Crisis Who? The Final Chapter

Annnnnnd we now look at the last three issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths, with an eye to spotting the characters that didn't make it into Who's Who's initial volume, even though that's nominally what the series was for. If I didn't know who someone was in Crisis, I should have been able to count on the Official Directory to get the lowdown. Also see Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Granted, the Superboy of Earth-Prime didn't exist before the Crisis. He was introduced in an issue of DC Comics Presents with a Crisis banner on the cover, but he plays a non-negligible role in Crisis, ending up on the other side of reality's walls, and I guess it's in retrospect that he's someone. Not a very likable someone, but he would go on to cause another Crisis, rip the arms off beloved characters, take part in the Sinestro Corps War, and show up in Final Crisis to butcher some Legionnaires. Like a lot of older fans, I do not like Superboy-Prime, and he didn't really deserve an entry at the time next to the pocket universe Superboy, I guess. But if we're being thorough, he needs to be mentioned, especially when we factor in our 50/50 hindsight.

Issue 10 also includes the Molder, but this is a mistake. This obscure Flash villain proved to be the Elongated Man in disguise, so he really shouldn't be fighting heroes in Crisis. The justification that was later invented is that he's another villain called the Molder who fought Batman and Plastic Man once (in Brave and the Bold #76) and who, in Crisis, took to wearing the second (fake) Molder's costume. Well either way! This guy isn't in Who's Who when any number of missing villains could have been used in his place for the small cameonic role he plays.

In #11, a few civilians show up, and as we know, the original Who's Who could hardly abhor civilians. Still, Harvey Bullock was a Batman Family favorite who had been in Gotham since 1974. By the updates, he would be a member of Checkmate (which I find kind of absurd) and thus(?) get his own entry. But here, he's at the detectives' convention with a lot of old headliners and you might wonder who he is.

I wasn't sure I should include Joan Garrick, but this BBQ panel kind of forced my hand. It's fair to say Who's Who couldn't exactly spend its page count on EVERY headlining hero's love interests, job colleagues, and family members, but not THAT many of these actually made it into Crisis, much less got a significant number of lines. Joan Garrick is one and perhaps could have stood in for all those Golden Age girlfriends and wives who often acted as Girls Friday, as important to the stories as, say, Lois Lane. Inza Kent, Dian Belmont, etc.

Batman's first ever villain is arguably Joe Chill. He caused Batman to be born. Beyond the obvious (and frequent) flashbacks, Joe had a many stories. He built a small criminal empire. He was tormented by the Batman. He had a brother who was suspected of killing Boston "Deadman" Brand. He had a family connection to the Waynes. He found out who was behind the cowl. He died in Batman's arms. He's a big part of the Mythos. And even though his story eventually changed so that Batman didn't know who killed his parents, this Joe Chill isn't a nobody.

Issue 12 has only one character missing from Who's Who, and it's Wonder Girl's boyfriend Terry Long. Finally one omission we can agree was fine. (Doh! Damn you, Update '88!)

All in all, about 30 characters appeared in Crisis without an accompanying Who's Who entry, but that's out of hundreds of characters and only a few are in the unforgivable column.