Infinite Crisis #4 Book review

And look here, another new scribe in our venerable pantheon of creative talent. Joshua hails from the Mile High City area and likens himself to a neo-Dramatic Shakespearean character. Seems that when he was but a wee child, he was sold to a passing Gypsy tribe and trained in their ways. On nights of the quarter moon, he has been known to tie a dead rat to a string and twirl it around his head to ward off spirits.

Wow! You just can't beat a comic that starts with the bad guys dropping a 40-ton creature made from irradiated goo on to a city. Especially when said monster is only being dropped on this city to punish Nightwing.

Now, a lot of people have complained that this series is only for the hardcore fan and it is incomprehensible to the new reader. I agree. This event is here to tie up some old stories and clean the slate for the future. All the titles will leap forward one year soon and when they do it will all be fresh story for new fans.

These huge comics events are rarely for the uninitiated. They are like wonderful, geeky, continuity-crazy valentine's cards to the longtime fans.

Now, at times this series is jumbled. There are a LOT of things going on here. We have a giant rift in space, a giant war in space, an uber-powerful villain pulling everyone's strings, a city completely destroyed and to top it all off an enraged Superboy killing former Titans left and right. You are bound to cram things a bit in these first few issues just to get everything ready for the big payoff at the end.

So, Superboy. Yikes! Never have the powers of a Superboy been shown so perfectly, so viscerally. Blood everywhere. Exactly what would happen if our Super folk didn't pull their punches. Frightening.

Then the men who take Superboy down. Wally West, Bart Allen and Jay Garrick. Three of my favorite heroes. They semi-sacrifice themselves to take this crazed powerhouse down. With the help of course of Johnny Quick, Max Mercury and the greatest speedster of all...Barry Allen! Now, where did Wally and Bart and the rest end up? Who knows. Yes, it could've been handled better. Yes, they could've devoted more pages to the end of these great characters. In the end however, I think that Geoff Johns did what he could in the confines of this series.

So, there you go. The writing is definitely just fine and the art is great. With the exception of a cheesy photograph at the end of the book. I love this series and this issue was probably the best so far. I give it an A+. Then again, I'm the guy who liked the original New Universe comics.