Continued from last week, here’s Part 2 of the Grumpy Old Fan Pocket Guide To DC Line-Wide Crossovers — plus some (slightly) more substantial analysis.

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11. Genesis (1997; 4 weekly issues and 23 tie-in issues)

Why? Apparently the source of all our heroes’ powers — yes, all of them — is something called the “Godwave,” which is connected to the Fourth Worlzzzzzzzzzzzz

How? Got me. I thought Genesis depended too much on the reader’s pre-existing knowledge of what writer John Byrne was then doing with the Fourth World. Since I wasn’t reading Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, I was lost.

So? It’s a weekly series centered on the New Gods. What could go wrong?

After? Not much … although again, it didn’t exactly scare DC away from weekly series centered on the New Gods.

12. DC One Million (1998; 4 weekly issues, an 80-Page Giant, and 33 tie-in issues)

Why? Because Grant Morrison, that’s why.

How? Justice Legion A cordially invites the Justice League of America to the 853rd Century (one million months after Action Comics #1) to celebrate the original Superman’s return. Meanwhile, Vandal Savage and Solaris the Tyrant Sun plot to destroy Superman (literally) once and for all.

So? A meditation on DC’s superheroic legacies turns out to be maybe the publisher’s best event. Not just a Justice League story thanks to the contributions of a Starman and Resurrection Man, its conceit allows for the other titles to have some fun “One Million Issues.” The action sequences are engaging, especially the Justice League B-listers vs. Justice Legion A; and I proudly admit to getting a little wistful every time I see that you-know-what on the Sun. It ends on a touching romantic note, and in a sense it even anticipates Morrison’s All-Star Superman work.

After? An Hourman series, featuring the future’s favorite android, lasted a respectable 25 issues. The implied temporal paradox between this book and an earlier Kingdom Come-related Special set up the discovery of Hypertime. A sort-of sequel, the highly enjoyable DC Two Thousand, found the 1940s’ Justice Society trying to prevent our awful future.

13. Day Of Judgment (1999; 5 weekly issues, 1 special, a Secret Files, and 15 tie-in issues)

Why? Look, Hal Jordan doesn’t stop being useful just because he’s dead.

How? A host-less Spectre (insert cupcake joke here) is ripe for takeover by Eclipso the rogue angel Asmodel, so a passel of Justice Leaguers and magical heroes have to stop him.

So? Artist Matt Smith tries a little too hard to be Mike Mignola, the script isn’t one of Geoff Johns’ best, and once you see who’s available the ending is blindingly obvious; but as these things go, it isn’t bad.

After? Launched a new Spectre series (duh), which lasted 28 issues; gave Blue Devil his soul back; and set a precedent for Day Of Vengeance’s plot.

14. Our Worlds at War (2001; 11 specials, a Secret Files, and 26 tie-in issues, spread over 8 weeks)

Why? Because Galactus would be better with an interstellar army.

How? Lots of punching and kicking and military jargon; plus, President Luthor, Darkseid, Doomsday, and Brainiac. Possibly the only “decentralized” Big Event in DC’s modern publishing history, since it had no central miniseries.

So? Lots of punching and kicking and military jargon, topped off by a feat of celestial engineering that actually worked pretty well in the context of a Superman-centric crossover. Still, OWAW – which I suppose you could pronounce “Oh, wow…” — probably goes on twice as long as it should, and features some uncomfortable (albeit coincidental) parallels with 9/11.

After? OWAW killed Queen Hippolyta in a pretty permanent-looking way; killed Aquaman in a way that set up his eventual return; killed Guy Gardner for about a month and Steel for an afternoon; and replaced Superman’s yellow highlights with black for a year.

15. Joker: The Last Laugh (2001; 6 weekly issues, a Secret Files, and 25 tie-in issues)

Why? Because Underworld Unleashed would have been better with Joker-venom instead of diabolical intervention.

How? Random supervillains get “Jokerized” and wreak even crazier havoc.

So? [edited for spoilers] The story comes down to the Joker being beaten literally to death, and then resuscitated. It ends up reinforcing the insular, personal battle between Batman and the Joker. As portable as the character is, not even he and his own army can carry a line-wide event. (In fact, the paperback, out this week, re-titles the story Batman: The Joker’s Last Laugh.)

After? Amazingly enough, the Bat-books got grimmer.

16. Identity Crisis (2004; 7 double-sized monthly issues and 6 tie-in issues)

Why? Turns out DC had a high-profile fan in mystery novelist Brad Meltzer.

How? Jean Loring, in Sue Dibny’s brain, tromping around.

So? Shamelessly manipulative, full of misdirection, and no real ending. However, it did put a creepy spin on an old JLA/Secret Society story.

After? You mean other than the discussions of misogyny, WiR, “darkening” light-hearted characters, and whether Deathstroke could single-handedly take out all those Leaguers? Well…

17. Infinite Crisis (2005-06; 7 double-sized monthly issues; the DC Countdown Special; 4 lead-in miniseries each comprising 6 issues and a Special, and including the 4-issue “Sacrifice” arc; the 4-issue Return Of Donna Troy miniseries; and a Secret Files; plus 60 additional tie-in issues, for a total of 109 issues)

Why? To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Crisis On Infinite Earths, and — what the heck! — to do a “soft reboot” of the superhero line.

How? Some of the original Multiverse’s survivors join forces to build the perfect Earth.

So? Kind of a mess, despite some good moments (the fight with the Flashes, for example); and in the end, it’s a little too reliant on carnage. Having Superboy-Prime beat the Earth-2 Superman to death is definitely an unsavory conclusion.

