Tuesday
The 21st of December.
21-12-04. (Or just “2112,” for some Rush fans.)
Happy Winter Solstice. Now, the days will get longer. And warmer. Amen.

It started off as another grey, dreary day here in the fishbowl that is the Salt Lake Valley. If not for the fact that it was not raining (and that we’re in the middle of the desert), I’d almost think that we were in Portland or Seattle. Oh yeah, the lack of fresh seafood is another dead giveaway… but I digress. The sun and some blue sky peeked through the haze for a while. That made the day a little better. But, later in the evening: Snow.

and I had dinner with her sister, nephew, and Matt. Macaroni Grill. Tasty. And they have a sinfully rich cheesecake, too. After dinner, , , Matt and I headed to Borders for coffee and conversation. We even ran into .

News
Morning Edition: German Palace on Sale for $1
Morning Edition: Students Studying for SATs by Cell Phone
Morning Edition: Postal Workers Loaded Down with Kids’ Letters
Day to Day: Nativity Scenes Spark Not-So-Jolly Suits
All Things Considered: Opera Poses a Challenge, Even to Linguists

Random Access (Another new feature!)
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Today: Comics, Mythology and Ch-ch-ch-changes

I’m a fan of mythology. I guess that I could broaden that to say that I’m a fan of good storytelling. It seems to be something of an art that’s on the wane. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any good writers or good stories, but often it seems as though we’re getting the same story rehashed and retold. And, far too often, they are being retold poorly.

That said, I tend to look at comic books and graphic novels as a modern mythology. In classical literature, the gods walked the face of the Earth. Sometimes to test man. Other times to adventure alongside him. And other times, simply to get their swerve on. Today, there are some comics that have a story set, more or less, in realities comparable to our own. Others take the tack of “gods walking among us.” And some attempt to find a happy middle ground in which to dwell. But, they are stories nonetheless. And in them, just as with myths, legends and stories of old, we can often find subtexts that echo issues at hand in our world today.

I’ve recently… um… “come to grips with” the fact that mythologies change over time. I’ve known that stories change and adapt with each retelling, but it wasn’t exactly something that I ever thought about applying to comics-as-mythology. Until a few months ago. Last year, DC started a 12-issue maxi-series called “Birthright,” it was a retelling of the Superman mythos… to a degree. None of the major points changed, but some of the minor, subtle ones did. DC had done something similar to this in 1988 with John Byrne’s “The Man of Steel” mini-series. As DC Comics is owned by Warner Brothers and as Smallville is something of a hit for Warner Brothers’ WB Network, they decided to integrate Smallville into the official Superman continuity. Birthright was the bridge that they used to connect Point A and Point C. And, from what I’ve read of it: It did a great job.

It struck me as odd that I had a problem with a “retouching” of the Superman mythos. I had no problem when they rebooted the series in ’88. In fact, I thought that it was a refreshing change. A “less super” Superman. Not pushing around planets. Not zipping through the timestream at will. (And, thankfully, they took away some of the more inane “super-abilities” that he had acquired over the previous 50 years.) But, he was still gifted “…with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.” And, thanks to the Byrne reboot: Clark Kent was less of a caricature and more of a character. This was mostly because he did not have his powers when he came to Earth – he “grew into” them. So, “Clark Kent” was the person and “Superman” was the personification of the things that he could do.

Another good example of a slight shift in mythologies can be seen in the X-Men and Spider-Man. Both of these Marvel titles have been around since the 1960s and in the late 90s, Marvel decided that they needed to be taken off the shelf and dusted off. Unlike their Distinguished Competition, rather than retcon the series, Marvel launched a new universe and set the two titles in it. They moved away from the Cold War era origins and moved the characters into the modern age: Spider-Man wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, this time it was a genetically modified spider. The X-Men weren’t just students in a private prep school in upstate New York, they were a highly trained, nearly paramilitary troop. For those of you who don’t read comics, many of these changes were reflected in Spider-Man: the Movie and X-Men and X2: X-Men United. Slight changes, same overall feel. No big whoop.

Something that I do have a problem with is DC’s recent decision to undo a major continuity-wide change. In 1987, DC released the 12-issue maxi-series “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” DC Comics started in 1938 with Action Comics #1, featuring a much less-super Superman, and grew to include many titles and many heroes. Rather than have heroes grow old and die, they decided to create a multiverse. That way they could say that Hero A’s adventures in… World War II, let’s say… were actually the adventures of a that Earth A’s Hero A. Thus, they could create a new Earth with a younger version of Hero A whenever they wanted.

