JLA 8 (non spoiler) question about Boom Tubes
Planeis
Posts: 980
Just read 8 and 9. Not really digging the story or the herky jerky moving back and forth in time during the narrative. But whatevs. My main question is about a very geeky nit picky moment I can't stop thinking about...
How long have the JLA been the JLA? 5 years? Less. DC is totally screwing up this timeline. Its going to be a mess within another year. I can feel it. They don't have a handle on it at all. Here's my example.
In JLA 8 they make reference to Cyborg's Boom Tube generation malfunctioning about once every 1,000 times he uses and state that its happened twice already. They go on to explain that they are overdue for another as its been over 1,000 times that they've used it since the last time.
Whats the problem? My problem is that this means they've used the Tube as a group over 3,000 times? Thats an average of twice per day, every day for five years. We all know they aren't together every day because all the heroes have their own stuff they're doing most of the time.
Not a big deal, I just think this shows DC has no handle on the timeline, the writers don't care and are basically doing their own thing. Within a year its going to be just as much of a mess as it was before and possibly even more confusing because at least before we had some idea of what was in and out of continuity.
The multi-verse being back is confusing me too. I thought the whole point of the reboot was to get out of the multiple universes and the confusion that can cause. I guess not. I think within two years there will be universe wide crossovers as well.
Why did they bother with this again? Are sales still up? To me this has been a failure. I'm reading more, but I'm getting them from the library. I'm not buying them. If they had digital subscriptions where I knew I could just spend $20 and get a whole years worth of whatever I think that would be a HUGE change. But paying the same price for digital or just $1 less feels silly to me. They need to switch to a magazine model. Purchase in store and its the cover price. Subscribe and its drastically lower.
How long have the JLA been the JLA? 5 years? Less. DC is totally screwing up this timeline. Its going to be a mess within another year. I can feel it. They don't have a handle on it at all. Here's my example.
In JLA 8 they make reference to Cyborg's Boom Tube generation malfunctioning about once every 1,000 times he uses and state that its happened twice already. They go on to explain that they are overdue for another as its been over 1,000 times that they've used it since the last time.
Whats the problem? My problem is that this means they've used the Tube as a group over 3,000 times? Thats an average of twice per day, every day for five years. We all know they aren't together every day because all the heroes have their own stuff they're doing most of the time.
Not a big deal, I just think this shows DC has no handle on the timeline, the writers don't care and are basically doing their own thing. Within a year its going to be just as much of a mess as it was before and possibly even more confusing because at least before we had some idea of what was in and out of continuity.
The multi-verse being back is confusing me too. I thought the whole point of the reboot was to get out of the multiple universes and the confusion that can cause. I guess not. I think within two years there will be universe wide crossovers as well.
Why did they bother with this again? Are sales still up? To me this has been a failure. I'm reading more, but I'm getting them from the library. I'm not buying them. If they had digital subscriptions where I knew I could just spend $20 and get a whole years worth of whatever I think that would be a HUGE change. But paying the same price for digital or just $1 less feels silly to me. They need to switch to a magazine model. Purchase in store and its the cover price. Subscribe and its drastically lower.
Comments
I get what you are saying, though, and, sure, 3000 times is a lot in five years. But, then, Peter Parker sure did have a lot happen in a couple years of high school, too. I just think of it as funnybook time and don't worry about it too much. I mean, people also can't fly, you know what I mean?
All I'm saying is there are people who make good money as editors of these books and its clear they have no control. I'm sure when they first came up with the idea for the new 52 it was "hey, lets start EVERYTHING over" and then someone got scared was said "Well... Batman is doing great and has been forever, why get rid of all that?" "Yea yea same for Green Lantern"
And then a relatively simple idea of starting over got shot to hell.
It tends to be the case with these long-lived characters that the stories that are sticky, which is to say, they continue to get built on and referenced, are the ones that struck a chord with the readership. The good ones. The ones that had interesting potential. Just because a universe is being rebooted, and much will be new or different, why should there be a need to throw away EVERYTHING? At that point, why even keep the very origins of these characters? (the Waynes being shot dead, the destruction of Krypton) Or why even keep these characters?
But, once you do decide to keep these characters, and the origins built into them, why not also keep some of the other history that worked and paid off?
Now does this vague, stretchy five year time mean that continuity messes are possible, even likely? Sure. But does it really matter all that much? I think it is a small price to pay for being able to keep and build on some of the really excellent stories that have been told about these characters.
Again, I think Peter Parker was in high school for nearly 200 issues of his comic (not to mention appearances in others) and I think he was already a sophomore or junior when the comic started. Does it seem possible to have THAT many adventures in two or three years? Of course not. But why worry about it? Technically the Fantastic Four- never officially rebooted- stole a rocket and got their powers because they were trying to be first on the Moon ahead of the Russians. So if we are getting specific, they have had their powers and have been the FF for more than 40 years. Again... why worry about it? We all get that it's funnybook time. And such time is flexible. Because it is all imaginary history anyway. Why make it rigid from the outset? What does that gain?
Personally, I think concerns over continuity is what happens when we spend energy and time ruining the fun for ourselves. But, that's me.
Instead, what I got was a mix of stories of just starting out, and others (like Animal Man or Batman) who already had those stories behind them. I liked that variety. And, it seems, with the #0 month next month, we will get a lot of those just starting out stories that haven't been told yet. To me, that is a potential win-win.
Keep and build for only a select few characters. All of superman's history is gone along with a bunch of other peoples.
The books I've been enjoying the most out of the New 52 are the ones that have been "Origin story? We don't have time for that stuff! Jump in and find out along with us!" Legion did that, as did Demon Knights. The former relies on 40+ years of backstory and pretty much kept to the continuity it had (easy to do when you're in the 30th century!) and the latter is doing it the way I really like to see it done - they're dropping crumbs along the way to give you hints about each character without resorting to "I remember my own early days..." type of storytelling. I think the only character we know everything about right now is Shining Knight - and admittedly if you read Morrison's 7 Soldiers you already knew most of what you needed to know about him (!) :)
Again, if a past story feels like a piece of history that contributes to a better present character (at least, in the opinion of the people whose job it is to tell new stories) they kept it. If an old piece of history was embarrassing after the fact, then they are no longer stuck with it.
I have never been much of a Superman reader, so I am not personally in a position to judge, but maybe Superman's history was less "sticky" because where Superman was at, pre-New 52, was just not considered worth keeping. It seems they would rather take the opportunity to reset him back, perhaps because they didn't like where he had got to since Crisis. By contrast, to many readers, Batman and Green Lantern have been better in the last few years than they had been in many years. So that got kept.
Again, I don't see why it has to be all or nothing? What is the gain in that?
Personally, I am glad they started with a strong present status quo for the character, without immediately limiting their options.