of the titles off-putting to potential new readers. There was too much continuity, too much contradictory continuity, and it made her head hurt. She told me in 2011,
“In the parallel worlds, you could undercut what you were doing on Earth so that events on Earth didn’t matter so much. You’d have a tragedy or a death on Earth that could be reversed on other worlds. And we felt strongly, let us have one world where the stakes really matter.”
Wolfman suggested to Jenette that something be done to pare things back, reducing the continuity to something manageable.
Legend has it that Jenette approved the idea on the spot without consulting newly appointed Executive Editor Dick Giordano or her head of Business Affairs, Paul Levitz. Once
(top left) The Justice Society of America assembles in AllStar Comics #3. (top right) Bringing together a group of major characters from across the line to create the Justice League in Brave and the Bold #28 was a huge breakthrough. (bottom) The humble beginnings of the multiverse sprang from the legendary issue Flash #123.
given the green light, Wolfman began thinking about it, using ideas he had harbored since he was a young teen devouring comics by the pound. But, there wasn’t a mandate, an approved project on the schedule, or another talent assigned. Heck, it didn’t even have an editor, although boyhood chums Wolfman and Wein could easily write and edit, a practice in vogue at the time. Both represented the generation of creators who were weaned on the Silver Age comics and fell in love with Stan Lee’s interconnected Marvel Universe, trying to instill the same ethos throughout their work at DC in the 1970s.
MEET…THE LIBRARIAN
Once Giordano and Levitz signed off on the idea, it slowly developed. Wolfman intended to start the mystery by seeding a new character, the Monitor, through the comics as he observed and cataloged the abilities of the heroes and villains. Based on the Librarian, a character he created at 15, Wolfman thought a slow tease would be fun. For the record, that first appearance was in New Teen Titans #21 (July 1982). Giordano hinted at this in his “Meanwhile…” columns beginning in late 1982. The title, History of the DC Universe was first mentioned in his June 1984 column. It’s interesting to look at all the essays and dissertations that try to analyze the maxiseries that have flowed through the years (and there are quite a few). One of the most amusing for its wrongheaded conclusion is “Worlds Will Live, Worlds Will Die: Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Anxieties and Calamities of the ComicBook Event” by Sean Guynes for Inks’ Summer 2019 edition. There, he pronounces, “Highlighting current concerns in comics and media studies, I argue that in addition to voicing late-Cold War anxieties about global capitalism and the generalized, easily marketable woes of postmodernity through the trope of a calamitous event of unprecedented proportions, Crisis also exhibited anxieties about franchising in the comic book and media industries in the 1980s. It is no coincidence that the so-called Dark Age of comics (c. 1985–2001) overlapped with unprecedented media deregulation and conglomeration in the US. At the same time, the production of saleable, media-portable IP became the driving force behind comic book companies’
decisions, was an excellent collaborator.
In early July, a contingent went out to California for the San Diego Comic-Con, and while there, Dick hosted a major meeting with Len, Marv, Roy, Gerry Conway, me, and others. The summary memo from July 3 ticked off numerous plot points and character bits that would be used in Crisis or be added to the individual comics. There were questions raised about characters such as Black Orchid and Ragman, while one idea had it that the Earth-One Jimmy Olsen meets his Earth-Two counterpart, and then both die doing something heroic. Here, the notion of Wally West inheriting the mantle of The Flash was first documented.
The first issue was fully plotted, and George was finally free to get to work. He was given 25 pages, which was later expanded to a full 32, with issue #1 going ad-free, and therefore, he could boast a wraparound cover. Instantly, George’s workload expanded, and the race was on to get each issue done on time, knowing we would be extra-sized for at least issue #7 and probably at the end, too. Marv finally began fleshing out the subsequent issues in enough detail to provide a complete overview to the editors in October. By then, the notion of the final two issues being the history had been abandoned, but not forgotten.
Along the way, I was dutifully assisting Len with his books, Marv on Titans and Mike on Star Trek . Dick handed me DC Challenge as my first
(opposite page) The Crime Syndicate of America watch their reality fall in Crisis #1, page 5. (top) Pérez and Giordano pack this double page spread from Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 full of detail. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom) The Crisis expands in issue #3. TM &
The power of the Spectre is on full display on this page
out from the Year One revamp was that both forgot about Barbara Gordon, requiring a hasty retcon from Barbara Kesel in Secret Origins #20.]
