Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition Vol. 1

Crisis on Infinite Earths (Collected Editions)

by Marv Wolfman

All the tie-in stories to Marv Wolfman and George Perez's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS are finally collected in this massive deluxe compendium, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS COMPANION DELUXE EDITION VOL. 1!

In 1985, DC Comics dramatically altered comics' original universe with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, a 12-issue series that rocked the comics community. This landmark graphic novel is one of the most nuanced, sweeping sagas ever told. Now, all the tie-in stories are finally collected in this massive deluxe compendium CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS COMPANION DELUXE EDITION VOL. 1!

This hardcover edition features all the action that spilled over into numerous comic books from Marv Wolfman and George Perez's unbelievable graphic novel, including tales with the Justice League, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the New Teen Titans, as well as cult classic characters like the Omega Men and Firestorm!

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS COMPANION DELUXE EDITION VOL. 1 is a must-have for all collectors and fans of the original CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS series, as well as any completists who have yet to see many of these stories recollected in print! This graphic novel includes DC Comics Presents #78, All-Star Squadron #50-60, The Fury of Firestorm #41-42, and Green Lantern #194-198 .

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Comic Book

512 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 2018

About the author

Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally DC is collecting all the crossover issues of Crisis in the first of several companion collections. Hopefully, DC will do this for some of their other big events as well like Millennium and Invasion. I liked the essays that appeared before each title as well, written by the writers or editors on the books.

DC Comics Presents #78 - 1 Star
Superman vs. The Forgotten Villains - Superman teams up with a bunch of Forgotten Heroes to fight some Forgotten Villains that I've already forgot. This is only the second half of the story and the only Crisis moment is the final page (which has nothing to do with the rest of the book). It's interesting that many of the Forgotten Heroes go on to their own books or as supporting characters. Animal Man has had a couple of series while Cave Carson, Dolphin, and Congorilla went on to be not so forgotten either in the likes of Aquaman and Justice League of America.


All-Star Squadron #50-60 - 2 Stars
Roy Thomas still seems pissed off in his essay at having Crisis interrupt his book and ultimately getting cancelled after this run. There's some decent elements here and All-Star Squadron was one of my favorite books as a kid but this really gets bogged down by Thomas trying to reincorporate some terrible golden age stories into this run. Kudos to DC for printing the entire 11 issue run even if it was a slog to get through.


Fury of Firestorm #41-42 - 4 Stars
The first issue is great, setting up Ronnie and the Professor's move to Pittsburgh with some great interactions with the Psycho Pirate as Harbinger recruits Firestorm for Crisis. The second issue is unnecessary focusing on Firehawk and Wondergirl searching for Firehawk's father amid a time disrupted Manhattan. Gerry Conway's storytelling is more modern and it made me yearn for a Fury of Firestorm omnibus. Get to it DC!


Green Lantern #194-198 - 4 Stars
John Stewart is the active GL here, as Hal was off moping over Carol Ferris. While Stewart's off in Crisis, Guy Gardner wakes up from his coma and finally gets a ring. I was surprised that Steve Englehart was actually that writer who made Guy such a dick. I was under the assumption Giffen and DeMatteis set that up during their JLA run to use Guy to create conflict. This run establishes the Earth based Green Lanterns that still drive GL today. Again, these issues were great and I'd love to see more of this era's GL stories collected.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Crisis on Infinite Earth Companions are something we've been long waiting for: a comprehensive collection of the tie-ins to DC's most important crossover ever. And, it looks like DC's usually incompetent collections department has actually done a nice job with this one. It's been carefully collected to provide cohesive storylines (for example, we get the entire All-Star Squadron arc in this volume), and the individual sections have also been broken out with textual essays about the comics. The quality of the paper is lower than I would have liked, but I suspect that was required to get the artwork to reproduce correctly. Overall, this is exactly what you'd hope of for these omnibuses.

Superman vs. The Forgotten Villains (DCCP #78). It's a bit funny to start this volume in the middle of a story (since this continues from DCCP #77, "Superman and the Forgotten Heroes"), but this story mainly exists to represent all the DC Comics of 1982-1985 that featured the Monitor on the last page, watching things. This is clearly the ultimate one, because he ends it by giving up his facade as a villain and preparing for problems to start on Earth-3. Beyond that, it's just an OK story of fighting against some, well, Forgotten Villains. It's interesting that most of the Forgotten Heroes of these comics have returned to much more prominence (e.g., Animal Man and Cave Carson would both have eponymous series, while Rip Hunter and Rick Flag have both made it onto TV in Legends of Tomorrow and Smallville respectively, and Dolphin and Congorilla have been prominent in comics such as Aquaman and JLA), but not so much the Forgotten Villains. [3/5].

