Rating: 
Summary: Crisis of Infinite Yawns
Review: I got this as part of enrollment for the SciFi Book Club. I'd always been curious about this series, having heard such rave reviews about it but never curious enough to pay ($) for it. Anyway, halfway through this book and I'm wishing I'd picked something else and wishing the universe would just get destroyed already!George Perez is, of course, the big draw but I have to say I've never been a big fan and CoIE doesn't raise my appreciation level. I realize that George Perez is THE ONLY artist for this - probably few, if any, other comics artist would have the enthusiasm or patience to draw all those characters and detail - but, despite GP's eye for detail and great backgrounds, his art has never done anything for me. To me, it lacks any sort of flair or verve; it's all very straightforward and, well, boring. So it doesn't really serve the story. Then again, it's hard to do much with a story about a bunch of different earths from different timelines threatening to collide and then burst apart or something. It's all very...big and...dull. Don't read this thing unless you're an avid DC fan or at least have some knowledge of the DCverse or you won't know what the hell is going on. I know dork about DC's past continuity and that's a very big reason why I'm having such a hard time enjoying it. In other words, not for mass market consumption, even though it's apparently packaged and sold that way. Marvel's Secret Wars, as a contrast, is fairly simple and straightforward and is almost completely unconcerned with past continuity and much easier to follow. I don't care who got the idea for a big company-wide crossover first, Marvel's Secret Wars is the better series. Try that collection instead; it's a bunch of (stuff), but it's at least a halfway entertaining bunch of (stuff). I'm going to suffer myself to finish CoIE simply because I hate not finishing books I start. I'm still hoping I'll get some entertainment value out of it but, after what I've seen thus far, I don't like my chances.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and confusing at times but very epic
Review: The multiverse is on the verge of destruction. A powerful and evil ruler of an anti-matter universe, wishes to destroy and absorb the other universes into his, thus creating only one universe in which he rules! To aid him he uses Shadow Demons, Thunderers and a souped up Psycho Pirate. To win he will have to face the heroes of the multi-verse and it looks like he's winning! A few choosen heroes are sent by the Anti-Monitors alternate universe version named the Monitor. It seems like the heroes have been victorious. Except time and space is still distorted! And the Anti-Monitor may not be dead after all. Flash and Supergirl give their lives and it's still not enough. Things look very grim. In the end one universe will survive and history will be rewritten. But by who? In an earnest and mostly successful attempt to clean up DC continuity George Perez and Marv Wolfman create the greatest threat the DC Universe has faced or will ever face. And while it is overrated, the art is fantastic (how can Perez fit so many characters on a page). And the threat does feel threatening to even the Triple Threat of Superboy, and two Supermen. Well written, though confusing, Marv manages to clean up most of the problems and make the heroes seem defeated before the fight begins and yet allows them to prevail with major wounds and deaths. Chapter seven is the most touching as Flash runs himself to death, alone yet having his death witnessed by those closest to him. Pick up this book unless superhero books confuse you. In that case say far away.
Rating: 
Summary: It all boils down to this.
Review: Perhaps the most powerful moment in the DC Universe was the streamlining of all the myriad different earths in their Crisis On Infinite Earths story. While I disagreed with a lot of the choices made, this story still is a cornerstone MUST-READ for any DC fan. 16 years after its publication, the Crisis is still a center of controversy and debate among fans. 50+ years of comics. Wiped out. End of story. LET'S SEE ANYONE ELSE DO THAT!! Only DC has the balls to do it twice (another time in Zero Hour). I highly recommend the book. But go easy on the dialogue. Back in the 80s, we expected heroes to be corny. Don't judge them on today's standards.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT AS GOOD AS MANY THINK
Review: I just finished reading this book, and boy am I glad. If it wasn't for George Perez, I never would have bought it. I already know why DC did this book, to clean up their continuity. They also had to kill off a few major characters so it would be "eventful." The story is highly overrated, as are most stories now-a-days by "acclaimed" writers. But, I'm a sucker for George Perez art, so I did not really have a choice. Same goes for Byrne, Zeck, and Bright. No matter who writes the stuff they draw, I'll buy it. Too bad Bright and Zeck don't do more stuff and Byrne doesn't do more than one book. I have almost all their DC and Marvel stuff.
