Saturday, February 19, 2011

Which Universe Will Superboy-Prime Punch This Time?

You know they're going to do it again.

The history of DC editorially since Crisis On Infinite Earths can best be described as an OCD sufferer who simply can't stop cleaning that spot on the carpet, time and time again, even though to everybody else it appears perfectly clean.

This is a group of people who, in the past 25 years, has gone through 5 or 6 different versions of who the founding members of the Justice League were.

This is a set of writers and editors who put out huge, company-wide maxi-series, seemingly just to address whether or not Batman ever caught Joe Chill.

This is a bunch of cats who are so obsessed with making Hawkman and Donna Troy's history make sense that they keep redoing it...and redoing it...and wait, this time we really have it...nope, one more time.

Seriously, 99.9% of readers would be fine with a "this is how it is," a nod and a wink to any inconsistencies, and moving right along. Not DC, though. They're constantly trying to make their past continuity "perfect" (as well as being in line with whatever the latest editorial whim is). They can't stop washing the carpet...

Which brings us to:

So, we've got a House Of Zoom event here, wherein the history of the entire DC Universe is going to be set askew, and, after 50+ issues of sturm und drang, everything will be reset to the way it was.

Except it won't, will it? After Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis, we know that DC is going to return everything to status quo EXCEPT they'll use the whole changing history business as an excuse to re-adjust whatever niggling points of continuity they feel are staining their carpet right now.

So, what will change this time? A reboot for the Shazam family? Sgt. Rock surviving WWII? Power Girl being a founding member of the Justice League? Yet another Hawkman tweak?

Whatever changes they make, though, you can bet that they won't be permanent. 3 months after Flashpoint, someone at DC will look at things and go, "Wait, that doesn't 100% work," and start to stare at that "spot" on the carpet again...
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6 comments:

  1. SiskoidFebruary 19, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    While I agree completely that the "crises" (by whatever name) are coming in too closely together these days, I do think they're a fun tradition at DC. Which again, is not to say it should be invoked more than, say once every 15-20 years!

    Of all the things you've mentioned, the only one that doesn't seem capricious is rebooting Shazam.

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  2. snellFebruary 19, 2011 at 2:10 PM

    I don't so much mind the events, as the constant fidgeting with the wikinuity. Marvel does lots of events, and for the most part they don't involve rewriting their history (again and again).

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  3. notinthefaceFebruary 19, 2011 at 11:12 PM

    If they put as much creative energy into building for the future as they do into messing with the history, DC would be a much better company than it is. For example, they got Geoff Johns and Gary Frank together, not to do a memorable NEW story, but to waste their talents on YET ANOTHER retelling of Superman's origin, barely SIX YEARS after Waid's BIRTHRIGHT mini.

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  4. UnknownFebruary 20, 2011 at 5:30 AM

    The http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/ Waste Basket blog said, and I accept its assertion, that the original Marvel universe became so stupidly popular because it existed in real time, with contemporary events threaded through it.

    The assertion on that blog is also that the real Marvel universe ended circa 1975, with the last canon stories wrapping up in 1991. Hard to disagree given the endlessly stupid crap ever since.

    DC has never had a coherent universe, and the Crisis hammer is daft. If there's one thing DC should do it's just embrace the chaos that is constant appetite for buying properties causes.

    Of course it's been decades since either Marvel or DC characters have been characters in a secondary world rather than lunchbox brands.

    Sad.

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  5. EyzFebruary 20, 2011 at 2:29 PM

    This even sounds and will probably be exactly like Marvel's House of M.
    Meaning? A giant What if../Elseworld, were all on-goings will adapt to this parralel universe and after things will go back to normal. Nobody will remember it, apart from the speedster (Flash/Quicksilver).

    Since I always loved those alternate universe, and this will be an event based on this, I guess I'll be one of the few who'll enjoy this Flashpoint^^

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  6. snellFebruary 20, 2011 at 2:43 PM

    Eyz--don't forget that House Of M somehow magically revived Hawkeye...

    And DC *always* uses these things to tinker with continuity, so something will change...the only question is what.

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