All-Star Squadron (A-SS #50-60). Roy Thomas All-Star Squadron was a masterwork that cleverly combined history, Golden Age comics, and late Bronze Age writing. It detailed a good chunk of DC's Golden Age history and remains an extremely readable comic when most comics from this era aren't. Thomas' 11-issue Crisis crossover is also the longest such crossover (his own Infinity Inc. would be the only one that came close), and pretty great besides.

The first part is the best, where heroes are jumping from world to world, including stories set on Earth-S, linking to Earth-X, and even visiting the Earth-1 modern-day. The second story, which involves the introduction of Mekanique, is weaker, in larger part because it was cut short by the end of All-Star Squadron. (Following this arc, the last seven issues of A-SS were essentially an extension of Secret Origins). Together, they're a great pair of mostly standalone side-stories for Crisis and also the usually great story of these many Golden Age heroes.

There are two weakness. First, there are two stories that were updates of Golden-Age stories: Leading Comics #4 (in A-SS #56) and All-Star Comics #13 (spread across A-SS #50-60). Now, Thomas' idea of integrating these Golden Age stories into his new story of DC WWII was magnificent, but when he published them at full length (as he does here) they dragged because of the shallowness of Golden Age stories, and a split-up framework that often worked against characterization. Second, there are a couple of places where the story crosses directly to Crisis and back, leaving readers lost as to what's going on.

Nonetheless, this is a great story: a magnificent end to All-Star Squadron proper and a magnificent crossover [4+/5].

(Can we now please have some omnibuses covering JLA #193, All-Star Squadron #1-49, and the three annuals, to match up with this? And some Infinity Inc. omnibuses to fill in the other gaps? And I suppose Young All-Stars too? Thx.)

Fury of Firestorm (FoF #41-42). This is a peculiar pair of issues, because they're entirely disconnected. The first deals with Firestorm's recruitment in Crisis #1, the second with Firehawk and Wondergirl dealing with a time-shattered NYC around Crisis #9. (Yeah, back during DC's first mega-crossover, there was less concern about coordinating the crossovers to line up so precisely with the main event, timewise.) The first issue is the better: it's a great Firestorm issue because it introduces the comic's new college setting, and it's a strong Crisis issue because it gives so much detail to Harbinger and Psycho-pirate. The second issue is the weaker: it's a nice focus on Lorraine, but otherwise a pointless snipe hunt, with some fun timey-wimeyness thrown in [3+/5].

Green Lantern (GL #194-198). This is a vastly important Green Lantern story, because it sets up Green Lantern as it would exist through the '00s and '10s, with three Earthly Green Lanterns: John Stewart is the star of these issues, recently having taken over for Hal, and this is also where Guy gets his ring. The dynamics between the three (and Hal's quest to get a ring back) are all great. The Crisis crossover is also front and center. A lot of it is just referential to Crisis itself, and there's a lot of pointless rushing around, but the ending feels pretty important (even if it's a totally unnecessary aside to the main story). [4/5].

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than 500 pages of comics tying in to Crisis on Infinite Earth plus introductions to the state of each major series. This is the first of three volumes.

DC Comics Presents #78: Yes, this is the second part of a two-parter and there's only a brief cameo from the Monitor and Harbinger. However, I give this one a pass because not only hasn't this been reprinted, but it's got a ton: of rare gold and silver age characters. It's a blast.

All-Star Squadron #50-#60: Given that Crisis was a celebration of the entire DCU, the All-Star Squadron is a great tie-in because it features so many characters from the gold and silver ages of a wide variety of comic companies. We get to see a reprint/revision of a JSA Adventure, multiple direct conflicts that intersect with Crisis as well as some additional conflicts including a battle with Mister Mind with his first version of the Monster Society of evil, appearances by Captain Marvel (Shazam.) There are so many great moments. It's a shame that most of this series hasn't been reprinted, but it's treat to read these and Roy Thomas' obvious love for these characters.

Fury of Firestorm #41 and #42: In #41, Harbinger and the Pyscho Pirate arrive to recruit Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein just as they're getting settled in a new collected. In #42, Firestorm's gone, so we actually get a book with Wonder Girl and Firehawk and they get thrown back in time to the Revolutionary War. It's good fun.

Green Lantern #194-199: This is an interesting period for the Green Lantern corps. Hal Jordan had resigned his as a lantern with John Stewart now being the Green Lantern. However in #194, he's called away to fight in the Crisis, leaving fellow Green Lantern (and love interest) Katma Tui to guard Earth, but while he's away, the Guardians are making a variety of moves that end up with Guy Gardener with a ring and leading a plan to stop the Crisis. Sinestro and Hal Jordan get done before it's all said and done. Overall, this is really fun story. I will say that unlike other stories in this book, this has been reprinted elsewhere.

