Though it was not the first large-scale comic book crossover, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" is generally credited with popularizing the idea. Comics historian Matthew K. Manning wrote that "Crisis on Infinite Earths" paved way for all future crossovers of similar scale, and Andrew J. Friedenthal said ""Crisis" showed the two major superhero comic book publishers (DC Comics and Marvel Comics) how they could utilize the continuity established by decades' worth of stories to weave together a cohesive, metatextual tapestry that both appealed to long-time readers and brought in massive amounts of money". The series' success inspired DC to begin a tradition of "summer crossovers"; some of these include "Invasion!" (1988–1989), "Armageddon 2001" (1991), "!" (1994), and "Identity Crisis" (2004), and some mention the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths". The second part of one of DC's later crossovers, "Convergence" (2015), heavily references the series and sees DC's superheroes travel back to its era. The writers of "Convergence" all had fun writing stories set during "Crisis on Infinite Earths", calling the series an exciting time for DC.