Wednesday, June 12, 2013

DC Comics So Many Origins

I am puzzled by the number of origin stories that DC comics as collected for certain characters.  I just want to focus on the Modern DC Universe for a moment.  Batman has only one collected origin story for the twenty five plus years that this iteration of the DC Universe existed & that story is Batman: Year One by Frank Miller.  It is such an iconic story to this day it is still the go to starting point for Batman fans.  Superman on the other hand has had several origin stories within the same time frame.  He has three in canon origin stories Superman: Man of Steel Vol. 1 by John Byrne, Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid & Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns.  That is not even counting the stand alone non-canonical origin stories of the character like Superman: Red Son where he is raised in Soviet Russia or Superman: True Brit where he is raised in Great Britain.  There is also Superman: Secret Identity which is about if Clark Kent was a teenager in the real world reading comics about Superman. It seems that DC is never satisfied with Superman's origin & they keep finding creators that willing to tweak it every now & then, but Batman's origin is perfect.  Other characters in the DC Universe have had other heroes who have had multiple origins throughout the modern era due to Crisis on Infinite Earths.   Characters like Green Lantern had multiple origins with titles like Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn & Green Lantern: Secret Origin.  While others only had one like Green Arrow: Year One or Wonder Woman: Gods & Mortals.  DC Comics is slowly establishing a new universe with there Earth One titles.  Currently they only have three but a fourth one is on the way all of them telling fresh re-imaginings of DC's greatest heroes Superman: Earth One Vol. 1 & 2, Batman: Earth One & the forthcoming Wonder Woman: Earth One.  Now DC Comics has rebooted with the New 52 which will probably last twenty five to thirty years like the modern era did when Crisis on Infinite Earths reshaped the DC Universe.  They let Grant Morrison reshape Superman's origin in the first three volumes of Action Comics.  Brian Azzarello of 100 Hundred Bullets fame made Wonder Woman cool for a new generation.  Currently Scott Snyder of American Vampire fame is crafting the New 52 origin of Batman with the Year Zero story arc.  Several other characters have had their origins revamped or still in the process of needing a new origin but if there was ever a better time to jump into DC Comics that time is now.   

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