Re: FINAL CRISIS #1: A Very Short Review

In article <akvj541vk3h1irr4s8u9n27rvedmstqcf6@xxxxxxx>,
grinningdemon <grinningdemon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:26:46 -0600, Bruce Grubb <bgrubb@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

In article <aamg549glkppbdm4ocelvki7gfutfsvqvt@xxxxxxx>,
grinningdemon <grinningdemon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The Legion is also a relatively isolated corner of the DCU and,
frankly, I think dropping Superboy from their history was an
improvement...if they'd just rebooted the Legion immediately following
CoIE instead of waiting 10 years, a lot of problems could have been
avoided.

This is something I have been saying for years; LSH never really rebooted
with Crisis and the Comic Boy series shoved everybody's face into the mess
during the whole Legends thing.

I agree...they should have rebooted following CoIE.

They should have rebooted EVERYTHING following CoIE. LSH was just one of
the more obvious problems with the Post-Crisis DCU. How the JSA, Freedom
Fighters, All Star Squadron, Infinity inc, and JLA interacted was real
issue. They tried to explain Alan Scott right after Crisis but the origin
had major holes regarding why he was affected by the Spear of Destiny

Marvel has shown it is not having a multiverse that gets you into
trouble:
^^^

1) it is doing brain dead storylines that require half the characters to
act like idiots and the other half like they are pod clones.

2) It is doing insane every book must be included even if it makes no
sense
crossovers and totally FUBARing whatever storylines the writers are
currently in the middle of as a result.

3) It is having stories requiring you to ignore every piece of continuity
in existence (Emerald Twilight and One More Day) with the most moronic
explanations given. It gets worse when the fans can come up with better
reasons than the hack you had working on the book (Gwen Stacy's
children).

Explain how any of these problems hinge on the existence of a
multiverse (and Marvel DOES have one, you know?)...bad writing/editing
is still bad writing/editing regardless of which earth you set the
story on...and there were plenty of bad stories pre-crisis.

Didn't READ the sentence did we? See the little word "not" over the "^^^"?

I did read the sentence...and the way you have it worded, it sounds
like you're blaming all of Marvel's problems on the absence of a
multiverse.

You seem to be the only one reading it this way.

With DC's open ended multiverse writers and editors always had the option
of dumbing off a really stupid story off into limbo and anybody who
remembered the thing could assume it occurred on some other Earth. By
shoving everything on to one Earth with one timeline DC eliminated this
option and created the additional headache of allowing writers to write
stories that drew attention to it.

Here's an idea...don't any really stupid stories and there's no
problem...and pawning a crappy story off on an alternate earth is no
better than retconning it out of existence all together.

There will always be stupid stories. Pawning them off on an alternate
earth is a LOT better than trying to retcon the thing because with a one
universe one timeline set up you have to *EXPLAIN* the retcon and many
cases that can be WORSE then the original problem.

The Cosmic Boy mini series tie in to Legends was idiocy beyond belief. In
that series Comic Boy finds out not only has never been a Superboy but
that every major detail known about the 20th century is wrong. He talks
about how the people adored their heroes and find the anti-hero protests
going on, he then talks about the safe use of nuclear power and finds out
about Three Mile island, and finally when he talks about the safe space
program he finds out about the Challenger disaster. If this was not bad
enough you have the fact the Legion had used Time Bubbles to verify these
events. Cosmic Boy get home and we go into Legion of Superheroes #37 which
introduces the Pocket Universe.

The whole reason the Pocket Universe was needed was because of point 2
above happening. If there had not been a Cosmic Boy mini tie in to Legend
that shoved everybody's face into the fact the LSH's history was SNAFUed
then odds are LSH could have just quietly ignored the Superboy issue or had
a throw away panel where the memory altering ripples the Infinity Man had
been suppressing finally hit.

You have a relatively minor continuity problem--the first thing is NOT to
draw every Tom, ***, and Herry to the fact you have a minor continuity
problem. Furthermore you don't keep reminding everyone of the problem for
four straight issue--which is exactly what the Cosmic Boy mini did.

DC effectively took as you put it a "relatively isolated corner of the DCU"
shoved a neon sign over it and then proceeded to blow a freaking air horn
for four issues.

You're preaching to the choir...bad planning all around...but the
single univserse following CoIE didn't cause any of these problems
anyway...that was largely Byrne's Superman reboot.

Actually the single universe following CoIE DID cause these problems as
that universe became for Superman a tie up loose ends any freaking way
possible because we are going to nuke it any way free for all mess that was
DC presents #94.

Actually as I have pointed out before the LSH writers -already- had two out
that were done as part of Crisis. The first out was in All Star Squadron
#60 where Mekanique's meddling preventing the solidificating of the
Post-Crisis history until her task was done. The second and more important
out as in LSH vol 3 #16 where the Infinite Man's presence again prevents
the solidificating of the Post-Crisis DCE. After his defeat the new
history starts asserting itself but NOT all at once.

If they writers had remembered ASS #60 and/or LSH vol 3 #16 there would have
been no need for a pocket universe *regardless of what Byrne was doing*.
Furthermore there was the History of the DC Universe which was supposed to
be the guideline to what the post-Crisis DCU was supposed be be like.
.