Comments on: Comic Critics #70!

By: Pablo V

Pablo V — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:14:00 +0000

… Does it really sound stupid? It’s just mythology. Compare it to any creational myth. Geez, even the Greek myths had Earth be formed and destroyed on a whim a few times.

By: knivesinwest11

knivesinwest11 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:47:44 +0000

thinking about real parallel universes is even more difficult to comprehend than the history of the multiverse.

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:03:46 +0000

@Tuomas

The 52 worlds weren’t introduced in Infinite Crisis but rather, curiously enough, in 52. I won’t explain why there are 52, but basically the alternate worlds were created through time travel, not through any quantum many-worlds theory.

By: Jack Norris

Jack Norris — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:47:52 +0000

You totally don’t need to get into the uber-stupid stuff about Krona and the Monitors to explain DC’s multiverse, even the current version. It’s pure masochism on the character’s part to try to include any of that part of the story.

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:10:42 +0000

Vaughan’s more consistent than Ellis, and he’s produced quite a body of work in the last 10 years.

Consistent doesn’t mean as good as.
When Ellis is on, he is really on, and produces ground breakingly good comics.
Vaughn has done some solid, popular stuff – better than Ellis when he’s off – but nothing approaching Ellis’ levels.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:43:33 +0000

Vaughan’s more consistent than Ellis, and he’s produced quite a body of work in the last 10 years.

By: Tuomas

Tuomas — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:23:51 +0000

I haven’t read Infinite Crisis, so when I read Final Crisis, it didn’t make much sense to me that there are 52 parallel Earths… Why 52? What’s the signifigance of that number? To me it would be much more logical that there are either an infinite amount of parallel universes (because of the infinite different courses history could take), or that there is only one universe (where the parallel universe theory is simply false). Is there some extra- or intra-story explanation why the parallel universes are limited to 52?

By: Chris Gannon

Chris Gannon — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:32:59 +0000

“*So* stupid. Best to give up and start reading sensible stories about a Canadian rockstar who fights telekinetic vegans so he can date a girl with a glowing head. That doesn’t sound stupid at all.”

Don’t foget that it’s also set in a video game.

Chris

By: Paradox

Paradox — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:39:06 +0000

To be fair, Josh isn’t the least describing a comic plot and is in reality unnecessarily (except that he was asked) explaining DC cosmology. The proper answer is “there’s a lot of different dimensions…now go read the story”. Over-explaining is an “occupational hazard” among the nerds.

By: Jbird

Jbird — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:24:01 +0000

You can say “all superhero comic stories sound stupid when you explain them” but in fact some of them don’t and the Crisis stories definitely do.

By: tdubb

tdubb — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:05:06 +0000

when is Josh just gonna smash marissa at the comic shop and wipe her off with a ASM comic?

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:21:09 +0000

HI-larious.

But all I could think was… Final Crisis is out already? Vaughn ranks with Morrison or Ellis? Do I really need to know about the other Crises to read Final Crisis?

By: Tyson

Tyson — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:04:27 +0000

There are many different hypotheses regarding multiple universes out there – I can only think of two reasons to explain parallel universes in a story:
1) because other elements in your plot somehow hinge on the nature of the multiverse
2) because the nature of the multiverse is actually interesting in-and-of itself

I think the standard explanation for all the DC ‘Crisis’ stories is #1. But that only makes sense if you don’t consider the individual issues or even trades to be stories – you consider the overall DCU to be the story.

Which is how I believe DC management treats things, and how many fans react. That’s why they won’t read a good book that ‘doesn’t count’, but will happily plunk down cash for a crappy book that does. It’s not the individual books that matter in the DCU anymore.

Which is cool and all, but not my thing, so I don’t read any DC books anymore.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:09:25 +0000

I think there should be infinite Earths again and be done with it. I really see no reason for 52 at all. Since it is broken already, break it already.

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:55:24 +0000

While I agree you don’t need to explain how the multiverse came to be, I was unaware DC actually had an origin for it. But now that I do, I actually think the origin as explained in the fourth panel is simple and kind of clever.

By: Capt USA

Capt USA — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:40:03 +0000

agree with the people saying that there is no reason to give a backstory for multiple earths. It’s not a necessity at all. Explaining to someone about multiple earths would be like doing a re-origin story for every character involved. It might help a first time reader, but it’s not necessary once they accept the concept of super heroes.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:48:44 +0000

As much as I didn’t like the story-telling mechanics of Final Crisis (convoluted yet fun) I was still able to enjoy it hell of a lot more than Infinite Crisis or Identity Crisis (just convoluted).

By: Brandon Hanvey

Brandon Hanvey — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:44:13 +0000

I wonder what this is about.

http://comiccritics.com/2009/06/08/wse-8/

By: Thok

Thok — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:08:20 +0000

It’s fairly sad that Batman: Brave and the Bold’s take on the Multiverse is already more understandable and more interesting than the Post-Infinite Crisis Multiverse.

Of course, that’s partially because Batman: Brave and the Bold was willing to just tell a Multiverse tale and not wait for some magnum opus by Morrison.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:51:30 +0000

This was totally funny. But why would you need backstory on the parallel Earths in the first place? Parallel Earths are not a bizarre idea; all the story asks, essentially, is that the reader except that for whateve reason there are 52 of them, and they’re part of an overall structure.