THE BEGINNING: A project proposed.

The writer/editor of Crisis, Marv Wolfman, credits the start of the project as a letter column in GREEN LANTERN (second series) #143. The letter from Gary Thompson of Michigan was about a continuity mistake in one of the previous issues, but it started Wolfman thinking. He began considering what was inside and outside of the normal DC Universe. Previously anything published was more or less considered to be part of the same vast DC Multiverse. However newer graphic novels and mini-series, such as the WATCHMEN and CAMELOT 3000, clearly were not part of continuity. The blurring at the edges of what had never really been a totally integrated universe was becoming something of a problem.

The solution devised by Wolfman and Len Wein was a "History of the DC Universe". It would be a series that placed all the major and minor elements of the DC Universe into a single consistent timeline. The idea was sold to DC on the basis of it creating a clear division between what was and was not in the DC Universe. A further problem arose during discussions when it was pointed out by Dick Giordano that the DC Universe was actually the DC Multiverse. Therefore any project would have to take account of the history of all the various parallel Earths.

While a cool concept when it was first introduced in THE FLASH #123 the Multiverse had grown to an unmanageable size. Multiple versions of the same character meant that DC management were concerned about people getting confused between them. When Roy Thomas came to write the ALL-STAR SQUADRON he found himself forced to play down the Earth-Two characters that had Earth-One duplicates, which meant leaving out the bulk of the Justice Society. If the Shazam Family or the newly acquired Charlton characters were used then their potential stories were immediately limited by being on different Earths from almost every other character. As for Plastic Man, he had so many duplicates across the Multiverse, he could have qualified for status as a separate species.

Peter Sanderson was hired to read ALL of DC's fifty years worth of material and make notes. Bob Greenberger was brought into help him. Lists of characters were drawn up. Notes on stories and dimensions were written. Much of the material would help form the companion WHO'S WHO title. Then more lists were drawn up, which characters would die, who would be altered and who would be created. The history became DC UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and then just CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The title was a homage to the annual Justice League and Justice Society team-ups.

THE MIDDLE: The story in print.

The actual story of Crisis is deceptively simple. The Anti-Monitor, ruler of the Anti-Matter Universe, seeks to be the most powerful being in creation, to do this he has to destroy his counterpart the Monitor and the Positive-Matter Universe which he protects. However due to an ancient experiment by Krona the Positive-Matter Universe was split into an infinity of parallel universes. Therefore the Anti-Monitor has to destroy the Positive-Matter Universes one at a time. He accomplishes this by using massive walls of Anti-Matter that sweep across the space and time of each universe destroying everything as they go. The Anti-Matter Universe then expands into the gap left by the dead universe and the Anti-Monitor increases in power as his domain increases. The true complexity of the story comes from the game of chess played between the Anti-Monitor and the Monitor as their agents battle over the fate of the remaining universes.

Alex Ross's fully painted cover (over George Perez's pencils) to the Crisis Hardover. Click on the image to enlarge.

The series opens with the death of Earth-Three and the journey of its sole survivor Alexander Luthor (the infant son of Lois Lane-Luthor and Lex Luthor of that universe) to Earth-One. The journey between universes has a distinct effect on the child as he begins ageing quickly. In order to stem the flood of anti-matter the Monitor has his agent Harbinger assemble a band of heroes from across time and space. They are then assigned to protect five "tuning forks" in key eras that together will halt the anti-matter. The heroes are assailed by Shadow Demons who beat them back and eventually merge to form shadow giants that smash the "forks". To add to the defeat the Anti-Monitor mind controls Harbinger into murdering the Monitor.

The death of the Monitor would not end the game of chess between him and the Anti-Monitor. In a recorded message to Harbinger, Alex Luthor and >Pariah the Monitor reveals that everything that had happened so far was by his design. He allowed himself to be killed so that his energies could form a Netherverse where the tuning forks would draw Earth-One and Earth-Two to safety. On the two Earths time begins to fracture with multiple periods existing at the same time. This is compounded when it is revealed that the vibrations that separate the two universes are slowing down, eventually they will occupy the same place and mutual destroy each other. Alex Luthor and Harbinger manage to draw Earth-S, Earth-Four and Earth-X into the Netherverse before they exhaust the power given to Harbinger by the Monitor.

All that remains of the infinity of parallel Earths are those five universes that exist within the Monitor's Netherverse. However even they are not safe and the assembled heroes of the Justice League, Justice Society, Legion of Superheroes and many others take the battle into the Anti-Matter Universe. The sacrifice of and the second Flash seriously weakens the Anti-Monitor forcing him to flee to the dawn of time. In the confusion Brainiac and Lex Luthor assemble all the costumed villains into an army that tries to gain control of the remaining worlds. Their attempts only stop when the Spectre intervenes warning that all heroes and villains must work together to even stand a chance against the Anti-Monitor.

The most desperate gamble of all begins as the heroes travel to the dawn of time after the Anti-Monitor while the villains journey back to stop Krona from creating the Multiverse. The villains fail and the heroes are powerless as the Anti-Monitor absorbs their own energy in order to reshape the fledgling universe in his own image. At the last moment the Spectre, drawing power from the magicians and mystics, wrestles with the Anti-Monitor and at the exact moment of creation the entire power of the Big Bang is funnelled through the Spectre. The universe is born a new.

