EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #314: A UNIVERSAL TRUTH

[Blake Petit]

When you’ve been writing a column as long as I have, especially on a slow news week, sometimes it can be difficult to come up with a topic of discussion that hasn’t been covered already. On weeks like those, a man has only one resort: to ponder. I like pondering. I find I do my best pondering while driving, in fact. So while other drivers on the road are listening to music, talking on their cell phones, putting on makeup, or screaming at the kids in the back seat, I’m pondering.

What can I write about this week? I ponder to myself. I’ve written about Captain America. Everybody’s writing about Batman. I did a movie column a couple of weeks ago. Hmm. That guy’s selling a flat of peaches for just five bucks. That’s pretty cheap. Wait, does that billboard say that there’s a new hamburger at McDonald’s? Mmm. That sounds good. But if I eat one, I know Erin will use that voice of disappointment. Maybe if I get a Diet Coke. Oh, I know, I can write about… no, no, I did that one in February. Good grief, I’m at a loss here. How do comics come together? How do things fit in? Why do they fit?

That’s when it hits me. I’ll get the burger, but I’ll skip the fries. Also, there’s something about comics that is rather unique that I don’t think I’ve examined before. We readers of mainstream comics have come to expect something that isn’t expected in any other form of entertainment I can think of, and that’s the comic book universe. Although most comics, back in the early days of the form, were anthology series, there wasn’t really any cohesion there. A single title could have a war comic, a jungle adventure, a science fiction strip, a few humor pages, and a detective drama, with none of them having any relation to or impact on one another. Then came All Star Comics. It was still an anthology series, but with so many publishers experimenting with the new form of the “superhero,” All Star was a themed book, collecting adventures of several heroes from both National Periodical Publications and All-American Publications. (The two companies would later merge and become the modern-day DC Comics.) For the first two issues, All Star was no different than any other anthology, except for the theme. You had the Flash and Green Lantern and Hourman and the Spectre, but the characters didn’t meet or interact. It wasn’t until issue #3, the introduction of the Justice Society of America, that the characters were first shown together. Before then, you could theoretically blow up Detroit in Flash or have California fall into the sea in Hourman, and none of the other strips would have to recognize that as part of their reality. But now that the heroes were a team, you had to accept that they lived in a shared reality, and that if such a thing were to happen in one of their strips, the others would have to reflect that change in order to preserve… drumroll please… continuity.

Now, comic fans have come to expect this sort of continuity. It’s what we call our superhero “Universe.” DC has one. Marvel has one. Even Image has one, although it’s a bit more difficult for them. You see, since all Image titles are creator-owned (or owned by the creator’s studio, such as Top Cow), no one can actually force a change in anyone else’s strip. When San Diego was sunk into the ocean in Aquaman, the editors had to make sure that no other comics in the DC Universe showed an above-ground San Diego. If Robert Kirman should decide to drop a nuke on southern Louisiana (but please don’t do that, Mr. Kirkman, southern Louisiana is where I keep all my stuff) in the pages of Astounding Wolf-Man, there’s nothing that would compel Jay Faerber to show an irradiated New Orleans in Dynamo 5. And yet, many of Image’s properties are tied together in a sort of loose “universe,” not unlike Marvel’s or DC’s. We saw that in Invincible #60, which featured guest-stars from dozens of unrelated Image superhero comics. Each property – or at least individual creator – exists in its own reality, but there definitely seems to be places where all of those realities overlap. That’s the “Image Universe.”

As I thought about this I realized there’s not any other entertainment medium that forces a “universe” the way comic books do. You don’t get it on TV, after all. Just because NBC has a show where people began suddenly developing super powers after an eclipse doesn’t mean we’re going to see Hiro Nakamura suddenly appear to stop a bus from crashing into Dunder-Mifflin Scranton. There are some TV shows that show connectivity, but those are usually spin-offs. When Fonzie showed up on Laverne and Shirley, it was because the girls originated on Happy Days, not because two unrelated properties suddenly crossed over. In most other occasions, when one character shows up on another show, it’s usually a one-time stunt. (Anybody else remember that brief moment in the early 90s when virtually every ABC sitcom featured a guest appearance by Steve Urkel?)

The closest thing to a television analogue came in the sixties when producer Paul Henning created two hit shows based on rural comedy: The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction. The two shows were so big that CBS offered him a third show without pilot, which he handed off to Jay Sommers. That show became Green Acres, and the three shows would occasionally swap characters and locations, establishing them all in the same universe even though they were birthed separately. Still, there was a related birth there, which wasn’t the case when the assorted heroes of two publishers first joined the JSA.

