The usually vigilant Keeper took a break from the Net over the weekend, but news of DC’s biggest and bestest event ever managed to penetrate our secret Himalayan retreat.
The pairing of writer Grant Morrison with artist J.G. Jones promises spectacular results (although we were also confident about Paul Dini’s involvement with Countdown, and look how that turned out … ), but your humble host worries the creative team will be constrained by company politics.
After all, the original Crisis was supposed to completely wipe out DC history and start over again. That didn’t quite happen, and the company consequently spent the large part of 20-plus years rewriting old stories to fill in the gaps.
Sadly, once-viable characters like the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkwoman, Supergirl and the Helena Wayne Huntress were wiped out along the way.
Although we have no clue what Morrison has up his sleeve - aside from the cool Anthro to Kamandi time line - we hope Final Crisis finishes the job that COIE fumbled.
Namely, destroy and recreate the DC multiverse from the ground up.
Your humble host realizes this drastic act would ruin cult favorites like Blue Beetle and Manhunter, but the Keeper believes it is absolutely necessary if DC truly hopes to get a leg up on Marvel.
As things currently stand, even die hard DC fans are unsure which origin of Superman is considered canon, which Legion of Super-Heroes is the real deal and whether or not Batgirl is a mentally scarred anti-hero or an outright villain.
(We also don’t know if Supergirl’s father is supposed to be evil or mentally stable. And what was the deal with those crystals?)
Marvel’s continuity is equally muddled, but those books at least present the illusion of simplicity by simply ignoring what has come before. (It’s not like a Skrull invasion is particularly original, but it certainly seems that way when presented as an OMG moment without precedent.)
Marvel is also aided by the simple fact that Civil War - as much as the Keeper found the mini-series repulsive - truly changed the company’s status quo, at least for the time being. What did Infinite Crisis ultimately deliver, aside from a few cosmetic changes?
DC needs to take bold action and transform its characters into figures that are at least somewhat recognizable to the general public.
By re-starting its universe, Superman could once again be the original super-hero who inspired all who followed - including the G*damned Batman. DC could even reignite the classic Kal-El/Clark/Lois love triangle, one of the most famous aspects of the Superman legend.
Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon could be Robin and Batgirl again, just like they are in nearly every television and movie adaptation of the Bat mythos. Wonder Woman could fall in love with a young, Top Gun-style Steve Trevor.
The Teen Titans could assemble a team that resembles the insanely popular animated version, Hal Jordan could be a hard-living test pilot, and either Barry or Wally (take your pick at this point) could run free as the Flash, unencumbered by family obligations.
Put the Golden Age heroes on Earth-2, the Marvel Family on Earth-5, the Charlton and Quality characters on Earth-Whatever and create titles their chronicling new adventures. At the very least, classic heroes Captain Marvel and Plastic Man could be big wheels again in their own universes, rather than play second-fiddle to DC’s “native” characters.
Sure, it’s a radical move that would infuriate longtime DC fans. But, it’s not like those self-same readers aren’t mad already. It’s even possible that a streamlined DC universe would attract new readers.
Wouldn’t that be a radical change!
Of course, the Keeper doesn’t expect Final Crisis to have that drastic an effect on DC Comics. However, one can always dream - and isn’t that the best aspect of being a comic-book fan?
I don’t even think it’s that great an idea. The baby: bathwater ratio is just too high. And there are lots of other ways of dealing with bathwater.
I just posted my thoughts on continuity. I just want someone to punch someone else if they bring it up in a comic.
I don’t think it adds any benefit to comics but our desire to have things in a nice order is sometimes hard to fight - like buying a series of books that all have the same cover. Once you let go of it, you’re free to enjoy the contents.
Heck look at the animated series comics, especially the JLU stuff to see the potential of just ignoring continuity but using characters.
joncormier: Books like JLU, and the multitude of other stand-alone reads in our universe are all good and well, but when you start making concessions like that widespread, it’s the death of the literary function.
It’s easy to abandon order. I don’t think that’s a standard anyone should be striving for.
Sequential storytelling and the development of characters prevails because it’s art imitating life, and the beauty of the fiction is to have our cake (a progressive timeline) and eat it too (without the inevitable aging of characters).
