Getting this started - Dan DiDio has a moderately spoilerific interview up at Newsarama.com, discussing Infinite Crisis.
I’ll start.
My only purchase this week was Infinite Crisis # 2, but I have to say I’m liking this direction better than I thought I would.
I think I’ll stop there. I can’t think of anything more specific to say off-hand. But I’m withdrawing my original skepticism. The story both makes sense and holds my interest.
I don’t have my books yet, but I’m tempted to go read that DiDio interview anyway.
It’s a relatively small week for me, but I have *Infinite Crisis * #2 (why can’t I stop trying to call it Identity Crisis? Why?), Nightwing, and several others coming.
I read so far :
Gotham Central #37 - Street cop’s eye-view of the chaos in Gotham from Day of Vengeance/Infinite Crisis.
Marvel Knights 4 #24 - Wrapping up the Inpossible Man two-parter.
City of Heroes #7 - Actually more engrossing than previous issues.
Majestic #11 - Interesting developments for Majestros…
and Thunderbolts #15 - Solid fun with the Squadron Sinister.
Infinite Crisis #2: The story is reaching into metafiction. I hope that gets toned down. I like it, but a little of that goes a long way.
The thing is, DC was lightening up considerably after all the deaths/replacements of the mid-nineties. What with the big 7 returning to the JLA, and Hypertime and the like. It only really started to get dark again when the pre-Inf Cri started piling on. So, shut up Geoff, it’s your own damn fault. 
Besides that, nicely done. Lex, Joker (I was wondering when he’d turn up, now we just need to see what the New Gods are up to), Power Girl (who I never liked before). It all just works.
Y: The Last Man #39: Hero is gonna murder her. A satisfying conclusion to a story that didn’t need to be dragged out any more.
JLA #122: More placeholding until Infinite Crisis. Maybe afterwards we’ll get a regular writing and steady direction. But, not awful.
Aquaman #36: Now this, OTOH, is using InfCri events to its advantage. Love what they’re doing with Black Manta.
Teen Titans #29: You know what, Jason? Nobody likes you. Now just shut up and let Bruce, Tim, or the Joker beat you back into the memory hole you crawled up from.
InfCrisis 2 - Well…that’s an interesting turn. I wasn’t expecting that. I’m…well, I’m still undecided how I feel about it, but it has my attention.
Jonah Hex 1 - OK, it’s a leftover from last week, but I only got to reading it now. I’m impressed. The art wasn’t great, but I do like that Hex looks like Clint Eastwood. Some of the dialogue didn’t ring entirely true, to be sure, but it was still mighty fine.
Due to classes running long I couldn’t make it out to my normal shops. The hole in the wall shop five minutes from me sold out of Inf Cri #2 “before 2 o’clock.” Hopefully they underordered and my one of my normal shops will have it tomorrow.
Teen Titans #29: Remember when Teen Titans took that two month hitaus after the Outsiders cross-over? Man, that sucked. Looks like they messed up the issue number on the cover. Wonder if that’s worth some money…
Anyway, that was some awesome stuff. Not quite sure what Jason was after. Maybe he’s just a dick. Good excuse for some Robin on Robin action though. Not quite sure what’s happening in the last couple pages either. I started with Titans around the time Speedy joined and haven’t read the stuff before. Hopefully there will be a recap next issue.
Donna looks particularly bootilicous on the cover. I don’t know a lot about art, but I know when fore-shortening goes terribly wrong.
Let’s see…
Danger Girl : Back in Black - Doesn’t seem to capture the fun spirit of the previous Danger Girl entries yet, and I don’t think the art’s terribly well-suited to the series.
Teen Titans - Excellent. Great insight to Mr. Todd.
JLA - Green Arrow gets the line of the week, with his reaction to an OMAC designating him as a beta-class threat. I really hate the cover art.
Cable and Deadpool - Eh, if you haven’t picked up this gem on my recommendation by now, you’re probably not going to.
Exiles - The Exiles pursue Proteus into The New Universe, where it’s still 1987. Justice and Starbrand guest-star.
Infinite Crisis #2 - Yee-hah. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as #1, but it was still a solid read. Spoilerific items follow.
Regarding mortality so far :
Phantom Lady, Human Bomb and Black Condor, as well as Dr. Polaris, are confirmed kills. Damage, on the other hand, is confirmed as surviving.
Regarding Luthor’s plans from VU and his ‘mind-wipe’ device :
This is speculation, but I believe, based on this issue and Pariah’s previous comments, that Luthor is not building a mind-wipe device. He’s building something that deals with the multiverse - either something that will recreate it, or reopen it, or reawaken everyone’s memories of it. He’s collecting survivors from the alternate Earths. Lady Quark - Earth 6. ‘A Member of the Marvel Family’ - Earth S. The Ray - Earth X. Power Girl - Earth 2.
Also, I need to re-read Alexander’s lines and the timing thereof, but I think it may be possible :
Alexander may be controlling the Luthor that runs the Society. They both seem to be working on multiversal projects, and nigh-omniscient. It would explain how Luthor knew how the survivors of the alternate Earths were. Problem : Why send the goon squad after Kara, then? The only motivation I can think of is some kind of psychological operation. I’m not sure whether Luthor has actually authorized any killings in VU (not counting Pariah - as Alex would know if Pariah would survive that injury) - but certainly, he’s condoned some, which would seem out of character for Alex.
