It’s hard to imagine a DC Universe story more influential than Crisis on Infinite Earths. The 1985 event reshaped DC continuity, ushering the company into a new era of storytelling. The crossover was adapted as a live-action television event in 2019-2010, and it’s currently being adapted as a trilogy of animated films (Part One and Part Two are already released). When people talk about DC history, the terms Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis are regularly used.
As you can see, Crisis on Infinite Earths is a pretty big deal.
During a spotlight panel at WonderCon 2024, Crisis on Infinite Earths writer Marv Wolfman revealed the genesis of the story. The crossover that changed the DC Universe forever was the result of a single letter a fan wrote to Green Lantern in 1981. “I was writing the letter column for Green Lantern, which was one of the many books I was writing at the time. A fan wrote in saying he didn’t understand DC continuity,” Wolfman said. This line drew chuckles from the crowd. If that 1981 letter writer thought things were complicated then, I can only imagine what they would think about 2024.
Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (Image Credit: DC Comics)
“DC sales at that particular time were not very good” Wolfman continued. “Marvel was outselling them at something like four to one. We needed to do something because DC has many great characters, but they just weren’t getting out there. They weren’t being done correctly. We were heading to a convention in Pennsylvania, and I’m very deadline conscious. I got to Penn Station to take the train down an hour before we had to leave, and the other people were a little late. I’m sitting there waiting for everyone else to show up so we can take the train to Pennsylvania, and I started thinking about that letter, and how do we fix the continuity. I had an hour before anything else showed up, and I worked out pretty much the entire concept of what Crisis would be, and the storyline, and how it would work.”
“I talked to Jenette Kahn the following Monday, who was the president and publisher. She loved the idea because we needed something big. We needed to make a real statement that DC was changing and we’re doing different types of material. It’s no longer the Superman of the 1950s, it’s now 1985,” Wolfman said.
The next step was finding an artist. Wolfman’s first choice was George Perez, his collaborator on the best-selling series New Teen Titans. Unfortunately, George was busy. “I pitched it to George, and George was so busy doing other stuff, because he wanted to do Wonder Woman and things like that. But every time we got together on a Titans story, he would say, how’s your project coming? I would tell him, and then finally, he went, ‘Okay, I can’t stand this. Do you have an artist?’ So, I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Can I do it?’ I said, ‘Are you joking? Yes, yes, a million times, yes, you’re the only person who could do this! I’ve been waiting.’ That’s how it started.”
Looking at the legacy of Crisis on Infinite Earths, it’s amazing to think about how it all happened. How different would the DC Universe be if that fan had never written into Green Lantern? Would Crisis have happened if Marv Wolfman hadn’t shown up to Penn Station an hour early? Would Crisis even be Crisis without George Perez’s stunning artwork?
When Warner Bros. Animation releases Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Three, remember that all of this happened, because a fan wrote a letter.
