Infinite Crisis [Paperback]

So I'm a big geek. I'm the first person to admit that. Heck, I practically revel in it. And I was a huge fan of DC Comics's Infinite Crisis saga from last year. Still, I was skeptical at the announcement that a novelization of the comic book was in the coming. Comic novelizations -- like novelizations of movies or TV shows -- are notoriously hit and miss, and most of those I've read of late have been misses. Infinite Crisis, to put it simply, falls somewhere in between.

The world is falling apart around its greatest heroes. Batman's paranoia has led him to create a supercomputer that has rebelled against him, threatening the entire world. Wonder Woman has slain a former ally to save the life of another. And Superman has lost his ability to lead, lost their faith, and lost his faith in himself. Four separate crises are converging, and the only hope for the entire Earth is that their champions conquer themselves and learn how to be heroes again.

The original story was pretty powerful and kept my attention throughout. The novel suffers from the same obstacle as most comic novelizations -- it assumes that the reader has familiarity with the characters and the situations involved. While that's true in my case, you can't assume that will be true for every reader, and that lack of accessibility is a big problem. On the other hand, Greg Cox does exactly what you hope a novelization author will do -- he delves deeper into the minds and hearts of the characters than was allowed in the comic book format. The Last Run of the Flashes, for example, pulls us straight into Bart Allen's heart and lets us feel for him in a way that the comic book -- strong as a scene as that was -- did not.

The rest of the novel is similarly hit-and-miss -- if you don't know the characters, you won't get as much out of it. If you do know them, it will hit you a lot harder. Strong, but not strong enough to recommend to the casual reader.

Story:

The Crisis on Infinite earths had ended with the defeat of the Anti-Monitor and the recreation of the universe as it was meant to be. There now is only one Earth and one time line. Time has passed and only a few know the true scope of what it cost to defeat the Anti-Monitor and stop its quest of destruction. Time has also moved on with those that were most affected by the changes that were made when the various realties were merged into one.
The new world that emerged following the crisis was both the same and different. Much of the world existed as it always had with a few additions here and there from the other realties that folded into each other. No one was the wiser since as far as they were concerned that was the way it had always been.
Except there is a group of people that could see the differences in this new world and they wondered if they had made a mistake.
The hero's that should be protecting this world are instead fighting themselves and causing more problems than they are solving. Batman, in his paranoia, created a satellite that was meant to keep an eye on his fellow super heroes. Instead his creation has evolved into a malevolent AI that has only one goal: Kill all mutants and super heroes. Wonder Woman has turned into a vigilante that takes matters into her own hands; becoming judge, jury and executioner. Superman finds that no matter what he does the chaos continues to spread and without the help of his longtime friends and companions he is powerless to stop it.
To add to these problems all the villains of the world have banded together and have begun an all-out attack on the forces of good. As heroes begin to fall and the destruction spreads, it seems that the end of the world may finally be at hand.
Except that group that thought they had made a mistake... they had a solution. It would mean the end of this new time line, but wasn't the world they left behind better than the one that they created?

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To start off there is something about this book that kept me reading. At times , unless you're a comic book fan, the story bounces around so much and references events that the reader may or may not be familiar with that it can make one's eyes start to glaze over. I know mine did a couple of times, usually when the author is trying to explain why this particular encounter is important or why that event is causing this character to act like they are.
The main story itself is pretty exciting and keeps the action moving. There are enough twist and turns to keep even a causal comic book fan like myself guessing and there is even a couple of plot points that can make you think about the story in a different light. Before you read this I would definitely check out the Crisis on Infinite Earth's book so that the story makes a little more sense. It doesn't hurt if you have seen some of the recent animated movies either. I would recommend this to any one that wants to find out what happened after the Infinite Crisis and those who like fast paced action adventure books in general. M.ac.

I'm not one for reading novelizations of comic books, but Greg Cox has taken one of the most complicated plot lines in the DC Universe and made it interesting -- even without the pictures. This book (as the Infinite Crisis comics did) has everything: heroes and villians from every iteration of DC comics, and a universe-threatening conflict. The storyline has a villian wanting to undo what had been done in an earlier Crisis; take the myriad alternate Earths that had been combined into one and rip them apart again to find the "perfect" Earth. After a rather confusing start (mostly for those who haven't kept up with comic books after, say, the age of 14 or the 1970s, whichever applies), the novel settles into a more traditional prose pace, making it work despite the cheesy dialog which reflects the book's origins. All in all, a good read, but only for those who already know about, or grew up with, the DC heroes and villians and want a good, all-encompassing adventure.