After? InfC helped launch new versions of Blue Beetle, Checkmate, Secret Six, and the Spectre (third time’s the charm!); and organized a handful of DC’s magical characters into Shadowpact. The Brave New World Special fit in here somewhere, launching a new Atom series and assorted lead-out miniseries (Trials of Shazam!, Martian Manhunter, etc.). Otherwise, DC’s superhero books jumped a year into the “future,” leaving the missing period for …

18. 52 (2006-07; 52 weekly issues plus the four World War III Specials)

Why? The heavy hitters are gone, but things are hardly quiet.

How? It’s the weekly adventures of Ralph Dibny, Booster Gold, Adam Strange, Renee Montoya, and associated B- and C-listers.

So? A bit uneven, but good overall. Could have done without the World War III specials, though.

After? The Multiverse is back, kind of; with 52 familiar-looking Earths just waiting to be exploi– uh, explored. Also helped launch new series for Booster Gold and Infinity, Inc., as well as assorted follow-up miniseries.

19. Countdown (To Final Crisis) (2007-08; 51 weekly issues plus the 4-issue Arena; the 8-issue Death of the New Gods; parts of the 8-issue Countdown To Adventure and the 8-issue Countdown To Mystery; the 6-issue Search For Ray Palmer; the 6-issue Lord Havok; the 7-issue Salvation Run; the 6-issue Amazons Attack; and assorted tie-ins which I don’t have the inclination to count just yet but we’re over 100 issues already)

Why? Because 52 would have been better if it had been completely different.

How? As DC’s superhero “spine,” Countdown would weave through smaller events, leading the reader on a weekly journey and culminating in a big Darkseid scheme. Also, Kamandi.

So? Too much outsourcing to other titles, poor internal pacing, and a plot that, in the end, just didn’t make sense.

After? … And here we are.

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Looking back at these 19 line-wide events, some trends do emerge. Four were offshoots of existing titles’ storylines: Millennium (Green Lantern), War of the Gods (Wonder Woman), Genesis (Jack Kirby’s Fourth World), and Our Worlds At War (the Superman titles). Five others had clear connections to existing titles, even if they weren’t direct outgrowths of those titles’ current storylines: Invasion! (Legion of Super-Heroes), Zero Hour (Green Lantern), DC One Million (JLA), and Joker: The Last Laugh (duh). The rest either drew from multiple sources (i.e., Parallax + LSH = Final Night) or were simply broad enough to involve a bunch of different super-characters.

In terms of format, it seems that until the last few years, these events tended to be more compact. Crisis On Infinite Earths‘ twelve monthly issues spanned all of 1985 (at least on the newsstands); so, perhaps to avoid size-based comparisons, Legends lasted six months, Millennium two (eight weekly issues, remember), and Invasion! three. The “summer Annual” format dominated for the next few years, followed by the “done-in-about-a-month” format. Thus, the weekly event seems to have won whatever format war might have existed. Nine of DC’s events have been published weekly, with six of those spanning six weeks or fewer, and four of those appearing from 1996 through 1999. (The smaller events are also easier to package, which wasn’t as much of a concern in the “bookend-and-Annuals” days.)

Of course, two of those weekly events were 52 and Countdown, which at first glance hardly compare to, say, the much shorter Genesis or Last Laugh. However, in a sense they bring us back to COIE’s “importance through frequency” aspect. Although they took place largely during Earth-1’s July 1985, the events of Crisis were serious enough to warrant an entire year’s worth of a reader’s time. From COIE through Countdown, the implication is that these year-long stories are too big for anything less. While that’s a rather superficial implication, I don’t think it’s too far off. Over the past few years, DC has put significant effort into building and maintaining a “constant crossover” atmosphere, such that if you jump off the moving bandwagon, good luck getting back on.

Although that atmosphere is encouraged by the Identity/Infinite/Final Crisis progression, these kinds of events have fed off each other before. A2K1’s Monarch became Zero Hour’s Extant; Day of Judgment basically prefigures Day of Vengeance; and three separate events inform Hal Jordan’s post-GL career. Regardless, the constant crossover is a radical shift from the done-in-about-a-month approach of the late ‘90s, to say nothing of the lack of line-wide events in the early years of this decade. Indeed, whether by design or market demands, the universe-building appears to be throttling back to Identity Crisis’ oversized-monthly-issue format and frequency — which is appropriate, since IdC kicked off the current cycle.

Final Crisis will have about four times the tie-ins, though. In addition to the seven double-sized issues of FC proper, Douglas Wolk counts “23 additional tie-in comics”: the 5-issue Legion Of Three Worlds, the 5-issue Revelation, the 3-issue Rogues’ Revenge, the DC Universe #0 preview, the FC Sketchbook, six one-shot Specials (Requiem, Superman Beyond, etc.), and ancillary issues of Batman and Justice League. Unofficial tie-ins may include specials like last week’s JLA reprints. We should also consider the number of stories published in the past few years which might inform Final Crisis – “The Lightning Saga,” for instance — but that might be hard to evaluate until after FC ends.

By the numbers, then, Final Crisis looks more like Legends (which, you’ll remember, ran 6 monthly issues and tied into 22 issues of regular series). Thematically, though, the two have different goals. Where Legends aimed to show off the streamlined superhero line and launch a few new books along the way, FC seems more interested in telling a straightforward adventure, leaving the long-term marketing to the ongoing books themselves.

Nevertheless, numbers, format, and frequency aren’t the best way to judge line-wide events … but I see our time is through. Next time (solicits permitting) we’ll look at the line-wide crossover’s role in DC’s shared-universe, corporate-superhero setting.

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