In the blink of an eye the heroes find themselves back in their normal lives doing their normal duties. However it soon become apparent that many things are wrong. When Clark Kent of Earth-Two arrives for work he finds himself at the Daily Planet rather than the Daily Star. Both Supermen find that the dimensional bridge between Earth-One and Earth-Two in Washington no longer exists, while the Huntress of Earth-Two finds that the graves of her parents no longer exist. Investigations reveal that where five Earths had existed there now only exists a single Earth patterned after Earth-One, with traces of the other Earths. The Anti-Monitor tries one final time to destroy this new Earth by drawing it into the Anti-Matter Universe. Eventually it would be the Superman of Earth-Two, the original, that destroys the Anti-Monitor once and for all.

In the initial aftermath of the Crisis the heroes from five worlds all try to find a place for themselves. Only those that were originally at the dawn of time remember that there had even been a Multiverse and as time begins to realign itself even their memories began to fade. During the final battle the Wonder Woman of Earth-One was killed while her Earth-Two counterpart resigned from the world of mortals to live with her husband with the gods on Mount Olympus. Other duplicates merged into one or were forgotten. Superboy of Earth-Prime joined Superman of Earth-Two alongside his Lois in an unknown paradise. In the end only a lone Psycho Pirate in Arkham Asylum remembered the Multiverse, babbling about worlds gone to nobody in particular.

Tie-ins: ALL-STAR SQUADRON #50-56, 60; AMETHYST #13; BLUE DEVIL #17,18; DC COMICS PRESENTS #78, 86-88, 95; DETECTIVE COMICS #558; FURY OF FIRESTORM #41,42; GREEN LANTERN (second series) #194-196, 198; INFINITY, INC #18-25, Annual #1; JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (first series) #244, 245, Annual #3; LEGION OF SUPERHEROES (third series) #16, 18; LOSERS SPECIAL #1; NEW TEEN TITANS #13,14; OMEGA MEN #31, 33; SUPERMAN (first series) #414, 415; SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #44; SWAMP THINK #46; WONDER WOMAN (first series) #327-329

The fallen: Alexander Luthor (Earth-Three), Alex Luthor, Anti-Monitor, Aquagirl, Bull-Eyed Bandit, Chemo, Clayface II, Dove I, Flash II, Flower, Green Arrow of Earth-Two, Gunner, Huntress, Johnny Cloud, Icicle, Immortal Man, Lex Luthor of Earth-Two, Lois Lane Luthor (Earth-Three), Kid Psycho, Kole, Lord Karak Volt, Maaldor, Mirror Master I, Monitor, Owlman, Power Ring, Princess Liana Fern, Psimon, Robin of Earth-Two, Sarge, Starman IV, Sunburst, Supergirl, Superwoman, Ten-Eyed Man, Ultraman, Wonder Woman of Earth-One.

THE END: Aftermath and rebirth.

The strange merged Earth that existed after the end of the Crisis continued to exist for a number of months with the Earth-One Superman flying round as normal until he was replaced by the MAN OF STEEL version. This therefore raised the issue of exactly how one addresses the question of how one Superman was replaced by another. The original intention by Marv Wolfman was for everything that had gone before Crisis to be regarded as out of continuity and for every title to be relaunched from issue one. This was the course taken by Wonder Woman and Superman with reboots that radically altered the characters. This approach however had opponents among writers and editors who had done their best to stop the Crisis from messing up their own internal continuity. Only the Roy Thomas ALL-STAR SQUADRON and INFINITY, INC really made any effort to realign continuity.

What was meant to be a brand new spotless universe quickly became more confused than the old Multiverse. Take Wonder Woman as an example. In this new universe she was presented as a new character that had just appeared. This meant that any Earth-One or Earth-Two Wonder Woman stories were invalid. She was never a member of the Justice Society and therefore never mother to Fury of Infinity Inc. also she was never a founding member of the Justice League and therefore never had a sidekick, Wonder Girl, that joined the Teen Titans. However Fury and Wonder Girl were separate characters that continued in their team books much as they had always done. It would have been best if all the revamps that were done hand been done at once, but they were drawn out creating even more chaos.

The Crisis created chaos for most, however some of the writers used it to push stories to the limit. Grant Morrison in ANIMAL MAN sought to deconstruct the comics medium by having a second Crisis. The deranged mind of the Psycho Pirate tried to recreate the universes that had been by pulling back the spirits of the dead characters. Shortly afterwards Animal Man travels through Comic Books Limbo meeting Ace the Bathound, the Inferior Five, the Gay (later PC'ed to the Grim) Ghost and even the Space Canine Patrol before arriving at the home of his writer.

The various continuity problems introduced by the work after the Crisis were theoretically erased by a second mini-series in 1994 called ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME. It followed a surprisingly familiar plot with a villain wiping out existence using giant walls of white stuff and then the heroes "jump-starting" a normal universe from the Big Bang. Amid all of this the DC Universe lost something special. Some mention has been made of other universes in the past fifteen years, in ZERO HOUR Waverider catches a glimpse of the universes that were and the vast entities that pop up in Superman have hinted that a Multiverse still exists. Could it be that beyond the next door lies another universe just waiting to be discovered?

"You're all so wonderful. Why did they have to remove you from continuity? You'd have made for marvellous stories." - Psycho Pirate (ANIMAL MAN #23)