A new multiverse
So, I've been reading and thinking about some of the discussion of Infinite Crisis (of Finite Earths! as I'm always tempted to finish it) and Dan Didio's comments at Wizard World Philly (which I was almost at myself, and I'm now not at all sure whether to be glad that family events kept me away).
And I have a proposal.
More than the whole "one year after" business, what made me growly about the interview was Didio's comments about the JSA and DC history in general.
Asked if readers will see more stories set in the Golden Age of the JSA or something starring the All-Star Squadron set in the past, Didio admitted that he tends to resist those kinds of stories. While he didn’t rule it out, Didio said that he doesn’t like to look back too much, as the DCU, in Didio’s eyes, revolves around Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, who remain relatively ageless.
Didio went on to explain that the DCU is a generational story, and while time does progress, if you try to tell stories set in the past, it pushes the three major heroes up in the timeline, putting more time in between the first superheroes of the DCU and the modern day trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Telling stories that do that, Didio said, is something he’s very cautious about.
So, basically, Didio is accusing the JSA, the only heroes in the mainstream DCU who age in real-time, of pushing the "ageless" Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman "up in the timeline", and appears to want to solve this by ignoring the JSA's past.
Which--as a history major and a fan of the JSA, Infinity Inc, and other heroes who, to one degree or another, experience time passing, is really galling. The DCU's rich past is one of its important properties, distinguishing it from smaller, newer publishers, and even from Marvel, which has fewer characters that go back that far.
Unfortunately, as Didio points out quite accurately, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are properties more valuable to the company, as it attempts to appeal to folks who don't go into paroxysms of squee when Alan or Jay demonstrate their elder-statesmen mojo or Ollie turns 43.[1] And Batman, in particular, loses his vitality as a hero if he's allowed to age too much. (Superman and Wonder Woman, not being Normal Humans, are less of a problem, although Superman's supporting cast would be.)
Between the "agelessness" of Batman and the real-time of the JSA, the DCU *is* in a time-squeeze, compressing more and more of its continuity into ~10 years while stretching out the empty years between the post-war retirement of the original JSA and Superman's "10 years ago" debut.[2] And yes, ignoring the fact that Black Canary I made her heroic debut in 1947 will cause people to wonder less often why her daughter was 19 "10 years ago" or appears to be the same age as Oracle now.
It hardly solves the *problem*, however, much less the problem caused by the compression of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s into the 1990s and 2000s--when did Ollie and Hal's roadtrip happen again?! Attempting to fully wrap ones mind around these things leads to madness, and for the average, everyday, writer or reader, ignoring it is really your best bet.
But Didio's Infinite Crisis offers a chance to do something about this for the long term, or, at any rate, for the next twenty-odd years. Now, my trust in DC editorial lately is pretty limited, and between Identity Crisis and DC Countdown, Don't do anything major!! sounds like a pretty good knee-jerk reaction. (...I'm not at all sure how I feel about the whole "One year later!" gimmick. A large part of me is simply expecting it to be a year long gimmick and then lapse into usual DC continuity in a year or so real-time. Since the Crisis, DC has been very good at absorbing CROSSOVER EVENTS! with little long-term damage. I am possibly being over-optimistic.)
However. I think DC needs a new set of multiple (or at any rate dual) Earths, on the lines of the pre-Crisis Earth-1 and Earth-2 that allowed the WWII heroes to age in the first place. The dynastic and/or time-tied heroes could be moved to a separate Earth that was allowed to progress in real time, while revamped versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and certain other newer and younger heroes, with fewer ties to real-time, could inhabit an earth of Eternal Present on the model of the post-Crisis "10 years ago" continuity--except with less baggage.
Unfortunately, splitting continuity would not be as easy as it was in the 1960s, when the concept of "continuity" was less well developed and there was a fairly obvious splitting point between Earth-1 and Earth-2[3]. I would vote for either a two-earth or a three-earth system; either a revived Earth-2 for the JSAers and their offspring and an "Earth-1" for the more dynastic Silver Agers (primarily, from my perspective, the Lanterns, Arrows, and Flashes, who could be tied to the 1960s and 1970s the way the JSAers are to the 1940s), plus a new "Earth-BSW" for the revamped Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman; or, for those who like the generational aspect of the post-Crisis DCU to extend a bit further, both Golden and Silver Age real-time heroes on Earth-2 and Eternal Present heroes on Earth-1.
There would be a number of wrinkles in this; Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have been partially detangled from the Silver Age JLA in post-Crisis continuity; Earth-1 could either *fully* disentangle them or double them and put 'em back. The "third generation" of sidekicks would be another issue; I suspect many of you would not *like* to have Bart on a different earth from Tim and Kon (and Cassie), or Roy on a different earth from Dick (even aside from what all this would to to the Teen Titans); again, there would be solutions involving either multiple versions of the Bat, Super, and Wonder people, or, particularly in the case of the Robins, having some characters *only* on Earth-1 so as to relieve the pressure on Batman's past (four Robins in 10 years?!). One could also alleviate the Lantern controversy by putting Hal and Kyle on different earths...
And, well, if this has nothing at all to do with what DC is plotting? It could make for some good fic, but fic so expansive I need plenty of help in the world-building department. Discuss!
