Infinite Crisis #6

[Now Experiencing] [Comics]

WARNING: Extreme spoilers. Those who care about such things should smash their computer monitors before reading on to protect their childlike innocence.

Well, I picked up my copy of Infinite Crisis issue 6. Once again my curses flow to DC for making me actually interested in a direct sequel to my least favourite crossover event of all time (except for maybe that Maxx/Gen-13 thing... *shudder*).

Good things about issue 6:
* Mr Terrific's sole power, being "completely invisible to all technology", after being almost totally ignored through the entire run of JSA, finally becomes crucially relevant during the assault on Brother Eye.
*Black Adam pokes Psycho Pirate's eyes out.
*Hal Jordan gets some opening lines on the first page that almost justify bringing him back from the dead.

Confusing things about issue 6:
* Brother Eye appears to recognise Batman as a metahuman ("subject alpha") although is able to tell that Nightwing is a normal human ("subject beta").
* Alex Luthor has apparently melded one or more of the versions of Superman with one or more versions of Lex Luthor.

Things about issue 6 that I haven't made my mind up about yet:
* The "real" Superboy (Conner) appears to be dead (presumably to pave the way for the big Superboy continuity changes - see below).

And... well, as you probably guessed was coming, the entire DC continuity has been reforged again. The second last page of the issue features a bunch of the "continuity shards" from Superboy et al's glass prison - I'm not sure if these are meant to be things that DID happen now or DIDN'T happen.... but two noteworthy appearances in the pictures are a newspaper headline showing that (as per Batman Begins), the murderer of Thomas and Martha Wayne was caught and arrested - one Joe Chill. And a picture of Superboy growing up in Smallville (as per the TV show). It looks like DC are trying to get their comics back in line with the currently more successful media versions. You can bet that the new changes to Superman are going to gel perfectly with Bryan Singer's Superman Returns movie.

Once again, I'm mostly very annoyed at Infinite Crisis. Some of its plotlines have been kind of cool (Identity Crisis/Crisis of Conscience), some have been interesting (the new prominence of Deathstroke, for example), but some have done nothing but potentially ruin some titles that were doing perfectly fine, like Batman and the Teen Titans. Sigh. At least it doesn't suck as much as the original Crisis on Infinite Earths (although maybe that's just because I'm more up on the current state of continuity going into Infinite Crisis than I was for the original).

As I write, I'm looking glumly at the Omac Project Infinite Crisis special, which takes place immediately after IC #6. Will it be any better? It's got Greg Rucka's name on the cover -that's a good sign, right? I'll read it a bit later, I think.