Broken Frontier

DC’s latest crisis finishes with a bang of classic comic book goodness and sets the stage for much, much more!

In the final installment of Infinite Crisis, the heroes have teamed up to stop Alex Luthor and, who I like to call, Crazy Superboy. In a series of confrontations progressing in an almost evolutionary state, readers see the immediate aftermath of the big battle from last issue, hundreds of heroes fighting hundreds of villains for the safety of planet Earth, and Crazy Superboy taking to the skies to be followed by a team that eventually dwindles to two—both, by the way, wearing red, blue, and yellow. The newest incarnation of the Green Lantern Corps comes on strong, there is a money shot involving Joker that should silence any who have clamored for or moaned at the lack of his involvement in the crisis, and Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman decide to take a break.

Geoff Johns is truly gifted. The plot threads stemming from this seven issue miniseries literally grew to the hundreds but are nevertheless nicely tied together here. The scribe takes us across the world, across the galaxy, and across the universe with ease, bouncing from the personal and revelatory to the action packed fight sequences seamlessly. Superboy’s insanity is in full force and the battles are not merely battles, but symbols for something more. When two Supermen take on Doomsday and when Batman has a struggle of conscience after what appears to be the death of one of his greatest friends, it is clear what Johns is saying about some of the events of the nineties and today. And he is saying it not so much with finesse, but with a style that cannot and should not be ignored. He has weaved his way through the convoluted history of a world of heroes and villains and tied it all together, clearing up any unnecessary or outdated plot threads, and filling his readers’ minds with several new and exciting ones.

The art is like the proverbial icing on the proverbial cake. Phil Jimenez can best be described as George Perez Junior. With the two of them working together, one word comes to mind, and only one—wow. Much like Perez, Jimenez’s attention to detail, whether it be the facial features of a bystander or the symmetrical lines of a piece of background rubble, is awe inspiring and his characters glow with a life of chiseled perfection only superheroes can pull off. Their art, along with the art of the other superb pencilers, inkers, and colorists, works together. In a different book, with a different set of artists bunched like they are on this one, problems might arise. Different styles forced on the same book have a tendency to make for a jumpy, strange feel, even in a well written story. In Infinite Crisis it is the exact opposite. The artists have similar styles, each one adding a personal touch to the story while at the same time striving to give a constant feel for the tale.

Infinite Crisis has been a wild ride. From the best Ted Kord story ever told to the saturation of books related to the event and the big issues and aftereffects which will surely spring from it, readers have witnessed a classic moment in comic book history.