User blog:Nausiated/The New 52 & How Things *Could* be organized -- A suggestion

Hey folks,

I haven't been on the DC Wiki in some time as I've been working mostly on the Marvel Wiki.. But when I get back to working on some DC stuff, I'm going to get cracking on a lot of Pre-Crisis stuff... But I keep up with the current goings on in the DC Universe, and I'm taking a look at the "New 52" and I'm thinking that this could afford us an opportunity to really differentiate from one incarnation of DC characters to the other.

One thing I've seen that is a commonly discussed issue is differentiating between t hings, and keeping things organized. I've often heard it said that separating Pre-Crisis and Pro-Crisis stuff for everyone would be confusing to visitors to the site. Now... I've always argued this. I think that with disambiguation pages and putting the most current incarnation on top would be the best way to avoid confusion. Especially now with newer readers in the future likely going to look for the "New 52" versions of characters anyway that we can really delve into and make some lines in the sand about where various incarnations start and stop and so on. Because really the New Earth continuity (unless I am mistaken) is pretty much done in lieu of New 52. Isn't this new direction working off a blank slate?

I think it's something that will make differentiating the DC universe in a number of different ways.

In my mind, I never saw things as simply "Pre-Crisis" and "Post-Crisis" because DC had been revamping things every decade or so. And thinking along those terms has made their continuity a complete mess to follow. Take a look at what people refer to as the Post-Crisis Superman.

His origins are a complete mess. Because we've been spending our time busting our heads trying to figure out which one would be considered cannon. I think it's not so much trying to cram it all into one Superman article. I think it's breaking up Superman into distinct time frames.

From my view there are a number of different eras of Superman. Follow me along with you will:

Pre-Crisis:

This one is the easier of ones to figure out. You've got your original multiverse. Earth-One, Earth-Two etc. With their own Supermans. Let's focus on Earth-One Superman. He has an origin where he was Superboy on Earth and so on. It's pretty much commonly agreed that his history and whatever stops after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Post-Crisis:

This is where I see as the John Byrne Superman. His origins are from the Man of Steel Mini-series and his history spans all the way to Zero Hour.

Post-Zero Hour:

See, this is where I'd make a distinction because it was a few years after this event that Mark Waid did his interpretation of Superman's origins. This would cover all of Superman's history from Post Zero-Hour onward until....

Post-Infinite Crisis (AKA New Earth):

Because that was the next big shift happened, the re-creation of the Multiverse and so on. And with the New Earth came a new origin of Superman where he was Superboy again.

I would say that if things were organized in this way, there would be separate articles for each incarnation with reference links to the others. Each succeeding "incarnation" would have a brief recap of prevailing versions. Because elements from Post-Crisis, Post-Zero Hour are borrowed and used in the history of New Earth Superman (Such as the Death of Superman at the hands of Doomsday).

Or a better way to explain it is this: Take a look at Ray Palmer, or Oliver Queen.

Technically these are characters who have not really been effected by any big Crisis storyline. Their origins are more or less the same, their Earth-One history is considered (for the most part) their canonical history. The only things that really changed with them from one Crisis to another is whom they interacted with. Because it would be Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman -- even Hawkman -- who changed around them necessitating changes in their history. Everything is blended together, but you could break it down into distinct eras of the characters.

I would go on to say that despite the general census that they are the same characters you could break them down into their eras.

Another situation would be the JSA. This wiki has one profile for Jay Garrick, Alan Pratt and the whole bunch. But I'd have to say that the characters that were part of Earth-Two continuity are vastly different than their New Earth versions. I think the main reason people lump it all together is because nobody has gone back and read these old stories and it's easier to do that.

That for me.. Since this is supposed to be an encyclopedia of all things DC.. seems kind of a cop out. I feel like that this could be a rich source of information about all these characters various incarnations as long as we accept everything published as something worthy of having it's own articles instead of only considering what is "cannon" as valid.

By that very logic when New 52 rolls out you might as well go on and delete all the New Earth profiles because they are no longer part of cannon and they will no longer be valid.

To say that it would all confuse the new reader, I think, is insulting the reading public. People are observant and I think we can give them credit -- with the aid of a user friendly layout, which might I add is already here -- they can navigate between and differentiate between an older incarnation of a character or an alternate reality version of a character and the most recent incarnation.

Look at the Marvel Wiki.. They have profiles or pretty much every incarnation of Marvel's cast of characters. I think the only going difference is that Marvel doesn't really reboot it's characters every decade or so. However, it offers literally hundreds of alternate reality versions of their characters and most of them are cataloged on the Marvel Wiki, and nobody seems to have trouble differentiating between the mainstream Peter Parker, and one of his alternate reality counterparts.

I think it's something that we can all at least think about, I think this Wiki is the best resource of DC Comics material out there, but I also think it could work to be more comprehensive. All we need is the motivation, which I think is there we just need to find an interest :)

Anyway, that's my two cents on it. What do you all think?