Unresolved Aspects of Crisis

[Adam Chapman]

This is a thread for talking about things you were disappointed about with Crisis, with an emphasis on things you found to be unresolved or just kind of left out. With such a huge event crammed into only a handful of issues instead of, say, 12, there were a lot of characters not doing much as a result, and sub-plots which suffered as a result. Which bothered you the most?

Personally, and I've mentioned this is another thread, I was really bothered by INFINITE CRISIS #7 SPOILERSthe fight in Metropolis being so damn short, after a whole issue of build-up in the Villains United Special. The other specials at least tried to do something meaningful, but the only meaningful thing that came out of the VU special was to show that the Secret Six are mercenaries, which could have been done in their own mini-series, and set up one hell of a cool fight sequence, which was reduced to a few muddied panels, and Doomsday being beaten with just a few little punch panels. All the build-up, and then thrown away.

I was also irritated by Donna Troy's mission... to do what exactly? What was her team there for, what did they actually do, after all the build-up and her recruiting her team... what was the point of it?

[Terry Verticchio]

Yeah, Donna's plot kinda got lost didn't it? What happened to Animal Man? It seemed he was going to have a bigger part in the story. Maybe DC should have made IC 8 issues, or maybe even 12 like the original Crisis.

[Adam Chapman]

Even Ion... he got new powers from the death of Jenny, and then did he even really show up again? Where'd he and everyone else in space go off to? What happened to Cyborg? So much going on that it all got lost in the fog. How did Robin get to Metropolis? Wasn't he in Bludhaven? And what about Captain Atom? So he just shows up when Breach ruptures, and then OYL he's in stasis in Bludhaven? What? Where'd Zoom go off to? What about the other higher-ups of the Society? What the heck happened with them?

[DocDoom]

Answer: ALL OF THIS HAPPENED TO SELL MORE IC-RELATED ISSUES OF REGULAR THE TITLES!!!!
I'm sure all the DC-biased guys are gonna scream that you have to read 52 to find out!! but recently, i stacked up all the IC-related issues that i bought in the last couple of years... and i have to say some had whole issues dedicated to an IC plot or mini plot that at the end had no SATISFACTORY PAYOFF!!!

[Terry Verticchio]

Yup this series needed a couple more issues.

I think DC was more interested in getting OYL off the ground. Or the delays in the art made the story suffer a bit.

[Fanatix]

Yup this series needed a couple more issues.

I think DC was more interested in getting OYL off the ground. Or the delays in the art made the story suffer a bit.

Then people would have been complaining "DC's making me buy more comics :dunce:" Its a damned if they do damned if they don't situation. They NEEDED to wrap the series up, it had gotten huge and it had to end. But Johns and the guys had too much other stuff they wanted to throw in, fights in metropolis, in space, in budhaven. All great stuff but some things had to be shorterned to get it all in.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the entire event. The only missteps were the return of donna troy trash. It did seem to get really big though which is good and bad. It went from adam strange trying to find his family, blue beetle investigating his company, and luthor going uber bad guy again too the end of the universe and 60 year old characters and dimensions, time travel. They did a spectacular job of keeping track with everything considering how massive the story became, but maybe it could have been scaled down a little.

In the end what was blue beetles death for? At the time I said he died a hero in the best beetle story ever told, and its still damn true. But the main thing is that he was killed by a bad guy who had been infilitrating the jla for years, but max ended up having almost no impact since he was killed by wonder woman. Which admittedly split the trinity, but considering how bad things got, I doubt they'd have done much better if they were all best buds.

A lot of the open threads were left open so that new books could be published, new and old characters could be explored and new plots were available. Which is good so i'm hardly going to complain that kyle became ion and then had little impact. If it had not happaned kyle would be back without a book again.

[Liam Creswick]

Even Ion... he got new powers from the death of Jenny, and then did he even really show up again? Where'd he and everyone else in space go off to? What happened to Cyborg? So much going on that it all got lost in the fog. How did Robin get to Metropolis? Wasn't he in Bludhaven? And what about Captain Atom? So he just shows up when Breach ruptures, and then OYL he's in stasis in Bludhaven? What? Where'd Zoom go off to? What about the other higher-ups of the Society? What the heck happened with them?

Agreed, I they did even explain what Donna, Cyborg, Animalman ect did...

Was there a regular title where this was explained.....?

And is the Captain Atom in Wildstorm mini done yet, cause that may explain how he got back.... but if it is done..... the wth?

