In which I shamelessly bend the rules.
So remember that time I asked you all for questions and you gave me a bunch of questions and I started to answer your questions until I got distracted by other questions which raised more questions? Anyway, I’m back to your questions:
DolphusRaymond dives in with
“Between Doomsday Clock’s [JSA]/LSH simmer, the return of Wally West (and consequent ‘no twins’ meltdowns), and the Zatanna “OMG Young Justice really existed what does it mean?!?” in the new Young Justice, do you see post-Crisis pre-New52 continuity making a comeback?
Is this my generation’s ‘I miss Barry and Hal bring them back?’
Will the comics world ever see more than 3 of the 52 multiverses published at the same time? (I count Main Continuity, Freedom Fighters Earth-X, and Shazam! …I don’t know if Bendis creates a pocket universe around his writing or not.)”
Ever since Crisis on Infinite Earths it seems like creators at DC kept looking for ways to bring back the stuff they liked from the pre-Crisis continuity. And of course later reality-changing events like Zero Hour and The Kingdom were intended to bend our new DC Universe back into a shape somewhat resembling the Old DC Universe, and all these reboots and retcons and so on is what brought us to the point of having a story where all the continuity problems were pinned on Dr. Manhattan, which is probably not a thing anyone saw coming a few years back.
Anyway, I don’t really see DC just straight up going back to the way things were post-Crisis/pre-New 52. Like, just ignoring everything that’s happened since and starting right up again from just before all these reboots/relaunches happened, like restoring from a back-up. But I imagine DC will continue its habit of picking and choosing the pieces from the past that it likes and reworking them into the comics of the present. We essentially have the post-Crisis Superman in our current DCs and that seems to be going okay so far.
As far as the “number of different universes in play at any given time at DC…I don’t know. Do the Sandman books count as a parallel universe? Scooby Team-up?
But everyone, hold everything: things are about to get more complicated (and more headachey for your retailer pal Mike) if this business about DC’s “5G” plan is true. So, basically, ignore everything I wrote prior to this paragraph because I’m honestly just hearing about this supposed coming hoohar from DC right now. So now I suppose the ultimate answer to your question, DolphusRaymond, is “who the hell knows?”
Synonymous means only one thing when asking
“So why _was_ the ‘Mike’s Magical Comics Fort’ name rejected?”
Mr. S is referring to this lightly prophetic post of mine (posted only a few months prior to, well, my actually opening a shop), in which I suggest that as a possible name for my no-longer-so-theoretical store. (Though I’m kind of partial to the store name “Ventura Fun Time Comic Book/Magic Card Store and Video Deli,” originally posted here…though I’d probably have to change “Ventura” to “Camarillo.”)
Anyway, I didn’t use the “Magical Comics Fort” name because people would continally come in thinking I had Harry Potter comics and I didn’t want to disappoint them. Unless they accepted Books of Magic comics as a sufficient replacement, of course.
RELATED: Brian followed up the previous question with
“Is it true that Mike’s Magical Comics Fort actually does exist, except that it’s your secret fortress of solitude, with statues of Swamp Thing and Sluggo holding up a giant long box in the central hall?”
And it’s constructed entirely from pogs.
De demands da dope:
“After crossover minis with Star Trek and Green Lantern, what’s the next natural mash-up with Planet of the Apes?”
Ooh, I immediately want to say Twilight Zone, given Rod Serling’s connection to both, but maybe that’s a little too wide-ranging an idea. Um…Kamandi seems like the natural one, given POTA was the inspiration for the Last Boy on Earth in the first place. Or…I mean, you can always throw Superman or Batman into any crossover thingie like this and probably come up with something workable.
Oh, wait, I’ve got it…Swamp Thing! Yeah, I know, gee, who saw that coming, but hear me out: “PLANT ELEMENTAL OF THE APES.” Don’t tell me you don’t want to see that.
ExistentialMan makes me ponder my existence with
“What do you consider the single best year of comics publication in your lifetime?”