[1] And whyever not?! I don't understand these people...;)
[2] Or substitute "12 years" or "15" or even "20", depending on the timeline you're using.
[3] I.e. the early 50s, when most superhero comics went out of publication.
And I have a proposal.
More than the whole "one year after" business, what made me growly about the interview was Didio's comments about the JSA and DC history in general.
Asked if readers will see more stories set in the Golden Age of the JSA or something starring the All-Star Squadron set in the past, Didio admitted that he tends to resist those kinds of stories. While he didn’t rule it out, Didio said that he doesn’t like to look back too much, as the DCU, in Didio’s eyes, revolves around Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, who remain relatively ageless.
Didio went on to explain that the DCU is a generational story, and while time does progress, if you try to tell stories set in the past, it pushes the three major heroes up in the timeline, putting more time in between the first superheroes of the DCU and the modern day trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Telling stories that do that, Didio said, is something he’s very cautious about.
So, basically, Didio is accusing the JSA, the only heroes in the mainstream DCU who age in real-time, of pushing the "ageless" Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman "up in the timeline", and appears to want to solve this by ignoring the JSA's past.
Which--as a history major and a fan of the JSA, Infinity Inc, and other heroes who, to one degree or another, experience time passing, is really galling. The DCU's rich past is one of its important properties, distinguishing it from smaller, newer publishers, and even from Marvel, which has fewer characters that go back that far.
Unfortunately, as Didio points out quite accurately, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are properties more valuable to the company, as it attempts to appeal to folks who don't go into paroxysms of squee when Alan or Jay demonstrate their elder-statesmen mojo or Ollie turns 43.[1] And Batman, in particular, loses his vitality as a hero if he's allowed to age too much. (Superman and Wonder Woman, not being Normal Humans, are less of a problem, although Superman's supporting cast would be.)
Between the "agelessness" of Batman and the real-time of the JSA, the DCU *is* in a time-squeeze, compressing more and more of its continuity into ~10 years while stretching out the empty years between the post-war retirement of the original JSA and Superman's "10 years ago" debut.[2] And yes, ignoring the fact that Black Canary I made her heroic debut in 1947 will cause people to wonder less often why her daughter was 19 "10 years ago" or appears to be the same age as Oracle now.
It hardly solves the *problem*, however, much less the problem caused by the compression of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s into the 1990s and 2000s--when did Ollie and Hal's roadtrip happen again?! Attempting to fully wrap ones mind around these things leads to madness, and for the average, everyday, writer or reader, ignoring it is really your best bet.
But Didio's Infinite Crisis offers a chance to do something about this for the long term, or, at any rate, for the next twenty-odd years. Now, my trust in DC editorial lately is pretty limited, and between Identity Crisis and DC Countdown, Don't do anything major!! sounds like a pretty good knee-jerk reaction. (...I'm not at all sure how I feel about the whole "One year later!" gimmick. A large part of me is simply expecting it to be a year long gimmick and then lapse into usual DC continuity in a year or so real-time. Since the Crisis, DC has been very good at absorbing CROSSOVER EVENTS! with little long-term damage. I am possibly being over-optimistic.)
However. I think DC needs a new set of multiple (or at any rate dual) Earths, on the lines of the pre-Crisis Earth-1 and Earth-2 that allowed the WWII heroes to age in the first place. The dynastic and/or time-tied heroes could be moved to a separate Earth that was allowed to progress in real time, while revamped versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and certain other newer and younger heroes, with fewer ties to real-time, could inhabit an earth of Eternal Present on the model of the post-Crisis "10 years ago" continuity--except with less baggage.
Unfortunately, splitting continuity would not be as easy as it was in the 1960s, when the concept of "continuity" was less well developed and there was a fairly obvious splitting point between Earth-1 and Earth-2[3]. I would vote for either a two-earth or a three-earth system; either a revived Earth-2 for the JSAers and their offspring and an "Earth-1" for the more dynastic Silver Agers (primarily, from my perspective, the Lanterns, Arrows, and Flashes, who could be tied to the 1960s and 1970s the way the JSAers are to the 1940s), plus a new "Earth-BSW" for the revamped Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman; or, for those who like the generational aspect of the post-Crisis DCU to extend a bit further, both Golden and Silver Age real-time heroes on Earth-2 and Eternal Present heroes on Earth-1.
There would be a number of wrinkles in this; Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have been partially detangled from the Silver Age JLA in post-Crisis continuity; Earth-1 could either *fully* disentangle them or double them and put 'em back. The "third generation" of sidekicks would be another issue; I suspect many of you would not *like* to have Bart on a different earth from Tim and Kon (and Cassie), or Roy on a different earth from Dick (even aside from what all this would to to the Teen Titans); again, there would be solutions involving either multiple versions of the Bat, Super, and Wonder people, or, particularly in the case of the Robins, having some characters *only* on Earth-1 so as to relieve the pressure on Batman's past (four Robins in 10 years?!). One could also alleviate the Lantern controversy by putting Hal and Kyle on different earths...
And, well, if this has nothing at all to do with what DC is plotting? It could make for some good fic, but fic so expansive I need plenty of help in the world-building department. Discuss!
[1] And whyever not?! I don't understand these people...;)
[2] Or substitute "12 years" or "15" or even "20", depending on the timeline you're using.
[3] I.e. the early 50s, when most superhero comics went out of publication.