"Crisis of Infinite Unnecessary Editorial Edicts"

The Multiverse started out as--and was--an endearing

concept that allowed for endless creativity. The most

basic and enduring aspect of the Multiverse was the

basis for maintaining vastly different worlds with

their own unique feel, energy, and style.

Then, editors at DC decided it was 'too confusing' to

say that there were multiple Supermen (as opposed

to the ease of following along with 25 years of a sometimes

inconsistent history of Silver Age characters.)

While most fans relished the publication of DC Comics'

 "Crisis on Infinite Earths," it likely had to do with many

factors unrelated to its blending of all existing multiple earths;

fans were excited by the George Perez artwork, the scope of the story,

seeing characters that had not been seen in years, seeing different

characters interact for the first time, and seeing the sheer multitude

of characters included in a single panel/issue/comic/story--more

than had ever been seen before.

But when the shouting was over, and all the dynamics that had

made Shazam!'s earth unique had been blended with the

common aspects of the DCU proper, what resulted was

a homogenization of everyone, not a maintaining of unique

styles.

After the preliminary excitement of having the Question

operate in the same universe as Batman, and having Captain

Marvel join the Justice League, the shine wore off.

Now, these once singular and titanic characters were

simply another one of a several-thousand-member

character universe.

DC's role as publisher became continually telling stories that

sought to realign their universe's flimsy sense of

consistency and shared history. Keeping track of

overlapping and conflicting stories proved much more

daunting than originally anticipated, and the idea of a

'streamlined' universe was a bust.

When Continuity is king, the light of imagination is darkened.

Fun and uniqueness and spontaneity are all victims of

an anal-retentive need to attempt to dovetail all stories

and characters into a shared (i.e., stagnant) depository.

Story after story, series after series, DC became obsessed

with retconning and revising the most minute of details,

and sometimes multiple times on the same matter!

Retelling old stories to make them 'fit' into the new

status quo was Job Number One.

Instead of paving new trails, the company was bogged down in

fruitless efforts to maintain and rewrite the blurred

and muddled histories of just one universe. Instead of having the

freedom to tell new and fresh stories, writers had to make sure

that their ideas fit into editorial parameters.

Elseworlds imprints (which allowed for new earths and

new takes on characters) were few and far between, and

often either A) didn't go far enough, B) rushed through to

an ending rather than properly developing characterization,

or, C) started out strong but invariably got soft at the

climax, catering to corporate concerns.

Eventually, a very watered down, distilled,

cypher version of a version of a version of

the original is all that's left. Rather than simply creating

new characters, the company keeps 'reinventing' the same

ones over and over repeatedly. No history, no familiarity,

just an empty shell...a 5th generation copy that can't

hold a candle to the original.

In the end, they ended up essentially reconstructing the

entire thing that had been such a 'headache' in the first place.

(only, of course, to undo it all over again!)

Yes, everything old is new again...

but unfortunately, you can't go home again.

The old worlds are relegated to memories...

and worlds far, far away.

***