[bugsypal86]

Well it seemed to me that Donna's team saved the day when Firestorm turned all of their energy into pure positive energy giving Superboy and the other heros the chance to stop Alex. But, it seems after that that some of the heroes were knocked out and some (judging by images from 52) were sent to another place or universe from the backlash inflicted by Alex. Also, Robin got to Metroplis because he and the other Titans were kicked out of Bludhaven by the Freedom Ring in Battle For Bludhaven #1. And finally though this will agree that DC left things open to pump out new series to make money, almost all your other questions (such as how Captain Atom got into the stasis) will more than likely be answered in 52

[JX141]

Agreed, I they did even explain what Donna, Cyborg, Animalman ect did...

Was there a regular title where this was explained.....?

And is the Captain Atom in Wildstorm mini done yet, cause that may explain how he got back.... but if it is done..... the wth?
th CA mini is not done yet

[Mark Blicharz]

Everything will be explained come 52.

[Terry Verticchio]

I'm sure it will, Mark. Unfortunately the gaps and lapses made the book a bit clunky.

But hey, I'm surprised the writers and editors managed to keep a hold on all the plot threads for as long as they had.

[Mark Blicharz]

I'm sure it will, Mark. Unfortunately the gaps and lapses made the book a bit clunky.

But hey, I'm surprised the writers and editors managed to keep a hold on all the plot threads for as long as they had.

Thing is, all these "unresolved" plots weren't meant to be resolved in IC. 52 is what brings everyone up to speed on what happened in the year between IC and the current DCU.

[jonsnow]

I was thrilled with IC. Maybe the fight in Metroplois could have been longer, but it was still soild. I am really stoked for 52, and hey maybe it does require a huge commitment to DC. But they have impressed me enough to throw my lot in with them and invest soley in them. No Marvel for me for a long time, DC has won me over with IC and the universe wide effects.

[Jason Kanno]

I have a question. If Bart aged in the Speed Force, why didn't Superboy? Is it because he's out of his universe?

I can't afford 52, which sucks because I'm interested in how some of these IC plots are resolved.

[jonsnow]

I have a question. If Bart aged in the Speed Force, why didn't Superboy? Is it because he's out of his universe?

I can't afford 52, which sucks because I'm interested in how some of these IC plots are resolved.
COuld be that they spent different amounts of time or something. That is an interesting question.
I ams ure you will be able to find places to keep you up to date, but yeah it will be missing something if you don't read it yourself. Which is why I am getting it. I spent the last few weeks tweaking and pruning my pull list to stay on budget but still nab 52. I originally planned to skip it alos, but IC finished so strong and OYL has impressed me so much (sole exception Nightwing) that I want to see where it goes.

[Justin Byrd]

I have a question. If Bart aged in the Speed Force, why didn't Superboy? Is it because he's out of his universe?

I can't afford 52, which sucks because I'm interested in how some of these IC plots are resolved.
Perhaps due to his Kryptonian physiology Superboy ages slower?

[Batmanfan79]

Aside from stuff that should (hopefully) be revealed in 52, I had issues with the Donna Troy thing. Why were they going there in the first place?

The battle in Metropolis was wayyy too short. It seemed like it was a real short fight and some of these villains weren't chump change. That could have been a whole issue in itself. Doomsday was treated like a run of the mill no-name. The fight was one splash page. That's it.

The whole everything combining into New Earth could have been explained a little more.

Overall I was satisfied, but I think IC could have been at least 9 issues with the last being kind of an aftermath thing.

[Liam Creswick]

Everything will be explained come 52.

But things like Donna team in space, they went up there to do thier part to help the crisis. The Crisis is over. WTH did they do?

And if they explain that in 52, good, but it should have been done in the crisis. 52 should explain what happens from the end of the crisis to now. What donna and her team did was during the crisis (im assuming). I dunno, I think its silly, Infinite Crisis is for Crisis stuff and 52 is for the year missing stuff, IMO. They shouldent use 52 to explain stuff that should have been done in crisis, 52 is for that missing year.

[bugsypal86]

Well as I explained in my first post. Donna's team played a key role in giving the Supermans the ability to stop Alex, along with giving Superboy and the other heros the ability to destroy the tower. Along with that after words they were knocked out by the backlash and some seem to have been transported to some place else (like Starfire and Animalman) which will be dealt with in 52

[Jim Wright]

About Bart

Bart's always aged fast. In fact, he went from infant to teen extremely fast. So fast, Iris West felt the need to take him back in time and have Wally help him which Wally did by making Bart run faster than he had before. The reason Bart was aging so fast was the Speed Force was making him age quickly. So I imagine being in the Speed Force would age Bart faster than SBP.

