The Birth of the Ultimate DC Universe
By Russell Burlingame
DC has finally done it.
About ten years ago, Marvel launched the Ultimate Universe. Beginning with Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man, a natural jumping-on point for new readers, the books depicted the heroes of the Marvel Universe as younger, hipper-but still recognizable. The idea as I understood it at the time was to appeal to non-traditional comics fans by giving readers the thrill of an interconnected universe (one of the great appeals of modern comics) without the decades of history and continuity, which is seen by most as a huge barrier to new fans of mainstream comics.
The experiment was-at least for a time-a rousing success, giving talented and popular creators a chance to play with the "big toys" of the Marvel Universe without having to worry much about what they broke or how far behind deadline they were, because in the grand scheme of things, the "original" versions of the characters being followed in the broad majority of Marvel's ongoing, monthly titles would remain unaffected by the events of the Ultimate Universe. This led to some great, epic stories, a few creators (notably Bendis and Mark Millar in their interpretations of Spider-Man and the Avengers) doing the best and best-selling work of their careers and a sense on the part of fans and critics that just because it's not in the main continuity, doesn't mean it doesn't matter.
There was widespread speculation, then, as to whether or not DC would follow Marvel's lead and introduce an easy-access, easy-to-follow version of its DC Universe comics, with Wizard magazine going as far as to hire some industry professionals to do character designs and discuss the potential execution of the project. That Superman design became a fan-favorite and has been floated on message boards and occasionally at conventions as a potential alternate costume for the Man of Steel in everything from Elseworlds stories to film adaptations, but the comics themselves never happened. Years later, DC introduced the "All-Star" line, which has so far seen a dozen Superman comics and a few less than that for Batman-but there are some key differences. The All-Star lines are self-contained, so that they are non-continuing and don't appear to interact with one another at all. While both All-Star Superman and All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder may feature Green Lantern, for example, that won't be the same guy we see if All-Star Green Lantern ever happens, and even the Green Lantern in All-Star Superman may be a different guy, or at least a different interpretation, than the one in All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. They're also defined by their creators (Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely for Superman; Frank Miller and Jim Lee for Batman) in a way that DC ordinarily doesn't allow its books to be. The character-at least when it's Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman-is typically king at DC, and if you can't fit the mold them maybe you can work on another project (see Stephen T. Seagle's fantastic memoir It's a Bird... for more on this).
Yesterday, however, DC announced on its blog The Source that they were rolling out a series of original, ongoing graphic novels with the imprint "Earth One." Beginning with, of course, Superman: Earth One (by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis) and Batman: Earth One (by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank), the costumes are getting minor tweaks, the origins are being retold and it appears as though this imprint is, in fact, as close as we're ever going to get to an Ultimate DC Universe. Given the caliber of the talent and the penchant for three of the four creators involved to miss deadlines (Shane Davis is pretty reliable so far, as I can recall), standalone graphic novels may just be a way to keep expectations lower-fans won't expect more than once a year and retailers won't expect a totally unreasonable level of sales for every copy if they're $19.99 each.
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