After a bunch of posts that made me roll my eyes over & over again, finally we get to this one. This is a decent idea.
Personally, I would go with Chronos on this one.
I would also say that each series should be run as its own thing. A character from Hawkman should not be treated as supporting cast or cannon fodder for Superman. If I’m reading Wonder Woman, I want to be able to follow the story in that book, not be treated as if these are mislabeled issues of JLA.
As for most of the rest of you: Look, it’s daft to say that you want to throw out all past continuity & then insist that your new continuity will be followed. You’re making the same fundamental mistake that DC has tended to make since COIE.
Listen up, children: Any “new & improved” version of a trademark will have to prove itself to survive. It will have to “succeed” commercially & artistically to survive. Otherwise, it will go away.
My first rule: there’s no such thing as a “no-fault” retcon. Either you’re wrong for wanting to retcon something or your predecessor is wrong for writing it in the first place. The setting can evolve over time, but you cannot just write yourself into a corner with character deaths for shock value knowing you can just bullshit your way out the next time you want to use them.
I was half-thinking about the initial question over the past hour or so.
I agree with the concept put by **Skald the Rhymer ** that the JSA finished up with McCarthyism. JSA stories should be told as 1930s-1950s stories.
I think I’d be buying other character properties and incorporating them into the DC universe by way of flesh blood. This worked after all with the Captain Marvel group of characters, the Wildstorm characters, and to a much lesser extent with the Quitely characters. Maybe plunder Image for its old properties and see if The Savage Dragon and Witchblade are up for sale? Or First Comics (which I see has revived) and its characters like Badger?
Second, I agree with Chronos - more continuity keeps people happy, on well-established titles. But write them so they’re easily accessible to new readers. Continuity shouldn’t be a barrier to new readers.
What Happy Clam suggested is, in essence, a return to the Silver Age. Every title has it’s own continuity, and except for teamup titles like JLA, World’s Finest, and Brave & Bold (and very rare crossover stories), characters from one book don’t interact with those from another. That way, it’s possible to see the fate of the world in Flash’s hands without wondering where the rest of the JLA is; or to have different-toned Batman stories in Batman and Detective to please readers of all tastes.
Variety is the key. A unified universe can’t please everyone. A lover of good detective fiction may enjoy a locked-room mystery where Batman can logically rule out “magic” or “ghosts” as an explanation; something that can’t be done with a Batman who’s worked with Deadman and the Spectre. And it never bothered me that Aquaman’s version of Atlantis was different from that of Lori Lemaris, or that the Legion’s 30th Century Earth was different from the one that Iris West was born into, until someone felt the need to write stories explaining it.
Nobody demands that all of the programs on one TV network, or all of the novels from the same publishing house, must all tie into a grand cohesive continuity. Why make that demand of comic books?