Really, I think COIE caused more problems than it solved. The multiverse allowed for far more storytelling possibilities than a single universe, and it was nowhere near as confusing as editors seemed to think, especially since each crossover would explain the concept for new readers. This, combined with New 52, makes me less interested in what happens than with a single, uninterrupted continuity, as with the mainstream Marvel universe.
"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"
Honestly there are pros and cons to each. While Marvel technically haven't rebooted their continuity in the 70 years they've been active, they've still made plenty of crazy ass retcons to their characters, Spider-Man having suffered the wort for it.
Hindsight is always 20-20; crisis crossovers are a dime a dozen nowadays, but this was not an "imaginary story" back then, it was for reals and for keeps; for better or worse.
"It created more problems than it solved" is an easy phrase to say nowadays, or evne a coupl eof years after the fact; but stories were getting repetitive and way too corny (not that dork age stories were much better, but at least they counted) as the reset button was usually pushed every episode without fault.
This one was the first one to dare change the status quo and make it stick; if you think the problems it made are big, imagine if they hadn't; and the problems with current continuity would be far much worse. But at the time it was the who is who of DC comics, and it showed; not a single character was ommited from the roster even if they got very few lines, both villains and heroes.
But calling it dated? when it is the measure by wich all crossovers are judged? It will be 30 years old very soon, and to this day the effect is still felt in the industry, for better or worse. It was so important some of the inmates who are now running the asylum feel the need to undo it and redo it. It killed The flash so good that it took another cosmic retcon to bring him back.
what it is is historic; there is literally a before and an after the Crisis; it is the point where the DCU was actually born as such, imperfect as it is, but at least cohesive instead of fragmented. 52 is debatably well written, but it's a blatant attempt at undoing the Crisis because the current authors and editors didn't like it for whatever reason (and money)
When I said dated I was referring more so to the dialogue, the way the writing flows and such.
^Sure, but you have to understand that this was written in the mid 80's; many comics hadn't quite mastered truly great, natural dialogue yet, (or stopped using third-person narration boxes,) though some writers were probably better at it than others. I actually think Marv Wolfman, for all his success in both this and Teen Titans, was actually one of the worse wordsmiths of his day. Even by the time of Crisis, he was being outdone by other writers; I'm not going to count Alan Moore, (because he's freaking Alan Moore; comparing Wolfman to Moore at the time would be unfair to Wolfman,) but compared to, say, Paul Levitz, who was writing the Legion of Superheroes at the time, Levitz was definitely better in the dialogue category, though still not perfect. (I'd actually say his plotting was better too, but that's much more a case of 'IMO.') That said, Wolfman's stories and characters themselves still stand up, and that's the same case here.
Doctor Who — Long Way Around: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13536044/1/Doctor-Who-Long-Way-Around
The Batman comics in the New 52 are fine as far as I'm concerned.... The Justice League comics however....
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Important, interesting, but dated.
Crisis on Infinite Earth's is a sort of major event for the superhero genre of comic books, the idea of a massive event that drew in every major player in the universe to fight some grand unifying threat. Though I think technically Marvel's 'Secret War' did it first, DC blew them out of the water here with the sense of both scale and importance. While Crisis Crossovers have grown to become problematically common in modern comics, it was still exquisite for its time.
As for why the story is so interesting is because it served to reshape the DC universe into something more streamlined and easier to understand, back when such a thing was necessary because you couldn't just do a Wikipedia binge for information. it served as the swansong for the DC multiverse that had grown to become a rather convoluted mess containing so many universes and groups all existing at the same time, while also paving the way for a reboot that would undo the ridiculously overpowered nature of several characters.
The plot is... well kinda generic in all honesty. The evil Anti-Monitor comes essentially out of nowhere, putting every universe at risk by devouring them, forcing the heroes of several universes to band together against him. Despite the rather generic nature of the antagonist, there is still a real sense of scale to everything by having all these groups together, every major powerhouses both good and evil in such major battles. It does get a little clustered to have so many stories going on at once however.
George Perez' artwork is as gorgeous as ever, making for some stunning visuals and showing off a great silver age aesthetic. It's just a shame that same Silver Age vibe appears in other ways, namely the stunted dialogue that really showcases that this is indeed a book from the eighties.
Despite its aged and slightly cluttered nature, it's still an okay read and rather important in DC's history. Definitely worth a read however. New 52 sucks balls by comparison.