[Adam Chapman]

Thing is, all these "unresolved" plots weren't meant to be resolved in IC. 52 is what brings everyone up to speed on what happened in the year between IC and the current DCU.

Cheeeaaaapppp ploy! I guess I'm the only one that likes the major mini-series events like Infinite Crisis to wrap up and not just leave tons and tons of dangling plot threads at the end, which force the reader to buy a 52 issue series in order to understand the unresolved plot points which are left over and which could have been resolved in the main series. Crossover fatigue.

[Fanatix]

Cheeeaaaapppp ploy! I guess I'm the only one that likes the major mini-series events like Infinite Crisis to wrap up and not just leave tons and tons of dangling plot threads at the end, which force the reader to buy a 52 issue series in order to understand the unresolved plot points which are left over and which could have been resolved in the main series. Crossover fatigue.

Somewhat...

If an event/miniseries/crisis is gonna be big, gonna be epic, and most of all worth probably over 100 bucks in comic books its GOT to have lasting implications. If it was a self contained story then it wouldn't be a big deal. It'd be a nice elsewords series or something. For these events to be considered a success new characters have to be introduced, some have to die. There has to be some change, which means to understand everything you have to read comics afterwards to find out the lasting reprecussions. This has been the norm since COIE and the first secret wars. All the way up through death of superman, onslaught, and house of M.

I don't think Johns and Morrison were sitting around saying "hey, how can we squeeze more cash from this. I know, lets put all the normal reprecussions from these type of events into another series people have to buy instead of the characters titles. How about we make it weekly. Brilliant!"
It was more likely they just thought this was a cool way of telling a story (which is the point of a comic). And it is, 52 is one of the most original, creative, and risky ideas i've ever heard of being done by a comic book company. It could turn out really cool, or if it starts feeling slow by issue 15 then there could be some huge problems.

But at the very end of the day, Its not like your being FORCED to read it. We live in a world of wikipedia and comic book forums with nerds like us on it. If you wanna find out what youv'e missed if you don't read it, i'm sure all you'll have to do is read the reviews and ask questions. I read house of M but have absolutly no interest in the x-titles, so I didn't read deadly genesis or decimation. Instead I just asked "hey, was prof X ever found" and like 20 minutes you gave me an answer.

[Gabriel Diaz]

This is going to sound like a COMPLETE plug but go check out the Soothsayer column I did on IC when it started, my main beef is that they had built up all of these great stories and then SUDDENLY there's a new twist from EOIC.

Donna's group accomplished their mission in the Rann/Thanagar Special, they found that neither side was to blame and that Superboy Prime had been the reason why the two sides had begun to fight. Read that issue and yes ION shows up but the majority of their mission is already completed right there, along with finding out that Superboy Prime was running around messing things up.

DC had a good thing going with just the BUILD UP to IC but wanted something bigger so they added the Alex/SBP/SME1 scenario, which granted has answered alot but took the thunder from some of the better aspects of the build up.

Main question that I still have, was the lex that was beat in SM/BM 1-6 Alex or the real Lex? And what was the purpose of killing Phariah?

[Liam Creswick]

Cheeeaaaapppp ploy! I guess I'm the only one that likes the major mini-series events like Infinite Crisis to wrap up and not just leave tons and tons of dangling plot threads at the end, which force the reader to buy a 52 issue series in order to understand the unresolved plot points which are left over and which could have been resolved in the main series. Crossover fatigue.

Agreed. Co-Signed. Here Here. I think that the number of questions left and unresolved was too many, but I can live with that though. My problem, and Ive said this before, is with how 52 is being handled. It is supposed to answer all IC and OYL questions, and thats all well and good, but the fact that is it $2.50 and NO TRADES seems pretty low to me. They give you all sort of incredible stories in both regular titles and IC and Tie ins, but leave a butt load of questions, and the only way to ahev those questions answered is to shell out 2.50 every week FOR A YEAR. 52 may be an incredibly good read, but that doesnt excuse the price and more so, the fact that there is no trades. Like a drug dealerl that lets you have the first hit for free......

