Infinite Crisis: Fight for the Multiverse #1 (2014) Review

And So It Begins

Written by: Dan Abnett
Art by: Larry Stroman
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: May 19, 2014

After the runaway success of Injustice, it's not a huge surprise that DC is giving us another weekly video game tie-in.  Infinite Crisis is based on DC's  MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game with strong ties to other events like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Elseworlds.  Writer, Dan Abnett, gets to open the toy box and play with various versions of heroes, villains and everything in between.  The possibilities are almost Infinite (sorry), but is it any good?

The book opens with a brief, but good explanation of the setting.  Crisis veterans will know the story (and have their hearts broken again) and rookies will quickly be up to speed.  Basically, there are 52 Universes held in a delicate balance.  The last surviving Monitor has detected an unknown menace that threatens this balance. To fight this threat, he sends out a call-to-arms to the heroes and villains of the Multiverse.  We then get a glimpse at how the fight is going so far. 

Harbinger is on recon, recruitment and battle duty. Jumping from Universe to Universe, she is obtaining and/or destroying artifacts this mysterious menace is trying to get.  It's pretty cool watching her do her stuff on the various Worlds.  The book ends on Earth-19, the Gaslight World.  There she runs into someone (Batman? Catwoman?) and begins the Monitor's recruitment video.  The War in on, but we'll have to wait until next week to see if Harbinger has a plus one.

Like I said earlier, Dan Abnett does a good job of getting everyone up to speed on the story and the setting. If you were expecting more than you will have to wait for next week.  This issue is pure setup.  I hate to rip a book after one issue, but I really thought this issue would come out of swinging.  A weekly book based on a niche video game needs to grab the reader quickly and not let go.  This issue didn't do it.  It wasn't bad, it just didn't excite me like I was hoping it would.

Larry Stroman's art didn't excite me either.  Like the story, it got the job done without really standing out.  

Bits and Pieces:

Infinite Crisis: Fight for the Multiverse #1 sets up the book and not much else.  The story and art are okay, they just didn't have the wow factor I was hoping for.  I realize this is a weekly book with plenty of time to up the excitement, but I hope those readers who were on the fence will give it a chance past this issue.

6.0/10