DC Continuity

[Max]

I've bought quite a few 'DC Showcase' collections (DC's equivalent of Marvel's Essential) and most of these stories were published late 50's to mid 60's. Due to stuff like Crisis on Infinite Earths are all these stories still in continuity?

I know that Crisis merged all the multiverses into one but does that mean everything before Crisis no longer happened?

I know more of you know a lot more about DC than me so any help would be great.

[Gray Lensman]

The answer I would give is... sort of.

Some stories are in continuity, and others aren't. As a general rule, a story is probably in continuity unless it's contradicted by the post-Infinite Crisis DCU. For instance, I'd consider the GL Showcases to be generally in continuity, while a lot of the old Superman stories (which have been updated countless times) wouldn't be.

That having been said... it might be that all the Showcases could be in continuity somewhere in the multiverse. So while they may not all necessarily "count" towards present DCU continuity, those stories may well be true history on one of the other alternate DC Earths. Hard to say for sure on that point, as the new multiverse hasn't been that thoroughly explored yet.

Hope that helps.

[hector]

maxlacey said:

I've bought quite a few 'DC Showcase' collections (DC's equivalent of Marvel's Essential) and most of these stories were published late 50's to mid 60's. Due to stuff like Crisis on Infinite Earths are all these stories still in continuity?

I know that Crisis merged all the multiverses into one but does that mean everything before Crisis no longer happened?

I know more of you know a lot more about DC than me so any help would be great.

They are all in continuity unless there is an specific mention of either the Multiverse or anything from Superman/Wonder Woman/Hawkman Pre-Crisis continuity.

And even then, only those elements are the ones who aren't part of the continuity, but the story itself you're reading could be.

And even then

[Max]

Thanks for the help, guys.

[philster]

I don't generally worry about continuity as much anymore when reading either DC or Marvel.

It was fun while it lasted, but right now I'm just treating comics as self-contained stories and judge them based on whether they're written or drawn well in that length. As long as they stay close to the spirit of the characters that I know, I don't mind if there's some minor continuity changes (as long as they aren't too recent).

I USED to care, but the last decade pretty much put a stop to that. Especially when I saw how with some movies that changes from the history of the original stories were pretty clever and sometimes even necessary. And also, the great job that Geoff Johns' revamping some continuities while sticking to the heart of the characters. Now I just care about the story itself, not if some villain was supposed to be dead in another book or whatever. Unless it's a crossover, heh.

So don't let that stop you from enjoying your stuff, Max

[Quanta]

I just saw this thread, and the answer is, they're trying to bring a lot of those stories back. Since we're not only Post COIE, we're actually Post IC, or PPC (Post-post Crisis. Better throw another post in there for Zero Hour... Post-crisis-post-zero hour-post-crisis PCPZHPC.) They're trying to what it looks like, use the same IDEA for pre-crisis-pre-zero hour-pre-crisis, with having this oddly mashing multiverse, using several characters that existed, and some of the story lines, but for the most part, have seemed to ignore many others. I would say, as a general rule of thumb, unless you see one happen in current continuity (which is always prone to not happening at all), I would say no, especially with characters that were fused DURING the OG of Crises. But then again, DC is funny about that stuff.

[peterh]

DC Continuity is..... a mess! ;D

'Nuff said!

[hector]

peterh said:

DC Continuity is..... a mess! ;D

And it will soon be a *living* mess.

[peterh]

hector said:

peterh said:

DC Continuity is..... a mess! ;D

And it will soon be a *living* mess.

Heh, but if anyone can make sense of it, it'll be Morrison...

... I hope... ;D