Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Continuity Wave

From the "Crisis Counseling #5" discussion with Dan DiDio on Newsarama. No spoilers, unless you haven't read Infinite Crisis #4 yet.

NRAMA: Also, in the issue, Alex Luthor spilled the entire plan, noting that Superboy pounded on the wall to finally shatter the “heaven” that he had placed them in at the end of the last Crisis. Thumbnail sketch – the pounding of Superboy on, essentially, the “wall” of a universe. What did it do to the DCU?

DD: The true ramifications of the “wall pounding” will be seen in the Infinite Crisis Secret Files. What you will soon discover is that following Crisis on Infinite Earths, the one world we were left with was not completely settled and still subtlety resonated with the echoes of the multiple earths. The pounding on the wall of reality by Superboy sent shock waves throughout the universe, slightly shifting timelines and history of those characters that were most affected by the original Crisis.

For fans out there who’ve been wondering, or in some cases yelling, these “continuity waves” will help explain away the reboots, revamps and continuity inconsistencies since Crisis on Infinite Earths.

John Byrne's Doom Patrol series, where the old team appears in current continuity not dead, was given as an example of how the "continuity wave" affected them. Meanwhile,
NRAMA: Finally, to wrap this abbreviated session up, now that we’re close to the end of Crisis, the question of how the Legion would be connected – if at all – to Crisis has been dogging you since the first Crisis Counseling sessions. Can you explain who they are, relative to the Crisis? They’re living in a Post-Crisis world, right? In essence, the Post-Crisis Legion?

DD: That’s a story Mark Waid is waiting for the right moment to tell.


Of course, by "Post-Crisis" he means "Post-Infinite Crisis" as distinguished from "Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths". And yes, Mark Waid has said before that this version of the Legion is the post-IC version since issue 1. My theory is that at the end of the Titans crossover, Shikari accidentally found herself in the 31st century of the other Earth created at the end of Infinite Crisis 4, not her "home" 31st century which was the Earth created at the end of Zero Hour (for convenience, let's call that newly created planet Earth-2.1). We just haven't seen her since, but as a tracker, she could theoretically find her way back to her home universe.

How has the Legion been affected by the "continuity waves" since the original Crisis? Let me count the ways (a bunch off the top of my head, and I'm sure I'm going to miss some) ...

  1. Pocket Universe, death of Superboy, how did Superman meet the Legion if he died as a teenager, how did Kara Zor-el join the Legion if she never existed in the Pocket Universe, the Legion meeting the post-Byrne reboot Superman (right before Superboy's death, also during Time and Time Again)
  2. The Tornado Twins are Flash's descendants, no wait, they're his kids from when he went to the 30th century just prior to the Crisis
  3. Who's Who in the LSH entries (Dev-Em is a survivor of Krypton who went to live in the 30th century and work for the ICIC, no wait, he's a mutant from Earth who created his own powers, no wait, he's a deranged lunatic from Daxam)
  4. The Mordruverse
  5. Valor and Andromeda were always members of the Legion
  6. The SW6 Legion
  7. The Earth blows up, apparently getting better sometime in the future (e.g., Abra Kadabra from the 64th century)
  8. Legionnaires appearing and disappearing during End of an Era just prior to Zero Hour
  9. Post-Zero Hour rebooted Legion, meeting Superman during Time and Time Again
  10. The status of Inferno and Impulse/Kid Flash, who came from the post-Zero Hour future, in the current DCU continuity
  11. The status of the post-ZH Star Boy in relation to Starman legacy
  12. The status of Mordru as a JSA villain vs. when he becomes a Legion villain

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