Superman proved tougher, and Jenette went out and recruited John Byrne away from Marvel. He spent the second half of 1985 meeting and planning and getting excited. With three Superman titles to fill, it was agreed that Marv, who adored Superman above all other heroes, would write one of the titles. Jerry Ordway, who had been inking Byrne on the Fantastic Four, had earned drawing Marv’s book as his reward.
But what about Wonder Woman? No one had a real clue. As a result, the character was handed to Janice Race, who effectively held a bakeoff, receiving pitches from writers. Among them, Greg Potter, who made himself known with his Jemm, Son of Saturn maxiseries, came up with an approach that earned Jenete’s approval. George had heard about it, liked what he read, and signed
on to illustrate the new book. During all this, it was decided not to kill the Amazon but instead reduce her to the clay from which she was formed. As the months passed, Greg was paired with Len for dialoguing, and Race left DC, so the book went to Karen Berger, with Jenette believing a female editor for Wonder Woman was long overdue. That made 1985 a very exciting year to work at DC.
But as the months wore on, the pressure of the production schedule and the scale of the story being told took its toll on Marv. Len had already left staff, relocated to California, and was once again a full-time writer. Six months later, Marv would follow, seeking a fresh start.
THE NEW STATUS QUO
Before he could leave, though, the aftermath needed to be addressed.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, different people had different notions about how to wrap things up. It was like shooting a film without the third act. No one was quite sure what to do, with Len arguing that everyone should remember the pre- Crisis reality and that they should be unwilling to let go of the past. Marv argued for a cleaner break: no one remembered the pre-Crisis multiverse, and all the titles restarted with a #1 in January 1986. Dick agreed to the former, not the latter, something he later came to regret.
Another thing Marv would have preferred was that all the fictional cities, save Gotham and Metropolis, be eliminated and the heroes set in real locations, but that notion didn’t go far.
This matter dragged into the fall as editors began planning their 1986 releases. These were to include some new titles, notably DC’s first issue of
Invasion!, Armageddon 2001, etc., all fed the machine. Zero Hour, though, had a purpose and allowed things to be reordered. It was well-received and worked for the most part.
Even today, after so many other characters were revived in other events, some remain dead, such as Dove (Don Hall) and GL Tomar-Re.
But, as Dick left, followed by Jenette and eventually Paul, the promise that the Crisis changes were permanent began to decay. Without them to enforce their word, a new generation of creators decided to play with reality, and before you knew it, the multiverse was back, followed soon after by Barry Allen. Bit by bit, the pre- Crisis reality reasserted itself. It was fondly recalled in stories, and whereas once the Psycho-Pirate was the only one to remember the before times, more and more people now knew of previous realities. In fact, Grant Morrison played with that, to brilliant effect, in the pages of Animal-Man #23-24 in 1990.
Secret Origins editor Mark Waid let Alan Brennert get away with an unnamed appearance of Kara Zor-El in Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2, blessed by having Giordano illustrate it.
In his thesis, “How to Cope with Crisis: Examining the Regressive State of Comics through DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Devon Lamonte Keyes stated. “Crisis provides a strong example of comics’ fluctuating relationship with its own history. On one hand, Crisis is seemingly designed to push past its history by abandoning precedence established in the Golden and Silver Ages to create an entry point for readers of the Bronze Age who had neither the experience nor the time to sift through DC’s decades of publications. On the other, in its attempt to circumvent its history—largely by giving in-universe permission to ignore it entirely—the ‘history’ which arises after the events of Crisis remains largely influenced by the heroes and stories that came prior to it. Thus its history was not so much abandoned, or reinvented, as it was simply reset.”
The multiverse was repeatedly adjusted, expanded, or contracted, enveloped by Hypertime (introduced in The Kingdom #2, February 1999). That in itself was a subset of what is now known as The Divine Continuum (Flashpoint Beyond #5, November 2022), which is not to be confused with the Omniverse (Lucifer #12, May 2001). And apparently, separating all these realities is the Bleed, a concept carried over from DC’s acquisition of WildStorm Studios, which subsequently melded their line of heroes and worlds into the sprawling DC continuity.
To Marv, Crisis was his assignment, and he did it to the best of his abilities. It took its toll, but he completed the work and thought that was that.
