Major Fan Favorite Universes will be Reset this Summer

Creativity.  It’s always shifting and constantly changing and if you’re person with a good imagination you should easily be able to adjust to new stories being told.  Now easily adjusting and liking are two completely different things when we’re talking about stories that make sense or stories that are good.  Being creative means that you’re capable of imagining a great deal but only you will know if you are able to accept what has been created.  Sometimes we are given great ideas that make us believe in the impossible. And sometimes we are given ideas that don’t inspire us and oftentimes the consequences to those uninspired ideas are re-writes and ret-cons that are force upon us. 

Take for instance DC comics and their “New 52” which they started over 4 years ago.  They were able to revitalize all of their characters by giving them all new origins and it allowed new readers to pick up and fall in love with characters that they never knew existed or could never follow before because their history was too convoluted for them to follow.  We saw a new Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman emerge who had traveled different paths to where they finally joined together as the Justice League.  Somehow the Green Lantern history was merged into the new universe and when sales began to slip DC decided to converge all of their universes causing another reset once again.  This time they are making all of their past restarts and crises relevant by allowing the convergence to continue. 

Marvel has also decided to reset their own universes by having all of them die so that something new can be born.  The launch of the Ultimates line boosted sales for Marvel which helped propel the company out of bankruptcy.  The Ultimates also helped influence their successful movie franchise.  The Ultimates line saw a more realistic modern storytelling for comics and also saw a fresh new look for the characters.  This helped Marvel turn things around in their main comics’ branch making the stories more modern and streamlined.  Now the alternate universes that exist are being destroyed and a free-for-all has taken place which will see a new Marvel universe emerge when the dust finally settles.

Even the Star Wars universe has recently been reset to only include the movies and the Clone Wars and Rebellion television series.  Once George Lucas sold his property to Disney they found that they had twenty years of history and back story from the “Expanded Universe” that the fans knew and loved.  With their determination to make more movies Disney felt that the only way that they could do this was to practically make all of that history disappear and start fresh.  This move of course angered many fans such as myself at first as I had fallen in love with the Expanded Universe and it was there for me when I was going to through a tough time in my life.  To hear that they were now saying that it was non-canonical was shocking but afterwards I realized that this was the only way they could make the new movie freely without tripping over everything else that had been written before it. 

So what do you do?  You accept that you aren’t going to be able to change the minds of a multi-billion dollar company when they already have a plan set in motion.  Or you can go back and enjoy all of the things that you made you love the comic books and Star Wars so much and read them over again.  Either way no matter what happens you have to realize that unless you become a writer or artist who will one day effect the creative processes for these enterprises you have no say in what’s going to happen so you might as well enjoy the ride.  Whatever you do don’t give up on what you love.  You may not like the fact that your favorite mutant is now gay or your favorite lantern has been killed.  This is the world of fantasy fiction.  Enjoy it while you can.  

Flash Season Review

The first season for CW’s The Flash has come to an end and the question now is did the show live up to its expectations?  I have to say honestly as a fan of the Flash the show did not disappoint.  Of course it had its campy moments and bad acting where you’re looking at Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) and asking why is he here but other than that the season was phenomenal.  From the very first episode to the last one the season has shown the progression of Barry as a forensic scientist trying to solve his mother’s murder to when he becomes the Flash.  After that the brakes were kicked off the ride and let go.

From the special effects to the rogues who emerged to take center point as villains this season I was hanging onto the edge of my seat.  Now anyone can talk about how great the action and the special effects were but let’s discuss the drama of this show that’s based off a comic book.  The best drama of this show was between Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) & his father Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp).  The chemistry they produced as a son trying to redeem his father and a man who has never raised his son but is proud of the man he’s become is an essential part of the plot to the story driving the Barry’s need to solve his mother’s murder and find the Man in Yellow or the Reverse Flash.  Even the fatherly way Professor Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh) acted when he interacted with Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) & Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker).  When the realization that Professor Wells was the Reverse Flash came to be each of them had a hard blow to deal with knowing that the man who was responsible for shaping them into the scientists that they were was a murderer did not sit well.  It tugged on the ol’ heartstrings to watch Professor Wells play everyone like a fiddle yet you had to like the guy as he encouraged Barry to push himself beyond his limits. 

So what else made this show great was the amount of characters that was introduced throughout the season.  Old fans were mesmerized to see Gorilla Grod that the screen and new ones were blown away as the Firestorm was revealed to be Caitlin’s fiancé who was presumed dead.  I geeked out with Professor Wells used his Flash Ring to put on his Reverse Flash uniform and run into battle against the Flash, the Arrow, and Firestorm.  Oh, and to find out that Cisco himself did not escape the particle accelerator explosion unphased was a last minute bonus.

However, to top it all off when the helmet of the Golden-Age Flash Jay Garrick emerged from the wormhole at the end of the show I was practically jumping up and down.  By creating the wormholes Barry has opened the doorway to the multiverses which will probably see Jay Garrick come running through some time.  Earlier this season when the writers were talking about a second speedster for the 2^nd season most people thought it would be either Bart Allen or Wally West.  I know have my suspicions confirmed about Jay Garrick.  In the comic universe Barry Allen’s first encounter with another speedster was with the Golden-Age Flash Jay Garrick when he crossed the dimensional rift and found Keystone City.  So what’s in store what next season.  Rumors are they will explore the multiverse and with the DC’s Legends of Tomorrow jumping off next January there’s no telling where The Flash will go next.