Well, it's July 13, and luckily it doesn't fall on a Friday. For that we can thank
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a complicated crossover event, so let's review the plot to date:
Crisis on Infinite Earths #3
Well, that about sums it up.
As usual, full credits for each issue will be given at the end.
Here's what we're crisising through today:
"The Comprehensive Calendar to Crisis on Infinite Earths" in Amazing Heroes #91 (Fantagraphics, March 15, 1986), by Andy Mangels
Alexander Luthor ages to 14 years old. So, y'know, maybe give the teen a room with a door he can shut. Or hey, at least some clothes.
Crisis #3
Flash abducted by the Anti-Monitor. Well, I'm sure he'll get out of this one. He always does!
Crisis #3
Dr. Polaris, Geo-Force, and Blue Beetle travel to 1944. Where Sgt. Rock, the Losers, and the Haunted Tank are all fighting Nazis in Markovia. Man, is this the DCiest comic of them all or what?
Crisis #3
Anti-matter arrives in all Earths' pasts. Correction to Andy Mangels's calendar: this actually happens in Crisis #2, but I'm not certain if the events there are being told chronological, so it gets plugged in here. Pariah warns about this in the previous issue, Crisis #2:
Crisis #2
And it begins here in ish #3:
Crisis #3
Death of the Losers.
Crisis #3
Mind you, in the Post-Crisis DCU's rewritten history, the Losers get a less science-fictiony death:
The Losers Special #1
Death of Farmer Boy (aka Flower) from Sgt. Rock's Easy Company. Oh no! Half-Pint is gonna be so upset!
Crisis #3
The wounded Blue Beetle is sent back to Charlton-Earth (aka Earth-4). Realllll excellent draft pick there, Monitor.
Crisis #3
The wounded Solovar is sent back to Gorilla City on Earth-1. Here's a testimony to Wolfman and Pérez: before I read this series I had no idea who King Solovar is. And yet this scene made me tear up and even thinking he was going to die. Nice work, fellas.
Crisis #3
Cyborg, Firebrand, Green Lantern and Psimon travel to 1879. (Guest starring Bat Lash, Jonah Hex, Johnny Thunder (cowboy version, not the "Say You!" guy), Nighthawk, and Ke-Woh-No-Tay (That's Scalphunter. (Rather than calling him Scalphunter here, Wolfman uses Brian Savage's Kiowa name which means "He Who Is Less Than Human." Ouch! (Though James Robinson used the "Scalphunter" name in Starman, but referred to him more frequently just as "Brian Savage." (Say, didja know that Sergio Aragonés and Joe Orlando created him? That's quite a legacy! (I hope I tied up all these end parenthesis correctly.))))))!
Crisis #3
Contrary to Andy's calendar, I can't find the scene of their arrival in 1879 in All-Star Squadron #52 (or 53) or in Green Lantern #195 (or 196). In fact, GL comes back to Earth-1 in #196, leaving no space for the adventure in his own book, and the end of #195 refers to Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 taking place simultaneously. And that's why we gotta be a little flexible in planting dates for the Crisis. If it seems out of whack, just tell yourself: a
All Green Lantern rings cease to function. And now you're all outta luck, because you poor dopes didn't get Applecare!
Crisis #3
Green Lantern #195
Hey, I forgot this story brought us Bronze Age Guy Gardner! And here's that Crisis #9 reference I mentioned before.
Green Lantern #195
Death of Nighthawk. Oh no! And he ran such a great movie theater, too!
Crisis #3
Anti-matter arrives in all Earths' futures. Oh, it's always doin' that.
Crisis #3
Legion of Super-Heroes #18
Death of Kid Psycho. With a name like that, you just know they would've rebooted him as a serial killer in the New 52 if they'd thought of it.
Crisis #3
Legion of Super-Heroes #18
Firestorm and Killer Frost travel to Earth-2's dark ages. And we travel onwards at last to issue #4!
Crisis #4
Batman keeps bedside vigil at Catwoman's bed. The "IIs" in Andy Mangel's calendar refer to the fact that Batman-1 comes from Earth-2, and Batman-2 comes from Earth-1. All clear?...yeah, clear as Clayface.
Detective Comics #557
Gotham has a major red sky storm. And how!
Batman #391
And now, from the pages of Crisis #4: Today's Prophetic Letter.
Crisis #4
Whoa, I don't care whether it was a Saturday instead of a Friday: that was one seriously unlucky day.
Ref'rence reading (or, y'know, just for fun):
- Batman (1940 series) #391 (January 1986), script by Doug Moench, pencils and ink by Tom Mandrake, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by John Costanza
- Crisis on Infinite Earths #3 (May 1985), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by George Pérez, inks by Dick Giordano and Mike DeCarlo, Alex Luthor inks by George Pérez, colors by Anthony Tollin, letters by John Costanza
- Crisis on Infinite Earths #4 (June 1985), script by Marv Wolfman, layouts by George Pérez, finishes by Mike DeCarlo, colors by Anthony Tollin, letters by John Costanza
- Detective Comics #557 (December 1985), script by Doug Moench, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Bob Smith, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by John Workman
- Green Lantern (1960 series) #195 (December 1985), script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Joe Staton, inks by Bruce Patterson, colors by Anthony Tollin, letters by L. Lois Buhalis
- Legion of Super-Heroes (1984 series) #18 (January 1986), script by Paul Levitz, pencils by Greg LaRocque, inks by Larry Mahlstedt, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by John Costanza
- The Losers Special #1 one-shot (September 1985), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils by Judith Hunt and Sam Glanzman, inks by Mike Esposito, colors by Jerry Serpe, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Tune in tomorrow to find out what the Anti-Monitor's evil plan is! Eh, it can't possibly be eviller than Flexographic printing.
Actually, I was never much of a Little House viewer, but I loved her as Batgirl.
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