Exactly. For the endless numbers of fans who were longtime readers and familiar with the worlds and past events of the characters involved, Crisis would have a strong impact--which was the case, considering COIE's success. But as much as COIE was attracting longtime readers, the fact that it was "cleaning"/"straightening out" the then 50 year history allowed new readers to step into DC not feeling put off and/or intimidated by such a massive history. I knew new DC readers in that position.



...and its apparent from the plot being so much like the kind of plot a kid would create with his action figures.

Well, like I say, the "intent" of what evolved into Crisis was to be the 50th Anniversary celebration; but, as they developed it, it morphed into something more.  Wolfman has talked about how he only had one or two key deaths, in his plot; but, editorial wanted to push the stakes higher.  The original working title was History of the DC Universe and I always had the impression that the earliest plot ideas were something more along the lines of what the final History of the DCU ended up, though with more action and a longer run; but, then got tagged as a way to streamline things, since they were talking about pulling everything into it.  This is from memory, and I haven't really read any in-depth interviews about the whole evolution of Crisis, from idea to execution.  It's been more snippets, here and there.

Certain Marvel editors were sticklers about continuity; but, others weren't as much into it.  Roy definitely was.  DC's footnotes tended to be relatively short.  Usually, parallel Earth stories had anywhere from a couple of panels to a one (two-page, max) page synopsis of the background of the world and then moved on with the plot.  Bob Rozakis regularly explained (though the questions themselves might be asking about specific characters) the differences in Ask The Answer Man.  DC readers never seemed to have much problem with it and such stories didn't appear routinely.  I still think the push came from Marvel talent, who wanted to use characters from different Earths, without contriving a crossover macguffin.  Len Wein is the name I have seen attached to the continuity issue, in relation to Crisis; but, I wonder whether Gerry Conway and some of the others who came over might have put the bug in his ear.  It didn't seam like Roy had a problem with it, as he ran with it in All-Star Squadron.  Conway probably ran into more than anyone else, since he was writing JLA, with the annual crossovers.

So I re-read #2 and #3.

I love how Marv Wolfman juxtaposes ancient times and the far future by having Anthro's time and the Legion's time blend into each other. Also, the Legion is cool.

The scene of Batman busting through the window looks like an homage to the cover of Batman #374 (https://www.comics.org/issue/876925/cover/4/) by the late great Don Newton and inked (like the early issues of Crisis) by Dick Giordano. Newton, who is my favorite Batman artist, died in 1984. If this was an intentional tribute, I think it's a great one. I like the portrayal of the Joker, complaining about jurisdiction. There's a sense of fatalism at points in Crisis. We're shown things that are going to happen, like with the Flash, and the interest is finding out how it happens and what it means. By the way, the Flash disappearing in #350 is also a spoiler, because Flash #345 has the same cover date as Crisis #2.

I love the panel layouts during the briefing by the Monitor. Perez is a master at doing numerous, smaller panels.

So the voice in the Central Power Battery tells the Guardians that this began with them centuries ago. This is where historian super-fans were probably getting ideas.

It's fascinating that Pariah knows about Superman and Batman before the Crisis, while no one knows him. Wouldn't it be easier if Batman stayed in Gotham for the meeting and Superman traveled there? I guess Gotham doesn't have any scenic rooftops.

The Monitor has a strange mix of foresight and short-sightedness. He picks allies who don't work out, like Psycho-Pirate here in #2 and finding that Blue Beetle's scarab isn't helpful enough in #3. Of course, he knows about some of the "surprises" like Lyla's betrayal. I don't remember which of his mistakes were mistakes and which were planned. The Psycho-Pirate is very interesting as a villain. He's like an addict, so there's pity and frustration mixed up in the feelings he evokes in a reader (or at least this reader).

And now on to #3.

The mastermind manipulating Harbinger and Psycho-Pirate is cloaked in shadow. Wolfman and Perez do a good job drawing out the reveal. Psycho-Pirate calls Harbinger unstable. Someone tell the master of emotions that's called projection. I guess it's true too, though.

The credits tell us this issue was inked by both Dick Giordano and Mike DeCarlo. I wish Giordano could've stuck around longer. But I'm sure he had a lot of editorial/management responsibilities and he was in his 50s. I don't have huge confidence in my inking recognition skills, but I'd guess DeCarlo started with the page with Wonder Girl's lasso helping survivors down the side of the building. At the very least, I think DeCarlo did the WWII stuff and the pages after that.

A lot of the ways Wolfman combines things seems intentional. Here, he includes one of DC's classic pairings (Batman and Superman) what I consider a memorable pairing of the 1980s (the Outsiders and the New Teen Titans). They had a crossover a couple years earlier. Even though she had a brief tenure, I like Kole. Maybe her design is dated, but I think it's cool.

Who knew so many of DC's military characters were in Markovia at the same time? It's fun to see these characters from genres I don't read much. Re-reading this makes me curious to sample a few war comics. Because this is DC, we have some weird genre mash-ups like Haunted Tank. That's some Lost Cause fetishization. But because I go to Wikipedia all the time, I learned it's not just an American Confederate fetish, but a British one as well! The ghost of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart watches over his namesake descendant and his namesake tank. The tank model is the M3 Stuart. Except the U.S., which built it, just named it the M3. It was the British, using it under the Lend-Lease program, who decided to add the name of a Confederate General!

It's too bad Blue Beetle had to be removed from the action. But I'm sure he'll turn up later. Wink, wink.

So they decided to kill off Kid Psycho, technically only a reserve member of the Legion. I guess they tried to find a Legionnaire who has zero ardent fans.

"It's time for you to die!" Oh, silly Harbinger. You declare that as if the Monitor doesn't know it's coming.

Always had a soft spot for Kid Psycho. Back in the Silver Age, his name was just a weird name. I wonder what a modern fan thinks about it when he hears it for the first time. 

Maybe that he's Dexter's son?

  

That's what I figured it would sound like.

But his story was classic Silver Age pathos.

So I was wrong. Every character has an ardent fan.

Element Lad yelling for Kid Psycho is a moment that's stuck in my head. It sounds like a mocking name (like Fatty or Four-Eyes), so it weird to have him call out the name out of concern for his well-being. It's such a Legion thing, like when a duplicate of Supergirl became Satan Girl, or Matter-Eater Lad's power to eat stuff.