Comics as a medium has the added advantage of pummelling the planet with it’s stories and characters decade after decade, accumulating a history and consolidated measure of what the mean logic is for everything that exists in these worlds.
To dismiss the value “continuity” brings to stories and characters is lazy and/or crass.
A complete reboot is arguably the cake, but with the success, I believe, DC has had with it’s nostalgia brands this decade, it just seems like a waste.
In some sort of twist of fate, it feels like DC has become the home of history and continuing interrelations among heroes.
A complete flip from a childhood of Marvel Team-Ups.
And as you say, there are options out there for the history-phobes.
My theory on Final Crisis is that DC will attempt to drive the multiple earths concept to such an absurdly confusing, chaotic level, that (they believe) fans will be relieved to get the single earth that’ll (most likely) result from the event. It almost reminds me of the “smoking cure” dads used to administer to sons who snuck a cigarette: make ‘em smoke the whole pack so they get so sick of cigarettes (literally), they’ll never want to touch ‘em again. I sense a similar mindset at work with the post-52 “Countdown” phase: “You want multiple earths? Hah! We’ll give you multiple earths!”…to the point where there are so many divergent Earths and multiple versions of characters, even the most die-hard multiple earths fan will throw up the surrender flag.
At least that’s my theory. Considering the volitility of DC Comics and their schizophrenic editorial department, who really knows?
Some very valid points and I truly feel your frustration, but I just won’t believe that ‘everything will change.’ DC has gone waaaayyy over their wolf cry quota in past years.
Bringing back the Multiverse would easily solve so many problems and still allow creators to play around. Everyone could have their fun with a grim and gritty Jason Todd as the Red Robin on one world and a carefree and fun Dick Grayson as Robin on another JSA on Earth 2, JLA on Earth 1… etc.
DC could even integrate little Earth logos on the cover to ease any confusion right away.
But we all know where things go when the fans have good ideas, right? The completely opposite direction.
Keeper, I’ve been mulling over a similar post for a while now, and you beat me to it, plain and simple. I guess I should get a move on and at least support your idea.
Because there IS a way to do this. And yes, it would controversial, but no, you wouldn’t have to give up so-called “cult hits”, not necessarily.
Mark: I think that would be a major waste, and I don’t think that would be Morrison’s way. He’s too much of a Silver Age freak to do away with a crazy concept like that.
I also don’t think the Multiverse is going anywhere, especially if Morrison’s involved. There was just too much teased in the last issue of 52 to chuck it all so soon.
Back in February I thought DC was transitioning to a whole new Earth, and basically giving Post-Crisis Earth a big sendoff. Going along with the new ad, the particular heroes of New Earth could die (or retire), but their legends would “live forever” on the Earth which Final Crisis introduces. I like this because it doesn’t obliterate the last twenty-odd years of stories, it just puts them all on a (now-) secondary Earth.
But I’m probably wrong about that, and FC will just be a tuneup for the new Multiverse. With Morrison writing, it’ll be an entertaining tuneup, of course.
There. You shamed me into it.
It is done.
Er…by Batgirl do you mean Jason Todd? Because where in the whole history of Batgirl/Oracle is she an anti-hero?
Or do you mean Cassandra?
Yep, it’s Cassandra.
Sorry if I was unclear.
I don’t think DC needs a new crisis, what they need is editors who EDIT and occasionally say no to bad ideas (expl crystal emitting Supergirl). The problems of bad writing are expunged by good writing. The original crisis was engendered by an amok collection of over-indulged writers (Marv Wolfman) who got the ear of Jeanette Kahn and started revamping the whole DC universe sans recourse to what the fans wanted. That got Kara and Barry snuffed and created nothing but a new and stifling orthodoxy to supercede the old.
No, handing over the current continuity to a new set of over-indulged writers just perpetuates the madness IMHO.
Without Morrison, my repsonse might have been ho-hum. With him, it’s actually got a chance in terms of being really good. One question, what did you mean about your comments re: Manhunter and Blue Bettle? I would think that current incarnations would likely survive, particularly this Manhunter since she’s got little connection to previous ones.