I had to put an exclamation point in there, because who can say “crisis on infinite earths” without being, well, exclamatory? This week, my column is named after the moment in the DC comics universe (somewhere in the mid-1980s) when all the infinite earths with their multiple alternate versions of your favorite heroes went boom. The series that chronicled this mega-disaster was called “crisis on infinite earths.”

Mostly, however, the column is about why I’ve suddenly become deeply obsessed with comic books. Partly it was a result of exposure to series like Grant Morrison’s harrowing “We3,” which is like a cross between Cute Overload and Apocalypse Now. But it’s also because comic books, like videogames, are a medium that lends itself well to multiple, alternate storylines. New writers, artists, and spinoffs are constantly mutating your favorite narratives, suggesting that every story has several possible endings — not to mention a zillion middles and prequels.

At a time in history when politicians and corporate execs insist that things could never be any other way — when war is justified with tautology and environmental degredation dismissed with “what else can we do?” — comic books are subversive. They remind us that every crisis happens in multiple ways, and can have multiple outcomes. There no inevitable futures, and no present has to be the way it is.

Of course, that doesn’t help me justify why I keep buying “Spike vs. Dracula” comics.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 11:13 am.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.