=" MARV WOLFMAN & GEORGE PEREZUm ORL Rae aa ee td | LE hit La UE Ce ee Rem Ue RRC eU AU ae Che Ly a 12-issue series that rocked the comics community, tragically dooming some of DC's most beloved yo Cee altering others, An unforgettable and defining event in comics history, MET og pela pri make good on 4 DT Rue ns iil i ls Presaration win PO slepoy by George Pérez, with inks by De oC meC IL G UL Sa Ml ii if Hehe hath Deneahany terete ra siege by a mysterious force pawerful enough to wipe out the lives of billions. De ee eee ar ees Clana aE crea TREE EEEa TTA TES) tds 34NTs eT TCUM UIT SMUNTN yesteM Te (2 Nemo Testty 2 feof ee Crd ene e lor ete afid enhancement ee LBA LP Sa * letterer ‘reels : erie covers by oe : eee saya 9 iFan Didio P-Editorial ary Wolfman Editor-original series Ack Taylor Jim Spivey Editors-collected edition fob Hahan Consulting Editer-collected edition Robert Greenberger Associate Editor-original series Robbin Brosterman Senior Ant Director Paul Levitz Chris Caramalis VP-Finance Terri Cunningham VP-Managing Editor Alison Gill VP-Manufacturing Lillian Laserson Senior VP & General Counsel Jim Lee Editorial Director-WildStorm David McHillins VP-Advertising, President & Publisher John Nee Georg Brewer VP -Buisness Development WP-Desten & Retail Product — Cheryl Aubin Development yp-Licensing & Merchandising Richard Bruning — go Wayne Senior VP-Creative Director’ p.Sales & Marketing Patrick Coldon Senior VP-Finance & Operations CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Published by DC Comics, Campilation © 2000 DC Comics, All Rights Reserved. Cover, introduction and afterword copyright © 199 DC Comics, All Rights Reserved. Originally published in single magazine form as CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS [-12, Copyright © 1985 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved All characters, thelr distinctive likenesses and related indicia featured in thi are trademarks of DC Comics. The stories, characters. and incidents featured in this publication are entirely fictional. BC Comics does not reed or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories or artwork DE Comics, 1700 Broadway, New York. NY 10019 A Wamer Bros, Entertainment Company. Printed in Canada. Third Printing ISBN: 1-46389-750-4 Cover illustration by Georcr PEREZ AND ALEX Ross, Ink finishes on the “Monitor Tapes” by At. Vev. Reproduction art assembly and reconstruction by Nick NarouTAND. Black & white reconstructian on selected intemal material by Rick KEENE Publication design by MURPHY FoELNEST. SPECIAL THANKS 70 KEWN EASTRMAN AND JONATHAN MARKETA FOR A LEGEND CONTAINING A COMPLETE IDENTIFICATION (OF ALL THE CHARACTERS ON THE COVER PLEASE GOTO ‘eww dccomies.cenverisisfcover:himlTTT W elcome to the collected CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, a comic novel drawn by the always amazing George Pérez and written by me, originally published by DC Comics from January to December, 1985. You can't possibly know how much this fully recolored, high quality hardcover printing means ta me. You see, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS was, in many ways, not just a job, but a calling; the story | had wanted t write ever since | was a kid reading comic books on my stoop under an unquestioning sun in Brooklyn, New York When | was growing up in the ‘60s, the super-hero team comic to read was the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, a book featuring seven or eight of DC's super- heroes. Occasionally, the ILA would meet THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA~ their 1940's counterparts from Earth-Two, which was in another dimension — and we'd have maybe filteen or sixteen heroes in a special two-part LISA story. But being the greedy fan | was, | always wanted to see a single story featuring all the DC superherges from the past, present and future. | even came up with a villain for the saga and gave him the ever-so-awesome name of “The Librarian." Pretty scary, eh? What's he gonna do? Charge the heroes a nickel a day for overdue books? “Anyway, in my mind's eye, the Librarian, living ina satellite orditing the arth, observed all the heroes, and sold the information he obtained about the heroes to other villains. Eventually, the heroes would learn about the villain, team up and end his threat, In the meantime, I'd become a fan of The Prisoner TY show. The Prisoner was, as far as I knew, the first intentional limited series with a beginning, mictdle and a definite end (even if it was cryptic). | loved the idea of a short-run series and wandered why it had never been done in comics. This format would be wonderful, I naively thought, for my Librarian serie ‘Once | became a professional writer | menticned my “brilliant” idea to