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Just like the girl in the above panel from SWAMP THING, the New DC Universe is beginning to BRANCH OUT (haw haw) and get ENTANGLED (hee hee) in the vines of….continuity and crossovers! This according to hints and forebodings from EIC Bob Harras:

Scott and Jeff certainly aren’t the only creators exchanging ideas and cross-pollinating series. Another Scott-Lobdell, this time–and Fabian Nicieza are working on a storyline that will flow between TEEN TITANS, SUPERBOY and LEGION LOST. It explores everything from the mystery of Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E, the organization that developed Superboy as the ultimate weapon, to the tragedy of the mysterious Hypertaxis virus brought to our century from the future by the time-lost Legionnaires, to how both impact our newly formed group of young heroes.

And over in the BATMAN titles, the aforementioned and prolific Mr. Scott Snyder has crafted a tale involving the Court of Owls and its deadly Talon assassins that may soon impact the storylines in NIGHTWING, BATGIRL, BIRDS OF PREY and even RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS.


Thus, it begins. Whatch’all think? You ready for some X-overs?

And where has pink hood lady been lately, anyway? Hopefully it will be a while before that one pays off.

1 COMMENT

  1. I’m all in favour of that kind of continuity. It’s when they launch the first universe-shattering Event that I drop the whole New 52. ;-)

  2. “Yeah. ANIMAL MAN and SWAMP THING were actually quite fun, and I kinda liked BATMAN, too.

    Oh, well. It’s not like there’s a shortage of good comics out there, fortunately.”

    I don’t get it. Are you dropping these on principle? I–and it sounds like you–collect both AM and ST, so what’s the problem? There’s no way in hell I’m reading the BATMAN crossover, but I’ll be back after it’s over. No big deal.

  3. there’s no problem—Marc and Todd and Beat are entitled little whiners…

    Todd’s dropping the book—WHO CARES?

  4. As I said on DC Women Kicking Ass, where there was a similar post, there’s been crossovers in the New DCU since the first first month. The first issue of Stormwatch included a footnote referencing events in Superman #1 (which hadn’t come out yet). Swamp Thing and Animal Man have been closely linked since the first story arc. (And this was no secret, as both Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire talked about it in interviews.) Same with Superboy and Teen Titans, I’m told.

    I don’t mind little references to other titles. But I hope they don’t do a full-on crossover event for at least a year. (Or ever? Yeah, wishful thinking.)

  5. The question is not IF the titles x-over, because they will eventually for sure, and I think it’s kind of to be expected. The real question is HOW they will x-over. For instance, the Court of Owls thing in Batman can spread to other titles without it being “follow part 1 in Batman – part 2 in Batgirl – part 3 in Nightwing – etc…”. If they do it like they did Batman RIP, for instance, then it’s perfectly fine with me. Of all the x-over talk, only the one involving the Green Lantern titles that has been mentionned by Geoff Johns seems to be a “true” x-over, in the sense of a multi-part event taking place with sequential chapters in different titles. The rest look more like shared concepts to me, and if that’s the case, then there is usually no need to buy multiple titles in these cases. But of course no one knows for sure yet, so I guess we’ll see how DC does it.

  6. Josh:

    “I–and it sounds like you–collect both AM and ST, so what’s the problem?”

    There is no problem. I’m just not interested in crossovers, so I’m not part of the target audience here. It happens.

  7. I don’t care for crossovers either but if the issue itself tells a story that I don’t need to buy a comic I don’t normally buy, I don’t care. If it reads like part 3 of a six part crossover then I’ll have an issue with it. It’s simple don’t end any of the issues with a cliff hanger where you NEED to buy the issue of a comic that you don’t normally get.

  8. Not caring for crossovers is one thing. Dropping two titles you already follow and enjoy because they happen to share some story elements is beyond silly.

  9. If DC was _upfront_ about these things, it would be one thing.

    “Oh, by the way, that book you’re buying? The one you’ve already bought a couple issues of? We’re crossing the story into a few more titles.”

    That’s deceitful. Suddenly I’m buying under false pretenses.

    If you’re going to be doing cross-overs, tell me about before you start the story. It’s not that much to ask.

  10. Well, the first “official” x-over is in January with an issue each of OMAC and Frankenstein. We will see then if someone “has” to buy both issues to understand the full story or not for each of the two series involved. My feeling is we won’t have to, but it’s just that: a feeling. DC have been quite smart with the whole New 52 so far, my bet is they’ll continue to be smart, even with the x-overs.

  11. Perhaps I’m reading too much into the use of particular words, but Harras wrote:

    And over in the BATMAN titles, the aforementioned and prolific Mr. Scott Snyder has crafted a tale involving the Court of Owls and its deadly Talon assassins that may soon impact the storylines in NIGHTWING, BATGIRL, BIRDS OF PREY and even RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS.

    I interpret soon impact the storylines to mean that the storylines in the various issues will just have elements in common, as if in the Marvel Universe, heroes were reacting to the machinations of Roxxon. That would be very nice, actually.

    SRS

  12. “Dropping two titles you already follow and enjoy because they happen to share some story elements is beyond silly.”

    I’m heartbroken that my reading and buying habits don’t meet with your approval.

  13. I’ll buy ’em if I’m already collecting them (like AM and ST), but I’m not buying additional titles that I’m not already reading (e.g. Red Hood, Batgirl, BoP). Like Jason A Quest indicated above, it’s a nice excuse to drop titles (especially since I’m already at the limits of what I can afford as is).

  14. The Marc Oliver hate found a totally unrelated article to pop up this month! YAY! I was worried we wouldn’t see it after the weak showing in the DC sales number columns! ^_^

  15. Actually i quite enjoyed the times in the original Swamp Thing when Batman (or Demon or JLA etc) stopped by. So i’m not going to panic just yet.

  16. A Swamp Thing and Animal Man crossover is fine by me, as I buy and enjoy both.

    And I don’t know why everyone is getting worked up over Batman. From what was wrote in the article, it doesn’t sound like Batman will be a full on crossover with the other Bat titles, just that the 2nd tier books will follow the same continuity as Snyder’s Batman title. And I’m fine with that.

  17. @James

    ^_^ Come on now, this Marc Oliver hate is hysterical. It’s easily my favorite comics related thing to read on-line. Superhero fans have such extremely thin skins that even gossamer is jealous!

  18. Why are people getting worked up about Batman? Past experience. I love Batman as a character and some of the supporting cast too, such as the Tim Drake Robin. But every time I’ve been persuaded to start buying a Bat title in the past, it seems to quickly become part of a 37 part crossover that requires you to buy other books to understand the story, and often derails the elements that got me interested.

    Maybe this is going to be well done. A case of simply using the shared universe to maintain interest in the less prominent titles and build the DC brand. References and shared subplots that add value rather than hijacking the narrative. But it’s only human nature to react based on repeated past experience, even if there are some logical reasons to think things might be different this time.

  19. Personally I find it more bothersome when you have two distinct titles that have two unique writing and art styles that get mashed together for the purpose of doing a cross-over. They never really read smoothly, and each “chapter” focuses far too much on one set of characters from the title that’s being published, rather than simply telling one chapter of a larger story. It’s rarely done well these days.