Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Bruce Wane, these are all names that comic book lovers across the globe know and love for they are the secret identities of the Flash,Green Lantern, and Batman, or at least they used to be or they still are or who knows anymore. I for one, having just gotten back into comics, over the past six to eight months after about a twelve year hiatus, found my self at a loss. Who the hell is Kyle Rayner, Barry Allen is dead, what do you mean Dick Grayson is Batman.
With the coming of the boom in comic book movies. Im sure I'm not the only one who started to pick up the books again and found myself dumfounded at the changing of the guard in the DC universe, but has the guard really changed? Hal jordan I found is back and Barry Allen is too, as of May with the rebirth title, which is also what Hal Jordans return was called back in 2005. Now to my surprise Bruce Wayne has just been killed off in Final Crisis, or was he.
We all know you cant keep a good character down. So why do they bother? Well its to tell good stories I suppose. Batman seems to be going in a good direction, I kind of like the idea of Dick as Batman, but we all know Bruce Wayne is Batman. So needless to say Bruce will be back by next summer. What will happen then? Will we have two Batmans. We all ready have two Flashes and two Green Lanterns, Well more then two Green Lanterns. Did most of you even know there are even two Supermans Floating around? Its true, there's normal everyday Superman and then there's an alternate world Superman who is quite older and stronger. He's even immune to kryptonite. Also he's quite a bit darker then regular Supes. Well all that being said i think I have an idea what DC is up to.
In the history of DC there has always been more then one Earth, actually there were way to many for most peoples liking. So DC did their "Crisis on Infinite Earths which got rid of the majority of them if not all.( Dont hold me to this Im not sure if there all gone i haven't actually read it yet. Its on my list for this months to read list in all its Absolute Edition splendor). Well I know for a fact that Earth 22 is still around for it was just in the J.S.A. epic "Thy Kingdom Come". Well here's what I think is going to happen. The DC Universe is going to be split into two, well two Earths that is, and were going to have DC's version of an "Ultimate" universe. On Earth 22 were going to have the silver age heroes Which will be Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne, and so on. On the the main earth we get old man Superman, (as I like to call him) Dick Grayson as Batman, Kyle Rayner, basically the new age of DC hero's. So needless to say you will have the section that caters to the movie crowd, with all the new movies coming out they will need this line as not to confuse the movie going fans that want to pick up a book and see what's going on with the guy they just saw on screen. Then they will have section that caters to the continuity crowd. This like every good campaign will suck our wallets dry and if the fans are not happy, they just consolidate the two worlds again, no harm no foul.
Well, what do you guys think, is this something that you can see happening, or am I out of my mind. What do you think is gong on in the DCU?