several editors at both BC and Marvel and was promptly told that limited series would be impossible to sell, Back in 1970, first issues of comics, | was informed, sold poorly Readers were suspicious of comics with low numbers (as opposed to, say, ACTION COMICS #450, which indicated it had been around for a long time}, Besides, it usually took six issues for readers to decide te give a new comic a try, therefore a limited series would be half over before sales could begin to improve. | felt like a fool for making the suggestion, shut up and went back to writing my little mystery stories for HOUSE OF SECRETS and WITCHING HOUR In the ‘70s, | went on to become an editor at Warren Publishing (Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella magazines), then editor for the Marvel Magazine line, and linally Editor in-Chief of Marvel Comics. At the same time, comics fandom exploded into creation, Comic baok shops: opened and the direct sales market was born, This meant for the first time there were stores that catered only to camic-baok fans. These fans. like myself, didn’t wail for issue ten to buy a new comic; they eagerly bought all first issues. In 1980, | returned to DC Comics. George Pérez and I co-created THE NEW TEEN TITANS for DC, and it quickly became their number-one-selling book. George also drew |LA while | wrote SUPERMAN, BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN and others. By this point | had given up on using the Librarian in a huge companywide crossover series and instead, with a name change to The Monitor, George and | made him a villain in THE TITANS. While writing GREEN LANTERN I received a letter from a fan asking about a mixup in DC continuity. In my reply | said, “One day we (meaning the DC editorial we} will probably straighten out what is in the DC Universe...and what is outside.” At this point in its history DC Comics had Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Three, Earth-8. ete ‘There were superheroes on each Earth and though old-time readers had no prableming to new readers who suddenly fomans, Batmans, etc. DC could simplify its understanding DC it proved off-put discovered there was not one but three The letter to G Supermans. Wonder GREEN LANTE continuity and lure new readers to the fold, Suddenly, | thought of The Monitor and my Original intent for the character. This would be the perfect vehicle in which to do the maxiseries. The ide and within four days DC approved a rse to be done ina |2-part series. Georg issue six, as co-plotter) and came up with the title an homage to the |LAIS: RN made me wonder how of our youth, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, as We announced CRISIS in 1981 at a comics convention in Ne but researching DCs long and convoluted history kept us busy {c | years We decided to hold off publishing CRISIS until 1985 — which was also DC's 50th Anniversary, What better gift to the company that began it all than te help restart its next 50 years When George and | began CRISIS we promised th would die. and the DC Universe would never be the same It is now 1998, thirteen years later In 1981, nobody could have predicted the effect CRISIS would have, not only at DC, but throughout t omics inclustry What began as one child's dream of doing a special series featuring all the heroes he knew has blossomed into a regular event at every company. After the astounding success of CRISIS —which was created only to simplify the DC universe ‘or new readers — every publisher, even those who were brand-new, jumped onto the on with a company-changing series of their own, whether they “clean house” or not, In many ways, | fea annual stunt has taken over comics publishing, Ifit isn't big, if heroes don't die, if worlds don’t change. then, many feel the stories aren't worth reading But CRISIS existed in its pure form only to bring DC back to an ei read beginning before enc continuity took over. The idea was nol to make comics accessible only to longtime fans, but to everyone Over the past decade and more, I've been asked many questions about CRISIS, Here's a chance to answer the most important o1 © Was CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS successful! int ils stated goal? The answer is, partially, CRISIS brought readers to DC Comics, and that was, of course, its purpose. It allowed for the successful revamping of er series, It has Id live, worlds orlds \ Superman and ath also allowed for less successful relaunches, at DC and elsewhere. # Kutowing what fas hapyened in comies.liwse past 13. yeurs. woud | do the all over again? Yes, The idea vw nplify the universe, and we did 50. After a few tough starts, | would like to think those who followed us understand the need to keep work- ing to broaden the reader base, not to