Best…Issue…Ever

So yeah, I was wrong. Darkseid isn’t behind Infinite Crisis. It’s not a plan he and Lex Luthor started way back in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies to eliminate Earth’s metahumans so they could take over earth and the rest of the universe without opposition. Supergirl didn’t kill Martian Manhunter (although I’m still convinced she’s evil). But you know what? I couldn’t be happier I was wrong.

Infinite Crisis #4 came out this week, and with it came an amazing explanation of the big four events leading up to Infinite Crisis. The rampage of the Spectre in Day of Vengeance was of the utmost importance, as all of the world’s magic was reduced to it’s rawest form, creating the fuel necessary for Alex Luthor’s machine. On the other hand, the Rann/Thanagar War was merely a side effect of Superboy repositioning the planets to the way they were before the pre-Crisis Earths merged. The creation of the Society in Villains United was just a means to attain the ingredients necessary to run the machine: representatives from each of the pre-Crisis Earths. And the OMAC Project was…the programming? I’m not quite sure why a mystically powered, universe altering machine needs programming from a sentient computer, but if nothing else, it was a big red herring that kept the heroes’ attention pointed elsewhere while Luthor was able to put his plan into motion. And all that exposition only took up one page!

That left 29 pages for the destruction of Bludhaven; a meeting between Batman and Nightwing (continued directly from the last panel of the issue of Nightwing that came out this week) that drastically improved Nightwing’s standing in the DCU (poor, doomed Nightwing); the continued mysterious mission of Booster Gold and Skeets, the most unfortunately named robot sidekick ever; the Spectre receiving a new host (a character from, of all books, Gotham Central); a huge knock-down, drag-out fight between Earth-Prime Superboy and the combined forces of the Teen Titans, Doom Patrol, the JSA and more, featuring dismemberment, decapitation and chest explosions; the end of the Speed Force and two Flashes; the (momentary) return of Barry Allen; Alex Luthor ripping a hole in the fabric of time and space; and the restoration of Earth-2.

Sure, I could nitpick the tiny things, like how Nightwing was inside Bludhaven, not on its outskirts, when he met up with Batman in Nightwing, or that the Amazonian super-weapon shown in Infinite Crisis #3 doesn’t look anything like the one shown in Wonder Woman. But at least every character acts consistently the same in all of their appearances and things that relate to crossover titles are being addressed in them.

Joe Quesada take note: THIS IS HOW YOU DO A MEGA-CROSSOVER! Only halfway in and we’ve already seen more happen than what happened in House of M and The Other combined. Thank you, Geoff Johns and DC, for making all this actually mean something.