The DC multiverse; like it or hate it?

[Jaylam]

I always thought how DC created the multiverse in the Silver Age was a brilliant idea. It allowed them to tap into the rich heritage of the Golden Age heroes and villains by introducing them to the readers of Silver Age in a plausible way and not relegate them to the dust bin of history. Even as a little kid, I was able to grasp the concept of Earth-1 and Earth-2 and then the further revelations of other parallel earths. They even one-upped it in Flash #179 by showing that the Earth-1 in which most of the Silver Age stories were taking place was not even our earth, but that we lived on another earth known as Earth-Prime (thus I could finally rectify the existence of major cities in the DC Silver Age universe called Metropolis, Gotham and so on) . The idea that all these different universes existed simultaneously on differently vibratory frequencies (easily accessed by the unique powers of the Flash) was truly cutting edge for the time and has now been seriously considered possible at least in theory by the scientific community.

Somewhere along the line, DC, seeing the success of Marvel and their unified universe, got the idea that their multiverse was a weakness and had become too cumbersome so they up-ended everything they had built up in the Silver Age with the Crisis on Infinite Earths and multiple re-organizations since.

I have always thought it was too bad that DC, in trying to be more like Marvel, threw away the one thing that was uniquely theirs and their strength. They failed to understand that we as readers already had the Marvel Universe and didn't need another one like it.

Fast forward to today and guess what, the Flash TV show is fully in the throws of grasping and owning the concept of the multiverse. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm excited as #$%@ if they can pull this off.

Your thoughts.......did DC have it right with the multiverse thing all along and did you like it or not?

[vaillant]

I honestly think it was not a great idea for Marvel doing a similar thing as well, when the concept of "alternative realities" was carried on from an occasional plot device to a "philosophic" underlying concept.

Pretty poor, as it also coincided with the increasing lack of background, depth and scope in their approach, and in most of their writers' work.

 

But as far as DC goes, while I do have a very limited knowledge of their production, I think that as an idea it worked good for the DC original Golden Age heroes (mostly because they did "duplicates" of them), but not for those they acquired from other publishers, like the Quality or Fawcett ones.

Captain Marvel to me will always remain Captain Marvel, even if I have come to know and appreciate him only in very recent years, it’s not "Shazam", by any means.

 

So I’d say that if the New 52 were mostly a bad idea, the upcoming approach might be better, if they restore what worked and let go of the rest.

[Mr 9.8]

I think the multiverse idea would really help DC now if they took advantage of it.

 

Bring back the pre-52-verse and have it run side by side with the 52-verse like Marvel did with it's ultimate line and we'll see which side DC fans prefer, new or old.

[vaillant]

Bring back the pre-52-verse and have it run side by side with the 52-verse like Marvel did with it's ultimate line and we'll see which side DC fans prefer, new or old.

More or less like deciding via phone if Robin should die?

[Mr 9.8]

Bring back the pre-52-verse and have it run side by side with the 52-verse like Marvel did with it's ultimate line and we'll see which side DC fans prefer, new or old.

More or less like deciding via phone if Robin should die?

EXACTLY! And we all know how it worked out for Marvels 'Ultimate-verse' buh-by New-52. (thumbs u

[ttfitz]

I always thought how DC created the multiverse in the Silver Age was a brilliant idea.

 

Pretty much sums up my opinion on the topic. Crisis was great as a story, but never much cared for the end result.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

Bring back the pre-52-verse and have it run side by side with the 52-verse like Marvel did with it's ultimate line and we'll see which side DC fans prefer, new or old.

More or less like deciding via phone if Robin should die?

EXACTLY! And we all know how it worked out for Marvels 'Ultimate-verse' buh-by New-52. (thumbs u

 

I think Marvel's Ultimate line started declining once the original creators left and the quality dipped as a result. I'd love to see how it would be doing if the original people were still on the titles.

 

I think the New 52 dropped off as a result of DC spreading the talent too thin.