Not quite, as it turned out.
Before Marv and George could catch their breath, they launched into History of the DC Universe. The two 48-page Prestige Format books were the first attempt to present the post- Crisis history. I had been dutifully maintaining an internal working timeline since I joined the staff, and now, this became the research for Marv, as he consulted with editors to determine if key moments or characters should be included or omitted. Obviously,
he knew the basics after writing Crisis, but now it was time to make certain everyone was on the same page. (Marv was in California by now, writing New Teen Titans and Adventures of Superman , and he was somewhat scattered, so every now and then, he asked me to send a fresh copy of the timeline. Remember, this was at the edge of email, so it meant copying and shipping the material overnight. At one point, sensing a pattern, I made two copies, One I shipped overnight, the other I sent first class so the next copy would arrive before he needed it.)
One interesting moment came when it was time to establish when Hex, the futuristic take on Jonah Hex, was set. Writer Michael Fleisher hadn’t considered it, continuity not being a concern of his at all. He threw out a century, and I went to consult the timeline, and it didn’t fit, so we worked it out in the end, but he was mildly annoyed at the process. In a memo to Paul Levitz from May 1985,
(top) Wonder Woman receives a stunning reboot care of George Pérez in Wonder Woman #1. (bottom left) The new rules of time travel emerge in Time Masters. (bottom right) A “new” Power Girl emerges post-Crisis. TM & © DC Comics
Crisis in Multiple Back Issues
We’ve covered various aspects of the titles mentioned here previously, so to get the full picture, we kindly refer you to the following:
Back Issue #9, 68; Crisis of the Soul
Back Issue 10, 12; Batman: Year One
Back Issue 34; Pro2Pro with Michael Eury, Dick Giordano, and Bastienne
Back Issue 33; Power Girl
Back Issue #67; Time Masters
CRISIS IN THE MEDIA
Well, that is until Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim launched Arrow on the CW in 2013. Its success led to a second series, The Flash, and in his first episode, there’s a 2024 newspaper headline saying, “Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis,” a wink to the comics. Series star Grant Gustin, aware of the maxiseries, thought Guggenheim wanted to build events to where they could tell their version. He told SyFy Wire in 2018, “Obviously, we’d have to go, I think, 10 years to reach that, so there’s a possibility for sure. It’ll be fun to get there.” It took a year.
Maybe even less, since the various CW series producers admitted work in the 2018-19 season was sowing seeds for the Crisis. Like the comics, the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) was seen in the season finales of The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow . The following fall, Starling City on their Earth-Two was destroyed in Arrow , similar to the destruction of Earth-Three as the opening act of DC’s Crisis . Then, in December 2019 and January 2020, one episode each of Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Black Lightning let the story unfold. For television viewers, it was thrilling to see the heroes and their supporting players crossover and interact while everyone had to stop the Anit-Monitor (Garrett) from destroying all reality. Towards the end, a montage of clips from various DC television series was included, suggesting they were all parallel universes of a TV continuity. There was even a tease for the forthcoming Stargirl series. Burt Ward kicked things off with a cameo, including a “Holy” comment. Tom Welling and Erica Durance filmed a new scene set in their Smallville world while Tom Ellis’s Lucifer met John Constantine (Matt Ryan) in a moment set before the Lucifer show. Perhaps the fans’ favorite cameo came during Legends as Marv and George were seen on screen, a terrific homage.
Marv was asked by DC to write Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant, which he co-wrote with Guggenheim, with art from Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott, John Kalisz, Andy Owens, Tom Grummett, and Danny Miki. Material
Back Issue #109, 126; Superman reboot
Back Issue #32; Who’s Who: Pro2Pro: Bob Greenberger, Len Wein, and Marv Wolfman
Back Issue #113; The Huntress reboot
Back Issue 147; Wonder Woman reboot
Crisis on Infinite Earths: Absolute Edition collected the 12-issue series, three Crisis Companions, the History of the DC Universe, and a multiverse of extras. TM & © DC Comics
The seeds for Crisis on Infinite Earths were planted years before the first issue arrived. And along the way, the marketing tagline—”Worlds Will Live, Worlds Will Die”—had been coined. But, the question became, who would actually survive the condensation from a multiverse to a universe? Some of it would be dictated by management and the individual editors. Still, there were other concerns in play, from licensing deals to media interest (after all, Super Friends was still on the air, and Kenner was just releasing their Super Powers line of action figures).
