User Blog:
The shared universe and how it's holding comics back

Last Time in this space: I began discussing the seemingly inevitable turn to a lighter tone in comics and how I felt that the idea that you can only do super heroes two ways was limiting to the genre and held it back. The original plan was to stop right there. But then I got to thinking about the other factor that tends to limit the super hero as much as it helps: The Shared Universe. So whether you agree or not, I’m inviting you to follow my rationale.

Before 1941, despite the fact that the newsstands were positively overflowing with the cape-and-mask set, superheroes just didn’t team up. Never met, never hung out, didn’t even refer to each other. After 1941, though, things were very different, and not just in comics, either. The notion of separately created fictional characters meeting up in a “shared universe” has spread from its comic book origins to the worlds of prose, television and film. So what happened in 1941? Five words, kids: the Justice Society of America. --Scott Tipton, in his Comics 101 column for the JSA, part 1

And for better or for worse, that’s when the shared universe concept started. It was wildly successful (the fact that the JSA is still around today is a testament to that fact). When DC had decided to come around and do super hero work again in the 60’s, they revived the concept with the Justice League of America. Marvel publisher Martin Goodman came to Stan Lee (his most dependable writer) to craft for Marvel a super team. Lee made the Fantastic Four, and never turned back. With the FF in place, Lee set about creating more super hero’s for the fledgling line (I don’t think I need to go down the list, we all know who and what he’s responsible for I think), but unlike DC, where their heroes mostly stayed away from each other, unless they were needed for a special team up book, or to serve in some super elite clubhouse, Lee had his heroes existing in the same city, bumping into each other on the streets, and sometimes teaming up, or having quick battles, in each other’s books.

I bring this up, because I think it’s important that if we’re going to look at this concept, we need to know where it started, and it’s evolution over time. There’s pros and cons in the shared universe, and depending on who’s running the ship, there’s been times when I could sit here and tell you this is the greatest concept ever, and does wonders for sales and stories (the beginnings of it really forming in the 60’s, and Secret War cannot be denied as a great example) and times when I think it is a huge stone around the neck of books because they are forced to tie into everything else. It’s a situation where the publishers have been glorifying it for what Stan did to build the Marvel brand, while forgetting the essential weakness Stan did to the characters.