A Crisis of Chronology: Infinite Crisis

Following the conclusion of Matt’s three part treatise on the crossover (parts one, two and three), I found it only appropriate to cover one of the most well known crossovers: DC’s massive Infinite Crisis. As today’s article is on a whole event rather than a long period of time, the layout of the list will be slightly different and be looked at on a more issue-by-issue basis. If you’re prepared to get neck-deep in a stack of comics, take the jump to learn more.

About Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis was an incredible event particularly because of its lasting effect on the DC Universe. Everything and everyone was affected by the crisis in some way, and, unless the DCU ever completely reboots, that effect will always be there. The crisis itself stemmed out of four separate miniseries, each with completely different focuses, that eventually came together in the main event. This caused the actual event to truly seem like the result of an organic progression, and the true result of having a universe that shares so many different elements. If you’re looking for fast paced action, however, I would move on. Infinite Crisis, especially with a chunk of its tie-ins, has a lot of focus on the way the crisis and all the events that led to it has affected the individual characters of the DCU, and so it may seem a bit plodding to those who are just looking for a battle royale (though there are plenty of those too).

What to Read Beforehand
So long as you have a decent knowledge of DC history, you should be able to just jump in at Countdown to Infinite Crisis and read on from there. However, if your knowledge of the DCU’s history is a little bit rough then I recommend reading a few of the following stories beforehand (though they certainly aren’t necessary):

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day
Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans (up until The Insiders)
Identity Crisis
Green Lantern: Rebirth
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge (actually sort of happens around the same time as Infinite Crisis)
JSA: Black Reign
JSA: Lost
Adam Strange: Planet Heist

Any more suggestions to that list are more than welcome.

About the List
Now, I didn’t include every single Infinite Crisis tie-in on the list. A good portion of the so-called tie-ins were simply labeled as such because an OMAC randomly appeared and then disappeared or something along those lines. I feel my list contributes the most to the progression of the event as a whole, so don’t get angry if I left your favorite character’s tie-in off of the list. If there’s a character that you really like who had an ongoing at the time, by all means pick up the issues that crossed over with Infinite Crisis. Other things were left off because I wanted everything to occur between Countdown to Infinite Crisis and Infinite Crisis #7, so any stories that started before Countdown that then became an Infinite Crisis tie-in wouldn’t quite “fit”.

Now without further adieu, I present the list: