Multiple Earths? Article by aviewaskewed, 12:59 AM 29th Aug Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all creator comments have been gleaned from other sources and no creators have actually endorsed any aspect of this column. Summer is ending, and my ability to sleep in is pretty impaired this week…don’t ever get a job kids. If you have not read JSA: Classified #2 yet, and are planning to do so, do that, and then read this weeks column, because I am blowing the ending to that issue since it’s the crux of what I’m talking about. You were warned. In 1985, DC Comics invented the crossover, they did an event which united all their characters together, and paired down the parallel Earths the company had had for 20 years, the event was designed to create a single, unified earth, and continuity for the company. It was called Crisis on Infinite Earths. The official line at editorial was that the DCU had become closed off because of the multiple earth concept, and it was too daunting for new readers to get into it. For the last 20 years, DC has attempted to fix the continuity from this decision, now? It looks like they’re going to totally reverse it. When the Crisis ended, all duplicate characters with the exception of the Earth-2 Supergirl analogue (Power Girl) were erased from history. Also, only one person was left who could remember there ever being any parallel earths, that person being the Psycho Pirate. At the end of the current issue of JSA: Classified, the arc that is purporting to tell Power Girl’s real and true origin, the Psycho Pirate appeared, out of Arkham, saying he would make Power Girl as crazy as he is, with the other hints that DC has dropped over the last few months, and the way they’ve been going since about 99 or so, it creates a sinking suspicion in this fan’s mind that there is only one outcome: Infinite Crisis is going to undue the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the parallel earths will return. It was something that was rumored in Rich Johnston’s Lying in the Gutters a few months back, and now it seems closer to reality. Honestly, I can totally see it happening since as much crap as they’re heading towards the fan, I don’t see them honestly being able to plausibly have the hero’s beat back the challenges facing them (especially the killer robot OMACs) without possible time travel to stop this from happening. So now that I did the fact part, let’s do the opinion part, and in a few short words: if this is the route they want to go, it’s a bad idea methinks. I liked the multiple earths concept, the stories are fun, but the problem I think ultimately was that DC began incorporating them into books too much, and with the publishing schedules being much heavier then they were back when DC was pulling this off initially, I just see this as being more trouble and headache then it will be worth in trying to explain which heroes are on which earth. It’ll be fun for old school fans, and uber geeks, but to the average and/or new reader, I think they will feel daunted, frustrated, and will simply drop the books. But the current editorial mandate at DC seems to be “everything old is new again”, and so far? They’ve had some good short-term success, and I don’t dispute they’ll have short term success here. Sales are pretty good, and everybody reading Infinite Crisis and the follow up series would be able to follow the changes, but down the line? No, I don’t see it working, and I see DC having to go right back and do another universe restructuring crossover to bring things back to where they are now, and another 20 years of clean up of that. Of course…this could all just be alarmist, they could find a way to fix Power Girl and the Psycho Pirate without undoing Crisis, and all will be well. Too bad I don’t have that kind of faith in any publisher. Slow news week: Nothing much really happened in the news this week, talk of new printings, interviews with creators, nothing really major happening here. So I guess I’ll just use this space to praise the All-Star Archives as the most entertaining Golden Age material I’ve ever read (these being the original JSA stories for the confused). I’m also enjoying The Yankees resurgence (including their damning sweep of the Royals this weekend), and it looks as though they may just snatch a division title from the jaws of defeat, remember kids, Mock a Sock! (yes, I’m one of THOSE fans). That’ll be all for this week, hope those of you headed back to the classroom are ready, and will continue to make time for avie rants, and theendlesscrew.com, also look for a poll topic in the forum which I’ll be posting about the possibility of DC reviving the multiple earths. Back to Rants