PLUS: A SNEAK PEEK at the return of TwoMorrows’ BACK ISSUE…
2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths and there are some groovy pubs that’ll be celebrating the maxiseries that completely changed not just the DC Universe but comics in general.
Perhaps the biggest project is the just-solicited, remastered Crisis on Infinite Earths: Absolute Edition, which is set for a February 2026 release and will include never-before-printed material.
Here’s the full, official description from DC:
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS: ABSOLUTE EDITION
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by GEORGE PÉREZ
Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and ALEX ROSS
Revisit the legendary event that changed comics forever like never before! Working from Jerry Ordway’s original inks and original art provided by fans worldwide, every issue and cover has been remastered to showcase the fine lines and beauty that never made it to print…until now! Recolored against Anthony Tollin, Tom Ziuko, and Carl Gafford’s original colors, there is no better way to experience this masterpiece series. Featuring Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-12, History of the DC Universe #1-2, numerous brand-new essays from creators of the time, and more surprise wonders, this one-of-a-kind collection is not to be missed!
$125 | 600 pages | 8 1/8″ x 12 1/4″ | Hardcover | ISBN: 978-1-79950-120-6
ON SALE 2/3/26
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But wait, there’s more!
TwoMorrows’ Back Issue magazine, after a hiatus forced by Diamond Comics’ bankruptcy, returns this week with Issue #159 — a Crisis spotlight. The ish will ship to those who pre-ordered from the publisher and is due in comics shops June 11.
In it is a brief piece by Alex Galer, an editor who works on collected editions for DC. He gives more of the rundown on the Absolute Edition:
Galer writes: “Since April 2024, DC has published remastered facsimile editions of the landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths, with each issue of the 12-issue series available monthly at participating comic book shops.
“As part of its DC Finest line of paperback collected editions, the publisher will release DC Finest: Events: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One this (October) at participating comic book shops, booksellers, and mass market retailers. This will be the first of a four-volume series (500 pages each) collecting the entire event (including every crossover title) in reading order for the first time.
“In 2026, DC will release a brand-new, remastered Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths. Working with Crisis on Infinite Earths and Superman artist Jerry Ordway, DC has sourced his entire collection of original artwork from the series, as well as working with fans worldwide to source existing art from Crisis on Infinite Earths. This scanning effort will be used in DC’s full remastering of the series with original colors, featured in both the DC Finest: Events: Crisis on Infinite Earths line and Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths. The new Absolute Edition will also feature new essays, and never-before printed material.”
Just imagine what pages such as this will look like.
Jerry Ordway told me that for years he wanted DC to upgrade the line-art files they used for the Crisis hardcovers.
“A year or so back, DC agreed, and I scanned art I had access to, all of Crisis #8, as well as scanned and restored all of my 11″ x 17” full-size photocopies. That took me about eight months!” he said. “I am currently inking off a copy of George Perez’s pencils originally used as the basis of a painting Alex Ross and George did years ago for an art print, then repurposed as the slipcase for the Absolute Crisis over 10 years ago.
“The pencils were preserved by either Alex or George, as Alex painted over them back in the day,” Ordway added. “So, I have been involved a bit. Alex Galer is the reprint editor, and he is an enthusiastic partner, wanting this edition to be the best it can be.”
Here’s the BI #159 table of contents, by the by:
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Personally, I read all the Facsimile Editions monthly and was pleased to find that Crisis holds up as a story, not just as an event. So right on.
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MORE
— The TOP 13 CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Tie-In Comics — RANKED. Click here.
— COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Crisis on Infinite Earths vs. Secret Wars. Click here.
May 20, 2025
It’s great to see DC pull out all the stops for a major project like this. This project will certainly be a gem in what seems like their new-found respect for their back catalog. May DC Finest as a product line live until every page of that back catalog is reprinted.
And the Back Issue issue looks fantastic! I hope it is a huge seller for Tomorrows.
But I can’t comment about anything COIE without saying it never should have happened that every single Earth was lost but one. The loss of Supergirl, Superboy, Barry Allen, and the Legion was bad enough, but the demise of Earth-2 and so many of its characters was the single greatest loss of the entire event, causing way too much of DC’s rich history to be rewritten, or in many cases, ignored. DC has spent so much time since COIE trying to retrofit — then retrofix — the outcome, was it worth all of the loss? COIE will always be a great spectacle of story and art, and is worth revisiting as the first great comic book event, but so much of the outcome left me cold.
May 20, 2025
I agree 1000%, especially where losing Earth-2 is concerned. While I do enjoy the legacy aspect of the JSA in the post-Crisis eras, I miss the brash Power Girl of the original Earth-2, the friendship between Power Girl and Huntress, Infinity, Inc. (especially Fury), and so much more.
May 20, 2025
Yes, they thought having more than one Earth was “too confusing.” But now look at what’s going on in the MCU: a Multiverse of Madness, 3 Spider-Man realities coming together in the same blockbuster film, possibly the X-Men travelling over from the Fox features to the MCU, not to mention DC’s on-screen version of its multiverse in the Flash movie. What was in place and mostly working at DC in the early 1980s is now absolutely mainstream. A shame, really.
May 20, 2025
Im going to buy both this and the DC Finest versions. This is my favorite DC story.
May 20, 2025
Man, aside from buying these new off the rack in 1985, i already have three additional versions—the silver slipcase, the original Absolute Edition and and the full box set.
Do i need another? Remastered you say? What next an Artist’s Edition?
May 20, 2025
OK, so they found another way to get me to buy Crisis again… well, two! And here I have the original issues, the box set, the original Absolute and the facsimiles. Still, the all-in-reading-order and an improved Absolute are shrewd choice.
I think the final way I’d do it– yet one more time– is a Treasury (or larger!) size. C’mon, DC, I’m telling you exactly how to pull the money out of my wallet once more!!
May 21, 2025
I would’ve preferred an Absolute edition. It would’ve displayed the beautiful artwork a lot better.
May 21, 2025
This is an Absolute Edition.
June 2, 2025
100 percent that crisis was the ending of my childhood, it really wrecked havoc with all my favorite characters. Donna Troy was never the same, poor Lyta Hall and Helena Wayne.