With the development of the Silver Age of comic books, pioneered by the genius of Julius Swartz, a fateful rift was created between these wonderous new stories, and the stories of yester-year from the WWII era. With Showcase #4 in 1956, Robert Kanigher wrote the introduction of a new Flash, and new type of hero… and forgotten were the days of the Mystery Men and the Super-men.
This rift between old and new was not to be forgotten for long... in fact Julius Swartz and Gardner Fox developed the fantastic idea of creating two different Earths, one where heroes of the WWII era grew and retired and the “present-day”heroes where new faces replaced old familiar names… as seen in 1961’s Flash #123 “Flash of Two Worlds”.
This rift between old and new was not to be forgotten for long... in fact Julius Swartz and Gardner Fox developed the fantastic idea of creating two different Earths, one where heroes of the WWII era grew and retired and the “present-day”heroes where new faces replaced old familiar names… as seen in 1961’s Flash #123 “Flash of Two Worlds”.
 |
| Justice League of America #21 (1963) |
These 2 worlds paved the way to the annual team-up between today’s Justice League of America and the older Justice Society of America. Flash meets Flash. Superman meets Superman. Batman meets Batman.
This was fine and dandy and as the Silver Age grew and more new faces replaced other old familiar names, there appeared to be some confusion… but not too much to warrant what came afterwards. Two Earths quickly became Three, Four, then Five, then X (?)… then an Infinite amount of Earths was imagined.
The Who’s Who: The Definitive Guide to the DC Universe in the mid-80s helped to introduce and explain the issues and different yet similar characters to both existing and new readers… although it was the famed Crisis on Infinite Earths that leveled the playing field for all. One Earth. One history. The holy trinity of original heroes was washed away by their new counterparts. The old Superman was rebooted by John Byrne. A new Wonder Woman was created and molded by George Perez. The old Batman of Earth-2 had died already… and so now did his daughter, Helena Wayne.
 |
| Superman and Superman? |
Here we are today with another Earth-2 being developed as part of DC’s second wave of new titles… but now, in the footsteps of Julius Swartz, James Robinson has the role of creating this new history, creating a rich environment for the new faces with familiar names. Although he has not always been a fan favourite, his Starman series in the late 90s is arguably the best super-hero series ever written. Starman easily blends old history with a new darker theme, playing off the present-day reluctant hero characterizations.
He also intertwines several independent stories into a cohesive singular epic, as seen with the connections made between the litany different and fantastical “Starman” characters from a 60 year history of DC Comics. Robinson is good with this. He is good with history. And he is great with injecting his own depth to otherwise previously one-dimensional, underdeveloped characters. He now takes the reins of not only key elements of the old Earth-2… he is playing god to a whole world. As the writer of DC's latest release, Earth-2, he is now building the foundation for stories yet to come. He works best with a blank slate, and I trust his masterful penmanship with these beloved characters.
He also intertwines several independent stories into a cohesive singular epic, as seen with the connections made between the litany different and fantastical “Starman” characters from a 60 year history of DC Comics. Robinson is good with this. He is good with history. And he is great with injecting his own depth to otherwise previously one-dimensional, underdeveloped characters. He now takes the reins of not only key elements of the old Earth-2… he is playing god to a whole world. As the writer of DC's latest release, Earth-2, he is now building the foundation for stories yet to come. He works best with a blank slate, and I trust his masterful penmanship with these beloved characters.
 |
| Earth-2 #1 (May 2012) |
No comments:
Post a Comment