As If

I’ve been mulling over the DC vs. Marvel thing for a while now, but it wasn’t until I saw this piece of news that it all became crystal clear.

By acquiring the comic book rights to Worlds of Warcraft, DC has produced what we in theatre call a character revelation. It’s totally fitting that a comic book company whose current major storylines require a detailed knowledge of 60 years of continuity will now publish a title based on an obsessively-detailed multi-level online game. Because, when you come right down to it, the DCVerse in its current state is the comic book equivalent of a badly programmed obsessively-detailed multi-level computer game.

And by having continuity issues drive stories across the line, DC is in effect saying two things:

1) “Hey—fanboy—yeah, you—the one who knows every incarnation of the Legion of Super Heroes. This universe is for you.”

(2) “New readers? Sorry—we’re selling to our base.”

And what are they selling that base? Footnotes instead of stories.