Arguably three. See above.

QUOTE: Which is a shame, really. The main trust of the concept, besides explaining continuity problems, was a restored sense of wonder. Hypertime made all stories "real" and as valid as any other, regardless of canonical status.

Which DC insists is the case with the multiple Earths. The only real difference between Hypertime and the 52 Earths is that they replaced arcane and slightly pretentious with anal and confusing. I love alternate timelines and parallel worlds, but I don't see the need to classify and catalog it as DC and Marvel has done lately.

Anyway, the point remains: Imaginary stories and Elseworlds have been relegated to being alternate timelines or parallel worlds for more than a decade now.

QUOTE: I love alternate timelines and parallel worlds, but I don't see the need to classify and catalog it as DC and Marvel has done lately.

Cataloguing is fine - if you're a history teacher getting all the facts right in order to teach your students properly; cataloguing is fine if you're doing some legal research and need to present it to someone; cataloguing is fine if you're writing a book on politics and need everything in order so that you can release a book

With comics, though, I don't see the need. You know, they're supposed to be fun. I have no interest in dates, how many earths there are, what earth the Superman/Spider-Man crossover took place on, etc. It's mundane to me and I am dismayed that there was once a period in time where the questions started to be asked.

As has been said on this forum before, I am interested in the here and now. If I'm reading a Superman comic in March 2011, I am going to enjoy it on it's own terms. If I'm re-reading a back issue from the 1940s where Superman is fighting the Nazis, I'm enjoying that on it's own terms.

I asked a friend once about James Bond (he's a big fan of both the novels and films and knows more than I'll ever know about Bond). I believe Bond had a birthdate in one book, but from what he told me, fans just accept that when they're reading a Bond book or watching a Bond film, they're reading it at the time they're reading it, the whole NOW thing. They don't ask how Bond can still be fighting evil decades later, they just accept the conceits of fiction.

Another good example for me are the Basil Rathbone SHERLOCK HOLMES films which I really enjoy. I believe in one film that there was a reference to a date (1897, perhaps), yet in SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON, Holmes and Watson are active during World War II. It wasn't a problem for me. The adventure which featured a reference to 1897 was enjoyed on it's own terms and so was the adventure which took place in World War II (I will say that I like Holmes in a certain era, not sure how fond I'd be if he started appearing in adventures set in the 1970s, but I can suspend disbelief when it comes to Holmes and Watson being active during World War II).

Very briefly, on the subject of "imaginary stories", I'd love to read SUPERMAN #175 which has an imaginary novel where Lex Luthor is Clark Kent's brother. On the cover, he's disguising himself as Clark Kent so that Superman can fly away and Lois won't be suspicious. Boy, do I miss the fun of covers like that (I'd post a picture of the cover here, but I've completely forgotten how to do that).

The Titans one? I don't remember if it mentioned Hypertime, either. It might have been written under the concept of Hypertime and then scrapped any mention of it because DC seems to have reneged of the concept almost immediately.

QUOTE: but I don't see the need to classify and catalog it as DC and Marvel has done lately.

That's the main reason I dislike the 52 Earths and liked Hypertime; every instance of a new Earth now has to be cataloged and properly indexed within finite parameters, while with Hypertime it was just a different timeline.

••

Such things are an indication that it is time for a reader to move on to a new hobby, or for a "pro" to find another line of work.

When Julie Schwartz and Gardener Fox did "The Flash of Two Worlds" they didn't worry about how it affected all the "other" Silver Age characters. They did what was originally intended to be a one-off story -- and a fun one. Unfortunately, since the could not see into the Future, they could not see the Pandora's Box their little tale opened. Something that would only become more and more convoluted as the shift from Old Pros to Fans-Turned-Pro accelerated over the next few years.

Reaching, of course, the point at which CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS became "necessary". Those obsessed with cataloging -- the ones Julie called "the Archeologists" could not imagine "addressing" the "complicated" problem of the alternate Earths by simply NOT MENTIONING THEM.

The sad thing is, there was a genuine conviction up at DC that CRISIS really would "fix" things. A conviction held with absolute certainty even as books were being published that undermined the whole concept. Recall the oft-mentioned conversation with Dick Giordano, in which he assured me that CRISIS was going to get rid of ALL the alternate Earths. . . "except the one with Captain Carrot." And, of course, not long after, DC published THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, a book I described at the time as the first Post-CRISIS story set in the Pre-CRISIS "universe".

