tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post3422947746653253997..comments2024-03-21T19:12:11.065-07:00Comments on Every Day Is Like Wednesday: Four Lessons the Big Two Could Learn From 52Calebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01391759187396994380noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-30686651525624592142007-05-07T19:31:00.000-07:002007-05-07T19:31:00.000-07:00imagine a Golden Age version of 52, featuring the ...<I>imagine a Golden Age version of 52, featuring the JSA, all those characters from the All-Star Squadron on the homefront, and all of those crazy war heroes Robert Kanigher used to write in the ‘60s</I><BR/><BR/>I hate you for putting this idea in my head. My life will never be complete now.Captain Infinityhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02043927506160341160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-77996226424107095912007-05-07T05:36:00.000-07:002007-05-07T05:36:00.000-07:00"Universe Comics Can be Much More Awesome Than The..."Universe Comics Can be Much More Awesome Than They Usually Are"<BR/><BR/>Totally true, of course. I was thinking about something related recently: when, prior to 52, has DC most succeeded at being a shared universe?<BR/><BR/>Through the Golden Age and most of the Silver Age, the solo titles of all the major heroes seemed to exist in separate universes from one another and from JSA/ JLA. Not only was there no continuity from big events in Superman books to, say, Wonder Woman or Flash (partly because there were no big events as such; the sttaus quo ante was always restored), but there wasn't even really a sense that the world was filled with other mystery men and women or superpowers or aliens. Isolating Batman off into an almost-no-powers Gotham in the late 90s, while stupid from a shared-universe perspective, was fairly true to the character's solo titles' history. <BR/><BR/>Of course, through the same stretches of time Batman might have the weirdest, time-travelling, space-travelling, dimension-hopping, magic-using adventures in World's Finest and Brave & the Bold, but you'd nver have known it from 'Tec or Batman. <BR/><BR/>Zatanna's Search was a standout storyline for the Silver Age, precisely because there was so little like it-- supporting characters didn't wander across books, and neither did subplots.<BR/><BR/>The Bronze Age was a bit different-- Elliot S. Maggin's integration of Superman with the Green Lantern mythos, more continuity between JLA and members' solo titles, DC Comics Presents to complement Brave & the Bold. Wonder Woman losing her powers, going through the I Ching era, regaining her powers, and then having to reaudition for the JLA showed for the first time that big character changes could happen, and happen in a way that moved back and forth across a solo title and a team book. <BR/><BR/>But I really think that the DC line didn't feel like a fully shared universe until the 80s: the New Teen Titans interacted with the JLA, who watched impotently as old Atom villain Floronic Man battled Swamp Thing, who saved the life of Superman, who as a boy had travelled a thousand years into the future to battle 20th-century 4th-world villain Darkseid. Roy Thomas straightened out multiversal stuff in a painstakingly consistent way-- who was on Earth-2 when, and when they left for Earth-X or Earth-1. By the time of Challenge and Crisis, DC finally seemed to have figured out the shared-universe stuff.<BR/><BR/>Then I'd say that the post-Crisis DCU almost always had at least one Universe-heavy book, from JL titles that drew in characters from Earths 1, 2, 4, S, and the 4th World, to Suicide Squad in which a shared villainous universe got put together, to Robinson's Starman and often Power of Shazam to Chase to Manhunter. Eventually Johns' JSA became the flagship title for Universe-heavy stuff, bringing us basically up to now. <BR/><BR/>But most of the high-nostalgia-factor eras, certainly including the Silver and Bronze Age JLA, really failed to belong to a shared universe in the same way that we now expect.Jacob T. Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02575549001627195334noreply@blogger.com