The Crisis Anthology: DC's Big Blunder

In 1934, a comics company called National Allied Publications was formed, and after the successful launch of three magazines (New Fun, New Comics, and Detective Comics) they became Detective Comics, Inc. With their release of Action Comics #1 in June of 1938, they released something this world had never seen before: super heroes. They became so popular, that more companies began releasing magazines featuring these heroes, thus starting the Golden Age of Comics. The Golden Age would end in October of 1956 with the introduction of Barry Allen, the second Flash. And although the transition from Golden to Silver was very easy to see, the transition to the Bronze Age of Comics was kind of hazy. Some attribute it to companies shying away from the Comics Code Authority, while other say it was Jack Kirby's move from Marvel to DC so he could do New Gods. But the switch from Bronze to Modern is very easy to pinpoint. The Modern Age of Comics began in 1986 with DC's release of Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC wanted to do Crisis on Infinite Earths to sort of clean up their history. Before then, different writers had their own time lines, which were just explained away as being "alternate universes" and therefore not relating to one another in any way. As one could well imagine, it could get a little confusing for some people, but it shouldn't have been that confusing! Just look on page one for the writer...'nuff said.

But alas, DC decided to reboot the universe with a twelve issue miniseries known as Crisis on Infinite Earths. The mini-series involved a plot by the Anti-Monitor to destroy every parallel universe in existence until he is defeated by a small group of heroes from the five remaining earths. After it ended, DC's books were restarted. Origins had to be retold, bad guys had to be re-introduced, and sidekicks were mostly given the boot. Of course, this boosted sales like no one would believe, which of course was the plan the whole time. Not only that, but continuity was no longer confusing for people, opening comics to a whole new readership. On the surface, this seemed like a great idea...everyone profited! But alas, this was not to be, as the time line got more convoluted and had to be rebooted again in 1994 by Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. This time, Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Green Lantern goes batshit crazy and starts calling himself Parallax before he starts trying to go back to the beginning of time to prevent any bad event from ever happening, therefore eliminating pain from existence. So after the time lime is reset again, DC didn't have to restart everything again, as there were only minor changes to the universe. Amazingly, DC went eleven years without fucking anything up...then in 2005 came Infinity Crisis. This time, Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor, minor characters from Crisis on Infinite Earths, came back as villains and basically killed a lot of people, including this world's Superboy, Connor Kent. Infinity Crisis lead in 52, which is way too fucking convoluted for me to go into details here, but basically it's the rebirth of the multiverse. After 52, there are a total of 52 Earths, each one incredibly unique in its own way, but still way too difficult for a handful of writers to deal with, so these Earths start getting killed off and destroyed. This, of course, leads to yet another event Final Crisis. Apparently, it's about the day that "evil won", but we'll see just where this is going with this mysterious Libra character that they've re-introduced. My prediction? Libra is Alexander Luthor. I claim here and now, that if I'm right, I'll eat a puppy and post the evidence here.

So why is it that they could go over half a decade without crossovers or rebooting the whole universe, yet now we have to do it every six years? Is it the money that they rake in by the millions? Or is it bad writing, writing that is getting so predictable that these people have to "change things" just to keep loyal readers? Maybe its a combination of both, but whatever they're doing, it's working. Oh and by the way, I refuse to eat puppies: I don't give a fuck who Libra is.

Comics: Yesterday's Fun, Today's Cash Cow

I have been a big fan of comic book mythology for as long as I can remember. My dad was the one who initially got me into comics as much as I am today. To start with, I had the same interest in Superman, Wolverine, and Batman as any other young boy my age. But then the event that started my love affair with DC Comics happened: My dad came home from a yard sale with the entire collection of DC's Who's Who. For those of you who have never heard of Who's Who, its basically the DC Encyclopedia for the 1980s. It was released in a monthly issue format, totaling out to twenty-six issues of encyclopedic knowledge about the DC Universe. Not only did this series explain exactly who Aquaman was by detailing such important things as his real name and powers, even going into detail about his fictional history, but it even showcased minor characters like Fastback (A turtle with Flash-like speed abilities) and Nemesis (Ironically enough, a good guy). Because of my age, I did not get these books until the mid-nineties, so most of the information was out of date, as half of the characters had died and came back at least once. (Superman? Hal Jordan? I'm looking at you guys.) I eventually pieced my own knowledge together over the years of buying issue after issue of comics and reading them from cover to cover many times over, carefully absorbing every word like a sponge. Because of this infatuation (And maybe that I was not very attractive due to acne, braces, and coke-bottle glasses before they were considered "cool".) I did not date very much until I was seventeen. This was a magic time; Comics were suddenly cool and I suddenly got way too attractive for my own good. I met a girl named...well her name isn't important, but she's pivotal in all this too. You see, my knowledge was still pretty limited back then until she got me the DC Encyclopedia for Christmas. It was filled with up to date info-nuggets for my consumption, and I was convinced I would never find anything better. Then along came Wikipedia. Not only is it up to date, but it is always up to date because it is updated at least weekly. (Even I have contributed.) Unfortunately, my golden age of comics was about to end. I was still of the mind that even though I had a limitless source of knowledge, I still had to buy my monthly issues of series that I cared about. This ended with the release of the long awaited series 52. 52 was a weekly series that ran for, you guessed it, 52 weeks. A year of weekly trips to the comic store, just waiting to see what new juicy revelations will be dropped this week. As much as I absolutely loved the storylines featured in 52, I couldn't wait for it to end. At $2.50 per issue just for this one series, my comics loyalty was getting expensive. As the series drew closer to an end, those rat bastards dropped another bomb on us: After 52 was over, a new weekly series entitled Countdown was to begin, leading to DC's biggest crossover event ever, Final Crisis. I took the news decently enough, but when the newest issue of 52 came out, it happened. I had told myself, and a woman I was seeing, that I would officially stop buying individual issues of comics if I could correctly guess the identity of Supernova, a central character in the series. I said with her as my witness that Supernova was either Michael Jon Carter (Booster Gold, "dead" since 52, Issue 1) or Ted Kord (Blue Beetle, dead since Countdown to Infinite Crisis) returned somehow from the dead. And wouldn't you know? Michael was never dead in the first place and was Booster Gold and Supernova at the same time. I guess I just know comics way too well. Since this tragic event, I've only been purchasing collected editions. They're cheaper in the long run, and I still get my fix.

Now, it doesn't end there. I'm hoping to carry on my love of comics to the next generation of nerds with the series I'm working on, Messengers. Not only am I hoping to keep comics going, but maybe even jump on the new bandwagon that comics seem to be on nowadays. Movies. Ever since X-Men (or some would argue Blade), comic-based movies have been coming out fast enough to make me poor all over again. Now a lot of people will probably read this and ask about the Batman movies, or the Superman ones as well. I will admit that yes, they were popular, but they didn't kick off a spandex trend quite like X-Men did. Hollywood is even starting to go with independent books, like Hancock and Invincible, with just as much success as movies like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. With Watchmen soon to be released, the hype is astounding not only for this movie but all other comics movies slated for the future.

This trend of comics love shows no signs of stopping, and I could not be happier.