The Doomino Effect for the week of June 6, 2007
DC might not show us the solution to the two-Legions problem for quite a while yet. Know why? Because we may or may not keep buying comics to find out how the good guys beat the bad guys, but we’ll probably keep buying them to find out just how continuity is arranged these days. It is in DC’s financial interest to hold continuity resolutions over our heads. We won’t always pay for action, for fun, for good writing, for good art, for good characterization, but we’re suckers for continuity mechanics.
– Legion Abstract’s Continuity notes for the Lightning Saga
Right now, DC’s commodity is continuity. More than anything else, Infinite Crisis and 52 were a celebration of attention to detail. Whether they were carefully laid plans or the mundane made meaningful, the mega-crossover was woven together from the fabric of what had happened in DC Comics pages for the years preceding. Clues were placed and red herrings were loosed, and those who looked closely and did their homework were rewarded for their attention.
A bad writer forces the reader to suspend their disbelief. A good writer takes the choice out of their readers’ hands, as their meticulous attention to the details of their artificial world results in something so well-crafted, the reader’s common sense and critical thinking alarms are never tripped. They immerse themselves in a world that is believable through its consistency.
Good writers earn the benefit of the doubt when something is wrong or out of place. In a well-crafted world, if the reader ever thinks “Wait a minute, that shouldn’t be a happening,” that’s usually a hint that something is deliberately that way. When inconsistencies happen with a bad writer, or at least someone who hasn’t earned that trust, it’s just something wrong that pulls the reader out of the story rather than inspiring that creative part of an active reader’s imagination.
So this week’s Doomino Effect brings us to Detective Comics #833, in which Zatanna and Batman hang out to solve a mystery. As a comic book story, it was a fun read. As a surprise, I was a little annoyed and disappointed. SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! IT’S A WEEK OLD SO BUY THE COMIC ALREADY! So Ivar Loxias turns out to be the Joker in disguise. There were all sorts of clever little hints, such as Loxias’ comment “I’ve buried the simple magician that was Art Wiener” and the conversation about disabled folks with Commissioner Gordon (though it was Gordon who volunteered the information about his daughter and not Loxias). I got a good 5-second kick when I realized that Loxias was actually the Joker, but then an immediate reaction of “But wait…the Joker’s in Arkham.”
Remember that other book Paul Dini writes – Countdown – in which the Joker was seen in prison just a few weeks ago? Sure, there’s no shortage of cases of people being in several places at once in comic books. Wolverine is usually in about 8 places at any given time. But it’s just awfully disappointingly convenient that Dini writes the same character in two different places just to suit the needs of the story, particularly in a company that’s currently enjoying a self-imposed era of detailed continuity love.
A good writer can deal with inconveniences, honor them and write a good story around them. A bad writer just ignores the inconveniences and just makes stuff how he wants it. I would have normally put Paul Dini in the former category, but if that’s the case, one should have to assume that there was some relevance to the Joker being in Arkham a few weeks ago. Was that another Earth? Either way, I couldn’t help but feel let down when I’m told Countdown is reflecting what’s happening in the DC Universe, and that’s supposed to explain some crossovers with some books, but I’m supposed to ignore it when it’s inconvenient.
Speaking of crossovers with Countdown, that leads me to Superman #663, which crosses over with Countdown #48, or at least precedes it, since the New New Gods are playing around in Metropolis. It basically sets the stage for Arion to whoop on Superman. He takes care of his impostor, who is apparently hanging out in Atlanta’s own Diagon Alley, he accepts Superman’s refusal of retirement, and then apparently gets really big, ready to fight. I haven’t been reading Superman for the past few months, but I guess what has happened is that Arion told Superman that he’s making the humans weak and that he’s destroying the human race as a result. Superman accepts that there may be some truth to that, but then he uses one of those age-old riddles about taking lives / saving lives to justify that he ain’t hangin’ up the S. I have much love for Kurt Busiek, and I am pleased with Carlos Pacheco on picture duty, as he seems to be improving as time goes by. Sometimes his people are a bit stiff, but he nails facial expressions when he needs to (see: Lois eating a hotdog while giving Clark some advice on how to tell off Arion).
And speaking of hotdogs and other ground up meat, that leads me to Uncanny X-Men #487 in which Masque and some other renegade Morlocks have some nasty plans. Warpath and the cat lady flirt in the woods, while Storm shows up to use her international authority to stop some sentinels. Apparently, in comic book land, rulers from another country can invade the United States and then order around members of the US military, because Storm seems to think that being Queen of Wakanda means she can tell the Office of National Emergency what to do, and that if they don’t comply with her, the “diplomatic incident” would make America look bad.
