Some thoughts about Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1

Who can survive the biggest Crisis of the Multiverse?

A powerful being called Surtur has arrived to Earth and the only defense left are their veteran heroes but not even their years of experience is enough.

The Dark Multiverse tie-ins never end although here we see one of the most interesting versions of it admitedly, a dark version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths in which Earth 2 was the prevalent one instead of the classic Earth 2.

Steve Orlando handles this tale of despair and while Orlando has gone hit and miss in recent years, something that I've always appreciated about his work is his use of obscure characters and concepts. Here we see the introduction of the classic Golden Age heroes but more than that, we see a story heavily based on the Earth 2 mythos with a direct reference to Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron, the Young All-Stars, Infinity Inc. and many other classic creations. Orlando pays a lot of respect to many different incarnations of heroes including the adult version of Robin, Helena Wayne and even the Golden Age Aquaman who had that weird "human being experimented to breath underwater" origin.

Just like most of this line, the issue is centered around the theme of complete loss and how things get worse and worse with each new page, there's nothing new in that regard but the conclusion presents an interesting take on Alan Scott. Is good to know that Orlando follows James Robinson's idea that Alan is the Superman of Earth 2 even above Superman himself.

Mike Perkins' semi-realistic style is good for expressions but not so good for storytelling since it can be messy at times.

Aside from some issues, this was pretty good. Wouldn't mind seeing Orlando writing the Justice Society.