That’s great. In theory. Apparently, no one thought ahead to the complete braincramp that this might create. Lots of worlds also means the potential for LOTS of characters. And that is exactly what happened. Crisis was DC’s way of trying to put the genie back into the bottle. “We’ll destroy all of the Earths except for one and then we’ll juggle around characters’ origins to make them all fit on this one, new Earth.” Again, good theory. And, for the most part, they made it work. Since Superman was the one that kicked things off for DC, his was the origin that had to be adjusted the most – they did this with John Byrne’s 1988 reboot. Some series, like Justice League of America and The Legion of Super-Heroes had to be likewise adapted to now exclude Superman as a member and primary inspiration, respectively. And they did that pretty well, too.

A few years ago, DC started their “Elseworlds” line. This was their “What if…?” safety valve. Now, they could have their cake and eat it, too. No need to create an ongoing title to chronicle the adventures of a variant Hero A, now they could write a one-shot story and get it out of their systems. As the Guiness commercials would say: “Brilliant!” And, some of the stories have been amazingly well told. One such story was Kingdom Come, a four-issue tale set in the future in which the heroes that we grew up with have grown older and gone their separate ways.

DC had such a popular response to Kingdom Come that they started mucking about with the idea of a multiverse again. This time, they referred to it as “Hypertime.” In it, divergent timelines created alternate possible futures. (Yes, Marty, Dr. Brown just built a time machine out of a Delorean.)

Now, DC is gearing up for three miniseries in 2005: DC Countdown, Seven Soldiers and Crisis on Earth. And with them come the hints that the DC Universe (or “DCU”) is about to become the DC Multiverse again.

According to one article that I read:

“…apparently Countdown leads into DC’s major summer event, Crisis on Earth. The basic plot is that someone wants their Earth (Earth X) restored the way they remember it. The twist is that the protagonist is based on our Earth, and in our time.

…

“20 years ago, post-Crisis, the protagonist was integrated into our time and space, and has been reading comics but slowly becoming aware they were out of place and time. After reading Identity Crisis, something contained within leads to this person realising that, and they want to correct matters.

“Supposedly DC Countdown leads to the moment of awareness, and the reboot of the DCU is their point of view focused upon the heroes and how this person wants to see the DCU.

…

“This forms the basis of the hypertime idea, allowing multiverses and multitimelines to coexist after the event, and Seven Soldiers will suggest the awareness of the DCU that Grant Morrison wanted before as events in SS will drop hints to the characters within about their role and how to fix the brokenness.”

But… didn’t we go through this already?

And… didn’t we think that it was a bad idea?

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I don’t wish DC Comics any ill will, but I really hope that this doesn’t go from a “great idea” to a complete clusterfuck because someone thought that it would be better to have eleventy-million Earths running amok (“Amok! Amok! Amok!” – Animaniacs, also from Warner Brothers) than to have one relatively-tidy Earth and a couple of solo stories. And, undoubtedly, issues of the three series will fly off the shelves.

Times change. Stories, mythologies and their retellings change to adapt to the times and the cultures that they represent. Hopefully, DC will be able to tell a good story – and continue to do so – without having to come back in a few years and say, “Um… folks, about that whole Crisis on Earth thing? It was just a dream. Like Dallas’ ninth season. Sorry.” We shall see.

Stray Toasters

  • When I was typing out “Stray Toasters,” I mistyped it as “Stray Taoists.” That made me laugh.
  • culturekitchen.com
  • showed me a link for Mormon Temple Film and I noticed the name Gordon Jump. On a hunch, I looked up his information. My hunch was correct: It was the same Gordon Jump from WKRP in Cincinnati.
  • Nyx also posted a link to a thread on The Nauvoo Forum called “LDS gamers unite,” which was similarly interesting.
  • : Looks like Hayo Miyazaki has another movie out: Howl’s Moving Castle It’s out in Japan, but I did not see a domestic release date.
  • I cannot stand the Christmas song Jingle Bell Rock. Which is probably why it was stuck in my head this morning. *twitch* I can’t prove it, but I’m sure that must have had something to do with that.
  • Slashdot Poll: Most Powerful Wizard
  • Cotton candy. I have some. You don’t.

That’s all I have to say. For now.

Namaste.