As for Crisis, it was a fun story, but I think it would have been better off either ending with a hard reboot or just a regular save the multi-verse type of ending.

I tend to lean towards soft reboots, ignoring story elements that don't work anymore and going with what does still work from there. 

I'm over the big multi-part, company wide crossovers. The last New 52 reboot was where I finally dropped buying comics. 

***

Perfect!

Does such a mindset "infect" other fandom? I don't know a dozen or so James Bond fans, but I was on a Bond forum once. I never came across anyone complaining about timeline inconsistencies and the like. I never met anyone who wanted to "join up" the literary and film Bond. I think they just accepted it.

As did I with Dr. Who. There are inconsistencies between later/modern episodes - and what was presented to us in William Hartnell's early tales. Doesn't matter.

One aspect was someone saying, "Earth-1! Earth-2! Earth-S! Earth-Q! The readers can't keep track of all of these different Earths! Every time Captain Marvel or Plastic Man appears, we lose sales! We have to eliminate 'em all!" DISCUSSION: I obviously didn't take a nationwide poll (the Neilsen folks were busy that week) but I don't know anyone who couldn't get the idea of multiple Earths and different dimensions. Possibly the cosmic origins were daunting... but who needed to know that Grig told Og to pull his finger*, and the outcome in the one world he did, it became Earth-1; in one world he didn't, it was Earth-2; in the world where Og slugged Grig with a club, it became Earth-3, etc. I didn't need to know every day of Bruce Wayne's training to know how he became able to pick any lock; they said he could and I bought that.

Another aspect was (possibly a different) someone saying, "Clark Kent is dating Lois Lane and is a TV reporter? Bruce Wayne lives in a tower? Dick Grayson isn't Robin? The Justice League is in a warehouse in Detroit? The readers can't keep track of all these changes!" DISCUSSION: All of these were implemented by editors to keep the characters a little different and fresh. Why was Superman being a TV reporter any more incomprehensible than his being a newspaper reporter? Why wouldn't Diana Prince get a job out of military intelligence? Yes, it was different, and IF a reader had read a few older books, skipped some time, and then read books several years later, it could be confusing. Whether or not the characters should have changed is a different discussion; the fact was that they HAD, and there was no good way to get the music back in the piano.

And while Crisis addressed both of these issues, the key is that THESE SITUATIONS WOULD HAVE TO REOCCUR ANYHOW. Have to! I obviously cannot speak for Mr. Byrne, but I'll bet that he didn't intend to leave Superman as he was in 1940... Daily Planet**, Lois, Perry, fighting petty crooks and social crime, knowing of Batman but never interacting with him - these are all basic elements. Man of Steel #6 seemed to be the catalyst to jumping off with new stories, characters, and "attachments."

That's what Crisis seemed designed to do. And in another thirty years, they would have a similar situation as existed in 1985. The details would have differed; the nature of the situation would have occurred.

The solution was simple, as Mr. Byrne has pointed out time and again. You're the editor, you know the readers don't like 3599+ other Green Lanterns - then just don't use them. You don't want a reminder that Arthur Curry Jr. exited and was killed by Black Manta - don't mention it. You're bothered by the fact that Superman is a hundred years older than anyone thinks - leave it out.

I think that too many editors and creators wanted to have a complicated story - but one that THEY created. It started becoming more about the creators than the characters at that early date, and that was the beginning of the end.

*And THAT'S the oldest joke in the book!

**Daily Planet, Daily Star - don't start with me, I'm on a roll.

**Daily Planet, Daily Star - don't start with me, I'm on a roll.

In the '80s. some independent publisher put out indexes to a few DC titles(using basically the same format Marvel had for theirs).

The CRISIS volume contained capsule summaries of each Earth...including the explanation/conjecture that E. Nelson Bridwell created an 'alternate Earth-2', on which Clark Kent worked for the Daily Star and George Taylor well into the 1950s, since this is what Bridwell depicted in his 'Mr. and Mrs. Superman' feature in SUPERMAN FAMILY. (As opposed to 'regular' Earth-2, where Taylor and the Star became Perry White and the Planet after just a few issues of ACTION COMICS) A bit extreme 'point of diversion' there!

Using my own "fanthink", Superboy's career, which seems to start as a preteen, allows for a decade or so of  superheroes to exist before he becomes Superman. (longer if you count Superbaby!) and still lets Kal-el be the first Earth-1 superhero. Though I believe the idea that Superman was the first Superhero on Earth-1 is also a fan idea. 

I don't recall if the Steel's short lived series from the 70's was set on Earth 1 or 2. 

---

Robbie -- you're right. I forgot about Captain Comet.

Then again I've never read a Captain Comet story, so, I beg everyone's forgiveness. Did any of his stories take place on Earth or only in space?