RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Zero Hour:The darkest times of the DCU

Let's examine the 'Major' impact of the DCU additions from Zero Hour:

DC needed 'Dark Corners' to replace the somewhat grim and mysterious Vertigo line which had recently divorced itself from the DCU. The solution?

Primal Force- cancelled before hitting a year and half. It had....Red Tornado, jack O Lantern and a water chick hanging out with Dr Mist doing....stuff. Impact? none.

Manhunter- Cancelled at issue 12, this book took a DC legacy namesake, divorced it from the premise, then spit in the face of fans everywhere. Chase 'bawlbag' Lawler was the most dangerous whining guitarist in the world ever to be disabled by a taser weilding Dr of Philosophy. Impact? Minimal, except that fans cries were answered by the return of Mark Shaw(who has promptly vanished).

Fate- Goodbye 'tired,dated and lame' Dr Fate, hello Immoral ,wisecracking Fate. Goodbye flash in the pan Fate, hello 'Classic' Dr fate. Impact? zip.

The only place these 'dark corners' really show up in anymore is in the JSA(more on that later)

Next up...the 3 generations of Heroes in the DCU. Zero Hour was to give us a clean cut , three generation tier of Heroes. The golden,silver, and modern.
This was doomed from the start. Answer: Titans and the JSA. Editors wanted the JSA put on inactive duty to make the SA guys look older and seasoned to the modern characters, and writers began feverishly writing loopholes to keep their pet geriatric on active duty. Meanwhile, on the other end of the Spectrum, we have Titans who have been on active duty longer than their Patrons have been in costume according to the then current 10 year timeline.

The JSA.
Aging, De-aging, Killing off, bringing back dead guys long enough to pass the name off on hip new guys. I've redubbed the post Zero Hour JSA 'Just Some Asses'. And for every Jack Knight or Hourman we get from this phenom, we got 4 or 5 Sands. There's a reason this ain't your dad's JSA...and that's because it 'isn't' anyone your dad would have read about.
Think about it, you've been fighting a war in a close knit group for oh....say 5 tours of duty. You see a lot of your close buddies in your squad die, and then you see someone else casually grab their dogtasg and begin recieving your friends benefits in their stead..how would YOU feel?
Chances are, if you're in the JSA, you'd invite them to your house for Lemonade and then ask if they want to capture ding dong daddy before or after the weenie roast. This 'changing of the guard' mentality that has wracked the Just Some Asses began when? Zero Hour.

more forthcoming

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Spreadin' the gospel of Gob...

i hate the constant whining of others to "bring back the old jsa/jla/gl/supergirl, etc, etc"

seen it, done it, now, we're past it. comics should be allowed to evolve. i never liked that superman and batman, for exmaple, were treated as "icons," and thus, could not be altered. why does batman wear blue panties? because he always has. ....what?!?! i mean, perhaps, that worked back in the day, but, today's stories are more modern and "believable." the happy time blue n'gray costume needs to be ditched.

... however ... sometimes i think i might relate.

batman is definitly my favorite character. but, with the current success of batman beyond... we could actually be looking at the not-too-distant future of the character. the cartoon is a cash success. soon, a dvd movie will be released, also pulling in the cash. following that, there are more and more rumors of the next batman movie being based on beyond (and, perhaps, written by the man, dini, himself).

and, sure, its a long shot, but... its possible "my" batman could be ousted, in favor of this new batman.

and, i think if that were to happen, i too would sit, shirtless, typing my upset posts all night long. sending never-to-be-read emails and snail mails to various writers and editors about my discontent. ...yeah, shirtless.

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i have spoken

The Atom- he's a teen, he's a scientist. He's thritysomething.Thank God they finally undid this stroke of brillance.Impact of Teen Atom? nil.

Hawkman. The sad part is, Hawkman USED to be a headliner. DC placed him in the 80's as one of their core characters. Now, he's been mired to a point that DC stopped using him in stories? How did the Hawkman trouble start? Because of events reflected in Superman.

he has wings. and, yet, thats not why he can fly.

that pissed me off, even as a child, to no end.

well, dhaise, are you indicating your dislike for supes n'bats? would you rather have them "die out," in favor of newer versions? or, do you like them, and, what them around for future generations? while i still think things should evolve, that in no way has to mean they need to get older.

i think, more than hating zero hour, continuity simply is a major problem. all the dcu characters are trapped in the same one. nightwing aged about 8 years (from robin to nightwing) in about 5 years our time. meanwhile, everyone else, INCLUDING batman and people dick interacted with, stayed relatively unchanged.

im not saying get rid of continuity. just dumb it down a few shades, and relax.

but, i needs me my batman. i dont care if he's impossibly eternally in his prime.

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i have spoken

They fucked Hawkman up. A cornerstone character. And why did they fuck him up? Trying to 'fix him' in relation to Superman. Superman and Batman may be the moneymakers, but there are other aspects to the DCU I find more interesting, and if a character is completely viable and entertaining, they shouldn't have to be shitcanned because 'in Superman we established that there were another set of Hawkman because we screwed up and used them improperly' etc etc.
Editors used to watch for these things, and with all the hoopla about 'the neverending story being told monthly' they seem more focused on 'hey kids, you need to pick up issue XXXX of book XXXX next to follow the story' instead of making sure the stories fit together correctly.
And when enough of these sloppy stories gather up, we get a Book like Zero Hour, which weakens the entire thing

getchyer hawkman, n'slap'em in a book for all i care. hawkman dudn't havta exist in my batman world. but, i can see how it wouldnt be fair to you if he didnt exist CUZ of my batman world. ...even if the dumbass has pointless-wings.

but, even beyond that whole universe continuity bit, like hawkboy not existing, or, zero hour titles...

i always thought jla editor's had a big ass problem on their hands, handling 7 (or more) seperate screwed up story lines. morrison, at one point, had this really cool story lined up about the anti-jla creating all these mirror image jla members that were evil. an evil batman, ww, superman, etc. except, by the time the story came around, flash had a broken leg and ww was dead. so, the whole great potential is lost. later on, superman fights an angel, which would have been this really cool bout...except now he's electro supes.

in either case, it would have been much easier to just use the better versions on the characters. continuity be damned.

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i have spoken

things dont look like they're gonna change. the whole "secret files" thing was pretty much the nail in the coffin. denny o'neil, amongst other big names, are really into the whole "set continuity" shpeal. very unfortunate.

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i have spoken

the section is being updated, but at this time, its not apparent as to whether this is an information update, or a site aesthetics update.

[ 02-22-2002: Message edited by: I'm Not Mister Mxypltk ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Kamphausen:
in either case, it would have been much easier to just use the better versions on the characters. continuity be damned.

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Yes! I always thought JLA should throw out continuity... It makes no sense when you apply continuity... if it did, the world's population would be reduced in every other DC book due to the Maggedon story line... The Electric Superman fighting Asmodel always bothered me... what's next? "Look! It's Superman Red arm-wrestling God!"