By the time Robert Greenberger joined the project in January 1984, co-editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein had been mulling over the question and had been given one directive by President and Publisher Jenette Kahn. (Keeping reading...)
Over the next few months, the Secret Death List had been crafted and even circulated internally. Copies of the two versions can be found in the Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths Compendium. Obviously, some were spared, and others were killed when the
by Robert Greenberger
twelve issues saw print.
Marv and Bob chatted via video in February 2024 to recount the thinking from 40 years ago. Obviously, time blurs some specific memories, but they recount very specific conversations. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.
MARV WOLFMAN: I don’t think we’ve seen each other in person in a long time.
ROBERT GREENBERGER: It’s been a while. Yeah, probably hasn’t been Terrificon in 2017.
So, going back 40-plus years, let me start. Have you watched the animated adaptation?
WOLFMAN: Normally, I don’t watch or read things I used to work on after I leave. But yes, I saw this one and liked how they fleshed out the original. Starting the story before where we did helps new readers get into what is a huge movie. Good job.
GREENBERGER: I liked it well enough in the context of the animated continuity. I appreciate them reaching out to Jerry and me to participate in the extra stuff so that the comics are well-represented.
WOLFMAN: Glad they spoke to you. Your help on Crisis was invaluable. I was totally swamped being the writer and editor and you took a ton of the day to day off my shoulders.
GREENBERGER: So, let me ask. When you pitched the idea to Jenette that we collapse the universes, did you really expect there to be so much death and carnage?
WOLFMAN: I didn’t really invest a lot of pre-writing time thinking about that part at the beginning. The story itself was bigger than we’d ever seen in comics before, so I wanted that to be done right before we concerned ourselves with the deaths. But when I pitched Crisis to Jenette, I knew the deaths had to be permanent or the series simply wouldn’t work. She agreed and then told me the Flash had to die. We knew there would be deaths, but I seriously think if you went over the 12 issues carefully, except for the billions of planets and Supergirl and Flash, we probably didn’t kill as many characters as you think. I didn’t want to kill Flash but I now think his death turned out to be very important and probably gave Crisis the gravitas it has.
GREENBERGER: I didn’t know that particular point.
WOLFMAN: He was an icon and the beginning of the Silver Age and I hesitated to kill him, but Jenette wanted it and in killing the Flash we definitely showed we were serious about taking DC to the next level.
GREENBERGER: Okay, I fully understand that. By killing the Flash dramatically, it was gonna be beginning some brand-new age, but I guess the more practical reality was the book wasn’t selling. It was certainly running out of steam with the “Trial of the Flash” serial. [See Back Issue #28 for the court transcripts.]
All right, so she started with the Flash and by the time I came on board in January ‘84 had you and Len figured out other characters you wanted to eliminate or was that all organic as we started meeting?
WOLFMAN: Len, at the outset, was against killing anyone. Most of the editors were against it, too. These were the characters we grew up reading as kids. But we got our copies for free while today’s readers weren’t buying them. We had to do something drastic.
The deaths had to be consequential to have meaning to the readers.
GREENBERGER : [Executive Editor] Dick [Giordano] wisely split the projects between you two. You and I would work on the Crisis while [Len] and I would tackle Who’s Who. [The actual reassignment was in June 1984.] WOLFMAN: It really worked out for the best that way. Len loved the DC characters and being in charge of Who’s Who was right up his alley.
Who’s Who was produced in conjunction with Crisis. (top) Who’s Who issue #1. (middle) Barry Allen and Jay Garrick shared the cover of issue #8. (bottom) Who’s Who #22 celebrated Supergirl and the Golden Age Superman.
TM & © DC Comics
by Roger Ash
No matter how good a comic may be, it needs to find its intended audience to succeed. In the case of Crisis on Infinite Earths , DC had an unofficial partner in the growing Direct Market. Comic shop owners and their clientele were the perfect audience for Crisis
According to Milton Griepp, founder of ICv2 and co-founder of Capital City Distribution, “ Crisis required comic stores to work. The main thing being that you really needed all 12 issues to understand what was happening, and potentially the tie-in issues. Getting all the issues wasn’t really the strength of newsstand distribution. That was more scattershot.