Right. Can you imagine someone, let’s say Mahmoud Abbas, comes to America. The Department of Homeland Security is trying to stop a known terrorist who is running around through a forest in North Dakota. Abbas says “Stop right there, Department of Homeland Security! Tell your masters that this terrorist is under the protection of Mahmous Abbas, president of Palestine! Or perhaps the Department of Homeland Security would like an international incident? You wouldn’t want it hitting the papers that the Department of Homeland security tried to stop the president of Palestine from protecting a terrorist in the forests of North Dakota, would you?”
And Valerie Cooper used to be hot. Part of her awesomeness as a character was “I’m way too hot for you, and I’m way too smart for you and I far, far outrank you.” She looks like an ugly, long-haired version of Hilary Clinton in here. Not that Hilary Clinton isn’t smart or powerful, but they’ve just taken away 1/3 of her Holy Trinity of Power Over Men.
Anyway, I don’t know, it was a pretty dull week for comics. These three plus Invincible #42 and Countdown #47 make me excited for this week to come.
Y’know, Valerie Cooper suddenly being ugly seemed quite a bit out of place to me, too. It’s one of those things that irks me at the time but I quickly forget about, because there’s so many other major problems happening in other books that annoy me much, much more. Plus, I like that Salvador LaRocca is making everyone’s face pretty unique.
As for the Joker continuity error, that didn’t bother me one bit. That issue of Countdown that Joker appeared in came out less than a month ago, after all. I guess it’s easy for me to accept that all the books featuring Batman in any given month aren’t taking place at the exact same time. Same thing with Superman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc. Speaking of Superman, whatshisface that died in Countdown #48 was in this issue of Superman, but that doesn’t seem to have bothered you. Would a simple “this issue of Detective Comics takes place before Countdown #50,” like the one that appeared in Superman, have sufficed in this case?
I wasn’t bothered by a continuity problem there because there wasn’t a continuity problem. Saying that the story happened prior to Countdown #48 acknowledges that they’re aware of the timing, which means Lightray’s appearance isn’t a problem at all.
I do think it’s a bigger issue in DC than Marvel, because DC has spent the past two years driving home the point that details matter, timing matters and continuity matters. Then when you factor in that the same guy is writing both books, it’s even more annoying.
I wasn’t too annoyed, considering I decided to pretend Countdown doesn’t exist.
According to the stamp on Detective, it takes place during Countdown #47 (the timeline stamps they’re doing now is SUCH a bad idea XD), which means that Batman is tied up by the Joker around the same time Joker is in Arkham (as recent as in Countdown #46) and Batman is in Washington during Amazons Attack (which starts in Countdown #47).
o_O
In fact once the Amazons are attacking, Batman is in communication with the DOMA. o_O
>.>;;
DC continuity is a mess and Countdown is making it worse cuz it’s supposed to be tying every book together in a sort of “real time” framework. :\ Not that it’s real time, but that everything now has a time and place that it’s happening in 🙁
No company that is publishing Wonder Woman, Amazons Attack and a JLA/JSA/Legion crossover at the same time cares a lick for continuity.
Mutt, I don’t think anyone thinks that they actually care. The problem, as eloquently stated in the above quote from Legion Abstract, is that DC has put all their stock into continuity trading. When something matters in DC, it’s continuity related. It works really well if you’re consistent with that policy.
Situation D matters because Event A happened 15 years ago, Event B happened 10 years ago, Event C happened last year, and look how impressively we’ve put the pieces together! Now just wait until you get Events E, F and G, and then Situation D will make even more sense!
It’s like in the dying days of WCW, when Vince Russo tried to make some matches mean more because they were “real” and “breaking from the script.” It didn’t make those matches any better, but what it did do is diminish the effect of all the other matches that were now, by default, “fake.”
You may have the best pro-continuity argument ever.
DC’s “continuity” is hilarious at this point.
They want to have their cake and eat it too by providing the illusion of continuity. I don’t want that. At all.
You know, I’m a bit confused at the idea of Countdown.
It’s a weekly series, so I’ve always assumed that, like DC’s previous weekly series, it takes place in real time.
Am I alone in that assumption? Because if it’s supposed to, that opens the door for a whole new mess of problems…
-M
I don’t think it’s in real time like 52, which was specifically covering the missing year. I think Countdown just goes alongside the chronology of the rest of the DCU.
I need to correct myself in comment 10 – Countdown is supposed to be real time (in case I wasn’t the last person on earth to figure that out).