Carrying the thread along, Didio said that Earth-2 is an important part of the DCU, and they know that a lot of people have a lot of affection for it. “Part of Infinite Crisis is a celebration of those kinds of stories we saw on Earth 2,” Didio said. “Coming up in issue #5, we get back to that feeling in a big way.”
Alright!
Earth-2 is back and it's here to stay.
I told you so! Asked if the Metal Men would be making a return after Crisis, Johns answered with an enthusiastic “Yes!” With Morrison adding that (Metal Men creator) Will Magnus appears in 52 #2 and plays a large role in the following series.
Alright!
I love the Metal Men; anyone that has a soul loves the Metal Men, too; they're one of the few superhero character concepts that has "for all audiences" appeal; they're not male power fantasies; they're cute and misunderstood.
Hopefully, they'll get rid of the idiot 90s idea that the Metal Men are real people. If that idea was just quietly dropped and never spoken of again, I can certainly breathe easier.
Steve Gerber's run on METAL MEN was one of the greatest, funniest, most underrated and underappreciated works (even at the time, when Gerber was a big name) of his entire career. Platinum's new personality, Doc Magnus going crazy, the battle with Chemo in Venice, the creation of the Plutonium Man...if I was to write a top ten greatest DC Comics ever list, you'd better believe Gerber's METAL MEN would be on the list.
As the writer further explained, DC books have become darker and grittier over the last few years, and Crisis is a means of bringing things back a little. The bottom line of the DCU, Waid explained, is that the characters of the DCU like each other, and Crisis allows for the chance to get back to that feeling or camaraderie, not a "Silver Age shininess", Waid continued, but rather a sense of balance. The heroes of the DCU are the firemen and policemen of the DCU, and both Crisis and 52 are a chance to reaffirm that notion.
Mark Waid is the Mark Gruenwald of the DC Universe: a guy that never impressed me (and has done some pretty bonehead stuff; FLASH and SQUADRON SUPREME, respectively) but who is an expert on the history of their respective companies and who gets a sense of who they are.
I have a great deal of optimism about the direction the DC Universe is headed.
Agreeing with Waid, Didio said that overall, one of the main goals of 52 is to show that the characters live and act in the same place, and that 52 will give a cohesiveness to the DCU that hasn’t been seen before.
Wow! Note the word choice - "cohesive worldbuilding." Hey, they're stealing my lingo!
Now this is what I've always talked about; INFINITE CRISIS may make the DC Universe - or rather, Multiverse, a more real-seeming place than we've ever had. Huzzah!
The Executive Editor explained that currently, they have the DCU planned out through 2008, with “milestones” along the way that all editors and creators are made aware of. As such, Didio explained, everyone is talking and working together, rather than having an editorial direction dictated to them.
Those that do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it - well, here it seems that Didio at least has learned from history. INFINITE CRISIS is fixing the mistakes that the original Crisis made.
Continuing on the thread about how the stories will be told in the DCU following Crisis, Morrison said that, in his view, the DC Universe is a virtual reality – its own world with its own rules, and people who live there that is as real as ours. With that in mind, Morrison said, you can’t go into the DCU and “smash things up,” but rather are constrained by the fact that these are real people and real characters, and, as a creator, you can’t make them not them. Rather than finding this a hindrance, Morrison said, he finds it a fascinating way to write – telling the stories about people he sees, as real, rather than fictional constructs that can be bent and twisted at any whim, and made to act in ways they would never act.
This is what I've always said. Characters have to be written and acted as if they were real people in a real world. It's very uplifting to see the previously immature, unprofessional Morrison known for his distaste for "continuity" has finally come around to a more progressive view that will surely yield much better writing.
Rucka explained that for years, “depth and detail” in the DCU has been predominantly “white and male,” and with 52 and the DCU post-Crisis, it’s time to look at the rest of the world.
Again, fixing something that Crisis didn't fix.
Watching the DC Universe now is like awakening from a very bad dream.
Asked if Jerro the Mer-Boy (believed to be the brother of Lori Lemaris) would show up in 52, Waid was tickled at the idea that someone remembered the character. Morrison added that the Mer-people of the DCU are seen in 52, so there’s a good chance that he will be seen, as well as other historical underwater characters.
WOW. Just...wow.
If I had my doubts, they're being dispelled now.
They're using Jerro the Mer-Boy. JERRO. The MER-BOY.
Morrison, when asked, said that he wouldn’t be doing much with magic in his upcoming work, noting that Michael Moorecock had written the “Magic Bible” for the DCU and that the author’s ideas for how magic works, and how magical characters interact in the DCU is very interesting.
"And since I have been stealing his ideas for 15 years now without his permission, it's a relief to now get to steal them WITH his permission," Morrison said impishly, drawing a laugh from the crowd.
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