DC Finest: Events – Crisis on Infinite Earths (Oct 21, 2025)

You guys already know what a big fan I am of DC Finest, the affordable line of books from DC Comics, collecting year-long run in one giant book (average about 400-500 pages per volume). I plan on collecting all these books, if I can find them for a reasonable price. I usually will buy if I see them for $25 or less, but there are some exceptions. I paid full price for DC Finest: Teen Titans – Judas Contract and for the latest release DC Finest: Events – Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One. The book came out on Tuesday (Oct 21, 2025).

All DC Comics fan owns a version of Crisis on Infinite Earths, from the trade paperback to the Absolute Edition to the 1998 Hardcover to the 35th Anniversary to the Facsimile Editions to the digital version…. there’s really no reason anyone would want to own multiple versions. Unless you’re a collector, like myself. For those interested in this book or on the fence on buying it, speaking as a fan who owns a ton of different Crisis, I am very happy to recommend the book to your collection, and I’ll break down the reasons below.

REMASTERED
I didn’t realize this until I got the book yesterday and comparing to previous editions – the new printing has incredible details. I’m seeing lines I’ve never seen before. How was this possible? I thought maybe DC used A.I. to “enhanced” the art. Or maybe those lines were always there, but the older printing process could never reproduce those details.

Turns out: this is a brand-new scan of Crisis, remastered from Jerry Ordway’s master files. These are the same files that they are going to use for the upcoming Crisis Absolute Edition, set for May 2026… only the DC Finest would be a more affordable version (sort of).

The funny thing is that nowhere on the marketing solicitation or products page or the back of the book, mentioned that this is a new scan of Crisis. It’s not advertised at all. Either DC’s Marketing Team sucks at their job or they didn’t want to cannibalized the pre-orders of the Absolute Editon (which retails for $125). I’m going assuming they have no marketing team… I’m probably doing more to sell this book to you than the entire DC staff.

If you want a preview of what’s to come for the Absolute Remaster, you need to check out DC Finest. As of this writing, this is definitely the best-looking and most faithful reproduction of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths.

RECOLORED
All Crisis starting in 1998 to the 35th Anniversary Edition, uses the same digital color. Starting with the 1998 colors, they added special color effects, color shading, changed the color schemes (for example the skies are colored red instead of blue), or mis-colored characters (look at the cover to issue #9, there are numerous mistakes).

This brand-new color attempts to fix the past color mistakes, and actually revert it back to the original comic book. Meaning colors are more primary, and even appearing flat (no shading). I’m of two minds about this, I do like the modern colors… but I also don’t want all the special effects and whizzbang.

The old colors only works if you’re a fan of the old comic book coloring style… and in an attempt to reproduce the original colors, I am fine with this remastered color. It is just not going to look as modern, and maybe some of you will like it that way. I’m just happy that they are fixing the color errors.

CREDITS RESTORED
All previous collected Crisis, including the Millennium Editions, had the original credits removed. The reason for this is when books are collected in one giant story line, having individual issues’ credits can be distracting or redundant to some readers.

The problem is that you are missing the letterer’s work… who handcrafts the title page or unique credit lettering (like thank you’s and fonts). Sometime artists would leave big open spaces for the title and credits, so when they removed the credits, it just looks like there are big empty spaces.

As a purist, I want to see all the original text and credits.

CROSSOVER STORIES
I think for the first time, the Crisis story will also include the various crossovers. They’ve previously collected the crossovers in three volumes, but none of them contain the main story line (Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-12). They were more of companion books… I own them on digital thanks to Amazon’s $5 sale a few years ago. Having them on physical print is nice, and as a bonus to expand the Crisis story.

According to DC, they’ve interjected the crossover story in a cohesive timeline, so when you read it, you get a better understanding of the entire thing. I think the big problem is that because there are so many crossover issues, that it will take four volumes to complete the story. Meaning, right now, we’re only getting stories up until Crisis #4. We’re not seeing the whole story just yet.

AFFORDABILITY
Affordability is different for everyone. When you break it down, you’re getting about 500 pages (one year’s worth of story) for $40 at full price. Most people are not going to pay full price. Most fans will likely get a 20% discount if they pre-order, or will wait until it goes on sale. If you wait about six months or a year, it’s likely you can get this book for as low as $20. At that price, yes, to me, it’s affordable. I used to buy one DVD a week, and those were about $20 a piece. Not everybody will agree that it’s affordable… but it’s certainly cheaper than a $100 Omnibus or $125 Absolute.

To me, I treat these softcover trades a little differently, because I consider these as a reading copy. Meaning, I have these comics in the original newsstand edition or as an oversized Absolute or really big omnibus, and instead struggling pull out these heavy books… I just pull out one of these DC Finest to read.

FINAL VERDICT
As I previously mentioned, this book is not a high priority for anyone who owns a version of this book. If you want George Perez’s art in the best possible version, this DC Finest book is the way to go. If want to read all the crossovers (in chronicle order, infused with the Crisis on Infinite Earths main story), DC Finest is the only place you’re going to get this.

Since it’s not a high priority, I would wait for a sale or see if you can get a discount. I think it’s worth it. I plan on getting the other three volumes in this DC Finest line, but I’ll take my own advice and will probably just wait for a sale to get #2-4… but I like them enough to want to get the whole set.