Holy shit. I mean, pardon my use of the word “holy,” but man, that’s a good question. I’m going to say 1986. You had Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, the relaunch/reboot of the Superman books by John Byrne (hey, I think they still hold up, mostly), you had Dan Clowes show up with Lloyd Llewellyn which I bought off the stands because it looked so amazing, the first Mage series by Matt Wagner was still going, there was the two part “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” by Alan Moore, Curt Swan and pals, Englehart and Staton’s Green Lantern turned into Green Lantern Corps and started to get weird (and also introduced Kilowog!), Dark Horse Comics and Slave Labor Graphics started up, we had ‘Mazing Man, Flaming Carrot was still going, Cerebus was still good, Love and Rockets was around (as it still is!), Swamp Thing hit issue #50, we had regular Groo the Wanderers…man, there are lots of things to love about 1986. I’m sure I could pick out any other year and find things to love about it, but 1986 was the first one to come to mind.
Oh, and the New Universe started in 1986, too. Don’t forget that!
Jason Sandberg contributes TOO MANY QUESTIONS but he advertises on my site so I will let his filthy lucre sway me into breaking the “one question per customer” rule:
“What holds the Winter Soldier’s mask on his face?”
Our hopes and dreams.
“Am I correct that ‘Captain America and the Mighty Avengers’ issue 9 was better than the entirety of ‘Avengers: Time Runs Out?'”
Since you advertise on my site, I’m going to say “yes, you are correct, sir.” I mean, mostly because I’ve read neither and have no basis for judgement.
“What dark and sinister medial moguls are thwarting the progress of the DREADSTAR film/TV franchise?”
Alas, it appears the frailty of human flesh may be the cause, as according to this interview with Jim Starlin, the producer died and that kinda scuttled their plans. He’s still hopeful to get it on TV, but, well, you know how it is.
“Robbie Reyes ‘ghost rided’ a dead Celestial. Could he ‘ghost rider’ Galactus’s Taa II? Where would he go, what would he do?”
“Rided?” Anyway, I suppose Mr. Reyes could pull that off. As to the question “Where does a Ghost Rider ‘ghost-riding’ Galactus’ home base/spaceship go?” and answer is of course “anywhere he wants to.”
“If I ever make it out to the West Coast, where would we go for lunch, dude?”
Anywhere that takes your credit card, my friend, because I’m not going to restaurants too often on a comic shop owner’s salary.
And with that bout of sheer favoritism, I think that’s enough Question Time for today. I’ll try to get to the remaining questions in short order instead of making you all wait so long again. Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you Monday.
I just went to look up the publication date of Silent Interlude, the all silent issue of GI Joe. It was 1984. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that it wasn’t 1986. Mildly disappointed, so I guess I actually can.
1986? As soon as you mentioned “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” you talked me into it, as that is IMHO, the single greatest comic story ever. And Swan and Perez? The artists who defined their eras working together!
However, I would like to point out 1986 ALSO included 3 of my highly personal Top 10 comic runs and Top 10 comic characters, as well as most bestest artist ever: Jon Sable, Grimjack, and Nexus! (If you’re wondering, I am a huge Grell fan.)
Also, Crisis on Infinite Earths was still going which is still impacting us today, as you mention.
On the reboot thing, I have been tinkering with an idea for a while about comic characters as jazz standards, and the various iterations over the years as covers of those standards. It sits nicely with the idea of jazz and comics being truly american artforms.
I would love to see the bigger publishers overtly embrace this approach, leaning harder into it than they already do. I guess it already happens, what with reboots and parallel universes and interpretations from different media and that world’s funnest stuff being a real “let’s see what x could do with y” experiment. I guess what i’m saying is I’d be interested in seeing the publishers abandon the idea of continuity altogether and just going with the it’s so and so’s turn now lets see what they come up with.
Anyway thats a bit of a rant but I thought you, Mike, and your eminent fellows, might make something of the idea.
You know, I never had any problem keeping Pre-Crisis continuity straight in my head. In my opinion it was all pretty straightforward who was in what time line, and on what earth. The last 20 years of continuity, not so much. The excuse that Crisis was used to simplify the continuity worked to a degree, but but the modern restructuring and reboots have made it more complicated than it ever was Pre-Crisis. My thought always was that they should just go back to publishing whatever titles they wanted with continuity fitting in however it needed to for that titles “Earth” and then just tag those titles on the cover with a number/letter to let the reader know where it fit. You could use something similar to the old Superman shield numbering but just insert “Adventures on Earth X”, “Enjoy the Olden days on Earth Two”, or whatever.
Continuity doesn’t need to work line wide, never needed to, and never does.
Bending the rules? Another entry at Mike Sterling Is A Big Cheater Pants is in order, unless that was retconned away in the big WordPress reboot event.