Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Superman 75th Anniversary

Best short ever? Hard to argue against it. The brilliant tribute to the Man of Steel captures 75 years worth of Superman's biggest moments, not only onscreen but in pop culture, in under 2 minutes. Yes, even at break neck speed so many moments were left out, but the spirit of Superman was captured. This little piece of animation is really something special. Rather than me trying to explain why, just watch it. 

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Cat And The Claw

The series opened with this two part tale, though several other episodes aired in the week between the first and second parts. Truth be told, despite me being a huge Batman fan at the time, I missed the Saturday premier of The Cat and the Claw and thought that the Sunday evening episode, On Leather Wings was the first to air. But my VHS recorder would ensure that I never again missed an episode. Just watching this now, its so clear that this series was a game changer for the genre.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Dark Knight's First Night

Before we dive into the episodes, The Dark Knight's First Night was the animated footage used as a series pitch for Batman: The Animated Series. Clearly this was a huge inspiration for what became the series intro sequence.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Batman: The Animated Series

Holy perfection Batman, today is the day! Really, what more can be said about Batman: The Animated Series? The series originally ran from 1992 to 1995 and basically set the standard by which all other superhero series are judged; more than 20 years after its debut, it holds up amazingly well. In fact, my desire to set down and watch the complete series all the way through was one of the primary motivators for this Crisis of Infinite Episodes feature. I am very glad this day has finally come (it only took me nearly three years to get here).

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Swamp Thing Recap

Oh Swamp Thing, what were the creators of your show thinking? I will say, it could have been much worse, but it was not great. The saving grace was that the show's repetition had not reached extremes at only 5 episodes. Still, the rhyming of Doctor Deemo and Arcane's fixation on becoming immortal like Swamp Thing were getting quite old as was that blasted theme song. Even the origin was already told twice so clearly the fresh ideas were running thin. Nevertheless, its kinda cool that of all the obscure characters Swamp Thing got his own series when Wonder Woman and Flash are still waiting for their shot. The pilot episode, The Un-Men Unleashed really is the one to watch

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Experiment in Terror

After Swamp Thing got the whole Han Solo treatment being frozen in a block, he was hauled away for experimentation. And since its been 5 episodes, it was apparently time to retell Swampy's origin.  The strange thing is that even though some of the animation was recycled from episode 1, most of it was redone from a slightly different angle... which really makes you wonder why they would revisit this origin so soon. To save money would have been my initial thought, but apparently they just really loved the story.