Worlds would live...worlds would die. And the DC Universe would never be the same again.
The Third Tape: DC Dave and Doug Adamson play Tape #3, which looks at …
Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
With co-host Paul Hix from the Waiting for Doom podcast.
Timestamps:
Leave comments for this episode and view episode related images at our website at: The Monitor Tapes.com / 3
Email us at themonitortapes@gmail.com
Follow us on social media:
Instagram, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon and YouTube: TheMonitorTapes
======================================
Waiting for Doom & DCOCD Podcasts
Back Issue! #195 – Crisis on Infinite Earths 40th Anniversary Retrospective
DC Finest: Events: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One
New History of the DC Universe
Follow the JSApril action on social media with the hashtag #JSApril
Music: Achilles
Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Great episode and glad to get to this issue. And fun to hear Paul talking about a Crisis event!
I got this off the rack and I have to say the book opens with a ka-pow. Earth 3 destroyed. If Ultraman, Superwoman, Power Ring, and Jonny Quick can get snuffed so easily, so could the JLA. And I knew of the good Luthor from a DCCP Annual so it was good to see him too!
The rest of the ‘forming the band’ aspect is interesting if only for the nutty make-up of the team. Solivar??
And, of course, the great ending where we finally see the Monitor.
It worked for me.
As for the use of DC Universe, I think you are right! After all, the original title was Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths. Look on line and you’ll find them!
Anyways, love the show!
I’m with Anj, this was another terrific episode. Paul is always good value (What? He came for free?).
And I also recognised Earth 3 Lex Luthor from DC Comics Presents Annual. Boys, you should have bought more comics.
I like that you’ll be zapping around the business of Crisis, but please, don’t do the core issues out of order; there’s nothing to be gained. (Yes, I feel so strongly about this, I broke out the semi-colon.)
Sam Simeon is another famous Gorilla City native, but I don’t think that had been revealed yet, so it doesn’t count.
Those three Silver Age facts Doug noted about Earth Three make it sound more like the Bizarro World than anything else
Thank you, Doug for reviving the term ‘Marvelite’, I’m so tired of ‘Marvel zombies’, they’re dead to me.
The heroes and villains gathered this issue were an odd gathering, but I suppose if they’d followed logic and organised an infinite army of Supermen it’d be less interesting.
Thank you for the mention of Sam Simeon (of Angel & the Ape fame)!
Great show, Dave and Doug. And Paul, I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank you for the DCOCD podcast. I discovered it a coiple of years ago, binged all the back episodes, and have been a listener ever since. Tackling all those DC events was surely a huge task.
COIE #1 was an instant hit w/ me. I had probably been reading DC comics pretty regularly for about 6-7 years by that point. I loved how it really leaned into the size and scope of the DC universe. In some ways, it was like a (greatly) expanded version of Showcase #100 which was one of the first comics I remember reading repeatedly as a kid.
I had known Blue Beetle a little bit thanks to some Charlton comics in one of those plastic grab bags of various books and was excited to see him pop up here. The Crime Syndicate were familiar from the Crisis on Earth-Prime story from a few years earlier. Lex Luthor of Earth 3 was new to me, but it didn’t take long to figure out who he was and what his deal was.
You make an excellent point about the historical and cultural implications of Earth 3 such as America colonizing Europe and Abraham Lincoln shooting John Wilkes Booth. I think that most later explorations of the Crime Syndicate/Earth 3 have moved toward showing it as a world where only the forces of good and evil are flipped with evil having the upper hand rather than an entire planet of opposites a la Bizarro World.
Excellent episode!
At the time, I liked this 1st issue very much. It established the stakes, especially with the Crime Syndicate of America being horrendously overmatched by the threat. Perez was key to this, because he sold the scale of the various locations, drew a cast of hundreds, and sold with facial expressions and body language the characters in the story. My particular favorite was where Ultraman showed a hint of the heroic fiber that he is a dark reflection of, compared to Power Ring, who died a whimpering coward.
I recognized almost every character in Crisis on Infinite Earths because (a) I obsessively read all the Who’s Who stuff out at the time; (b) I was a big DC comics reader, and read a lot of issues of my own, collected hardbound comics as gifts from family, and from the comics collections of friends; and (c) taking quizes in books about the DC universe.
Lastly, pretty sure that members of the Doom Patrol (at the time) appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths. We’ll get to it, but Negative Woman was instrumental in the fight against Chemo, and Robotman, Tempest, and Celsius all make appearances as well.
As it happens I’ve been going through All-Stars (66-68) where Pycho-pirate has been manipulating the JSA, he’s also apparently responsible for Commissioner Wayne trying to arrest Power Girl. Which is mostly so she can get shot and have a new costume after her original was considered too risque!
Apparently before his he was in a few issues back in the 60s, replacing another Psycho-pirate from the 40s, and has a few more after this with All-Star Squadron before turning up in Crisis!
And very good show, even if I’m a little behind in listening!