Spread

See, this is exactly my problem with this whole Infinite Crisis project.

DC has apparently rush-solicited a book they call Prelude to Infinite Crisis (Countdown was taken obviously; I can only assume that Antecedent to Infinite Crisis will be next). The book'll weigh in at about 96 pages, and will set you back six bucks (suggesting that the 16 pages this tome has on Countdown's length are worth an additional fiver, if I may be so bold as to introduce the rigid logic of mathematics). It will reprint the two-part Flash/Wonder Woman crossover from a couple months ago, the lead story from the most recent Superman Secret Files and, according to the press release, "select pages from nearly two dozen other DCU comics, with new text adding context to each story sequence."

DC would have you believe that this is a service to their readers. At best, it's a concession.

Somehow this company has taken its most appealing aspect--something, to be fair, it shares with Marvel--and turned it into a liability. The shared continuity is the most exciting thing that the DCU has going for it. It's fun to read, say, Detective Comics and Action Comics independently, only to see Superman, faced with an overwhelming problem, turn to Batman for help. Or, more accurately, it's fun to see this once in a while. What's bothersome is to see a major problem faced by Superman and Batman, and Wonder Woman, and the Flash, and the Justice League, and the Justice Society, and the Titans, and, ineffably, Adam Strange, and, once we get around to unkilling her, Donna Troy, each in their own books. Each of which you are asked to pay for.

In theory, it's exciting to see these heroes band together, to see the thread of continuity strung not between two characters or two books, but between all of them. But in practice, frankly, it's impossible. At least, it's impossible for me, inasmuch as I don't have an inexhaustible income.

The prevailing attitude from DC editorial seems to be "no, of course you don't have to buy all of these books to get the whole story," a standard company line (literally) whenever one of the big two trots out one of these big crossovers. However, I can't help but see as how a book like this completely undermines that position. A reprint book like this is just a finger in the dike (so to speak...), a way for DC to hopefully prevent their readers from being completely overwhelmed by a project that's gotten completely away from them. And, bear in mind, we're still a ways off from the actual book in which the central story will appear. I can't help but think that if DC was honest, solicited this as a multi-part story with central, unignorable events occurring in quite a few of their regular books, they would engender more good will than they will doing what they're doing.

What's better, picking up your monthly copy of Aquaman to see "Infinite Crisis part fourteen of seventy-two" on the cover, "continued in next week's Adventures of Superman" announced on the last page, or reading your supposedly self-contained issue of JSA to find that halfway through, a minor scene in an issue of The Outsiders from three months ago has become a major plot point? Neither is particularly appealing. Neither is respectful of the concept of the shared universe, to say nothing of a particular book's readers. But at least you can budget for one.