TALES FROM THE DARK UNIVERSE CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTH #1 DC COMICS
A Universe where Earth 2 survived instead of Earth 1?! Count me in! Writer Steve Orlando’s story does an amazing job and really throws us Golden Agers some real treats. The fact that it is not the Justice Society that rises against Surtur but rather the All-Star Squadron brings us dozens of cameos that filled this old heart with joy! The Red Bee! TNT and Dan the Dyna-mite! Manhunter and Thor! Sargon the Sorcerer! The Whip! The list goes on and on! And FINALLY! someone put the Golden Age Aquaman to good use! The twists of the story that show the changes in the original timeline make sense and using the events of Ragnarok keeps everything pre-crisis.
However, like with all the Dark Multiverse tales, there are some problems. Not giving any spoilers, the final resolution seem like a bit of a cop out. And the deaths come fast and sometimes a bit silly. The death caused by TNT’s ring is especially terrible. Mike Perkins art works well for the general theme of the story but seems to work better on the smaller panels where the art is more focused. And some of the images seemed to be inspired by the general Golden Age mayhem from an independant one-shot from many years back featuring an homage version of the JSA getting wiped out in horrific ways. All in all, started off as a 9 but ended on an 8. I give it 8 Grahams.