[Liam Creswick]

Main question that I still have, was the lex that was beat in SM/BM 1-6 Alex or the real Lex? And what was the purpose of killing Phariah?

I was gonna tell you it was regular Luthor, but now that I think about it could very well be either. Anyone have an answer to this question?

[jonsnow]

I was gonna tell you it was regular Luthor, but now that I think about it could very well be either. Anyone have an answer to this question?
Pretty sure is was Lex not Alex. I could be wrong.

[Figaro]

How would the real Lex have known about "a crisis" then again why would Alex need to be taking Venom?

[jonsnow]

How would the real Lex have known about "a crisis" then again why would Alex need to be taking Venom?
Or wearing an Apokaliptan battle-suit?

[Gabriel Diaz]

But then the question still comes in, how could Lex have known about 'a crisis' if it wasn't ALEX pretending to be him?

[jonsnow]

But then the question still comes in, how could Lex have known about 'a crisis' if it wasn't ALEX pretending to be him?
Good point as well.

[WhereIsTony]

The series started strong and then fizzled out


I agree 52 should be to explain what happened during the missing year, not what happened in the mini-series i shelled out so much money for.

[Justin Byrd]

But then the question still comes in, how could Lex have known about 'a crisis' if it wasn't ALEX pretending to be him?
He might have just been using "crisis" as a figure of speech?

He didn't necessarily have to mean the same Crisis.

[Liam Creswick]

He might have just been using "crisis" as a figure of speech?

He didn't necessarily have to mean the same Crisis.

My thoughts exactly. Though no one knows for sure, I would bet money on it being Lex Lex at the end of Sm/Bm 1-6. I wouldent be supriesed if it was Alex though. The things that happen in those six issues could very well be dictated by Alex.

[Gabriel Diaz]

Ha! Here's the thing! When Johns was interviews for Wizard, Loeb said that the mention of 'a crisis' is the first official mention of what was coming down the line, it was the first seed planted.

So the question again, chicken or egg, Lex or Alex?

[Justin Byrd]

Ha! Here's the thing! When Johns was interviews for Wizard, Loeb said that the mention of 'a crisis' is the first official mention of what was coming down the line, it was the first seed planted.

So the question again, chicken or egg, Lex or Alex?
I think it was Lex, and he meant it as a play on words.

"there will be a reckoning, a crisis."

It was a hint from Loeb, but story-wise it was just Lex saying it.

Remember, in Public Enemies he was screwed over by Talia, who was backing "Lex" in Villains United (who we eventually found out was Alex).

[jonsnow]

I think it was Lex, and he meant it as a play on words.

"there will be a reckoning, a crisis."

It was a hint from Loeb, but story-wise it was just Lex saying it.

Remember, in Public Enemies he was screwed over by Talia, who was backing "Lex" in Villains United (who we eventually found out was Alex).
SM/BM was so much fun with Loeb, I feel terrible for the guy and what he went through so I did not get too peeved it was so late. I don't have any excitement for the new team though. I would be very suprised if that was Alex, not Lex though.

[supermanfan]

I read all 7 Infinite Crisis copies, and some of the cross overs. Quite frankly, I am not sure exactly what happened in the end.

Yes, I am disappointed.

[Justin Byrd]

I read all 7 Infinite Crisis copies, and some of the cross overs. Quite frankly, I am not sure exactly what happened in the end.

Yes, I am disappointed.
How do you mean? What was so confusing?

[DocDoom]

I read all 7 Infinite Crisis copies, and some of the cross overs. Quite frankly, I am not sure exactly what happened in the end.

Yes, I am disappointed.
You are not alone Supermanfan, Even if they did resolve all the questions raised for 2 years WHICH THEY SAID WAS GOING TO BE ANSWERED IN IC.. the last issues were really flat, the ending uninspired; now DC has a lot of my money, and i feel at the end the whole thing did not earn my money ..... And you can see a lot of that happening to a lot of people in many sites in the internet .. just not this one..:cool:

[jonsnow]

Everyone is entitled to their opinions on this, but I loved every step of the way, and I am thrilled it continues.

[Downfall]

Everyone is entitled to their opinions on this, but I loved every step of the way, and I am thrilled it continues.
Co-signed. I do wish they had gone another issue so some of the little, yet important emotional scenes had gotten fleshed out.

And we still haven't learned how Ollie survived the destruction of Star City, that wasn't even mentioned... But still, I count that as a feat. My man no-sold two arrows to the chest, that's my boy!