“Also, DC had been in the Direct Market long enough to understand the customers there. This was written with them in mind; people that really understood the DC characters and the worlds that their stories were in. That wouldn’t have been the case as much with the casual reader.”
Even before the series debuted, the buzz was positive.
“My memory is that there was a lot of excitement around the start of this series,” says Donald Propsom of Westfield Comics. “There had been a number of mini-series previously and Marvel was in the midst of their maxi-series Secret Wars which was successful, but DC had struggled with getting their first maxi-series, Camelot 3000, out in a timely manner. The creative team of the series, along with the concept of Crisis (hearkening back to the EarthOne/Earth-Two team-ups that had been popular for 20 years), gave it a lot of potential.
“My strongest memory of Crisis on Infinite Earths was the eagerness we had in getting the boxes of copies from Capital City Distribution back to the warehouse and opening them up so we could look at and read the first issue. Some of the excitement turned to disappointment when we saw what awful things the Flexographic printing process did to that first issue.”
Printing aside, the buzz remained positive, and readers eagerly followed along, resulting in strong sales. This gave DC the hit that they were hoping for. The best-selling monthly comic at the time was Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men, and Crisis was getting similar sales. As far as we can tell.
According to John Jackson Miller’s Comichron web site (comichron.com), “It was still very early days for comic sales reporting by Direct Market distributors in 1985. Capital City Distribution did monthly reports with order index numbers, but if
The DC Universe will never be the same!
A house ad promoting Crisis . Note the early version of the title used in the ad.
TM & © DC Comics.
by Brian Martin
The giant overarching series that incorporates numerous crossovers... the savior or the bane of the comic industry? Whatever your opinion of these series, this issue of BI celebrates the granddaddy of them all. And in order to cover it completely, we need to examine all of those crossovers, books that either reflected events in the main series, or spun off from them and created new stories within that framework. So get set to examine some series that you would not normally concern yourself with. But don’t worry, you don’t have to buy any more comics than usual, you can just continue reading this article and leave the driving to us. (Before we begin, a quick note. The Official Crisis Crossover Index was published by Eclipse in July of 1986. It will be referenced a few times in this article when the question of why some crossovers were certified as such, and some were not. Hopefully this will become clear as we move along.)
A STUDY IN SCARLET
The official Crisis crossover banner did not appear on any DC title until books dated September 1985, the month Crisis #6 came out. The choices for these initial issues may have seemed arbitrary, but when you look back, in retrospect they make perfect sense.
The Losers Special may have seemed an obvious yet not obvious choice. This loose conglomerate of old DC war characters had a long run in Our Fighting Forces stretching from issue #138(Oct/Nov 1969) to #181(Sept/Oct. 1978). Significantly for our purposes, they were the first casualties of DC characters who had starred in their own series, being killed by the AntiMonitor’s shadow demons in Crisis #3. Written by Robert Kanigher, with pencils by Judith Hunt and Sam Glanzman and inks by Mike Esposito, the Special strangely gave a different version of the group’s demise than the cited issue of Crisis Frequent BI contributor Robert Greenberger (so frequent he is in this very issue!) wrote an afterward in that very special and tells us, “Murray Boltinoff was edging towards retirement, but at every editorial meeting, he eagerly made suggestions and wanted to be, ahem, a good soldier.
“When brainstorming ideas for tie-ins, we felt we owed it to the war titles to give them a place in the event. Len (Wein) and Murray discussed the needs and how Marv and George would kill the Losers, as was only natural given their hard-luck lives. However, it was a war book for war readers, so Murray and Bob Kanigher produced the story that honored that line. It was a narrative cheat but appropriate to the 50th anniversary celebration.”
Wonder Woman, however, was a more conventional subject for a crossover. It was not until Crisis #12 that we were to realize just now significant a role the series would play in the characters evolution, but as a member of the DC big three,
(top) The Losers Special served as a fitting goodbye for the war heroes. (bottom) Sarge and Captain Storm give their all on this page from The Losers Special. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).
she was entitled to a spotlight. Issue #327 of her title occurred within the midst of a continuing plot line crafted by writer Mindy Newell and artist Don Heck that pitted the amazing Amazon against the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. The story does not crossover with Crisis very much, the main point of intersection being Diana having issues due to red skies and storms at the story’s commencement, then wondering about the ramifications of the same crimson clouds at tale’s end. This sort of crossover would become a much-discussed aspect of the legitimacy of these sorts of books. You’ll see at least a few more with this being the only thread connecting them to COIE as we proceed.
