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

[Will Evans]

Seeing DCs April sales being SO FAR below Marvel and other titles is truly sad. Coming at #21....and most of these books that are beating them are big on continuity of some sort.

What would you suggest?

[Primal Slayer]

What would you suggest?

Start being a bit more continuity conscious, make people care about these characters and what is happening in the books. Treat them a bit more like people who arent superheroes 24/7.

[skyvolt2000]

Seeing DCs April sales being SO FAR below Marvel and other titles is truly sad. Coming at #21....and most of these books that are beating them are big on continuity of some sort.

Question how stable are the editorial offices of those companies?

In other words what restrictions or permissions does IDW and Boom to do with TMNT, Power Rangers and Star Trek that keeps them in line that seems to be an issue here?

[Aahz]

I think the simplest solution is "Give Up, DC!"

Treat every comic book series like a new cartoon series: new art, refreshed characters, revitalized obscure characters, maybe a new villain (but we have too many now), plot out issues for a few years and lather, rinse, repeat.

Good examples: every Batman cartoon.

I don't think that's really a good example, most Batman Series after the DCAU haven't done that well.

[marhawkman]

It was a New 52-ism. I'd rather it just be ignored (along with Identity Crisis), but if I had to try to salvage it, I'd just retcon her to having been married to Jacob Finley:

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Jacob_Finlay_(New_Earth)

OG Kimiyo Hoshi didn't even speak English until after getting her powers. IIRC Martian Manhunter telepathically copied english into her brain.

[Icefan]

OG Kimiyo Hoshi didn't even speak English until after getting her powers. IIRC Martian Manhunter telepathically copied english into her brain.

Like I said, I'd rather just ignore it. You just can't square the circle of Identity Crisis Arthur Light being the same person as New 52 Arthur Light.

[marhawkman]

Like I said, I'd rather just ignore it. You just can't square the circle of Identity Crisis Arthur Light being the same person as New 52 Arthur Light.

That's true of several people... Blackrock got utterly RUINED.

Pre-CoIE:

lesser villain, but unique enough....

New Earth:

Ok, this was conceptually the same power source, but used in fundamentally different ways.... and passed to several people.

New 52:

Wut? not even vaguely similar.

[scary harpy]

I don't think that's really a good example, most Batman Series after the DCAU haven't done that well.

You can never know what's going to do well.

DC is certainly never prepared for characters to be a hit or a flop.

[dswynne]

As the title states...is it time to move away from "Everything is Canon" and get back to actually building some type of concrete history again like what we had with Post-COIE ending with New52? Or do you like how loose everything is right now?

Right now DC wants to eat its cake and to eat it too so they try to be vague with a lot of things - Is WW made of clay or is she daughter of Zeus? They won't allow creative teams to explicitly state.

Did Gen 2 sidekicks actually graduate from YJ to Teen Titans?

When was the JL actually formed?

We used to get Whos Who of DC/Secret Files with stats and current history....but they've largely steer cleared of those.

I don't know why you feel the way you do, since there is no evidence that DC is even taking that route. The "everything is canon" thing simply means that past stories are still relevant. That's it. We're still post-Nu52/whatever iteration. And quite frankly, I rather read the stories on their own merit, rather than worry about where in the timeline an event occurs. Besides, if the storyline is popular, it will keep. If not, it will soon be forgotten. No more, no less.

[marhawkman]

I don't know why you feel the way you do, since there is no evidence that DC is even taking that route. The "everything is canon" thing simply means that past stories are still relevant. That's it. We're still post-Nu52/whatever iteration. And quite frankly, I rather read the stories on their own merit, rather than worry about where in the timeline an event occurs. Besides, if the storyline is popular, it will keep. If not, it will soon be forgotten. No more, no less.

Thing is... history is a foundation you build stories on.

You don't NEED to retell an origin story every time you use a character.... if you stick to the way the character was used before.

[Primal Slayer]

I don't know why you feel the way you do, since there is no evidence that DC is even taking that route. The "everything is canon" thing simply means that past stories are still relevant. That's it. We're still post-Nu52/whatever iteration. And quite frankly, I rather read the stories on their own merit, rather than worry about where in the timeline an event occurs. Besides, if the storyline is popular, it will keep. If not, it will soon be forgotten. No more, no less.

I'd rather not be guessing if we're using Supergirls post COIE origin or New52 origin. Or even Pre-COIE origin.

Is Cassie, Zeuses daughter or not?

Does the Geoff Jones run on TT still valid?

I like history with my characters and being able to see how they grew or what they've been through.

There's been a blurring of lines between all of these.

If you don't care, more power to you.

[All Star Superman]

The "Everything is canon" concept is incredibly stupid. Considering who wanted to implement it makes it unsurprising, however.

The Multiverse is the solution and always has been. COIE could have more easily switched the focus to a new universe and Earth instead of destroying the infinite Multiverse. It looks like DC is realizing this with the rumored Absolute line, though I have a feeling they'll find a way to botch it. I'm somewhat hopeful, though. It's way past time to move on from the post-COIE DCU and its variations.

[phonogram12]

And quite frankly, I rather read the stories on their own merit, rather than worry about where in the timeline an event occurs. Besides, if the storyline is popular, it will keep. If not, it will soon be forgotten. No more, no less.

Yeah, reading a good story has always mattered to me more than what fits where. And (for the most part) it seems as if most of DC's best stories seem to take place outside of whatever the main continuity is at any given moment.

[Aahz]

I don't know why you feel the way you do, since there is no evidence that DC is even taking that route. The "everything is canon" thing simply means that past stories are still relevant. That's it. We're still post-Nu52/whatever iteration. And quite frankly, I rather read the stories on their own merit, rather than worry about where in the timeline an event occurs. Besides, if the storyline is popular, it will keep. If not, it will soon be forgotten. No more, no less.

The problem is just there are some cases where it would be for the relation between certain characters pretty important to know if certain things are canon aren't.

I think it was for example pretty wired when they did the post rebirth young justice series, without clarifying if the Teen Titan runs these characters have been in together after that were also in canon, since the series was pretty much written like neither the pre flashpoint nor the new52 Teen titans run had happend.

And than you had stuff like Tim Drakes parents where we had several years of Tim staring in comics where it was completely unclear if the were alive or dead.

And than you have imo also occasionally cases where they make in one story call backs to stuff from previous runs, even if what happend in those runs completely contradicts the current status quo.

[PurpleGlovez]

I don't know why you feel the way you do, since there is no evidence that DC is even taking that route. The "everything is canon" thing simply means that past stories are still relevant. That's it. We're still post-Nu52/whatever iteration.

This simply isn't true. The post-Superman Reborn, post-Death Metal, post-Dark Crisis "continuity" (if such a thing exists now) does indeed appear to be a completely distinct beast from both pre-Flashpoint and New 52 continuities. You can't honestly say it's just New 52 with minor changes.