History of Crisis On Infinite Earths

Monitor Duty has an awesome series of posts detailing the original Crisis that turned the DC Universe into what it is today.

It's some great reading for anyone who could never quite wrap their head around Crisis on Infinite Earths or is even moderately interested in the upcoming Infinite Crisis.

I really gotta give Alan Kistler some props here. This guy writes some spectacular articles on the histories of DC Comics characters that really make you want to go out and buy their books. His article on Aquaman a while back made think twice about not liking the character - well, I don't really dislike Aquaman; it's just that ever since Superfriends he's been way too easy to make fun of.

Anyway, check these out. They're pretty long and there are a bunch of them, but it's well worth it.

• Intro
• Phases 1-6
• Phaese 7-10
• Conclusion
• Crisis Characters - Where Are They Now?

The "Where Are They Now?" article has some spoilers for The Return of Donna Troy #4 and Villains United, so beware.