And an expansion of the above theory :
Well, before I said I thought that Martian Manhunter may have been rescued by Superman-2, using a tiny bit of time travel. Using a tiny bit more, MM could have been placed as the alternative Luthor in the Society.
Good catch. However,
The Ray isn’t from Earth-X. At least, not this Ray. A better choice would have been Uncle Sam himself, or maybe the Human Bomb (if he hadn’t blown up real good).
Regarding CG’s Infinite Crisis #2 Speculation: [spoiler] An interesting possibility, but to add to what JThunder said, Luthor also kidnapped Firestorm to power his device. And even the original was Earth-1. I think his whatever-it-is runs on Superhumans, and he just needs certain exotic energies. Also, it’s clear that the Marvels and Jay Garrick and the Freedom Fighters and the like aren’t Crisis “Surivors” in the same way Quark and Power Girl are. They were folded neatly into the post-Crisis timeline.
I’m surprised no one else has commented on how Mockingbird-Lex seems to be aware that this whole powersuit thing is out of character for him. I know that was unpopular enough with some folks that they’d be glad to see it acknowledged, at least. [/spoiler]
About a month ago I decided to finish up any story arcs I was currently reading and then start doing almost exclusively TPB’s. That doesn’t stop me from reading reviews and sneak peaks though. The preview I just checked out for the next Ultimate Spider-man had me blurt out three words I never dreamed I’d say:Ultimate…Damage…Control! Plus it seems to be manned by the Ultimate Wrecking Crew appropriately enough.
[Airplane!] Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up comic books. [/Airplane!]
Ohhh… was it…
[SPOILER] The Titans/YoungJustice Ray? Honestly, I couldn’t remember which costume it was. I wonder what happened to the original Ray…
And Uncle Sam, according to Perry’s comments - isn’t he missing? Maybe they took him too.
As for Firestorm, I got the impression that he really was to be a power source for whatever device, his specific origins not being relevant.
I still think it’s not a Mindwipe device, based on Pariah’s dialogue with Lex…
I don’t see how Quark is any more or less a Crisis Survivor than Billy Batson - as far as I know, we have no indication that she ‘fell through the holes’. And it’s not like Billy Batson had yet to be born in the immediately-post-Crisis continuity, he just hadn’t received his powers yet. [/SPOILER]
I still have questions on Infinite Crisis #1! I swear, I’m getting worse and worse with these Crossovers. I’ve been meaning to post questions, but I wait too long and I don’t want to be that guy who’s resurrecting dead threads. I’ll try to be on-line this weekend, but I still have questions on how Donna Troy, Thanagar-Rann war, and these other things fit in (like the Calculator). I’ve been reading spoiler tags, and have been Byrne-stealing (I should do that more, my LCBS doesn’t mind) and it only leaves me with more questions. However, I do like where this is going.
We actually saw the Earth-S Marvel Family in Crisis 11, after the big merge along with other problematic characters (like Huntress E2, Robin E2, Jason Todd E1 and a few others) who were all retconned out. Note that Power Girl clearly remembers Earth-2 in Crisis 12. In Crisis 11, Captain Marvel talks about trying to go to Earth-S. So he’s in the same boat as Power Girl–he survived the Crisis and then had his origin erased.
Soon after Crisis, there was a (horrible) IIRC, Roy Thomas mini-series where Sivana was Billy Batson’s er…uncle, I think, or maybe his guardian. It came out about the time of LEGENDS. Which was then retconned out and the (very good but incompatible) Jerry Ordway POWER OF SHAZAM! series was retconned in.
So maybe the Marvel Family counts because they’re like Power Girl–they survived the Crisis but had multiple retconned origins in an attempt to wedge them into continuity.
Jason Todd might be a player too for the same reason: The Earth-1 Jason Todd (blonde haired kid from the circus) was running around in Teen Titans at the same time as the street-punk Jason Todd was stealing the Batmobile’s hubcaps.
Yep. That’s the one.
Well, Her world was not one from one of the five universes which had been merged into a single post-Crisis-'verse. So yeah, I’d say that she pretty much “fell through the holes.” As did Pariah, who’s already been captured by the villians
I was just pleased to see the Metal Men (complete with Gold) make a cameo appearance in IC2. I sorely wish DC would do something substantial with them, and firmly establish that the miniseries that retconned their origin, killed off Gold, and left Doc Magnus a robot never, never, never happened. (The Magnus robot did make an appearance in the last issue of Arcudi’s Doom Patrol run a couple of years ago, but only in what turned out to be a dream sequence.)
Fenris, you seem to be arguing the same position that I am - that the Marvels are as qualified for my theory as Lady Quark. Preachin’ to the choir…
I don’t see that that has anything to do with it…
Power Girl’s world WAS merged, after all. And I was under the impression what Pariah was from Earth-One’s universe, but not planet Earth. It’s been a while though.
Good point. Pariah was from an entirely different universe though – not Earth-1. In fact, one of his experiments is what caused his homeworld to be destroyed.
Theory about the Ray:
Doesn’t the spirit of the original Ray have some sort of contact with the current Ray? Perhaps that’s the Earth-X connection.