Tales From The Dark Multiverse #1: Crisis On Infinite Earths

Tales From the Dark Multiverse #1: Crisis on Infinite Earths

DC Comics 2020

Written by Steve Orlando

Illustrated by Mike Perkins

Coloured by Andy Troy

Lettered by ALW’s Troy Peteri

When the Anti-Monitor’s deadly grudge match with the Multiverse was finally foiled, there was only one Earth left! But which Earth? That was crucial to what would happen next. In one timeline, Earth-1’s Superman stopped the Superman of Earth-2 from going into final battle, but in the Dark Multiverse, it’s Jor-L of Earth-2 who survives, changing the landscape for all that follows. When Surtur comes looking to crush all life, the beleaguered heroes jump into their next big battle, jumping from one Crisis to the next...but will the last days of the Justice Society of America play out differently if Green Lantern Alan Scott can step into the darkness?

So I was flipping through this and I came across one image that said okay it’s time to sit down and really read this. I hate to say it but I am not a fan of all this various mishegas that is going on within DC, it’s one never ending event after another and they overlap and things just get messy and it’s hard to follow anything. Now if this were an Elseworld’s story that’d be absolutely amazing, but nowadays very little is NOT cannon and that’s wrong, to me. Still we open with this crazy looking dude who I want to be a new type of Monitor as he narrates pretty much everything. Also once the JLA is outta the way my real interest begins.

I rather enjoy Steve’s writing style and this is exactly why. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exceptionally well rendered. The narration leads us to seeing my absolute favourite group that we never saw enough of, The All-Star Squadron, yes spoilery but that’s okay it’s what made me want this story. Sigh I want to see more of this Earth as their stories eventually lead up to this one because I see the Red Bee and he’s my ultimate hero. The character development couldn’t have been any more on point with how these characters would act and speak. The pacing is phenomenal and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and these events it really makes for sensational reading.

Mike’s interiors here are mindbogglingly magnificent to behold. Seeing them battle Surtur is highly reminiscent of that eternal battle that they fought in Valhalla, Ragnarok. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised bringing out the detail work is beyond measure. With the backgrounds we see and how the composition within the panels are utilised bring us this incredible depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is amazing to see. How the various hues and tones within the colours are utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work looks amazing.

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So with these characters and who they are as we see them at the end there is so much potential for this divergent timeline business. This is a book, series, world, timeline that needs to stay divergent and it needs to be explored and these creators need to do just that. No merging with the “main” universe just a title that remains separate from all the others like the Vertigo and Elseworlds used to be. There is so much happening in this giant issue that can’t just be the end of it. Oh and away with this Dark Multiverse stuff that is a red flag for most just let this be put out without tie-ins or gimmicks and it’ll end up being the best thing DC puts out.