In addition to the comics, you get an introduction to the book itself by Crisis Writer Marv Wolfman, and intros to the three series featured by Roy Thomas and Robert Greenbrier, there's some great background stuff here.

Overall, a really solid collection. Look forward to the next volume.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Vol. 1

The JSA are split asunder as the Crisis begins. Each member strives to uphold order as they return to their Earth and work together to end the Anti Monitor's attack on the multiverse. Meanwhile, Donna Troy and Firehawk find themselves in revolutionary New York and the Green Lantern Corps find themselves inviting Guy Gardner into their midst as an attack on Qward appears to be the only way to stop the devastation of the multiverse.

The stories work reasonably well and the artwork is great, but the overall volume lacks a connectivity between the collected arcs to make this a five star review.

[Alan Duran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revisiting DC's Crisis On Infinite Earths through it's companion tie-ins, these stories are certainly a throwback to a simpler time in DC Comics, but the impact of the Crisis would be immense. It was around this time that I got hooked by the mythology of the DC Universe, and things would never be the same again. The All-Star Squadron as written by Roy Thomas is a very dense read, with the perfect mixture of action and dialogue. They certainly don't write comics like this anymore. The biggest victim in the DC Universe after the Crisis was the elimination of the Justice Society and the effects it had on tiles like All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc.. Firestorm had some nice art by Rafael Kayanan and was written by the legendary Gerry Conway. Was there any character he didn't write? JS. I have Firestorm #42, because it includes Wonder Girl Dona Toy from the New Teen Titans. I've never been a big fan of Joe Staton's art but it seems to go good with Green Lantern. Green Lantern is a character I've never concentrated much on. The Green Lantern arc is penned by another legendary writer, Steve Englehart. This is a nice collection from DC. I'm glad they are mining their past and releasing these stories for today's readers. Looking forward to reading Volume 2. Recommended for COIE completists!

[Shamus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard grouping to rate. I spent months picking it up and trying to read a year's worth of All Star Squadron and loosing interest. Finally I skipped to the other parts of the book and finished it all off.
Never was a fan of Hal Jordan, but the Green Lantern story is decent. The exact powers of the ring and battery are as goofy as ever, constant references to them as 'magic,' but the clash of personality between Hal, the ignorant and brain damaged Guy Gardner and the self important John, are fantastic. The sudden division among the Guardians is odd, but the GL Corp wasn't as well defined in these days. Overall, a solid 4 for GL. Firestorm's issues deserve another 4, while the All-Star Squadron is definitely a 2 and a half.
Finally, DC Comics Presents, giving us Superboy Prime, is a solid, classic 5 star story! Important to the future Crisis events from DC, even though this should have been the last, but just a fun and heartwarming tale.
Overall, a decent 4 star collection.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides something by way of connective tissue for this giant event, but good lord there’s a lot of cheese. Roy Thomas enthusiastically overwrites and purple proses through the All-Star Squadron while Steve Englehart brings back the forgotten Guy Gardner as a brain-damaged lunatic who wants to kill Hal Jordan because something something Green Lantern ring gazpacho. That leaves an issue of DC Presents and two issues of The Fury Of Firestorm...both fairly good.

It’s not hard to see why a lot of this material has gone uncollected for decades even as Crisis on Infinite Earths has been repeatedly reprinted.

[Shannon Schmelzle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This companion could have been called "Roy Thomas' Crisis of All Star proportions" with a sprinkling of Firestorm and the debut of Guy Gardner: Green Lantern.

This one is...okay. I think the GL stuff was by far the strongest in here. And the Firestorm stuff was fun. But I found the All Star Squadron material to be a pretty huge let down. As someone who has always loved the JSA. Really liked a lot of Roy Thomas' writing, this should have been a no brainer. But sadly, I just felt really let down by most of this.

Sadly, none of this stuff is really beneficial to you if you are picking this up for the "Crisis" in the title.

[Shawn Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite moments of racial insensitivity and down right mediocre writing in spots, I enjoyed the hell out of this. It was a blast to revisit one of the truly great moments in comics history. If you weren't there, you need to read this. If you were, you need to read it again. Hopefully you'll get as big a charge out of it as I did.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book reprints several tie-ins to the Crisis storyline. The tie-ins aren't especially important to the Crisis storyline, but can be fun if you like the featured characters. I believe most of the stories are beng reprinted for the first time. There are some interesting notes between stories that helps give context as to what is going on.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

[30/10/24] 6.5/10

Millemila personaggi DC (sconosciuti, a meno che non leggiate fumetti degli anni 60') che tentano di fermare il piano malefico dell'Anti-Monitor e la distruzione dei millemila universi.

Muoiono un sacco di super... ma francamente chissene.

[Daniele Mascio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Punto fondamentale della storia editoriale DC