So over in reddit, they think the characters in DC now has infinite power (there's a bad Derp Battles reference here) because apparently Dr. Manhattan merge every single version of the same character into one and everyone in the DC universe now has the combined infinite might of all their counterparts.

Yeah... since this site is one of the few places I trust to have any sort of grasp on what's actually happening in comics, I'm now curious to ask what is happening in DC comics and especially in regards to characters abilities?

I'll be that guy: I've dropped every DC comic, and my last Marvel comic is "Miracleman" if that ever gets to Gaiman's concluding arc.

When I started reading comics, Spider-Man appearing in the second issue of every new comic was jokey, but well-meaning sales ploy... but ever since the Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC has (in a mostly cynical way) been using dumber-and-dumber EPIC CROSSOVERS THAT RESHAPE THE UNIVERSE! There have been a few reasonably well executed ones, those with Keith Giffen's involvement, but for the most part I think of those REALLY BIG DEALS to be the hear-equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum in a public place: I'm sure the child thinks it is the most important thing ever, but I don't think the child understands just how small their world is and how little it matters.

I'm still holding my bitterness post-1989 when DC decided to triple-down on Batman. The 1989 movie and TDKR definitely drove a LOT of interest in the character, but somewhere along the way TPTB decided that Batman was pretty much the only thing that customers wanted to buy. Is it any surprise that circulation figures are so low for DC?

Tell me about it. Though they at least somewhat tried in the 90s... sort of. I think there was only Zero Hero as their EPIC UNIVERSE RESHAPING EVENT! And a bunch of elseworld comics. Then the whole Marvel/DC crossover happened, then we had Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Countdown to Final Crisis, Final Crisis, a comic literally called Identity Crisis (oh boy was DC suffering from a Identity Crisis) and after that point DC pretty have a EPIC UNIVERSE RESHAPING EVENT! every two years. I kind of lost track ever since New 52 (not to be confused by the one year long comic series called 52). Like damn, can you guys be any more confusing?

That's like thinking people are going to know off the top of their head that the movie 'Fast and Furious' is a sequel and not the original 'The Fast and the Furious'. Of they're going to know the difference between 'Suicide Squad' and 'The Suicide Squad' or my personal favourites 'Halloween' being the sequel to 'Halloween' and 'The Thing' being the sequel to 'The Thing'.

It's like that Nostalgia Critic joke about the sequel to Cliffhanger being called Cliff Hanger.

I was thinking of Armageddon 2001 as the first post-Crisis re-imagining crossover misfire for DC. There were other "mega events" that fell flat (War of the Gods) certainly.

Another wrong lesson learned by TPTB at DC was killing characters. What they should have learned was this: every character is somebody's favorite(*1), and every character has the capability to shine in a comic book (*2). I have to hand it to Marvel: when they want to introduce new characters, they generally shuffle older characters off the stage without killing them outright... poor Doug Ramsey! Wolverine has gone through almost as many teen sidekicks as Batman, yet I don't think any of Wolverine's sidekicks have been treated with as much disdain as any given Robin.

(*1) As a corollary, look at Barry Allen. It seems clear to me that 99% of Geoff Johns' love of the character comes from the Superfriends Saturday morning cartoon. It was pretty clear that the best "Flash" stories didn't need a Barry Allen, and when this became so blatantly obvious, Johns literally made Barry Allen singly responsible for a comic-wide reboot, just so the rest of us could see how "important" the character is (to Geoff Johns).

(*2) I will never understand Dan Didio's apparent hatred of the JLI. It's as if the guy could literally not understand why that book was popular and felt obligated to treat those characters like crap.

Well anyways, getting back on topic, maybe someone who read a story post Watchman crossover can say what's happening with the characters. Because honestly there's no way I see the writers doing what reddit is claiming and sounds like yet another fandom's endless fanwank where they badly misinterpret (likely on purpose) some words and images and that forever solidifies what a character can and cannot do, the rest of story be damned.

Jonah Jameson can destroy planets, Charles Xavier can jump to the moon and Jimmy Olsen can fart out multiverses. Hey it's perfect sound logic and that's clearly what they can do. Don't point to me that image of Xavier being wheelchair bound! We all know he can jump to the moon

After Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, the pick-a-vowel JL books are DC's most misunderstood project from the 80s.

-J

How do you mean? I suspect there may be some people who think they were pure farce, but anyone who read them would know they were so much more than being occasionally humorous.

Bingo. Watchmen and DKR were generally perceived as "hey, dark violent superhero stories are awesome!" JL* gained a reputation as farce. In both cases, people who actually read the books know better.

-J

Don't read the comments, read the comics. Marvel and DC both have great ways to read practically their entire lineup super cheap. Take some time, find out what's happening, and form your own opinion.

Can't believe I even have to ask this, but what comic does the new post Watchmen timeline start at?

I'm now encountering idiots on reddit who thinks Elseworld and out of continuity stories are part of the new canon just because they were printed post Watchmen crossover despite there's interviews from the writer saying otherwise.

Urgh, this among the other reasons why this site is one of the few places where I talk about comics. This place talks about and describes comic characters like the actual characters I've read and seen in the comics and not someone's personal wanked off fanfiction variation of them.

Quoting myself to say, I think the title "reddit" must be a ironic title or something, because holy crap do many people there have bottom of the floor reading comprehension and non existent basic logic.

Originally one of the dumbest things I remember encountering that people on reddit legit believed was things like Rune King Thor killed the Beyonders. Yes Rune Thor somehow managed to kill characters who weren't even created yet and are clearly alive and well over 15 years later to cause the events of the "official" Secret Wars. Don't let silly little factoids like that and basic logic get in the way and clearly means nothing.

Now seeing people who legit believes things like Crisis on Infinite Earths is actually a POST silver/bronze age story. Yes the silver/bronze age apparently got rebooted quietly WITHOUT the aid of a grand scale event altering everything and apparently neither the readers or writers themselves knew this. But wait, there's more.

Apparently Crisis on Infinite Earths was actually Zero Hour: Crisis in Time this whole time where it was actually about Anti-monitor destroying a bunch of alternate futures to one universe. Yes we're going to ignore all the decades worth of writers and DC themselves all saying it was alternate universes as well as those comic lines all based in alternate universes. As well as all those Earth/universe designations assigned to various characters such as Kal-L, Jay Garrick, Alex Luther, Superboy Prime, Ultraman, etc. No no, those people were all actually from Earth 1 this whole time, and various of them clearly having the same origins, backstories, names, etc as their Earth 1 counterpart is all coincidence and means nothing. Obviously places like Krypton blows ups, but in the future will regenerate itself so it can blow up again to have another character relive the events of Superman's life so they can have a life, look, and/or name similar to Superman to name one of hundreds of coincidences for this braindead viewpoint to work.

Oh and behind the scenes, comic writers work like the coordinates from Attack on Titan where stories and writers from the future can affect what writers from the past do. Obviously it can all be explained away as it was Dr. Manhattan all along (he's the new Linkara's Granny Goodness) despite the fact Jon, last I checked, can't actually time travel. He just sees the past, present and future, but can't affect the past in anyway.

I feel like I need to do what this guy does 100x before I start to get this type (or rather lack of) rationality and thinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETGMTx4ogZY