Infinite Crisis #2 – summary and review.

After the first issue, I was expecting more plot movement and less summary from this one. I’d say more action, but the truth is that between the Freedom Fighters having their asses handed to them and Mongul’s attack on the Big Three, there was action in the first issue.

This issue opens showing the home life of Animal Man, as he prepares to head out into space, discussing that the animals all over the world are having flight reactions. As he puts it, “I tried to borrow speed from a rabbit yesterday and I ended up thumping my foot against the ground for an hour.”

Next, we see Donna Troy’s space-bound heroes. Air Wave is having a breakdown from the sounds of all the deaths in the Rann-Thanagar war. This is a particularly human couple of pages, just showing how some of the heroes get along, or deal with each other.

Superman of Earth-2 revealed last issue to be the narrator says he can hear Supergirl’s heart beating (from space? Dude’s some kind of powerful) in perfect synch with Power Girl’s. This might help explain why when they were close to each other their powers got a little haywire. This leads to Power Girl’s scene. She is under attack by members of the Society, who say they have instructions to take her alive. She fights, but starts to take a little bit of a beating. To be fair, she is facing enemies of Captain Marvel and Superman, for the most part. Then he steps in. Kal-L. The Superman of Earth-2. He makes short (VERY short) work of the villains attacking Power Girl, and offers her his hand, calling her cousin. Throughout the series, we are seeing red skies, just like we did through Crisis on Infinite Earths. When Kal-L shows up to save Power Girl, The skies in the area are suddenly blue. In his own words, “The clouds part. The yellow sun welcomes me back.”

Next we see Superman, taking Batman’s accusation of last issue to heart. He takes steps to move in the opposite direction. He now understands his role and intends to fulfill it.

After that, we see Lex Luthor talking to the Society’s inner circle – Deathstroke the Terminator, Dr. Psycho and the Calculator specifically in this case, and he needs one of the Marvel family. Since they are having trouble finding them, he instructs the Society to bring him Black Adam instead. Deathstroke says that the heroes being captured (The Ray in issue 1, the attempt to capture Power Girl a few pages ago, and could this be where the Martian Manhunter has gone?) are to be used to power a mind-wiping machine. Triggered by the events revealed in Identity Crisis, when the JLA (or at least some of them) mind-wiped Dr. Light and others, including Batman, the Society evidently intends to strike back.

Next scene: Lex Luthor in the icy wastes near Kal-L’s new Fortress of Solitude. But this is a different Lex. This Lex is listening in on the conversation that the Society’s Lex is having with Deathstroke. This Lex is having trouble thinking straight. And, he has green eyes, where the society’s Lex has blue. If you go back through recent comics (the last year or two) you will see different Lex appearances, some of which have green eyes and some of which have blue. It has never been a mistake. One of these Lexes (Lexi?) is not from the main DC world, which explains the befuddlement when they are in the same reality. Much like when Power Girl and Supergirl got too close to each other.

Kal-L brings Power Girl back to see Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor as well as his Lois. We get a quick summary of the creation of the multiverse by Krona, a Scientist from the planet Oa, before everyone from there looked the same. Then, we get a summary of how the different earths were different and how the League met the Society, and of Crisis on Infinite Earths, when the being called the Anti-Monitor destroyed most of the earths of the multiverse. How he was defeated, and how the result was a single universe, which is how it was meant to be.

Superman covers how Alexander Luthor created a pocket dimension where the four of them, who probably should have been destroyed in the new reality, were able to survive, and watch the rest of the DCU. Things were going well. But then they took a turn for the worse.

We see the events that led this Superman to decide that the world needed him again: The death of Robin, the death of Superman, Batman having his back broken, Wonder Woman being replaced by the more violent Artemis, Sue Dibny’s death in Identity Crisis, Blue Beetle’s death at the hands of Maxwell Lord, Superboy turning on the Teen Titans due to the part of him that is Lex Luthor, and Maxwell Lord’s death at the hands of Wonder Woman.

Superman then shows Kara that his Lois is dying.

Next we see the return of Booster Gold. His intention was, apparently to have appeared before someone in a Superman-type costume took Martian Manhunter and destroyed the JLA Watchtower, but he is too late. He sets out to find Blue Beetle’s scarab. This scarab powered the original Blue Beetle, who actually had some powers, but not the most recent one. The most recent one took his inspiration from the original, and they were friends, but Ted Kord was never super-powered.

The next page, we touch base with one of DC’s main villains, who we haven’t seen yet this series: The Joker. He has apparently taken out the Royal Flush Gang on his own. He asks King when his invitation to the Society is going to come, and King’s answer doesn’t make him happy: “You’re the only one they don’t want. See, everyone knows… Joker’s too wild.” Making Joker unhappy typically isn’t a good recipe for a long life. That remains true. Joker walks out of the casino where the confrontation took place, saying “that’s not funny.” I have a funny feeling that will end up being significant.

Next, Kal-L reveals Power Girl’s true origin as basically the Supergirl of Earth-2 to her, and she remembers her close familial bonds with Kal and Lois.

Batman is shown blowing off Alfred’s attempts to sew up some of his cuts. He goes so far as slapping Alfred’s hand away, only to get a line from Alfred that cuts him as deeply as his line to Superman last issue: “You know, there was one thing your father never wanted to be. Alone. Fortunately, he had your mother at his side. Even at the worst of times.” Batman has no response. He pauses, and goes back to work trying to figure out what happened with Brother Eye.

Brother Eye basically says that he has simply taken Batman’s mission for it, that of monitoring the super heroes, to the next level, using the OMAC technology that Maxwell Lord added to it. He says there were 1.3 million OMACs, of which 60.7% were disabled at the end of the OMAC Project miniseries. The rest are going to “protect this world from people like (Wonder Woman).”

The OMACs have begun an all-out attack on Paradise Isle, where Wonder Woman stands with the Amazons, including her once-rival Artemis, and Fury from the Young All Stars. Wonder Woman is unsure how to fight the menace – OMACs have innocent people inside.

At the end of the issue, Kal-L reveals something shocking: He intends to replace the current earth with Earth-2, and bring back the world he remembers as being “right” or “perfect.”

It’s an interesting comic. More catch up, and even less action. This was mostly a “talking heads” type of issue, but we do see some changes starting: Superman wants to fix the problem that Batman identified, and Batman is forced to confront the fact that he keeps pushing everyone he cares about, and who might care about him, away. Wonder Woman is shown not to be bloodthirsty in this issue, perhaps not as far gone as Superman and Batman think her to be.

Kal-L might just turn out to be the villain of the piece. Also, there is some fracturing within the Society, as that Lex’s goals are more important to him than loyalty to Black Adam.

The story moves forward, and I am looking forward to more action in the next issue.