Complaining! About Comics!

[odditycollector]

Well, I declare the "history of the DCU" back-up in 52 to be officially useless.

I never managed to read through Zero Hour due to the "Ow! God, My Eyes, It Burns!" factor, but I've read *around* it. I've also read fic, and meta, and made my own GL jokes in poor taste. Hell, it took over a stanza and a half of the DCU Tinies, back when I was feeling creative.

In summary, yeah, I am so not the clueless newbie who *needs* a brief history of the DC universe.* And yet, I still managed to come away from the Zero Hour summary thinking:

Wait. Did they just retcon Barbara Gordon's injury into being Hal Jordan's fault?

Isn't that really, really needlessly random and silly and dumb on many other levels besides?

Since no one else was calling shenanigans, I asked Google what was going on. Google told me there had been an AU Batgirl hanging around for that event, because, I assume, getting her shot just the once was not enough fun. (Yes, I'm cranky. Reading comics that are bad do that to me.) The punchline is, I even was vaguely *aware* of this.

If I had been given *anything* resembling context, I probably could have figured it out. Really. Here is all relevant info given...




(Image split because I didn't want to lj-cut.)

Whoever these "histories" are aimed at, it isn't reasonably rabid fans missing an issue here or there.

I'm not sure why I'm so annoyed. Probably leftover annoyance from when I thought Babs had a new backstory mixed with annoyance from *reading* the 52 backup (the words, they *burns* us, precious).

And I still have no idea what the backup is meant to accomplish, unless the answer is, "Make as many people run screaming from the store as possible; send recorded video to America's funniest. Use winnings to buy a pony."
 

*A brief history of Hawkman canon, okay, I will accept, if only because I don't believe a *brief* (and coherent) history is actually possible.

Comments

[a-nation-of-one.livejournal.com]

During Zero Hour, another Barbara Gordon/Batgirl appeared from a parellel timeline, and took part in the battle with Parallax. She died. This is not retconning Oracle's injury.

The same issue of 52, however, seems to be trying to retcon Barry Allen's death as taking place during Zero Hour instead of the original Crisis. (Wally West's first foray into the Speed Force happened during Zero Hour, and the effect was much the same as Barry's death). So yes, I agree that the new History of the DCU is completely worthless (because, let's face it, the history of the DCU is completely worthless, given that it changes every two weeks), but for a slightly different reason. But I'm seriously hoping the Barry Allen thing was just a typo.

-m@

[a-nation-of-one.livejournal.com]

And then I went back and actually read the first part of your post again ... so you can ignore the first part of mine.

(It's late.)

-m@

Spelling. Sorry.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Hee, sure. *retcons appropriately* ;)

(It's late.)
(It really, really is. I look at the clock, and it's all I can do not to run and hide under the bed covers.)

I assumed the Barry Allen thing was a reference to the time/universe travelling adventures of the late Barry Allen (I read parts of the CoIE novel, regrettably). Although how this would fit into Zero Hour, I'm not sure at all.

If Wally's story is missing, you're right. I probably was just a typo. After all, retconning Barry's death in CoIE for no reason at all would cause all sorts of... um. Hatemail? Bulging eyes? (I shall laugh and laugh is it turns out it *was* a typo but is accepted as new canon anyway, just because.)

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

I know that's factually wrong and out of context -- because that was another Batgirl, and I believe she's protecting Damage, who was about to cause a Big Bang -- but I love the idea of Hal Jordan behind her paralysis. That just fits so well with how I view him.