Comments on: Breaking down “Event” comics, Part Six: Rann-Thanagar War; or, when spectacle triumphs over substance!

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 19:02:52 +0000

Blue Spider – that’s why I didn’t go there. I still think that entertainment reflects reality a lot more than many people want to credit it. Even if Gibbons doesn’t want to reflect the war currently being fought, and I don’t think consciously he did, he has to be influenced by it. Even a little bit. And I have decided to skip the Donna Troy thing. I don’t need the “whole thing” – you never really do in crossovers, after all.

By: Blue Spider

Blue Spider — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:13:49 +0000

and Greg… “the whole thing” is…. a lot more comics than are in your list, unfortunately.

Consider that the Batman/Jason Todd thing is officially part of “the whole thing” and that nothing Geoff Johns wrote was excluded from “The whole thing”.

By: Blue Spider

Blue Spider — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:10:28 +0000

“All war comics these days can be seen as commentary on the war on terror/war in Iraq”

If you look too hard, or too deep, yes.

Of course, if your statement is unconditionally accurate than most or all of comics writers for these series are pretentious prigs and I shouldn’t be reading the stuff.

There are fools out there who say Star Wars is an analogue of the Vietnam War. Joss Whedon said that Serenity was topical.

When I see Death Stars and government-created rape-zombies then I’ll give more credence to the notion that these fantasy stories should be stand-ins for other things.

By: John Seavey

John Seavey — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:43:58 +0000

Personally, I thought it was fun in a space-opera “turn off your brain, turn on your rocket pack” sort of way, but I don’t think there’s actually a ton to argue with in your review. If you wanted substantial, insightful discussion of war using interstellar battles between two major powers as a lens, you were going to be disappointed; if you wanted to see Adam Strange and Hawkman kicking giant metal demi-god buttocks, it was fun.

As for ‘The Return of Donna Troy’…it gets better after the first two issues, but Lord, it still ain’t good. And packaging it with Graduation Day, well…whoever coined the phrase “less is more” might have been talking about that. (You wanna talk about mini-series being written just to kill off a character? Go read ‘Graduation Day’. “A robot shows up. It kills Donna Troy. It shuts off.” They needed three issues to tell that. Compared to that, ‘Day of Vengeance’ is freaking ‘Watchmen’.)

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:00:28 +0000

Time for me to be Mr. Pedantic: Rann-Thanagar War is not a prequel to Infinite Crisis. To be a prequel, it would have had to come out after. Like the other minis, it’s just a prelude to IC.

By: Binkley

Binkley — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:23:16 +0000

The whole point of RTW was to introduce all of the space characters so that in 2006 and 2007 DC can roll out more mini-series and more series featuring these characters. Tigorr and the Omega Men will appear later this year. There is the GL Corps, of course. And a new and improved Captain Comet will arrive soon as well. Both RTW and DoV were designed to roll out new characters (a new Spectre!) and new ideas (Shadowpact!) and actually had little to do with IC.

By: Marshall Maresca

Marshall Maresca — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 04:12:25 +0000

There’s also the second-to-last JLA arc of “Crisis of Conscience”, which was also essentially a Prelude To Infinite Crisis mini. It does lead into the beginning scenes of IC#1.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:22:33 +0000

i thought planet heist was hella fun, but yeah, this mini blew chunks. what wasted potential. the ivan reis artwork is sure purty, tho.

By: muldertp

muldertp — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:12:20 +0000

Unfortunately, it’s “part” of it. It’s the obly mini-series I’ve dropped halfway through in 2 years because it was so bad.

It isn’t essential to understanding IC, though.

From a certain point of view, 2-3 issues of every DC title is “part” of IC, so I just toss this in with all those categorically.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:53:52 +0000

Is that part of the whole thing? I fear to read it, because I hear it’s ridiculously convoluted, but if it’s “necessary,” I will bug the comic book guy from whom I got these series for it tomorrow.

By: Ken Raining

Ken Raining — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:03:32 +0000

Whoa Greg, hold on! You’re forgetting the Return of Donna Troy mini!Remember, that’s the one that’s so important, such a milestone of the art form, DC chose it to roll out their new logo!

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:06:15 +0000

Yes, I have the special AND the Secret Files. I will talk about them in the same post as IC.

By: Jordan D. White

Jordan D. White — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:39:23 +0000

So, the question is, will you read JUST Infinite Crisis? What about all the specials following up on these minis? And what about the Secret Files? Will you read all those seperately, or as they came out, intermingled with the series?