Sometimes it happens in novels. Not counting books in a series (naturally characters from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will appear later in Harry Potter and the Declining Scholastic Stock Because the Series is Over), there are a lot of authors that enjoy cross-pollinating the characters in their own works. Stephen King set a lot of stories in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, and characters could move between books freely. Example: after George Bannerman died in Cujo, he was replaced as the Sheriff of Castle Rock by Alan Pangborn, who appeared in The Dark Half, Needful Things and the short story The Sun Dog, and was referenced in Bag of Bones. (Weird bit of trivia – the film versions of The Dark Half and Needful Things were both released in 1993, and each featured a different actor as Alan Pangborn… Michael Rooker and Ed Harris, respectively. It’s the only time I know of when the same character was played on-screen by two different actors in the same year.)

King also had his legendary Dark Tower series, which linked many of his unrelated works through the more science fiction-flavored concept of alternate realities. Terry Pratchett has written dozens of books set in his Discworld, but unlike most books-in-a-series, he has no one main protagonist or set of characters he follows from book to book. Instead, he has several of groups of characters, and any of them can pop up at any time. Virtually the only character guaranteed to show up in any Discworld novel is Death.

But again, these are cases of authors creating their own universes. It’s rare to see unrelated works collide, although it does happen, usually when the authors in question are friends. Novelists Scott Sigler, J.C. Hutchins, and Mur Lafferty – all pioneers in podcast fiction that have found their way into print – have been known to work in sly (and in at least one case blatant) references to each others’ work, but it’s the sort of thing a reader won’t catch unless familiar with the other writers being referenced. And it doesn’t obligate any writer to follow the “rules” established by the others. It’s more of an inside joke than an effort to create a universe.

Movies? Almost never happens, at least not in the way I mean. There are crossover films – Freddy Vs. Jason, Alien Vs. Predator, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein – but those, too, are self-contained and not an attempt at universe-creation. This is something that really makes comics unique. Virtually every publisher has attempted a “universe” at one point or another – Dark Horse had their Dark Horse Heroes line, of course, and the list of defunct universes goes on and on: Valiant, Defiant, CrossGen, Eclipse, Speakeasy… Hell, Malibu had two defunct universes, the Ultraverse and the Genesis universe (itself created by bringing together three previously unrelated properties into a single world). For all the complaining people do when a new “universe” is launched – they’re afraid to try a new book if they think they’ll have to buy several other comics in the line – comic readers still expect superheroes to come in a universe.

Why?

If I may theorize (and you know I will), I think it’s just a question of logic. After all, we’ve already accepted a world where one man can fly, bend steel, and deflect bullets off his skin. But simple biology tells us there is never one of anything. So we’ve got one superhero… why not two? Why not ten? Why not an entire world?

…

Why not an entire world?

This is why I like pondering. This is when the pondering pays off. As I think about this question, my answer turns into an idea and I begin to think harder and harder. I get home, park the car, and rush inside where my notebook is waiting. I write the idea down before I can forget it. The most frustrating moment in the life of a writer is having an idea but forgetting it before you can put it down somewhere. This one is too good to leave alone. It may never go anywhere, but it’s getting put down. It’s going to get a chance to live.

Ahem. What was I saying? Oh, yeah, why not an entire world? Comics – unlike movies or novels, and only a little like TV shows – are a medium where characters last for decades and are constantly engaged in new stories, not just once every few years. And it’s frankly more fun to have them able to interact, to weave a full world out of their stories. It’s one of the things that makes comics comics, and while it’s also responsible for the avalanche of crossover events that threaten to bury us all from time to time, the good outweighs the bad here.

In short, it makes for a damn good time.

Favorite of the Week: July 8, 2009

I apologize in advance (kinda), but I get the feeling this space is going to be dominated by green and black for the next few months. Last week’s Green Lantern #43, the prologue to Blackest Night, was without a doubt the best comic book released last week. Geoff Johns did for the C-list villain Black Hand what he did for the Flash’s Rogues back in the day. He took a weak villain and made him interesting, terrifying, and a legitimate threat not just to Green Lantern, but to the DC Universe as a whole. I don’t remember the last time I was as excited for any comic as I am for Blackest Night, and this issue was just one more thing that whet my appetite. I can’t wait to make it to the comic shop today.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the novel-in-progress Lost in Silver at Evertime Realms. He’s also the co-host, with good buddy Chase Bouzigard and Mike "I Like My Vampires Sparkly" Bellamy, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcasts. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms. Read past columns at the Everything But Imaginary Archive Page.

[WhereIsTony]

Fantastic column, excellent point.

But it is going to launch another huge discussion on whether or not the Full House with Urkel is Family Matters Canon.

iT totally is - urkel launched himself in Family matters and landed in Full house.

It also brought to mind a week were friends, seinfeld, the single guy, and whatever the other NY-based show was in that block all had a black-out.


Anywho what is interesting is marvel always intended a shared universe, whereas DC's decided to have one later - which in large part lead to COIE, which is arguably the biggest crossover ever.

