Back Issue #159 April 2025 (magazine review).
The other TwoMorrows publication that rapidly sold out last year was Back Issue # 158. You can find copies out there but at high prices. I can understand ‘Alter Ego’ because of Neal Adams, but this one? Is it because of the late George Pérez’s art or because this issue covers the 40th anniversary of DC Comics’ ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ or both or just not printing enough copies? You’ll have to decide for yourself.
Let’s deal with the content first. If you only thought DC had only 4 alternative Earths, writer John Wells goes through the lot pre-Crisis, totting up 52, oddly the same number that is used in current DC realities, although I’m not sure if today’s versions correspond to all of these. Hopefully, there’ll be an article in the future on what exists today. I know it’s probably beyond the remit of the ‘Back Issue’s era but certainly needs to be shown as a comparison for the record. Of course, the biggest cock-up was forgetting about the 30th/31stcentury and what would happen to the Legion Of Super-Heroes when there was no Superboy in the past to come to the future when it was a successful comic book at the time. From removing all the other Earths, there was an instant pocket future universe to let it continue and Mon-el as Valor becoming the Superboy substitute.
Writer Bob Greenberger’s history of the making of ‘Crisis’ has depth, as he became one of its editors at the time, and he ensured his notes were kept on file at the DC offices. Probably the only stationary things throughout were writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, with various editors keeping track of everything and getting the co-operation of various writers and creators on the regular titles in the transition. A lot of this I was familiar with at the time. Greenberger also goes into a lot of detail with fanzine interviews and reprints. Not everything was related to it, but it points the way if you can afford to go after anything. He was right about many reprints, some fourteen, but it does look like DC Comics itself didn’t do a 40th anniversary reprint. Maybe they’re waiting for the 50th?I can see this as the key selling point of this magazine. Ah-hah! Further in, there’s a promo saying it’s coming out again as an ‘Absolute’ edition in three volumes, each running at 500 pages and also containing all the crossovers in 2026.
Marv Wolfman and Bob Greenberger confer over their memories of the deathlist for DC characters and approval by publisher Jeanette Kahn. Neither of them was that keen on doing it because they grew up with the characters, although writers on their own titles had to offer up at least one character to be sacrificed. Interestingly, Supergirl and the Barry Allen Flash were doomed from the start to show how serious ‘Crisis’ was going to be, both remaining dead while Jeanette Kahn, Paul Levitz and Dick Giordano stayed in charge. Everyone else felt the characters killed would come back eventually, either as themselves or made over. Hence, we have the situation today where no DC comic book character stays dead forever. Its also had the way like Wolfman did with the Titans, who introduced a new character to be sacrificed than mess around with the core group.
Writer Brian Martin looks over the various titles after ‘Crisis’, pointing out that things were pretty much back to normal, although I note he didn’t look at Superman, which had a complete makeover, or even the LSH’s changeover. Yes, there is a checklist of ‘Back Issues’ where they were addressed. I do think these things need a little lip service even here so less knowledgeable new comic book fans will think that’s all that were affected.
In the last article of this issue, writer John Wells looks at how DC Comics pulled back some of the changes and even did stories pre-Crisis. The observation that the older fans of the Golden Age dropped out and never came back is telling. I stayed until it became too expensive. Oddly, Superman and Wonder Woman had the biggest changes, but there was no lip service to why it worked so well with them and less with the other significant characters. In many respects, a lot of the DC characters grew up, as witnessed by ‘Identity Crisis’, and moved on to another generation. There’s always going to be a cross-representation of ages with comic book readers these days, so it will always be a balancing act to please everyone. For my own feeling, there’s a loss of continuity these days because there are so many mini-series; it makes it difficult to figure out how they fit together.
I think I can see why this issue sold so well; the only information missing is the age groups.
GF Willmetts
January 2026
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82-page illustrated magazine. Price: varies. ISSN: 1932-6904. Directly from them, you can get it digitally for $4.99 (US).
Check out the websites www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1823
