Everything Old is New Again

That is, as long as you’re DC Comics.  Yes, friends, the Multiverse has returned with a vengeance, leaving some of us old veterans of comics scratching our heads.  You see, WAY back yonder in 1985 DC had this plan to eliminate all of the confusion created by their multiple-Earth mess.  At that point, there were a ridiculous number of Earths co-existing in the DC universe, causing both new and old fans to either give in to the madness or just give up on reading DC.  Thus, Crisis on Infinite Earths was born, and while by today’s standards it looks and reads rather crudely (the visuals are certainly terrific, but the paper quality and coloring standards of the time neutered Perez’s pencils) the series certainly trumped the Marvel event that was happening at roughly the same moment (Secret Wars).  For the first time in ages, the DC universe had a linear timeline and ONE Earth.  Alas, it took another ground-breaking event, 52, to send us all the way back to the beginning.

To be fair, it doesn’t look as if things are going to be quite as confusing as they once were.  Instead of a limitless number of universes, now there is a definite limit of 52.  How this will impact storytelling, no one knows quite yet, but aren’t 52 universes just as potentially confusing as a theoretically limitless multiverse?  And, as is often the case, what happens when the writers who invented this new-old transformation either leave DC or move to other projects?  I certainly trust the DC universe to the more than capable hands of Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, etc, but what about the teeming hordes of writers who will follow them?  Is DC condeming itself to this sort of contract-expand paradigm for the rest of its publishing life? 

What’s your take on the return of the multiverse?  Leave your message after the beep…..