Is it time for DC to move away from "Everything is canon"

[Lightning Rider]

If it were up to me, I'd have DC release a bunch of $1.00 Issue #0's for each major character/franchise told from the perspective of some omniscient observer like Metron or Rip Hunter or something. (If there's a new crossover event being planned, they can be relating it to a Guardian of the Universe or the next Big Bad who wants to study Earth's heroes for some reason). Decide what aspects of their Greatest Hits you want to mishmash together, what relationships you want to emphasize, and tie it into a narrative of what makes the character special. It would probably require a good deal of planning as the next creative team will have to help lay the foundation for what they want going forward. But it would generate a lot of buzz, satisfy a lot of fan questions, and give the DCU a more concrete sense of place and time with these characters that is badly needed.

[phonogram12]

If DC could have done this, I think they would have by now.

I don't think anyone is capable of doing this.

To create even a singular cannon at this point would destroy characters and regress characters it would impose rules, limits . It won’t fix DC but further divide it. The way things are now allows everyone to exist, it gives everyone their time and history.

This. Exactly all of this.

[Lightning Rider]

Would it really be hard to give everyone a streamlined sequence of events to remember?

[Jon Clark]

Would it really be hard to give everyone a streamlined sequence of events to remember?

Anyone could create that simple sequence, the problem is deciding what is or isn't included. And then factoring in how it fits together.

For example, Garfield Logan, His current "age" impacts the original Doom Patrol as his legal guardians were members of that team. If Gar joins the Ttitans after the DP are presumed dead then making his Titans career longer makes the Patrol's deaths further in the past and shortening his career makes the time the Patrol is dead shorter. And that then starts to affect Nightwing and Flash (Wally). And so on.

And while the reader of Flash might not care if Wally's career as Flash makes batman a decade older, readers of JLA might. And the person reading Titans, Green Arrow, and Shazam probably expects the three books to agree on how long ago Lazarus Planet was- at least enough than they don't want it to seem a year ago in one book and only a few weeks in another,

[D.Z]

They dropped the "everything matters" gimmick long ago. The current crop of writers are just doing whatever they want now, and their own personal continuities. The editors don't care.

Lot of things happened but not everything did. Some is loose canon. Some of it is "who cares"

[Lightning Rider]

Anyone could create that simple sequence, the problem is deciding what is or isn't included. And then factoring in how it fits together.

For example, Garfield Logan, His current "age" impacts the original Doom Patrol as his legal guardians were members of that team. If Gar joins the Ttitans after the DP are presumed dead then making his Titans career longer makes the Patrol's deaths further in the past and shortening his career makes the time the Patrol is dead shorter. And that then starts to affect Nightwing and Flash (Wally). And so on.

And while the reader of Flash might not care if Wally's career as Flash makes batman a decade older, readers of JLA might. And the person reading Titans, Green Arrow, and Shazam probably expects the three books to agree on how long ago Lazarus Planet was- at least enough than they don't want it to seem a year ago in one book and only a few weeks in another,

Right, I think those decisions can be made with a bit of care and thoughtfulness. I think there can be a looseness to exactly how much time has passed between certain milestones; we don't have to specify ages and give every event an exact date. Batman isn't some newbie adventurer with how big his family is for example.

[superduperman]

I don't see any way out of this outside of another hard reboot. Didio and company effed everything up for the last 20 years. The only way to fix it might be to just start all over. At this point they can't even blame a Crisis event for why they don't have a stable continuity.

[Stanlos]

That they did.

And perhaps silly of me, I thought the whole point of Flashderp and New Derpy-2 (mods, let me know if these labels do not adequately remove the reference of feces that these projects evoke for me) and all of the derpy trashfires that followed was to undo Crisis and bring back the hoity toity multiverse.

But if that wasn't the case and they are not, it takes me back to my original grievance with the DiDidiocy and Flashderp and New Derpy-2. In essence, the prestige of the DCU was that they had the icons and this lush tapestry of characters and stories. How did it make sense to throw that away to just be an also-ran in exchange for a temporary sales spike?

They threw away DCs identity and legacy for cheap all based on one person's dislike for so-called legacy characters.

These days I purchase back issues and artifacts on comics history. Thus far, I am not seeing the value of the undoing the sacrifices of Supergirl, Hal Jordan, or Barry Allen. And of course, the notion that WW wasn't human was peak derp.

I say go back to that point and forget the rest of the forgettable and move forward with the story of the main verse. Use alternate labels to play What If X Had/What If X Hadn't.

Things like Elseworlds, Generations, DC Legends, and DC Adventures already illustrate how to do that.

[HsssH]

Right, I think those decisions can be made with a bit of care and thoughtfulness. I think there can be a looseness to exactly how much time has passed between certain milestones; we don't have to specify ages and give every event an exact date. Batman isn't some newbie adventurer with how big his family is for example.

Then there are characters like Jon that give very specific number of years

[marhawkman]

I think 'Everything is Cannon Fodder' would be far more accurate description of DC's continuity.

I feel DC's new goal should be 'Nothing is Cannon'.

I gave up trying to make sense of DC's continuity...and I think DC might as well do that too.

Any attempt to clarify continuity only seems to muddy it more...if that is still possible.

Having multiple universes is the only way it CAN make sense.... because it STARTED like that!

New Earth was a bizarre pile of contradictions.... but.... the replacement got WORSE since they just threw more fuel on the fire, instead of restoring the previously broken continuities!?!!?!

So pre-CoIE continuity is STILL ruined, and now New Earth is too. :/

Pre-CoIE everything WAS canon... just not all in Earth-1.

[Primal Slayer]

Especially with Gen 2...

Is Cassie Zeus' daughter? I'm guessing Artemis didn't train her which was a huge part of the characters history.

Did Kon die during a Crisis? Was he an emo kid wearing a black shirt and jeans?

What exactly is Kara's current history?

How long was Barbara Oracle?

[CTTT]

What's being talked about isn't this kind of part and parcel of DC? First it was COIE then Flashpoint Final Crisis so on and so forth. They have their Crisis events and Marvel has their "sliding timeline" and soft reboots.

[HsssH]

To an extent that is true, but problem really is that it got completely out of hand.

[Aahz]

I don't see any way out of this outside of another hard reboot.

I think something like Rebirth could also do it, they would just to put someone in charge of mapping out what is canon, what isn't, and how it fits together.

The current approach of mixing post crisis, with new 52, a bit of pre crisis and the personal head canons oh the writers and editors is just a mess.

[HsssH]

DCU: Rebirth #1 is a major reason why we are in this mess.