One of two series that was to be affected the most directly by the events taking place in the parent series began to examine the ramifications with its eighteenth issue. This would be the currently set Earth-Two series Infinity Inc. Written by Roy Thomas who at the time also held the title of ‘Earth-Two editor’, and drawn by future superstar Todd McFarlane and inker Pablo Marcos, this series was also in the midst of a continuing story, in this case the titular group’s first battle with the villainous ensemble known as Helix.
This issue’s crossover point highlighted the other way that many creators handled their Crisis bannered incursions. In Crisis #1, Harbinger gathers the initial grouping of fifteen heroes who are meant to assist the Monitor. That issue does not show her recruitment of every one of them however. One of those not featured was Obsidian from Infinity Inc., and this issue shows her recruiting him and spiriting him away.
CROSS THAT OFF YOUR LIST
With books dated October 1985, the long tentacles of the series began to reach out and affect more and more books in the DCU.
Among the books with what might be termed a tangential connection was Blue Devil #17. Written by BD’s creators Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn with Alan Kupperberg and Mark Farmer illustrating, at the end of the main plot of the issue, Green Lantern John Stewart shows up to recruit the book’s star to assist in the rehabilitation of the damaged Red Tornado. This crossover is significant in that, although this scene was repeated in Crisis itself, it would not occur until next month’s issue of the parent series.
Over in Roy Thomas’s neck of the woods, the 19th issue of Infinity Inc., created by the same team as the previous issue with the exception of having Steve Montano as inker, the connection to the main series is a little more subtle, with characters mentioning Obsidian’s disappearance and a corner of the eye sighting of Harbinger. Oh, and of course the obligatory appearance of the red skies.
The most important event contained in this issue, at least from the perspective of we Silver and Bronze Age fans, is the fact that it is part one of what was billed as The Last JLA-Justice Society team-up. (My eyes still tear up a bit just typing that). An annual summer tradition since Justice League of America #21-22 (August-September 1963) the team up of the two Earths’ premier super teams was eagerly awaited by many fans. Of course, since Crisis was going to do away with the multiple Earths concept, it would necessarily put the kibosh on this interdimensional get together. We did say this was part one. The concluding chapter would appear next month in the Justice League title. Please do not skip ahead, we’ll get there in due time.
Roy Thomas’s other Earth-Two set title entered the party this month. All-Star Squadron has been referred to by Mr. Thomas as his favorite series he ever wrote. Set during WW2, the book encompassed most of the heroes under DC’s purview during that time, even ones they purchased
by John Wells
When parallel worlds collide! (top left) Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice #2. (top right) Silver Age: Teen Titans and (middle left) Silver Age: 80-Page Giant, both a part of DC’s 2000 Silver Age event. (middle right) DC Comics: Superman, a tribute event to legendary editor Julius Schwartz. (bottom left) DC Retroactive: Green Lantern - The 1980s. (bottom right) Convergence: Wonder Woman. TM & © DC Comics.
As the red skies returned to blue, a new day dawned in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe and a great jumping-on point was promised to every standoffish fan who’d made theirs Marvel or was intimidated by the publisher’s long history. The problem with jumping-on points, of course, is that they’re also an ideal time to leap off. For some longtime readers, dumping the decades-long mythologies of, say, Superman or Wonder Woman, in favor of a clean slate was a bridge too far. Many old-time fans will tell you today that their DC collections stop at the end of 1985.
To be fair, though, most DC characters in 1986 simply carried on as if nothing had happened. Even Batman, despite extensive revisions in “Year One” and “Year Two” and a new origin for Jason Todd, largely retained everything in his Earth-One canon. As the years went on, things got messier, and more characters had their histories diverge from the pre-Crisis world order. Although big chunks of Earth-One (and Two) history were retained in the main canon right up to the scorched earth “New 52” reboot, the DC Universe of 1986-2011 evolved into an elaborate patchwork with an identity of its own rather than merely Earth-One with a few rebuilt properties.
