“Infinite Crisis” Novelization

posted by JediSheltie @ 5:50 PM

As I alluded to in my “semi” regular "Round Up" column, I recently had cause to be on modest sized be-winged transportation devices sometimes known as “airplanes” recently. Mostly this one, to be specific. The Sunday before I left I found myself at the local Barnes and Noble, seeking something to keep me company whilst aloft, and whilst stuck in 3 hour layovers.

It was with some trepidation I picked up the Infinite Crisis novelization. After all, I'm generally the “move forward” type, and I already knew the story. Perhaps, I thought, this might (as most film novelizations do) provide some deeper insight into the actions seen in the comic. So I grabbed it and latest Spenser novel and off I went to the ole homeland.

After the first few chapters, my hopes of additional insight were pretty much put to rest. I have to admit, author Greg Cox had an unenviable and most likely impossible task of novelizing a seven page comic whose roots ran throughout the entire DC Universe and through most of its last 20 years and beyond. Even with the book running 371 pages in a prestige paperback format, what was delivered was little more than a description of the comic pages you probably read a year ago.

If you didn't, then prepare for headaches. Hell, even if you did, you'll still probably be hitting the Wiki hard.

The action picks up from the last few frames of JLA 120 with the destruction of the Watchtower and then flips into a virtually frame-by-frame rendition of Infinite Crisis 1-7. With a few bare exceptions wherein some ancillary material is used, the pages follow along exactly with the comic. Events are described in a straightforward manner, usually preceded by a 2 or 3 sentence “expository” paragraph that does a poor job of preparing the uninformed reader about why what's about to happen is of any importance at all.

Don't know who the Freedom Fighters are? Have no clue what Rann and Thanagar are, much less why they're fighting each other? Wondering why Wonder Woman apparently offed some guy named Max Lord? What's Earth-Prime and why am I on it? Wait, there was more than one “crisis”? All these questions and more are covered in the barest of fashions, unable to communicate the gravity of the events they precede or are about to precipitate.

That's why I feel sorry for Greg Cox, who was given an impossible job. To cover everything, the “novelization” of Infinite Crisis probably should have been at least 10 400-page prestige format novels, not just one. Only then could we be given the opportunity to care about anything that happens in this event to characters we've never heard of and won't ever hear about again.

Essentially this novel was written for no one. If you've already read the comics, then there's nothing here you haven't seen before, in color with little word balloons, in fact. If you haven't read Infinite Crisis, then you're in for a mind boggling experience of characters and events that mean very little to you and won't be able to understand. Basically, if you're a DC Universe historian who missed out on the comics, then maybe this book is for you. Then again, picking up the trade is probably the best bet in that case.

What could have been done better? Where I given the same unenviable task as Mr. Cox, then I would have attempted to cut the story down to only people with S's, Bats, and abstract W's on their chests and their immediate associates. There is a compelling story to tell in terms of the 2 Supermen, Superboy Prime, Luthors, and the rest. One that still might span more than one 400 page novel. Attempting to tell the whole story, in such a small space, meant only that the story was poorly told.

The only really worthwhile part of the book is the forward by Mark Waid, who explains, in part, why the comic event happened. He focus more on the character aspect, instead of the “cleaning up continuity messes” aspect. The character aspect being the stranglehold Frank Miller and all his disciples held over the superhero comic industry for the past 20 years. Bravo for that, of course.

So, basically, if you see it on the shelf of your local Barnes and Noble, then read the forward and just walk away, you've gotten everything it has to give you.