DC’s motivation genuinely seems to be rooted in finally realizing that they were screwing up, whereas in the past such motivation was simply to drive up sales. Hype is hype, but the way they repeatedly fell on their own sword at their panels in San Diego demonstrate that this isn’t just another marketing ploy. Will they feel the same way in a year? Five? Ten? Who knows, but for today the cloud seems to have lifted.

All too many writers treat the uncharted frontiers of What If / Elseworlds stories as a pristine river to dump sewage in, rather than build a community upon. Just because anything CAN go in such a story doesn’t mean it should.

DC always seemed to be a little more respectful of these pristine alternate landscapes than Marvel was, but I’m hearing some pretty shocking things about the way Flashpoint ends . . .

And, not that things are much better at Marvel (all the manuevering done over Spider-Man and Mary Jane…to resolve little, and even the Ultimate books are crumbling after 100+ issues under “continuity restraint”….

One of the problems is the “What If?/Elseworlds” problem. When these series (What If? for Marvel, and Elseworlds for DC) came out, they could do things like kill Spider-Man or Superman…and the books sold because of the shock value, and interesting exploration of the concept IF those things were to happen. The problem is, each respective company treats their current history with little regard, and has wholesale slaugther (which then gets undone in the next multiversal event…)

Here’s a novel idea, how about a month where NOBODY DIES?

Exactly right. It might line up really nice and purty after seven years, but not seventy. It’s like stacking one brick on top of another; it’s pretty solid to start with, but after awhile it begins to teeter pretty badly . . .

It is nice to have a loose over all flow where the characters are living in the same world but try to make it all line up and stay put is asking a little too much.

No! They’re just as illogical and nonsensical whether read in sequence or not!

Well written as always, sir!