From 1986 to 2025, only one thing has been constant. There have always been lapsed fans proclaiming that if only DC went back to the old continuity or brought back the old writers or the old artists, they’d all come rushing back with money in their hands. Forgive me if I don’t believe most of them.
One is reminded of writer-editor Robert Kanigher’s response to detractors of his very eccentric 1960s Wonder Woman run. He decided to return to the basic status quo and look of the original 1940s series, complete with having Ross Andru and Mike Esposito subvert their style to recreate the look of original artist H.G. Peter. The result was pretty ugly, with heavilyaccented cheekbones and stiff-poses. However antiquated Peter may have been even in the 1940s, his own style had authenticity and poor Ross and Mike couldn’t recreate that. Readers—most of them, anyway—hated the “great step backward” and Kanigher soon backed off (other than a brief period in 1973 when he once again recycled old scripts).
“Even twenty years later, it felt wrong,” Kurt Busiek observed to BACK ISSUE, “and thirty years later it read like self-parody. And he was homaging his own earlier work.” Busiek was, incidentally, a collaborator on a vastly superior tribute to the Golden Age Amazing Amazon. As detailed in BI #147, he joined plotter/artist Trina Robbins on 1986’s lovely Legend of Wonder Woman #1-4, a scheduling placeholder bridging the gap between the cancellation of the original series and the launch of George Pérez’s reboot.
In the early years after Crisis , there were other occasional efforts that recreated both the style and substance of DC stories from bygone days. Mike W. Barr had a particular knack for doing so. In a variation on a story he and Dave Gibbons did for 1983’s The Brave and the Bold #200, Barr penned Two-Face Strikes Twice (1993). Half of each of the two issues was done in the style of a classic 1940s/1950s Bat-adventure, complete with Joe Staton doing a fine approximation of the “Bob Kane” house style. Flipping each issue, readers found a darker, painted sequel.
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Flashback stories still appeared frequently in the DC Universe, although usually written for post-Crisis continuity. Occasionally, though, a one-off here or there went the extra mile for nostalgia. A tale in 1990’s Flash Special #1—written by Gerard Jones and inked by Joe Rubinstein—evoked the look of a 1960s Carmine Infantino adventure…because Infantino himself had been drafted to pencil it. A cute short in 1997’s Flash Secret Files and Origins #1 (by Brian Augustyn, Craig Rousseau, and Jose Marzan, Jr.) pretended to be a lost Flash story from 1949 where Jay Garrick met Max Mercury.
In 1998, Superman editor Joey Cavalieri went things one better by devoting three full months of issues ( Action Comics #745747; Adventures of Superman #558-560; Superman #136-138; Superman: The Man of Steel #8082)to stories seemingly set in different periods of the Man of Steel’s publishing history. Along with the late 1930s, the 1960s, and the mid-1970s, one take was inspired by the short-lived “Superman of 2965” stories of the mid-1960s.
The intent was to pay homage to Superman during his 60 th anniversary leading to the revelation that cosmic villain Dominus was messing with reality. The fantasy lead-in stories were meant to be fun and sometimes tongue-in-cheek, not accurate representations of the eras being played with. The characterization and visuals of the cast in Action’s faux 1970s, for instance, were noticeably off model and Adventures’ alternate Silver Age had the decompressed pacing of a Lee/Kirby Marvel comic rather than a tightly wound 1960s Superman tale.
Mark Waid aspired to be much more on-target with a May 2000 event called Silver Age. Although adhering to post-Crisis continuity, it aimed to approximate 1960s DC comics as close as humanly possible. In between two extra-length bookend titles, various oneshots propelled a plot in which the Justice League and a group of classic villains were body-swapped. As a bonus in the wrap-up 80-Page Giant, a selection of rarities appeared, including a new—and convincing— 1960s style Wonder Girl and Super-Turtle features.
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“I’d pitched it back during that period where DC had a ‘skip-week event’ every quarter,” Waid told American Comic Book Chronicles editor Keith Dallas in a 2022 interview (published in for the first time).
(top left) Joe Staton’s nifty “Bob Kane” style for
A mock cover on the interior of The Flash Secret Origins #2 told you this story was from DC’s Silver Age. (bottom) Silver Age legend Carmine Infantino returned to give The Flash Special #1 some Silver Age flair. (inset) Superman: The Man of Steel #80 felt like the Fleischer Superman. TM & © DC Comics.
BACK ISSUE #159