Bonus points for the terry pratchett mention.

[Scott A. Williams]

I always thought of Lee and Kirby as helping along the idea of comic universes as highly integrated, by setting the bulk of their stories in New York where heroes were constantly running into each other. There was never much geographical detail to the reader where Metropolis and Gotham were in relation to each other, or how possible it was to get from one to the other, so you've got Batman and Superman separate but intermingling when they need to... but I always loved the Lee/Kirby version of a New York bustling with superhero activity.

Kinda makes me wish the Seinfeld characters would wander into the Friends coffee house, take a pause and say "Let's... go back to our usual place."

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

(Anybody else remember that brief moment in the early 90s when virtually every ABC sitcom featured a guest appearance by Steve Urkel?)

I remember a similar stunt where all of their shows on a night took place in Vegas, and each of the characters overlapped. I want to say it was Drew Carey, Coach, Grace Under Fire and Ellen. Yep yep yep I need a life.

(Weird bit of trivia – the film versions of The Dark Half and Needful Things were both released in 1993, and each featured a different actor as Alan Pangborn… Michael Rooker and Ed Harris, respectively. It’s the only time I know of when the same character was played on-screen by two different actors in the same year.)

How's about You Only Live Twice and Casino Royale 1967?

Well, maybe that doesn't count because the 1967 Casino Royale doesn't seem to count for anything to anybody.

[Blake Petit]

The 1967 Casino Royale never happened. You're imagining things.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by WhereIsTony

It also brought to mind a week were friends, seinfeld, the single guy, and whatever the other NY-based show was in that block all had a black-out.

Mad About You, I remember that. Although that was actually before The Single Guy, the last spot was filled by a short-lived Dabney Coleman show called Madman of the People. And Seinfeld actually refused to take part. There was a short "news clip" before that show saying power had been restored, then another one afterwards saying they'd lost it again.

Stop looking at me that way. I know things.

[Justin Byrd]

Originally Posted by Scott A. Williams

How's about You Only Live Twice and Casino Royale 1967?

Well, maybe that doesn't count because the 1967 Casino Royale doesn't seem to count for anything to anybody.

Ah, if we're talking two Bonds in a year, what about Octopussy and Never Say Never Again?

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by Justin Byrd

Ah, if we're talking two Bonds in a year, what about Octopussy and Never Say Never Again?

Ah, touche. Connery and Moore, both in 1983.

[WhereIsTony]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

Mad About You, I remember that. Although that was actually before The Single Guy, the last spot was filled by a short-lived Dabney Coleman show called Madman of the People. And Seinfeld actually refused to take part. There was a short "news clip" before that show saying power had been restored, then another one afterwards saying they'd lost it again.

Stop looking at me that way. I know things.

sir, i am in awe.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by WhereIsTony

sir, i am in awe.

Thank you, thank you. Clearly, I didn't date a lot in high school.

[Justin Byrd]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

Thank you, thank you. Clearly, I didn't date a lot in high school.

Neither did I, but holy cow...!

[Blake Petit]

Yeeeeep.

...

So, universes! Cool, huh?

[Ben Lehnsherr]

You might have started this not knowing where you were talking this week's column, but it was an excellent read, Blake. Well done, sir.

[Justin Byrd]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

Yeeeeep.

...

So, universes! Cool, huh?

Indeed.

And to echo Ben's sentiment, excellent column Blake!

[ErinPatricia]

*mom face*
The burger is still bad enough in itself.

you knew I was gonna say something...

[Blake Petit]

Wouldn't have said it if I didn't, dear.

[ErinPatricia]

i love you

[Blake Petit]

Love you back, sweetheart.

[Dalarsco]

There is one shared universe in TV. All the CBS cop shows happen in the same universe. All the CSIs have had guest appearances, and there was a great episode of CSI New York that resolved a case from Cold Case. While I guess those could count as guest appearance stunts, I think that they have happened enough to count as a shared universe.
In fact, I think that most things written or produced by the same person or company exist internally as a sort of soft shared universe. It's just that comic cooks are the only medium where there are sweeping enough changes for that to matter. If someone gets shot in Vegas, it doesn't really matter in New York. Or if Joey gets a new girlfriend then Jerry Sienfeld is completely unaffected. But if San Diego slips into the ocean or Norman Osborne becomes a thematic stand-in for the head of homeland security then everyone has to take notice.

[Blake Petit]

The CSIs are all spin-offs of one another, not a case of unrelated shows getting linked. I don't watch 'em, or Cold Case for that matter, but unless there were a lot of Cold Case/CSI crossovers, I don't if that's really what I'm talking about either.

[Adam Chapman]

Blake, you should check out the site I've enclosed below. A great resource regarding crossovers and the like on television. Some are quite surprising, some mundane.

http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlist.html