This book was such an awful contrivance, neither placing this stories with the mini-series that they completed, nor with the Infinite Crisis that they interweaved with. I think my pre-crisis highlight was the Brubaker/Rucka run of Batman or Gotham Central, but I also loved Emerald Twilight and the Death of Superman. This book is also another one that's a very clear prequel to Infinite Crisis as it ends on a cliffhanger (which unfortunately undercuts this story's independence a bit, but so it goes) [3+/5]. This was better than Crisis of infinite earths in my opinion but, only because Johns took the lead in writing.

The Omnibus also weaves the mini-series finales into the Infinite Crisis series itself (and they come across as coherent, complete parts of the story, albeit not up to the writing of the main storyline. I hate companion books as their rarely truly offer anything other than added spice and background to the tale.

That problem begins with the book's intro, which info-dumps a pile of confusing information from Adam Strange: Planet Heist. He appears in so many stories as the ultimate savior or threat (there was a similar plot in JSA) but I still do not really get the character. And in the middle of it all, a critical moment has divided Earth's three greatest heroes: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. It then slowly grows and grows with each story touching a different part of the DC Comics Universe, from street level D-list villains, to a cosmic war between Thanagar, Rann, and Tamaran with huge ramifications, and a war for magic.

Event books have this problem, while the main 7 issue arc is paced fine and works well alone, the world here is way to big because of the companions. Villains United and Day of Vengeance were personal favorites, but I also thoroughly enjoyed the JLA tie-ins and the Superman stories. Part of that is Johns' usage of the survivors of the multiverse (which is rather brilliant) and his careful repetition of elements like the Anti-Monitor and the multiple worlds. After six issues of this, the story anticlimaxes, sacrificing any conclusion upon the altar of Infinite Crisis.

I have been doing a post-crisis read through of Batman and my other favorite DC series such as Superman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and the New Gods/4th World. The core Infinite Crisis series tries to be a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths and it succeeds remarkably well. Their earth was simpler, and that's why they managed to keep their "purity", but when tested and immersed on hardship and harsher situations, they coudn't take the pressure. Crisis of Conscience places Hawkman in the JLA moonbase while we just left him 2 pages before on Rann, that can be confusing. Okay yes, this world may be darker than what they knew, but considering they’ve never had to face any of the obstacles the heroes on Earth One did (Superman dying fighting Doomsday or Bruce losing Jason) it's inconceivable to hold the heroes to a standard set by their counterparts when their counterparts never experienced some of the dark shit the Earth One heroes did.