Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths (2026 Edition) - with Jon Hook
Want to read Crisis on Infinite Earths but not sure where to start? Jon Hook is back on Trade School with a collector’s guide to DC’s latest editions of the legendary event. He compares the affordable Compact release, the enormous DC Finest collection with its mountain of crossover issues, and the lavish Absolute edition for readers who want the full shelf-piece experience.
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⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:08 Meet Jon Hook
00:08 Introducing Crisis on Infinite Earths
01:20 The Compact Edition
02:33 The DC Finest Collection
03:43 Collecting the Complete Crossover
05:01 Price and Page Count
06:09 The New Absolute Edition
07:25 The Companion Book
08:26 Three Ways to Collect Crisis
09:34 Jon’s Final Recommendation
09:34 Modern Mythos and Jon’s Plugs
10:59 Long Live the Legion Promo
11:37 CPOV Tag
Transcription
00:00
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it.
00:08
Hello, this is Jon Hook again with another trade school installment. This time I wanted to talk about Crisis on Infinite Earths. This has obviously been around for decades and has been available in a variety of trade options. But D.C. seems to be kind of focused on crisis right now. And they're making it available in three really cool options to fit your budget, fit your needs. And I wanted to cover all of those today. So the first one is D.C. has been putting out their Compaq series of comics. They're, they're small digest size trades and they have a cover price of $10. And so there is coming a Crisis on Infinite Earths compact. It is all 12 issues of the miniseries or maxi series, whatever you want to call it, for $10. And it's very affordable.
01:20
It's also portable and it's just a great way to cool collect crisis on emperors. If you have never read it before or want to use it to give as a gift, anything like that, it could be a really cool way to kind of get in without breaking the bank. Another interesting way that they're doing the Crisis, and I'm really excited for this option is the DC Finest, which is the, I think the compact editions and the DC Finest editions were kind of rolled out at about the same time. And so the DC Finest are full size trades, soft cover, but they've got, you know, all. They've got really nice paper, you know, slick paper. The coloring has usually been well attended to, punched up. Everything looks the way that it was originally published, minus ads and things like that.
02:33
But this is a really interesting way that they've chosen to do the DC Finest edition because in addition to the Crisis on Infinite earths being a 12 part maxi series, it was also touching practically every DC comic being published at that time. And so there were crossover comics from all of the different titles. The DC Finest edition, which the full title, I guess I was bearing the lead, the full title is Disappointed. DC Finest Events Crisis on Infinite Earths and this is going to be a four part series. It's going to take four editions to cover the entirety of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. With all of the crossover books, the very first edition is out now.
03:43
The second one is on the cusp of coming, I believe the third will be published in November 2026, with the fourth and final edition coming in January or February of 2027. The just as an example, the very first edition on this is going to only have I think four of the 12 issues. Yeah, four of the 12 issues from the maxi series and there's you know, 20 some odd issues in this trade. So there's like 15 plus crossover issues and they've, I'm assuming they've done their due diligence and so they've aligned them so that if you're reading the Finest edition from front cover to back cover, it's going to be the full narrative with all of the crossovers in addition to the primary event issues. I'm really excited for this. I'm looking now and this first one is almost 550 pages.
05:01
So probably if it stands true to form with all four editions, you're going to be looking at something in the neighborhood of like 2200 pages of material. It's just going to be insane. It's going to be so awesome. Each of those typically will have a $40 cover price, but I have often seen many of these DC Finest editions to include this very first one, Crisis Part one. I've seen them discounted at all kinds of places online and whatnot. So I don't think it would be very difficult to collect these and get them for say probably in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 cover price. So that's not too bad. And again, four issues, it's just going to be a massive collection and complete storyline.
06:09
Reading the third and final edition that again is a modern current publication for Crisis on Infinite Earth is they just released a brand new Absolute Slip Case edition. This is a two book hardcover, absolute size. So it's the oversize, you know, it's like, I guess it's close to actual art page size, although that's 11 by 17. I don't think these are 11 by 17, but it's pretty, it's pretty big. It's, you know, it's getting there though. And I myself just picked it up as well. So I've got my copy and oh my God, it is so beautiful. Just like with the Finest editions, these absolute editions have updated color correction for all of the pages and they're crisp, they're beautiful, they pop. The two books, one is just all 12 issues in a single hardcover and it is a giant tome.
07:25
And then there's a companion book which is also pretty big. It's, it's almost half the size as the event book. And this companion tome has all kinds of photographs and stories of the how to making and you're seeing, you know, raw art pages as they were, you know, captured as the. As George Perez was working on them and all kinds of stories and things like that of people, you know, the behind the scenes. And so I've only flicked through my edition and I can't wait to really dive into it. But it looks so cool and it, the outer slip case has got like a holograph. Not really a holograph, but it's kind of got like a rainbow foil effect to it. Maybe it's holograph, I don't know.
08:26
But, but it's just, it's very shiny and it looks super cool and it's very impressive looking on the shelf. So. So yeah, the Crisis on Infinite Earths is getting a lot of love from DC Comics in 2026 with three completely different ways to collect this amazing storyline. It's a classic for a reason and a copy should be in everyone's collection. So I'm a bit of a nut. I've got all the 12 original issues and I've got, you know, I'm going to be collecting the finest. I have the first one and I'll be getting, you know, the others as they're published. And of course I just picked up the absolute. I, I don't think I'm going to get the compact just because I'm so old. The pictures are so small in that digest size I can't see anything. But that's just me. That's it.
09:34
Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's, it's well worth getting and I hope everyone gets a chance to pick up at least one of these new additions. I think it's really cool. My name is Jon Hook. I am a podcaster. If you are into the Call of Cthulhu role playing game. I have a podcast for that called Modern Mythos where I and my co host, YouTuber Seth Skorkowsky, we talk about the Call of Cthulhu role playing game and other horror and investigative role playing games we have a lot of fun with. So you can find us online and you can find seth Skorkowski on YouTube. That's about it. I'm on Facebook and I'm on the Discord. I'm on the certain POV Discord. I'm also on the Live long, the Long Live the Legion Discord. So. And I just go by my handle.
10:37
Is my name Jon Hook? Kind of like Captain Hook, right? So look me up, say hi. I'd love to talk about comics or role playing. Games, you know, into all the hobbies. So thank you, take care and happy reading.
10:59
The Legion of Superheroes is back. It's taken a while, but DC's oldest super team is back.
11:04
Everything's different, but everything's the same. Does that make sense?
11:07
Kinda.
11:07
The Legion book is designed for new readers, and I guarantee that when they see what Josh Williamson, Hayden Sherman and the crew have designed, they'll want to know more.
11:17
That's right. And if you want to know more about the Legion, its members, history and stories, the Long Live the Legion podcast is for you.
11:24
Every episode, we break down the characters, the stories, and the different versions of the team.
11:29
So whether this is your first time.
11:30
Reading the Legion or you've been reading them for a while, check out the.
11:33
Long Live the Legion podcast wherever quality podcasts are served.
11:37
Cpov certainpow.com.