Rating:
Summary: My least favorite storyline ever
Review: I have always disliked this story. I enjoyed all the various alternate earths in the DC universe... Earth-1, the current superheroes, Earth-2, the Silver Age heroes, Earth-S, the Fawcett characters (Shazam, etc.). Even Earth-C, with Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew (don't ask, it was a guilty pleasure even then ;) This is the storyline that killed them all. Garbage collection for the DC universe. Of course, I've always tended to dislike "revisionist" ideas. Give me all the "alternate" versions you like, just don't mess with the originals. And now, DC has "Elseworlds" stories, and recently did a re-telling of an old JLA story involving an alternate earth with villainous versions of the JLA (the JLA: Earth-2 graphic novel). So it was all for naught, anyway. I've been a big Marv Wolfman and George Perez fan for a long time, but pass this one by. A lame villain and pointless revisionism make this story not worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Historic Event
Review: I can't help but love this book. No other "event" ever done by DC Comics came close to having the impact that CRISIS did. In 12 issues, the entire history of the DC universe was re-written. In every issue, major & minor characters died, or were changed forever. This series featured the death of Supergirl, who has not been seen in DC continuity since. (Okay, yes a Supergirl is in the current comics, but not the same one) The silver age Flash, Barry Allen, also bit the dust here. But the series is not monumental just because of the high body count. This series condensed all of the very convoluted histories of the DC characters (most of which had several co-existing versions) into single histories. CRISIS was a major starting point for a whole new DC Universe. Nothing has been the same since. A must read for any DC Comics fan.
Rating: 
Summary: The book that ruined my favorite comic
Review: This book (originally a 12-issue monthly limited series)is interesting in its effort to cram 60 years of D.C. Comics characters & history into one storyline. "Crisis" was an effort to 'streamline' the D.C. Universe by disposing of alternate Earths & unloved silly characters (like Krypto the Superdog). The story had some heat by killing off some major characters, but the worst thing about Crisis is it ruined the continuity of my favorite super-hero group. The Legion of Super-heroes was my favorite since childhood & I loved all the characters & follow the stories religiously. Then "Crisis" came along & destroyed much of established storylines. The Legion then shifted gears to a darker version with 'new' characters who we were now supposed to believe "had always been there due to the Crisis." After that failed attempt, they 're-booted' the whole Legion concept & started over from scratch. But they lost this long-time fan. I gave up on D.C. because they ruined the Legion & it's never been the same since. The Legion of Super-heroes had a long-term loyal following that was basically jettisoned after the crisis. Long Live the Original Legion!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but overated
Review: Maybe if I read this back in the 80's I would have been blown away by this story, this being the first of it's kind, but since I first read it in 2001 I wasn't very impressed. It is a very interesting look into DC history but suffers from bad dialogue, lame characters, lame customes, and bad hair-do's. Everyone says that Marv Wolfman is a great writer but I have yet to see him earn this reputation (did you read that ViroXX story he did in Superman, it's awful). Perez does some good art and I know those lame costumes aren't all his fault but I can't stand that poofy-hair he draws on so many characters. Somethings I learned from reading this, they were even lamer characters in the Pre-Crisis than in the Post-Crisis, the single universe created in Crisis is not the current DCU created in Man of Steel, and Alex Luthor II is the gayest character in comics and was proably hoping that Superboy would "tunnel into that other place" "inside him" (read the end you'll get it).
Rating:
Summary: Important to DC, but boring as a novel
Review: For anyone unaware, Crisis on Infinite Earths served to simplify and relaunch the 60-year-old DC Universe. It paved the way for some truly excellent work DC publishes now. Unfortunately, this book itself is quite boring. The plot consists essentially of a Deus Ex Machina (or two of them, to be precise) destroying, and then combining the multiple DC Universes into the single universe seen in DC Comics today. The plot and dialog are almost painfully boring at times. It's just about the most uninteresting way possible to do something that should actually be interesting, given its impact on the DC Universe over the last 15 years. Worth a purchase for curious fans of the current DC titles, but avoid this if you're new to comics, or don't care how the relaunch was pulled off.
Rating:
Summary: Umm...
Review: Maybe it's just that I'm a child of the Modern Age, but, how can I put this ... This book is just silly. The dialogue is bad, the story is drawn out much more than it needs to be and doesn't really tell us anything (besides lots of people are heroic), certain people are given godlike powers for no readily apparent reason ... ***POSSIBLE SPOILER*** and it doesn't even do a good job of cleaning up continuity. If everyone who fought the Anti-Monitor at the beginning of time remember the old earths, why doesn't the post-Byrne Clark Kent fondly remember his old friend Kal-L? Maybe the Linear Men fixed the timeline, I don't know, Marv sure didn't. Two stars for having lots of high-quality pages, all the cover art, and a nice new cover by Perez and Ross.
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