Justice League has been hinting at something for several issues. Mainly, a being named Perpetua who created the multiverse before the one we're reading. The next-issue blurb promises "The Other History of the Universe"!
So that raises a lot of questions.
Justice League is primarily written by James Tynion IV, with help from Scott Snyder, the architect of Metal. A lot of what's happening in Justice League is a continuation of elements introduced in Metal, including amped-up Nth Metal, The Batman Who Laughs, the Source Wall rupture, the "Totality," and so forth. Presumably, the "Other History of the Universe" will amplify and explicate the elements and themes of Metal.
So, how does that match up with Doomsday Clock? I don't see any Metal references there, or in Superman/Action (which seems to working hand in glove). It is also hinting at a previous universe -- well, more than hinting, with the literal combination of the New 52 and pre-New 52 Supermen and Lois Lanes -- but that prior universe was the New Earth version (before Dr. Manhattan got involved), that didn't have anything to do with Perpetua.
Or does it? Will they dovetail somehow?
Or is Perpetua's multiverse one set before Action Comics #1 (1938)?
Or will the two retcons ignore each other? That seems unlikely, but so far they don't seem to reference each other much.
I thought I read Metal pretty carefully, but I didn't retain anything useful to this discussion. And Doomsday Clock isn't over, so it's hard to say what's going to happen there.
Anybody got any reasoned analysis? Or even a WAG?
Replies
Is this related to the Other History of the DC Universe that was going to show the history of minorities within the DCU? I believe that was shelved recently.
Oh! I read about that other "Other History" some time ago in Comic Shop News and was looking forward to it. this is the first I've heard about it being cancelled. Not as big of a disappointment as the pre-Batman Detective Comics slipcase being cancelled, but a disappointment nonetheless.
Yeah, the orders have been canceled and it's been "delayed indefinitely", so make of that what you will. I figure the Comicsgate folks are putting a tally mark in the W column.
That said, to bring it back on topic, I'm not reading Justice League anymore, Cap. The "Perpetua" sounds like a pretty significant change to the status quo. This makes me wonder indeed about the connection with Doomsday Clock and Metal. Do you suppose there really is a grand plan, or are they kind of making things up as they go? If it's the latter, I'm fine with it as long as it makes sense in the end.
I don't think it's the Comicsgate folks at fault; I suspect there's some contention (and legal wrangling) about a similar project Michael Davis had brought to DC years earlier. My suspicion is that needs to be sorted out before either project moves forward, if any.
Don't get me wrong. I don't mean that this is Comicsgate's doing. I am just guessing that they are happy that it's not coming out any time soon, if ever. That's a plus in their book.
I didn't realize that the Comicsgate was a real thing until I started reading the comments in various stories on Facebook about Into the Spider-Verse. One especially ugly story after that movie won the Golden Globe responded with, "Figures it's about a black." This was just the start. He had a ton of nasty responses to that, rightly so, but what horrified me what the amount of supporters he had.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:
Oh, yeah, they're repulsive. I don't think everyone who's in comicsgate is fully complicit -- I think some of them probably *do* think of it as a consumer group that mostly wants to keep books cheap and politics-free -- but I think there's a certain willful ignorance about what a lot of the CG-ers are doing and saying online.
Anyway, back to the history that Cap is asking about. My hunch -- and really, just a WAG -- is that Perpetua is tied in to the pre-Flashpoint universe... and by implication, to the pre-Zero Hour and pre-Crisis universes, too. I think she's kind of an eternal being, on the same level of power as the Endless (not that she has any connection to them). But you might think of her as the force that creates the Persistence of Continuity. She's the reason Superman is always rocketed to Earth instead of a planet in Cygnus. She's why the Waynes die. She's why Barry Allen gets hit with the bolt of lightning, and always finds his way to Iris West (even if the little details change and he dates Patty Spivot for a while). She's also why Lincoln & JFK get assassinated, we land on the moon in 1969, and the Beatles become a worldwide phenomenon. No matter how many times we reboot, some things are perpetual. She's the reason why.
Anyway, that's how I'd write it.