Look alive!
WARNING: this post contains SPOILERS for the 6 of you who don't know, and legitimately care, who dies in last week's Countdown To Infinite Crisis, and who dies and who apparently comes back from the dead in last week's Batman.
Countdown, of course, was only the prologue to a set of summer miniseries -- The OMAC Project, The Rann/Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance (not to be confused with 1999's Day of Judgment, which also featured a renegade Spectre), and Villains United (also not to be confused with a couple of sports teams or the last X-Men movie). After that, I presume we are in for an Infinite Crisis, which may or may not lead to a global reboot of the DC Universe. Regardless, I am sure that Everything We Know Is About To Change.
Or is it? If these are the DC end-times, why is it returning to action Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan, Donna "Troia" Troy, and Jason "Sorry, wrong number" Todd? Many have pointed out that the casualties of Identity Crisis and Countdown were all linked strongly with the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League International -- but how long will it be before DC rediscovers its sense of humor and brings back Blue Beetle and (yes) Sue Dibny? (Don't snicker -- if Jason Todd, the Bucky Barnes of DC Comics, can come back....)
That Blue Beetle's death takes place in the shadow of these new lives and leads me to believe DC is merely pruning its family tree. The company seems to want to reverse past mistakes regarding Hal and Donna, while eliminating ostensibly lower-profile characters in the name of "gritty realism." In other words, if you glance into the DC Universe at the end of 2005, you'll definitely find Hal and Donna in their expected places; and you won't have a universe cluttered with heroes you never heard of (and whose rights are sketchy to boot). If there's a Green Lantern Corps, DC clearly feels it should include Hal Jordan; and if there's an adult Titans group, it should include Troia.
Notice how Jason Todd doesn't quite fit into this picture. I'm not convinced that either of the players in Batman #638's final sequence were who they appeared to be. For one thing, a Gotham Knights storyline from a couple of years ago (around the time "Jason" appeared in Hush, actually) featured a Social Services investigation into Jason's death, and suggested pretty strongly that Jason was irrevocably dead. (For another, if DC were going to kill the Joker, don't you think they would have advertised it?) More importantly, though, Jason's purpose in the present-day DC universe is to remind Batman of his greatest failure. Jason is now a tragic figure, so to bring him back as a villain would only cheapen his memory. Had he lived, Jason could have become what Tim Drake is today; namely, the successor to Dick Grayson and possible heir to the Bat-throne. However, as far as drama goes, his death has arguably made him more valuable.
Similarly, the DC community had adjusted to the deaths of Hal Jordan and Donna Troy. Three years after sacrificing himself, Hal became the Spectre, and it's only been about two years since Donna shuffled off to Valhalla, or wherever the end of Graduation Day placed her. In fact, I'm not quite sure Donna's death counts, because a) she isn't really dead, in the sense she could be brought back rather easily; and b) who outside of Phil Jiminez and Devin Grayson knew what to do with her?
As for Hal, while his return was more loudly demanded than Donna's, DC didn't need to bring him back as much as it needed to restore the Green Lantern Corps. Why revive a decades-old character when the framework into which he fit offers so much more diversity? The Corps was halfway back already, what with the toddler Guardians and the returns of John Stewart and Kilowog to the black-and-green spandex. Once the Guardians matured and Guy Gardner got his ring back, odds are we'd never have missed Hal. Besides, the Spectre would still have been available for team-ups.
(I do wonder how Geoff Johns will handle Hal's attitude towards his old bosses. Once you've worked for God Almighty, anything else has to be a step down.)
Accordingly, it looks to me like DC is refurbishing more than it is cleaning house. It seems to be aiming for a kind of updated mid-'80s status quo -- perhaps around 1985-86, when it was exploring the possibilities left by the first Crisis? Of course, that's when DC also did some of its more experimental work, including Dark Knight and Watchmen. It would be too much to hope that DC comes out of Infinite Crisis as creative as the DC of 1986 was -- but if that's their intent, could we at least get some more 'Mazing Man out of the deal?
