Let The Embiggening Begin!

After all the moaning I have done about how long, O Lord, how long the Identity Crisis/Infinite Crisis saga was taking, now that the end of Infinite Crisis is in sight, my reaction is "Wha--? Already?"

My next reaction is not entirely "Now what?," thanks to about two months' worth of "One Year Later" titles. Still, the end of Infinite Crisis is only the end of Phase 2. It will indeed take just over another year to finish up Phase 3, and that phase's heavy lifting hasn't quite begun.

Last year, looking at the strategy behind Infinite Crisis' lead-in miniseries, I saw DC dividing its titles into fiefdoms -- magical, sci-fi, supervillain, and traditional superhero. Back in February, I tried to chart the Infinite Crisis family tree. In doing that, I wanted to avoid predicting what would come out of Infinite Crisis, because quite frankly it was a little hard to tell where all the arrows would go.

Dan DiDio has said that Infinite Crisis aims to make DC's titles coherent, consistent, unified, etc. Given DC's history, though, I'm not sure that plays to its strengths. Crisis on Infinite Earths reorganized DC for 1986 and beyond, and it seems appropriate for Infinite Crisis to have a similar goal. However, as much as DC would like to boast of its once-again-unified universe, to me, DC in 2006 needs to be a little more fractured.

Let's start by examining the competition. The Marvel Universe grew gradually, adding titles to form the shared universe we know today. However, Marvel also marketed itself as the alternative to conservative, stodgy, corporate DC. Marvel imagined itself as a bunch of fun-loving guys who just enjoyed writing and drawing comics, and the image stuck.

DC's history is very different. Almost from its very beginnings it was the union of different comics publishers, featuring characters from a variety of creators; and that would be its pattern throughout the decades. When Crisis on Infinite Earths merged five parallel universes, those Earths could also have represented five publishers of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s -- Detective Comics Inc., All-American Comics, Quality Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Charlton Comics -- whose characters all eventually came under the DC umbrella. Add in DC's longstanding editorial divides, and it's no wonder DC has had problems with a unified brand.

Nevertheless, I believe this diversity is DC's strength. More importantly, DC needs to recognize the iconic, independent nature of its signature characters. Superman isn't just a DC property, he's every superhero's common ancestor, recognized worldwide on a level with Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse. Likewise, Batman and Wonder Woman's fame reaches far beyond their print roots.

Nevertheless, over the past 20 years, DC has gotten so wrapped up in enforcing the consistency and believability of its streamlined universe that it may have forgotten what a thrill it was just to see Superman and Batman working side-by-side. There's a reason those old World's Finests proclaimed "Your two favorite heroes in one adventure together!" and the original Justice League of America ads began "Just imagine...!" The shared-universe concept was secondary to the excitement of a case so challenging that no hero could tackle it alone. Now, in both universes, everybody knows each other. The novelty of a team-up or crossover has been replaced with cynicism about marketing strategies. The universes have gotten smaller, and it's time for at least the DC Universe to get big again.

Because the OYL titles are designed to show that the books can stand on their own, without help from the training wheels of a crossover, the embiggening of the DC Universe is almost inevitable, at least in the short term. More diversity in creative teams will also help emphasize the books' distinctions. Over the past couple of years it seemed like every other DC title I bought was written by Greg Rucka or Geoff Johns. Nothing against them personally, but it did tend to break down the barriers between books.

The real tests will start this summer when the new Flash, Wonder Woman, and Justice League of America debut. When DC relaunched their predecessors after Crisis on Infinite Earths, it emphasized the freshness of the Wally West Flash, the pomp and circumstance of George Perez's Wonder Woman, and the return to big-gun format of the new Justice League. Those new takes on old concepts were integrated quickly into the larger universe, because DC was trying to emphasize how well everything worked together. Now that DC has been through two years of everything working ... uh, together, the 2006 editions need their space. (Yes, even though at least Wonder Woman will be in the new JLA.)

In fact, DC's diversity has been on display throughout Infinite Crisis' percolation, in the form of the Seven Soldiers miniseries. Here were seven miniseries (written by one guy, but work with me) which each showcased a different approach to superheroics, while at the same time working within the larger DC universe. When elements of one miniseries showed up in another, it was special, because it wasn't expected. (It really wasn't expected when they started showing up in Infinite Crisis!) That balance between familiarity and novelty is not easy to maintain, especially after decades of universe-building, but DC needs to try, if only to give readers a break from massive crossovers for a while.

DC's diversity is its hallmark, just as the vision of Marvel's early creators is its. By emphasizing the creative breadth of its superhero line, DC can reinvent itself for the next few decades in a way that may not have been possible perhaps even since the beginning of the Silver Age. As the denouement of Infinite Crisis unfolds, DC's titles need to stake out their own territories and find their own voices again. That way, when the next big crossover comes, we readers will appreciate their collaborations even more.

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