Between Justice League of America and Justice League of America’s Vibe, today may seem like the day where Geoff Johns single-handledly – Well, Andrew Kreisberg does co-write Vibe, I guess – tries to wrangle New 52 continuity into some kind of order. I won’t spoil either book for those who haven’t read them yet (Which, considering the time on the West Coast, probably means “a lot of people”), but there are references to hanging plot threads from the first arc of Justice League – which connects to Earth 2, for those who’ve been paying attention - in Vibe, and the Justice League International Annual in Justice League of America, that are particularly welcome for those who’ve slowly been becoming convinced that multiple someones had quietly forgotten about things that seemed like quite a big deal at the time. Between this and the recent mention in the solicitations of Trinity War preludes (Again, down to Geoff Johns), it’s almost as if DC is getting its equilibrium back, at least in terms of continuity and cohesive universe-building.
The question is, perhaps, is this too little too late? We’re almost a year out from the first tease/announcement of Trinity War, and almost two years from Pandora’s first appearance. Unlike Marvel, which rushes through events far faster – unless they’re Age of Ultron, admittedly – the slow drip of DC’s uber-story, whatever that may be, feels glacial, almost unbelievably scattered and worryingly familiar (Brother I again? The trinity fighting again?), all of which could be reasons for readers to jump ship. Now that we’ve had almost two years of New 52 with its stuttering momentum and quick deaths for all manner of titles, creative runs and ideas, does the concept of One Grand Plan at the publisher still have any appeal left – or, for that matter, any real credibility?
February 20th, 2013 at 11:48 am
Readers may not have stuck around for much of the New 52! but they did for everything Johns works on. He and Lemire seem to be working on turning the Justice League books into DC’s connective tissue. With Sterling Gates taking over Vibe, Peter Tomasi free of his Green Lantern duties and 5 or 6 empty slots waiting to be filled, I think/hope/fear we might soon get a Justice League Line as big as the Bat-line and as connected as the X-men line.
I’m not sure Trinity War is going to be about Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman fighting. It seems more to do with Pandora, Phantom Stranger and The Question( who just showed up in Didio and Dematteis’ Phantom Stranger).
February 20th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Gramme didn’t you just say int tge article below this one that you would like a universe to remain steady for more than 12 months. Which is it? I would hope you recognize the split personality like arguments your making seeing as these two articles are posted so close together.
February 21st, 2013 at 7:41 am
I, for one, don’t mind the pacing at all. The New 52 Universe is, after all, a pretty big place, with a lot of moving parts. It takes time to build, and I’d rather this “grand plan” carefully constructed, rather than being rushed.
Although it’s almost impossible to have some continuity conflicts, the amount of time DC is taking to build a cohesive universe can also reduce the continuity snafus that may otherwise come back to haunt them later.
Let’s all be patient. Let the editors plan and the writers write accordingly.
February 21st, 2013 at 8:26 am
Sorry, I meant to say “almost impossible NOT to have continuity problems…”
February 21st, 2013 at 10:02 am
I think Geoff Johns has this big picture in his head of how the New 52 universe works and is put together. I’m sure he knows all of the connectors and the appearances and the history. The problem is so little of this has been revealed to the reader, and what has is just so jumbled. So much of the impetus for the new JLA is based around stuff that supposedly happened in that 5-year Justice League gap between their first and second story arcs. Since we don’t really know what happened and we didn’t experience it, the emotion behind this new JLA is lost. For example, Johns has put a lot of emphasis on the relationship between Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman, but we’ve never actually seen them together, especially not in her series. We’ve only been told that it happened.
February 21st, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Some moron said this in a blog post:
Is wanting a status to remain quo for more than twelve months old-fashioned these days, or something…?
Oh right that is grame cracker that posted that….make up your mind you stupid fucwad
February 25th, 2013 at 3:14 am
Honestly, for this reader–DC dropped him. Other than reading a few issues of Earth-2 (to make sure there was nothing there for me) I have been happily DC Comic free for two years.
Gremlin-