Countdown, of course, was only the prologue to a set of summer miniseries -- The OMAC Project, The Rann/Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance (not to be confused with 1999's Day of Judgment, which also featured a renegade Spectre), and Villains United (also not to be confused with a couple of sports teams or the last X-Men movie). After that, I presume we are in for an Infinite Crisis, which may or may not lead to a global reboot of the DC Universe. Regardless, I am sure that Everything We Know Is About To Change.
Or is it? If these are the DC end-times, why is it returning to action Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan, Donna "Troia" Troy, and Jason "Sorry, wrong number" Todd? Many have pointed out that the casualties of Identity Crisis and Countdown were all linked strongly with the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League International -- but how long will it be before DC rediscovers its sense of humor and brings back Blue Beetle and (yes) Sue Dibny? (Don't snicker -- if Jason Todd, the Bucky Barnes of DC Comics, can come back....)
That Blue Beetle's death takes place in the shadow of these new lives and leads me to believe DC is merely pruning its family tree. The company seems to want to reverse past mistakes regarding Hal and Donna, while eliminating ostensibly lower-profile characters in the name of "gritty realism." In other words, if you glance into the DC Universe at the end of 2005, you'll definitely find Hal and Donna in their expected places; and you won't have a universe cluttered with heroes you never heard of (and whose rights are sketchy to boot). If there's a Green Lantern Corps, DC clearly feels it should include Hal Jordan; and if there's an adult Titans group, it should include Troia.
Notice how Jason Todd doesn't quite fit into this picture. I'm not convinced that either of the players in Batman #638's final sequence were who they appeared to be. For one thing, a Gotham Knights storyline from a couple of years ago (around the time "Jason" appeared in Hush, actually) featured a Social Services investigation into Jason's death, and suggested pretty strongly that Jason was irrevocably dead. (For another, if DC were going to kill the Joker, don't you think they would have advertised it?) More importantly, though, Jason's purpose in the present-day DC universe is to remind Batman of his greatest failure. Jason is now a tragic figure, so to bring him back as a villain would only cheapen his memory. Had he lived, Jason could have become what Tim Drake is today; namely, the successor to Dick Grayson and possible heir to the Bat-throne. However, as far as drama goes, his death has arguably made him more valuable.
Similarly, the DC community had adjusted to the deaths of Hal Jordan and Donna Troy. Three years after sacrificing himself, Hal became the Spectre, and it's only been about two years since Donna shuffled off to Valhalla, or wherever the end of Graduation Day placed her. In fact, I'm not quite sure Donna's death counts, because a) she isn't really dead, in the sense she could be brought back rather easily; and b) who outside of Phil Jiminez and Devin Grayson knew what to do with her?
As for Hal, while his return was more loudly demanded than Donna's, DC didn't need to bring him back as much as it needed to restore the Green Lantern Corps. Why revive a decades-old character when the framework into which he fit offers so much more diversity? The Corps was halfway back already, what with the toddler Guardians and the returns of John Stewart and Kilowog to the black-and-green spandex. Once the Guardians matured and Guy Gardner got his ring back, odds are we'd never have missed Hal. Besides, the Spectre would still have been available for team-ups.
(I do wonder how Geoff Johns will handle Hal's attitude towards his old bosses. Once you've worked for God Almighty, anything else has to be a step down.)
Accordingly, it looks to me like DC is refurbishing more than it is cleaning house. It seems to be aiming for a kind of updated mid-'80s status quo -- perhaps around 1985-86, when it was exploring the possibilities left by the first Crisis? Of course, that's when DC also did some of its more experimental work, including Dark Knight and Watchmen. It would be too much to hope that DC comes out of Infinite Crisis as creative as the DC of 1986 was -- but if that's their intent, could we at least get some more 'Mazing Man out of the deal?
posted by Tom Bondurant @ 2:19 PM
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