JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT DC COMICS HAD FIXED THINGS...
...they go ahead and screw them up again.
Way back in 1985 the folks at DC Comics decided that their multiverse concept, with different versions of heroes living on different Earths in different universes, was too complicated for their readers to understand (I sure as heck wasn’t one of them). So, in what was a novel-for-its-time maxi-series entitled Crisis on Infinite Earths, the folks at DC did away with the multiverse.
They blowed up all the different universes except for five, killed off about a bazillion of their characters, then smooshed the five universes and all the characters that were left into one final universe. So now there was only one version of every character and everybody got along.
Except it caused a lot of problems, especially when they tried to fit everything into one cohesive continuity. Superboy, according to the new history, never existed, so he was erased. Hawkman and Hawkwoman caused a whole mess of problems (were they reincarnated Egyptians? aliens from another planet? people whose parents had unholy relations with birds?) which I’m sure drove more than a few comic book writers and editors around the bend, to say nothing of the fans.
DC acknowledged there were problems. So they had another crisis event to fix those problems.
Which just caused more problems.
So they had another “crisis” event. And another. And another, to the point where it seemed we were having a “crisis” event annually just to fix DC’s continuity/time stream/history, or whatever it was the last “crisis” screwed up.
There was even a Final Crisis that was supposed to end the whole process and fix DC continuity for good.
How? By bringing back the multiverse.
Except it was more like a baby multiverse, limited to just 52 component universes. DC gave us a map showing us who lived on what Earth. Grant Morrison wrote a mini-series explaining and exploring the new multiverse.
It was a good start to fixing what never really was broken in the first place.
However, I never liked limiting the multiverse to just 52 universes. That number seemed arbitrary, and it really seemed silly because the very concept of a multiverse is that it is limitless, infinite.
But still (he said in his best dubbed-kung-fu-movie-voice) it was better than nothing. It expanded, rather than restricted, the creators’ storytelling possibilities. I was looking forward to what DC was going to do with it.
And then they decided to basically chuck everything and go with their New 52 direction and basically reboot everything again.
My contempt for the New 52 runs strong. As I said at the time to anyone in my local comic book shop who would listen, if it didn’t pan out for Marvel with (the original) Heroes Reborn, it’s not gonna pan out for DC.
It didn’t. However, Marvel was smart and pulled the plug on Heroes Reborn after a year. DC, on the other hand, just let it drag on and on until it finally became obvious to everyone that it wasn’t working.
So they did another reboot, this time called Rebirth, to more-or-less bring back the DC Universe that had existed before the New 52.
(Marvel learned from their mistake and re-did Heroes Reborn, as the more successful Ultimate Marvel line, albeit not with the gimmick of handing the reins over to all the people who had left the company to form Image Comics.)
(If DC felt so strongly about giving the New 52 concept a go, they could have made a similar move: have the stories take place on another Earth in the multiverse with a select few titles to see what works,)
And don’t get me started on the reboot that supposedly went into effect in Doomsday Clock (the Justice League-meets-the-Watchmen maxi-series). Still haven’t figured that one out.
Anyhoo, things were chugging along. Then came Dark Knights, which introduced the concept of a dark multiverse.
More hijinks ensue, but the dark multiverse is popular enough that there is a sequel series, with the stakes even higher. Big cosmic battle with the heroes finally triumphing at the end.
The result? A new, expanded multiverse. In fact, DC calls it an “omniverse” because any story that ever happened in a DC comic (even *gag* New 52) happened somewhere in the omniverse.
Great! Now we’re getting somewhere.
And then I read today on Newsarama (I’m sure it’s on other comic news sites as well) about Generations: Forged #1, which is released tomorrow.
DC’s now introducing, what seems to me, the dopiest concept yet: the Linearverse.
Put simply, the Superman who first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938 is the exact same Superman today who is married to Lois Lane and has a son. Everyone - heroes, villains, normal folks - just age at a very, very slow rate. That’s why Batman, who was 20′s when he first appeared in 1939 - which would make him over 100 years old now - is still in his prime today.
Time moves very slowly for DC characters. Yet fashion and technology still move along at the regular pace.
Taken to the extreme, many characters could still be alive in the 31st century to have adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes.
It also takes away the motivation of so many villains who are always looking for ways to extend their life or become immortal.
According to folks at DC, this whole Linearverse thing is a reworking of the Generations project DC announced for last year (2020) , but was suddenly dropped as soon as Dan DiDio, the main proponent, was let go.
Frankly, it sounds like DC is trying to have its cake and eat it, too. Instead of going back to the original concept of the Golden Age Superman living in one universe, and the modern-day Superman in another, they come up with this cockamamie idea. Why do they seem resistant to properly utilize the multiverse?
This reminds me of a few years after the original Crisis. DC had decreed that there were no multiple universes anymore. But people found that constrictive.
So DC created Hypertime, a poorly defined concept that allowed for alternate realities within the universe without utilizing multiple universe. It was a way to get around not having a multiverse.
No one understood the Hypertime concept, including most people at DC. It was never really used, except for several issues in Superboy (the clone, not the young Superman) where Kon-El was exploring different alternate realities. It was actually a good use of Superboy, and I would have loved to have seen him continue as a dimensional explorer, but it wasn’t meant to be.
And that was, for the most part, the last time Hypertime was ever referenced in DC books. It then just quietly faded away.
My point, after all this wind baggery, is that DC has the multiverse back, bigger and better than ever. They should return to the pre-Crisis status quo of the Golden Age heroes appearing on Earth-2 (although they really should be Earth-1 when you think about it). Put Captain Marvel/Shazam back on Earth-S because that character does not belong in a grim and gritty “realistic” comic. Put the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X.
You have all these Earths. Spread your characters out and make use of them. The story possibilities are endless.
Marvel has a better handle on this. They acknowledge that they have a multiverse. The main Earth that shows up in all their books is #616 out of an infinite number. Marvel uses the multiverse to explore different concepts and versions of their characters. They have fun with it.
DC needs to learn how to have fun with their multiverse omniverse, too.
But the Linearverse, DC? If it absolutely must exist in your omniverse, put it off in a very far corner and forget about it. It’s just too silly to take seriously, and these are comic books we’re talking about!
