DC introducing a new wrinkle to classic continuity

[NeathBlue]

Sounds like the Linearverse is yet another universe within the multiverse...

[Noodle]

Pretty much a case of "Uncomplicate things by making them complicated."

[kingaliencracker]

Marvel's continuity is not even close to DC's mess and they don't pretend the current heroes debuted in the 60s.
It isn't even close to DC's Linearverse, where characters are supposed to remember every reboot AND some have been around since the 30s without having aged more than 10 or 15 years.

It's just silliness. We have two completely different versions of Superman's cousin - Power Girl and Supergirl. Does Superman just have two cousins now? What about Huntress? Or the Crime Syndicate? Or the Shazam family?

Stop trying to make everything work and just tell good stories!

[Tzigone]

This is pretty stupid BUT it is exactly the same thing as Marvel sliding timeline except Marvel pretends we don't notice it is changing or they aren't holes. And apparently, I use to think that was stupid but I have learned today that trying to explain that process even more stupid.

I always thought sliding time was totally rational and easily understood. This is so problematic.

Stop trying to make everything work and just tell good stories!

Oh, now I want a coherent continuity. It matters to me. I just often can't think a story is "good" when it completely ignores or contradicts previously established facts (characterizations, major plot points, important events) if we are in a universe where anything builds on each other and develops. I don't care for reboots and major retcons as a general rule (some exceptions apply), which can certainly be an issue as a comic reader.

Now, they've specifically set up different and mutually contradictory realities in the past, so they can't all work. But they can decide on what they want going forward and make that continuity work. I mean, if it was build to be functional from the start, unlike this idea.

I don't want to see characters married to different people or with different kids or different jobs or different personalities or different powers month-to-month. Might as well just have all new characters (and universes) if that's the case. Okay, so that's an extreme they wouldn't go to. But a coherent universe matters to me for an on-going title. I think it's perfectly possible to write very good stories within one continuity and without contradictions, and I think that's what writers in any universe should strive for. A failure to be able to write good stories within those confines is a failure of the writer, IMO. But that does presuppose a functional universe/continuity to start with, which isn't really present in DC right now.

[BlueRuggo]

As someone pointed out, the Golden Age (or Earth 2 Batman) married Salina Kyle, had a child, and eventually died. You can't rectify that with current Batman even if you argue that he began in the 30's and time runs slower in comics, and that's substantially different than "corded phones versus cell phones". There are similar issues with Superman and Wonder Woman as well.

Why can't you rectify it? All the characters are now aware that they have experienced several realities during different parts of their lives, so why can't you rectify it? I'm not seeing the contradiction?

[Johnny]

So this doesn't actually affect anything, it's just another "corner of the Omniverse". Meaning another alternate reality that just isn't called that way.

[Celgress]

I would argue DC officially ruined its continuity well before this.

As would I. Perhaps the biggest advantage Marvel has over DC is a coherent continuity.

*sigh* Why DC Editorial, just why? Weren't things messy enough already?

[Icefan]

DC just can't stop picking at the scab, can they?

Enough of the continuity porn, just develop consistent characterizations and try to tell interesting stories.

[The Darknight Detective]

As would I. Perhaps the biggest advantage Marvel has over DC is a coherent continuity.

Marvel's biggest advantage was starting the company decades after DC and other companies (including Timely) did.

[lemonpeace]

I dont see the point of this when Death Metal already did what this "Linearverse" is trying to do (but better) by just letting the heroes remember their past lives from before the reboots. however, it seems like it's just another reality in the greater Omniverse, so it truly doesn't matter if you don't want it to; and i don't. THIS feels more like the Didio baby everyone keeps claiming Future State is if I'm being honest, since this was allegedly meant to originally set up the 5 generations (5G).

[lemonpeace]

Marvel's biggest advantage was starting the company decades after DC and other companies (including Timely) did.

maybe I'm missing something but isn't Timely (which according to google came out the same decade as DC) just Marvel before it's re-brand? so it doesn't seem like the company had a leg up by coming out "decades after", it seems like they were just smarter about their branding and about building a coherent shared universe.

[Celgress]

maybe I'm missing something but isn't Timely (which according to google came out the same decade as DC) just Marvel before it's re-brand? so it doesn't seem like the company had a leg up by coming out "decades after", it seems like they were just smarter about their branding and about building a coherent shared universe.

This is what I think as well.

[The Darknight Detective]

maybe I'm missing something but isn't Timely (which according to google came out the same decade as DC) just Marvel before it's re-brand? so it doesn't seem like the company had a leg up by coming out "decades after", it seems like they were just smarter about their branding and about building a coherent shared universe.

My point was that Marvel, though an extension of Timely and later Atlas, was able to figure out what and what not to do when it was figuring out the new setup (which did include branding and the shared universe). Ironically, DC at that time was what Marvel has been for a half century - the Big Kahuna and didn't have to worry about recreating the wheel until it was too late.

[MajorHoy]

maybe I'm missing something but isn't Timely (which according to google came out the same decade as DC) just Marvel before it's re-brand? so it doesn't seem like the company had a leg up by coming out "decades after", it seems like they were just smarter about their branding and about building a coherent shared universe.

Not exactly.

DC was continually publishing comic books with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman since the late 1930s/early 1940s.

Timely comics lasted until about 1950. After that, there was Atlas Comics, but they didn't continue publishing the superhero books, and when they did bring back The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America, it was for a brief period (about 1953-1955).

Marvel Comics officially started in 1961. All three companies were connected, but had brief spells where there was little-to-no comic book publishing. The base of Marvel Comics that we know today was the stories first published in the beginning of the 1960s, with some earlier material from Timely and Atlas then grafted on to the material produced by Marvel.

[Avi]

Didio? Wasn't 5G opposite of what we have here?

Yeah, Didio. I'm sure it was a little different from what we are ultimately getting now but the "almost everything happened" timeline aspect seems pretty close to the 5G timeline leak we got last year. At least to me.

The article too mentions Didio and speculates whether the Linearverse was DC's original plan for their overall continuity:

DiDio said in February, "All of our greatest stories and events will create the backdrop and context for the great new adventures we have planned. Everything counts, and we guarantee there'll be surprises along the way!"

"Ironically enough, this does reflect a bit of what Generations was in the beginning," [Dan Jurgens] says.

"[...]If you look at it as a set of puzzle pieces where you're permitted to sand a little off one edge, cut and trim another while adding a little putty to the next piece, you can pull it all together so it looks pretty damn good."

Jurgens was very clear that while this new Linearverse "is a place where some unique and individual stories can be told," that it also fits within the "larger context of the Omniverse." But close watchers of DC can't also help but wonder what may have been, and whether this approach was once slated to be official DC continuity.

This sounds as if the Linearverse is "just" another Universe. Probably a testing ground.