After six years of hearing the President of the United States talk about change and how it is good, one can't really argue with him. The budget deficit is almost gone, unemployment is practically at an all-time low, and welfare, in my opinion, has also become a better system.
This column, though, is not about politics, the President, or this country. It's about comic books. That's right, comic books. Yes, comic books have also changed, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the change of characters or supporting characters or villains. I'm talking about changes within the confines of comic book Universes -- the DC Universe in particular.
We can point to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths as the catalyst that began DC's changes, a good seven years before Mr. Clinton espoused his changes in the way our government is run. The DC Universe was just cruising along, having a good ol' time, when all the characters DC owned were thrown together in one Universe. Barry Allen was no longer The Flash, Supergirl and Superboy didn't exist, no more Crime Syndicate. These were just some of the changes. The biggest change was to the readers who now had to figure out which adventures really happened and which didn't!
Since Wonder Girl no longer existed this poor character has gone through more changes than most people would go through in SEVERAL lifetimes!
In the past few years, the biggest thing seems to be a 'changing of the guard.' Older characters that have been around awhile are disappearing and their hero counterparts are being replaced by "new" characters. This seems to be especially true if the hero has the color "green" in his name. Hmmm, I wouldn't want to be The Green Thumb or Green Lightning if I were in the DC Universe today. Heck, I wouldn't even want to be associated with green in any way and that includes the green-eyed monster and green with envy!
We all know the saga of Hal Jordan, Green Lantern. Millions upon millions of people dying made him flip his wig and turned him into a murderer. Readers figured he would regain his sanity and continue to be Green Lantern. Enter: Kyle Rayner. Just think of all those Abin Sur fans who read HIS adventures for a millennia just to suddenly have him die and give his ring to some test pilot named Hal Jordan. I'll bet sales fell off then, too.
I was a big Hal Jordan fan and I miss him, but he's a murderer and Batman said it best to Superman at the end of The Final Night, "Don't make a martyr out of a murderer, Superman. One shining moment doesn't redeem Parallax for what he did and tried to do. He admitted he hadn't changed, remember?" Well said, Batman.
Oliver Queen, Green Arrow is another story. He is not presumed dead and Green Arrow's next writer, Kevin Smith, is a big Oliver Queen fan. Oliver may return, but will he return as Green Arrow? I've read a lot of Green Arrow. All of it with Oliver Queen as Green Arrow. I couldn't imagine anyone else being as good as he was with the bow and arrow, but you know what they say; there's always somebody better.
There are many other changes that I didn't comment on such as Hawk becoming Monarch, a mistake if ever there was one. The Invasion and Zero Hour, two "events" that fell short, in my opinion. Batman's Contagion, current Cataclysm, and future's No Man's Land...what about all those poor civilians who have to slog through all these changes?
Like I said, change is good. It's just very hard to get used to.