Mass Hysteria

I have to say I thought it was pretty cool that DC's "Infinite Crisis" mini series got a "LOWBROW-BRILLIANT" rating in New York Magazine's HIGHBROW/LOWBROW-BRILLIANT/DISPICABLE matrix because yes, I do rate myself against those fancy people in NYC and to be honest, I think I do OK. But enough about me- "Infinite Crisis" is jim dandy, an insane pastiche about the armageddon of DC's mythical universe, when everything... everything is going to HELL: blue cyborgs are patrolling the world destroying superheroes and supervillains alike, all of the supervillains have banded together under Lex Luthor (they've already killed the Atom Bomb and the superhero called Uncle Sam- yikes!), all of the magic in the DC Universe is messed up and run amok (think the freaky parts of Constantine on super-crank), every interstellar race in the DC universe is at war (think Hitchhiker's Guide movie- on super-crank and a bad acid trip), and worse, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are taking a break.

Ya see, a few years back the JLA (Justice League of America) fiddled with Batman's memories to cover up a questionable tactic (the JLA mindwiped the Injustice Gang after they switched bodies- the supervillains naturally find out everybody's secret identities, badness ensues and a significant other ends up raped by a supervillain, resulting in the aforementioned super villain mind wipe) , Batman found out (naturally) and ends up building a satellite to spy on the super buddies that he can't trust anymore, a satellite which is subverted into creating the blue cyborgs that are menacing the superpowered community. Batman also finds out about said subversion and is almost killed by Superman, who is being mindcontrolled by a former friend turned mastermind who has planned to use Batman's satellite and blue androids to protect mankind from the superpowered community at all costs, a mastermind who ends up killed by Wonder Woman to save Batman and Superman, both of whom are shocked and chagrined by Wonder Woman's ultimate sanction tactics. Which brings us to the break, and why this books is so much fun, and pertinant: the emotions are universal, raw, and imminently identifiable, and like most of the best DC stuff in the last few years (including Brad Metzger's "Identity Crisis," which really applied adult tragedy and crisis to the stalwart DC Universe to tremendous effect- and started this whole story arc) I feel emotinally there in the thick of this psychedelic supercraziness, and that is groovy and intense, especially when it's all gone to the dogs, when the cornerstones of THE superhero pantheon- the ones that EVERYBODY knows, have gone their own ways (think Fleetwood Mac on super-crank), leaving everybody, everybody (superheroes, supervillains, regular people, hell... THE UNIVERSE) in a serious lurch.

Now that's what I call excitment, and yes, the world is going to hell; it does that occasionally. But in the end, like in the comics, you gotta pull together and persevere, and for the first time in a while I am intrigued to see how the DC Universe and it's holy trinity pulls it off (because... of course they will).