THE DC EXPLOSION: Ret-Con Style!

"In the beginning...."

Pendulums swing....back, forth, back again.

It's the nature of things to alter, shift,

grow, revert. To change.

Media, reality, countries, people,

relationships, trends; all governed by the

pendulum. I get it.

Yeah, we already suspended disbelief for flying men and
X-ray vision; but this people can't get? WTF?

When the 1960s/1970s ushered in all the

strange and wonderful new art and ideas

in comic books, fans of the prior status quo

were no doubt taken aback.

Likely, there were pangs of betrayal as

that era's standards were 'trashed' in order to

make way for the inevitable new shift.

Harsh realism like the murder of Kathy Kane,

the murder of the Earth 2 Batman,

and other major impacts rocked the fan world.

Especially when you grow up with characters,

bonding and imprinting like no body's

business--no matter their technical non-existence!)

it's hard to let go...to bid farewell to those iconic,

embedded images and notions you held.

Of how it 'should' be.

Letting go is easier if change is ushered in with

respect to the old; we never saw beloved

characters have their decapitated heads

turned into soccer balls. Not in the super hero

line, anyway!

Drama, Drama, DRAMA!



Personally, I always found it lazy writing to

resort to sensationalistic nonsense.

Especially since, when you do it continuously,

you have to 'up' your game to exceed the last

shock's impact. (Reference the last 20 years

of modern comics.)

 The DC Universe of the late 1970s was the last

time I felt connected to the comics world, truly. That

was a dependable, respectful old friend I could

return to for comfort and shorthand exchanges.

But that all changed.

In a desperate rush to 'grow up' and become more

'sophisticated,' the industry I loved lost much of what

 made it great in the first place.

Like many of us, I have longed for its return.

Like the adage says....

If you want something done right...

Do it yourself!

  

This is a world of mine own creation;

a reimagined DC Universe of 1978....

like you have never seen before.

Or...have you?

Imagine Nation: The DCU 1978 Project

***

50/50: My "New 52" Earth-2-leftovers view

I tried the Huntress/Power Girl series because of a few

extenuating circumstances; the tremendous art team, my love

for Paul Levitz, and the fact that I thought it was only

a mini-series!

But I do have to say that I was very pleased with my

purchase. It's an old-fashioned comic, in every best

sense of the word. Infused with solid, beautiful art

that fits the story, engaging dialogue, a sense of fun

and adventure (I promise you newbies--those are not

4-letter words!) and, best of all--though they have

been tweaked--these are the characters I grew to

love in the 1970s, in spirit and essence if not in fact.

It's not the first time (by far) that DC has attempted

to recreate the prior magic of this earth or these

relationships within the confines of their ever-changing,

ever-convoluted multiverse and editorial direction.

I tried the Earth 2 series for an equal number

of draws; I love the work of James Robinson

and Nicola Scott, I love the Earth 2 concept, and I was

intrigued by how the whole Alan Scott sexuality

angle played out.

BUT, I was also obviously under some severe

misunderstandings, because I believed when the

company said this title marked "the return of Earth 2"

that in fact they meant it, and not that they were being

disingenuous.

See, 'Earth 2' to me represents a very specific

Earth with my favorite heroes of childhood, which had

a history of some 46 years (and even then some or

much of the continuity and characters survived!)

Also, a really cool sci-fi TV show...but I digress.

I do not think of "kinda sorta the old concept,

completely recycled though with basically code names

remaining. Really, just 'another' earth."

No slight against the creative team, and maybe I'll give it

another try in a year or two when the team gets assembled,

 but I'm outtie on Earth  2. It wasn't the old friends I hoped for.

It wasn't a return to greatness.

It feels like just one more bait and switch from

a company I have grown to expect not much else from.

So, a half-and-half even split on these two titles.

They're only the second and third titles I've tried from DC's

new venture, and I doubt there'll be a whole

lot of interest in testing the waters further.

What's done is done, and a false promise

doesn't fill the bill.

***

"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.

***

Split Focus