The Infinite Crisis Companion
Grade 7 Up—Prior to DC Comics's revamp of its superhero universe inInfinite Crisis, a series of prelude miniseries were released to set up the larger conflicts that the central title would address. Despite the fact that each of these series—including Greg Rucka'sThe OMAC Projectand Gail Simone'sVillains United(both 2006)—ended abruptly and had a promised follow-up "special" yet to be published, they were collected in trade paperback. Unable to be included in the already-released trades or compiled with the massiveInfinite Crisiscollection, they appear in their semi-orphaned state in this book. The title is actually apt, but it doesn't make the effect any less jagged: the stories are clearly continuations of distant events, and they have only the most tenuous of internal connections. To use popular comic-universe terminology, they are a tangled mass of "continuity," helping to draw lines between other books, events, and situations. The varied artwork is quite good, and the stories are not without drama and effective moments, but this volume would be lost on casual readers; the characters are plentiful and the situations convoluted, as the massive cast of practically the entire superhero world shows up to be counted. As a supplement to collections that contain the previously mentioned titles, it would be welcome and quite useful, but it would be a mystifying morass if read on its own.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.