Back in the mid-1950s, DC Comics started to “reboot” some of its then-defunct 1940s characters like the Flash and Green Lantern. This meant new “secret identities”, costumes and backstories for these roles.

Eventually, the Powers That Be at DC apparently decided they needed to explain why the Flash went from Jay Garris in the 1940s to Barry Allen in the 1950s, for instance, so they invented the “Earth One”/”Earth Two” concept. This meant alternate Earths that were similar but not identical.

Eventually this morphed into an unwieldy multiverse, and by the 1980s, that era’s Powers That Be decided to tidy up matters. This led to a mid-1980s 12-issue comic book series called Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Nearly 40 years later, we get a DC animated adaptation of this narrative. Given the expansiveness involved, this will stretch to three different chapters, and we logically start here with Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths - Part One.

Barry “The Flash” Allen (voiced by Matt Bomer) starts to “time trip” and wind up in different periods of his life. On one of these, he partners with Batman (Jensen Ackles), Superman (Darren Criss), Green Arrow (Jimmi Simpson), Vixen (Keesha Sharp) and Martian Manhunter (Ike Amadi) to form a superhero team they dub the Justice League.

However, Flash continues to go through disconcerting experiences of dislocation onto various multiverse locations. While Flash attempts to deal with these jarring shifts, the newly-created Justice League contends with an unusual robotic opponent called Amazo (Nolan North) and additional challenges.

Given how pervasive the “multiverse” concept currently seems, it feels a bit amusing that DC thought they needed to clean up these domains in the 1980s. Multiverses now appear to be everywhere, as even the reigning Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once embraces that concept.

This includes plenty of DC properties like 2023’s live-action Flash film. I guess that means DC re-embraced the multiverse after this 1980s attempt to simplify matters.

As I’ve mentioned in probably too many other reviews of DC/Marvel properties, I dug into their comics big-time in the early 1980s. However, I moved to other fascinations by the time that the Crisis comics hit in 1985.

I recall that I knew of this enterprise, but I never read the mini-series. As such, this animated adventure offers my first real exposure to the tale.

Though I’ll need to wait until later in 2024 to take in the whole picture. As of January, Warner simply lets us know Part Two and Part Three will appear later in the year but I don’t see specific release dates.

In the meantime, Part One presents an appetizing introduction, one that manages to take a complex project and make it reasonably comprehensible. The use of the Flash as the primary protagonist becomes a useful entry point.

While we spend time with other heroes, Flash stays at the core. Since we tend to experience events through his perspective, we get a more focused tale than otherwise might become the case.

Part One also finds a way to keep the shifts in time and place pretty coherent. A project like this could easily go off the rails, but despite the various changes, we remain oriented where we need to go.

Throw in plenty of action and character dynamics and Part One launches this trilogy pretty well. I look forward to the next chapter.

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths – Part One appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Overall, the image looked positive.

Sharpness seemed terrific. Virtually no sharpness materialized, so the movie remained accurate and concise.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies materialized, and I saw no edge haloes or noise reduction. Of course, I found no print flaws here.

With the palette of Crisis, we got a pretty broad, vivid set of hues. The colors seemed fine, as they represented their intended schemes, and the disc’s HDR added range and punch to the tones.

Blacks were deep and dark, while shadows looked smooth and clear. HDR brought out stronger contrast as well. This became a pretty great image.

When I examined the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Crisis, it created a fine sense of action. The movie packed a fair amount of battles and involving material, and it used the five channels to impart that information in a lively manner.

Explosions and fights filled the channels to create a full spectrum, and quieter elements fleshed out the room as well.

Across the board, the material sounded good. Speech remained distinctive and concise, without edginess, and music seemed vivid and full.

Effects appeared accurate and tight, with clear highs and some powerful lows. All in all, the mix worked nicely.

Two featurettes appear here. Crisis Prime(r) runs nine minutes, 39 seconds and brings notes from executive producer Butch Lukic, writer Jim Krieg, director Jeff Wamester, and DC Animation Creative Director Mike Carlin.

This program discusses the ways prior DC animated flicks intended to build toward Crisis. It offers an efficient synopsis that acts as a good reintroduction for viewers, so it might be a smart idea to watch it before you view Crisis.

The Selfless Speeder goes for eight minutes, two seconds. It involves Krieg, Wamester, Lukic, DC president/publisher/CCO Jim Lee, comics inker Jerry Ordway, comics associate editor Robert Greenburger, comics writer Marv Wolfman, and actor Matt Bomer,

“Speeder” covers aspects of the 1980s comics Crisis and its adaptation into the film. Expect a tight examination of changes between the original and the movie.

With Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths – Part One, we get the opening of three chapters that adapts a famous mid-1980s comic book mini-series. Part One launches matters well, as it packs enough action and intrigue to grab the viewer. The 4K UHD comes with strong picture and audio but only minor bonus materials. We find a fine opening to this “trilogy”.