In the year 85271
Re-read DC One Million on Sunday. heehaw_tng bought the trade at NYAF, and when I flipped through it I really wanted to just read it, so I did. It's just as good as I remember; harking back to a time when Grant Morrison could write big, expansive stories that still made a lick of sense. This crossover reminded me just why Morrison is given so much latitude at DC: he can come up with big ideas that are actually suited to the grand, archetypal characters that live there. A story like "Civil War" is suited to the Marvel Universe because it's so messy and political and down-to-earth like most of the heroes there; throw them into something like "Final Crisis" and it's just not quite right, "Infinity War" not withstanding (though it was cool when Captain America faced down Thanos, he's still just Cap, not Superman). The DC Universe is better suited for cosmic stories because a lot of the heroes are from space anyway, or a non-gritty future. And when your leader is a guy who flies through space and hurls mountains, well, you're going to need to step things up a bit.
DC One Million stands as one of my favorite comic-book stories of all time, because it hits so many bases with me. First off, the incredible amount of world-building. The universe of the 853rd Century is just so well thought out, with all these crazy ideas that make sense for a far-future and and incredible amount of consistency. Because every single DC title the month it was published did a million issue, that means Morrison had to write out all these crazy ideas in a bible of some sort so the other writers would be able to write a story in the same future. There were throwaway lines in the main miniseries (like the Headnet and rogue icons) that were picked up and fleshed out in other titles.
Second off, the attention to legacy. The DC Universe is very strong on legacy heroes. And though this story wasn't about prior iterations of heroes (like the original JSA) it felt like it was, in a way. Because we were put in the position of viewing our heroes in past tense. Much as in how we look back on Barry Allen (recent resurrection notwithstanding) and Jay Garrick, we're being asked to look at Wally West in the same way, because that's how the heroes of the future see him. (I know, not the best example because the Flash in the 853rd Century is John Fox, but you get my point.) This all ties into the world-building aspect of the title: Morrison created legacies that don't exist yet, and may never exist.
Most of all, it was just a good story. We saw villains from the past (Vandal Savage) and villains of the future (Solaris). We saw the heroes of the DC Universe dealing with the crisis in their own ways... and we saw what they could become.
As for the actual trade, it's okay. To their credit they included not only One Million #1-4, but also Starman and Resurrection Man, which were both important to the plot. They also included Superman: The Man of Tomorrow for whatever reason, though I feel like it raised more questions than it explained. What they didn't include was Chronos, which on a re-reading I realized was *very* important, at least in terms of what happened with Vandal Savage.
DC One Million stands as one of my favorite comic-book stories of all time, because it hits so many bases with me. First off, the incredible amount of world-building. The universe of the 853rd Century is just so well thought out, with all these crazy ideas that make sense for a far-future and and incredible amount of consistency. Because every single DC title the month it was published did a million issue, that means Morrison had to write out all these crazy ideas in a bible of some sort so the other writers would be able to write a story in the same future. There were throwaway lines in the main miniseries (like the Headnet and rogue icons) that were picked up and fleshed out in other titles.
Second off, the attention to legacy. The DC Universe is very strong on legacy heroes. And though this story wasn't about prior iterations of heroes (like the original JSA) it felt like it was, in a way. Because we were put in the position of viewing our heroes in past tense. Much as in how we look back on Barry Allen (recent resurrection notwithstanding) and Jay Garrick, we're being asked to look at Wally West in the same way, because that's how the heroes of the future see him. (I know, not the best example because the Flash in the 853rd Century is John Fox, but you get my point.) This all ties into the world-building aspect of the title: Morrison created legacies that don't exist yet, and may never exist.
Most of all, it was just a good story. We saw villains from the past (Vandal Savage) and villains of the future (Solaris). We saw the heroes of the DC Universe dealing with the crisis in their own ways... and we saw what they could become.
As for the actual trade, it's okay. To their credit they included not only One Million #1-4, but also Starman and Resurrection Man, which were both important to the plot. They also included Superman: The Man of Tomorrow for whatever reason, though I feel like it raised more questions than it explained. What they didn't include was Chronos, which on a re-reading I realized was *very* important, at least in terms of what happened with Vandal Savage.