I bought "Prelude to Infinite Crisis" on saturday hoping it would tie together the events of:
Rann-Thanagar wars
Day of Vengeance
Identity Crisis (crisis of concscience, tower of babel)
O.M.A.C. project
superman batman public enemies (vol. 1)

but it doesn't really deal with any of that stuff, what does zoom have to do with all this? where is spectre, where is eclipso? why is wonder woman BLINDFOLDED!!!?

The infinite crisis stuff was cool, but I was hoping it'd reach some sort of conclusion, like why maxwell lord did what he did, why jean loring did what she did, why the thannagarians picked now to go to war with the rannians, and why spectre is suddenly without host, and so easy to trick; and when luthor thought it'd be a good idea to mix steroids with radioactive waste, inject it into himself, and see what would happen.

could someone make a list of all the infinite-related TPB's, so I could see if I have them all? I would love to read the last one, piece it all together on my own, and go "the end." and close the last book away on my shelf to be reread later, I don't like not knowing what's going on.

Well, I'll give it a shot to answer all your questions:

*Warning, there are some Spoilers here*

1. What were Max Lord's modivations?: This was probably the result of Greg Rucka only reading the first TPB of the 90's Justice League (A New Beginning, if I remember correctly) and ignoring everything else that happened in the run of that series. Unfortunatly, this TPB seems to be out of print and is not listed on DC's website, but you could probably get it through your local comic shop if they have connections. Note that its Justice League: A new Beginning, not Justice League of America, volume 1. If you ask for the first JLA trade paper back, you're likely to end up with Morrison's JLA: New World Order, which is a good book, but not the one you're looking for. Also, I believe he said something vague about Superheroes making normal people feel weak or useless or something akin to that in Countdown to Infinite Crisis, before he kills Ted, but I'm not 100% on that.

2. Jean Loring and her relationship with Eclipso: "Identity Crisis" will give you how she ended up the way she did, and the first issue of Day of Vengence explains why she's Eclipso.

3. Rann/Thanagar's War: Read "Adam Strange: Planet Heist" available in TPB for the skinny on that situation.

4. Hostless Spectre: Read "Green Lantern: Rebirth" for what the heck happened with Hal and the Spectre.

5. Crazy President Luthor: You'll need to read a couple to understand the whole situation. Why Luthor is president is in the Superman TPB "President Luthor," which is volume 5 of the new series books. Why he lost alot of the US's trust is in Our Worlds At War, available now as a single volume, but which isn't an essential read for the situation. His final decline into maddness is in "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies," which is a pretty terrible showing from Jeph Loeb, but will tell you the story if you're willing to suffer through all the out of character stuff from many heroes.

6. Why is Zoom there?: The 2 issue Flash/Wonder Woman crossover sold out really quickly, so they repackaged it in the Perlude in order to boost sales. Also, it has some vauge stuff to do with Zoom and Cheetah joining the Society at the end.

7. Where is the Spectre?: Read his new miniseries to find out, and pay attention to the fate of Crispus Allen (of Gotham Central fame) during the Autopsy that happens durring Infinite Crisis.

8. Where is Eclipso?: Fraid I can't help you on this one... I can't remember if they dealt with her during the Day of Vengence annual/one shot/special thing, but I think that was mainly the reforming of the rock of eternity... I don't have the issue in front of me. Sorry!

9. Why is Wonder Woman blindfolded?: Because she's blind! Read "Wonder Woman: Eyes of the Gorgon, Land of the Dead, and Missions End" for the full story and all the Crisis related things that happen to her.

Other stuff:

The new "Infinite Crisis Companion" that's due out soon should help fill in some gaps as well, if you don't have all 4 of the "Specials" that were put out for each of the 4 countdown books. Unfortunatly, it isn't available til October, but your shop might have the specials still in stock.

"Superman: Sacrifice" is pretty much a requirement for being able to understand OMAC properly.

Reading "Teen Titans: The Future is Now" certainly resonates with the whole "Superman punching the universe so it becomes different" thing towards the end, but it isn't a requirement to understand the rest of the stories. The forthcoming "Teen Titans: Life and Death" *due July 26th, according to DC's site) has the Crisis issues and the Titans Annual compiled in it, which are kinda key, and if you don't have those in single issue form

"Outsider's: Crisis Intervention" has a little bit to do with Infinite Crisis... kinda...

That's all the ones I can think of off the top of my head. If anyone else can think of books to add, please do.

The more importnat reason it was included (and I called back when they first released it), is the scene where Wally and Diana are linked by the lasso and are compelled to tell the truth. Diana states that some villains deserve to be killed, foreshadowing her execution of Maxwell Lord.

Weel, it was noted by Alex Luthor that Lex was going nutty cause of the brain waves. Apparently, Alex being there in that reality caused Lex some neurological problems of a sort, kinda what Power Girl was going thru being near to Supergirl. I can't remember what issue that was, but it was certainly a key issue to understanding that Lex was going looney in part because of that.

Doc Sachiel, thanks for all the help, I already knew a lot of the stuff, but thanks for the extra info, I worded my questions poorly. I have read many of the crisis related books, but am having trouble chaining them together, because I don't really know what order they are in. (Is rebirth before OMAC? etc. )

I read rann/thanagar, OMAC, superman:sacrifice, GL: rebirth, superman batman public enemies, day of vengeance, and identity crisis, crisis of conscience

are crisis of conscience, and superman sacrifice what you mean by "specials" a shorter book that adds more stuff? if so, does rann/thanagar or Day of vengeance have a special?

I really wish that they hadn't written OMAC project so that superman sacrifice is wedged in the middle, I didn't really get it, then, I read Superman sacrifice, and it explained it a little.

I really hated the part where superman gets angry with wonderwoman for killing maxwell lord, what the hell would he have done if he were in her place? and batman was even worse than him, what the hell would he have done? what does a guy have to do for batman to believe the guy deserves to die? I want to ask him one day, I will build a Prose Portal, so I can enter books, and meet people, and find out what their voices sound like.

thanks for all your help, I wrote down the names of the books and will pick up as many of them as i can next time i go to the comic shoppe.

Identity crisis and Infinite crisis were both alot like badsex with a beautiful woman. It looks cool and all but then the payoff is really disappointing. The only thing that links these stories together is your checking account balance. Identity crisis had the worst ending in all of comics, including such masterpieces as the clone saga and that Morrison, Quietly debacle in NXM, and the House of M, while Infinite seemed cool until the mentallychallenged monkey for a death that Connor (a good character) recieved, and the whole SBP punching reality... thus far DC has left me saying WTF??? But hopefully they will do something with Adam Strange again, or Kyle cause so far they are DC's shining moments... and don't even mention that "Crisis in Infinite Wallets" that is 52.

Connor died all right.
The one thing I didn't care for was the SBP punching reality. that was annoying. They could've come up with a better idea to explain things like Todd's resurrection, which, they probably shouldn't of done in the first place. Like when the original crisis was over, Todd had diff hair color and a new origin, right? Sheesh