Even WHO'S WHO, coming along during and after CRISIS, insisted on referencing all the alternate Earth characters. Had I not fought it, the Superman of MAN OF STEEL would have been listed as "Superman III". Satisfying, I am sure, to the most anal retentive fans, but contrary to the whole POINT of CRISIS and MoS.

••

Here ya go…

Another one of those "symbolic" covers that require people to be moving as if embedded in concrete! How long did it take Lois to come thru that door?!?

I seem to recall a decidedly bizarre story in which the Planet needed a photo of Luthor, so Clark donned a bald wig and posed for the picture! (So many things awry there! Does the Daily Planet not have a photo morgue? Or was there some explanation in the story that I am forgetting?)

Perhaps the biggest problem with the tangled messes that have been made of Marvel and DC's universes is that it makes it impossible for anyone to be what I wish I could be: a casual customer.

I'll never go back to being the type of comics reader I was when I was younger. I'll never have a pull list at the comics shop again, I don't have the time or the money to follow a handful of titles month after month and I refuse to try to read the stuff if I have to resort to looking storylines up on the internet to make heads or tails of what's happened during the time I've been away.

But...I would, if it was still possible, love to be able to occasionally, when the mood strikes, stroll into a store and pick up the latest issue of Captain America or the Avengers or whatever and just get a story to entertain me for half an hour. That's all I want, a story now and then. But it's become impossible. How many potential customers have Marvel and DC lost because of that? How many people feel the way I do? How many of us would, when going to the shop to pick up the latest Next Men, for example, grab a few other things just because we happened to be there and have an extra twenty dollars to spend? But it's become impossible, so now I go in every month, grab my Next Men, and leave. That extra twenty goes to something else.

That leaves the other question. If Marvel and DC's current ways are chasing away potential customers like me, are those ways helping to draw in other customers with other points of view, or is it just a total loss for the "Big Two" ? I can't see how it would create any new readers at all. If things had been as they are now twenty-five years ago, I never would have been able to get into comics the way I did back then.      

Thanks for posting that cover, Mr. Byrne. You know, I really need to buy some DC SHOWCASE books soon, there's so many older issues I wish to read and, instead of browsing at second-hand bookstores (as nice as that is), I should remember that some older stories will be available as reprints.

QUOTE: Those obsessed with cataloging -- the ones Julie called "the Archeologists" could not imagine "addressing" the "complicated" problem of the alternate Earths by simply NOT MENTIONING THEM.

NOT MENTIONING THEM is something I wish could be done. It should be done.

I watched the first ever episode of DOCTOR WHO a few months ago, having not seen it for about ten years. There's a lot in that episode of DOCTOR WHO that probably contradicts later elements. If you're looking hard enough, there's probably a few inconsistencies in the Doctor Who timeline. Really, though, I don't care. A show that's been going since 1963 (with a break from 1989 until 2005) isn't going to get every historical detail right.

There are things in early episodes of DOCTOR WHO which would, from the perspective of modern episodes, be contradictory. However, best not to mention them, just enjoy the episodes on their own terms.

I remember a lot of early Marvel tales featuring characters mentioning their World War II exploits. I know some character's origins are tied into World War II, but rather than worrying about multiple earths, where it all fits in and other unnecessary questions, it's best that writers stopped mentioning the World War II exploits of certain characters (which I think they did).

••

I recall one current writer -- one who is quite popular with fans cut from the same cloth as he -- stating, when someone said that his work was confusing and did not contain enough exposition and explanation of who the characters were, "If you don't already know this stuff, why are you even reading this?"

Wow! How many -- including himself -- would even BE comic fans, if that had been the attitude right from the start?

I began reading SUPERMAN more than a hundred issues into the run. Yet, by the end of the first issue -- heck, by the end of the first STORY -- I knew who everybody was, and what their relationships were. Today, how many American superhero comics can make such a claim?

••

I wrote FANTASTIC FOUR for five years, and touched upon the backstory of the characters many times. Ditto when I was writing THE THING.

Not once did I mention Reed and Ben having been in WW2. And -- and this is the important part -- it took no effort. I just wrote my flashbacks AROUND the Second World War, rather than making it integral to them.

Some writers, alas, simply cannot do that. A flashback is to them the opening of a sluice gate, and what follows is a cascade of trivia, ALL of which MUST be included.