Canon Shot? 10 Great Stories to Fold Into DCnU Continuity

<i>By <a href=>Graeme McMillan, Newsarama Contributor</a></i> <p>Last week we took a look at <a href=>10 high-profile stories that for continuity reasons might not survive DC soft-reboot relaunch</a> in September. <p>But the reboot also offers the publisher a once-in-a-publishing-lifetime (well, so long as you don't count <i>Crisis on Infinite Earths</i>) chance to fix things that might not have necessarily been broken the first time around, but have been done even better since then. <p>Throughout the publisher's 76-year history, there have been imaginary stories, <i>Elseworlds</i> and all manner of alternate takes on the way their history has unfolded, and we're counting down just 10 that we think should be given a shot (see what we did there) to make it into the brand new, official History of The DC Universe. <p><i>Got a comment? There's lots of conversation on Newsarama's <a href=><b>FACEBOOK</b></a> and <a href=><b>TWITTER</b></a>!</i> <p>


How can DC capitalize on parent company Warner Bros' record-setting <i>Harry Potter</i> weekend? Why not bring Timothy Hunter, who predated the-boy-who-lived by several years, back to the DC Universe front and center. <p>Neil Gaiman's series about a boy wizard starred a young Brit with dark black hair and a bespectacled face (sound familiar?) His story began in the DCU but mostly played out in the Mature Readers Vertigo imprint in subsequent years. Originally brought into the world of DC magic due to his potential to be the greatest magic user of all time, Tim's an easy sell within the DCnU, as he already has direct connections to most of the Universe's magic users, from Zatanna to Madame Xanadu, and even recent DC returnee John Constantine.


Yes, we know that Static has made it through the relaunch relatively intact, but the change in locale from Dakota to NYC makes me nervous about the fate of the rest of the Milestone characters: Do Xombi, Icon, Hardware and the rest all still exist in the new DCU? Why can't we have a <i>Shadow Cabinet</i> series, or see characters from <i>Blood Syndicate</i> pop up facing off with the Justice League every now and then? <p>if nothing else, let's see Edwin Alva try and launch a hostile takeover of Lexcorp - assuming Lexcorp still exists, and if it doesn't then Alva is <i>right there</i>, waiting to replace Lex as the corrupt businessman of choice, DC creators - and keep some more of the Milestone memory around.


We admit it, we're so much of a fan of this show that anything the new DCU could take from it would be okay with us. But, if pressed, we'd love to see the show's take on the Outsiders and Red Tornado make it into the revised DC timeline, as well as having a Batman who not only isn't a grim, humorless loner, but one with a sly sense of humor who likes to crack the occasional joke. <p>But then again, we were getting there with <i>Batman, Inc.</i>, so there's a possibility that one might actually happen...


An odd choice, no doubt, but as Kirby fanatics, we're always been disappointed that his last work with the Fourth World has pretty much been ignored because it seemed too final for TPTB <p>(Beyond some early Byrne Superman and <i>Super Powers</i>, is it actually followed up anywhere?). <p>Rebooting the universe gives DC a chance to allow <i>all</i> of Kirby's work with the characters to stand as canon, and move forward from there - Well, as long as Grant Morrison's <i>Multiversity</i> doesn't already set them up in a brand new, post-<i>Final Crisis</i> status quo that can't be changed already.


It's not saying anything controversial to say that Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie et al's work on <i>Justice League</i> and <i>Justice League Unlimited</i> offered up some of the best takes on any number of DCU characters in recent years - Recent decades, even. <p>With almost the entire DCU up for grabs even after the initial "New 52" launch in September, wouldn't it be great to see some of the expert rethinking of some of the series' more obscure characters be picked up and made into official DCU canon?


Throughout its 27-issue run, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday revealed a secret history to the Wildstorm Universe that, sure, offered commentary on the real-life history of comic books, but also strengthened and deepened the Wildstorm U considerably. <p>How much of that can be taken wholesale and just placed inside the DCU? If we're lucky, a lot - especially if it means that current DCU creators would be able to draw upon (and build upon) some of the concepts that Ellis created and infuse some newer ideas into a universe that's currently mostly centered around concepts that are at least 20 years old.


...Ummmm, okay. Maybe not.


Admittedly, this Elseworlds story had already been semi-worked into continuity already, but if the Justice Society survive the September makeover, it'd be nice to see James Robinson and Paul Smith's 1993 mini being firmly placed into the permanent record as what "happened" to the JSA after World War II finished. <p>Don't the original DC heroes deserve some recognition of their importance, after all? Make this story canon, and use it to explain why we never/rarely saw the JSA in action from that point onwards. <p>(Well, except for the annual JLA/JSA crossovers, of course.)


There are all manner of little details that could easily transfer from Darwyn Cooke's wonderful mini-series into the new DCU (The death of the Losers! The relationship between Hal Jordan and Ace Davis!), but the one thing we'd love to see make it over whole would be the "origin" of the Martian Manhunter. <p>Given that J'Onn's back-story is possibly getting a makeover courtesy of <i>Stormwatch</i>, maybe it can be worked in somewhere that he arrived in the 1950s, became a cop for awhile before trying to hitch a ride back to Mars on a rocket, only to be captured by the government, befriended by King Faraday, and become a secret agent of sorts away from the public's prying eye. <p>Paul Cornell! Please make this happen!


It's a good bet that there'll be some elements of <i>All-Star Superman</i> that seep into Superman new DCnU status quo, given that Grant Morrison is writing <i>Action Comics</i> and his projects tend to bleed together (<i>All-Star</i> connects with threads from <i>DC One Million</i>, for example), but there's one thing in particular that we'd love to see become new DC canon: The death of Pa Kent. Or, specifically, the randomness of it, and the lesson that it teaches the Man of Steel. <p>If the new Superman is as human, and as born of such relatable tragedy, as the <i>All-Star</i> version, I'll be very excited to see what he can do on a monthly basis. <p><li> <a href=>Canon Fodder: 10 Possible Story Casualties of the DCnU</a>

Canon Shot? 10 Great Stories to Fold Into DCnU Continuity

Date: 17 July 2011 Time: 09:41 PM ET