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Letters. We’ve Got Letters!
By Marv Wolfman(excerpt)
from sackett@deskmedia.com
Do you see the Crisis on Infinite Earths as a successful experiment? Did the DC universe go in the direction you had envisioned? I tried to follow the DC universe for 3 years after Crisis... and I just couldn't take it anymore. The reset button kept being pushed.
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS TP 
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS HC Sackett, this is a very hard question to properly answer. I came up with the basic idea for Crisis because, in 1980, DC needed something to bring attention to itself. Unlike today where the sales of all comics are down, in 1980, Marvel was selling quite well but DC wasn't, with the main exception being George Perez and my New Teen Titans comic. In fact, Marvel zombies at the time would never even think of looking at a DC Comic as if it were covered with the pox or something. Something drastic needed to be done.
Unless you'd been following DC for any length of time, our continuity was difficult to wade through. It was my feeling that if we were going to draw Marvel readers to DC we needed to A: Do something big and flashy, and B: Make the DCU easier to follow. We needed a jumping on point.
I did as good a job as I could and, based on the sales jump the rest of the DCU experienced, I'd have to say it was a success. That fans and professionals alike voted it the second best comic book story of the 20th Century still boggles my mind. I wouldn't have put it in the top 100, let alone the 2nd (The Galactus/Silver Surfer trilogy justly came in number one). That the $100.00 hardcover book DC issued a year or so back and the paperback reprint that followed it sold out completely, indicates that we did the job we intended to do.
But something happened after we were done. The Crisis in a sense gave a sort of perverse permission to make wholesale changes, often without thinking about the domino effect that would occur. It's my contention that before you can be a comic book writer that you need to set up dominoes in one of those long, winding, circular, mobius-strip like tracks and begin the process of knocking down the first domino. Only then do you fully realize that something you start at point A directly affects point Z and everything between. If you don't think about the ramifications of what you start, you'll suffer for it later.
What I didn't think about was what the affect of my moving from New York to Los Angeles would do. With the floodgates for change opened, nothing was going to plug up the dam. That gave rise to 347 different Hawkmans, 96 different views of how to turn Hal Jordan into a drunken, murdering madman, and so many other mistakes.
Characters were changed for no reason. Some were deemed too old so a new, young version was needed. There's no intrinsic problem with that, but you need to make damn sure the new character is interesting enough and has the potential to become something different and better than the original.
When Julie Schwartz brought back Flash, Green Lantern and Atom, they were much better thought out versions than their earlier counterparts. So, when you ask is it wrong to create something completely new, well, I have absolutely NO problem in wanting to see new characters created for each new generation of readers.
Barry Allen owed nothing to Jay Garrick (except that he read Jay's comic). Hal Jordan's Green Lantern is a completely different concept from Alan Scott's G.L. Same with the Atoms. These were re-thinkings of a basic concept. The problem I see is ultimately many of the new versions of the old characters are neither better nor worse. I would have actually preferred to see some of the older stuff just go away and completely brand new ideas be introduced.
Strangely enough, I think some of the characters created for that Tangent series DC did a few years back would have made really cool new characters.
The problem comes down to continuity. I personally hate it. With a passion. I like in-book continuity where you keep characters in character and their histories straight, but I am completely against intra-company continuity. With each new concept added to the mega-universe, story possibilities are limited rather than expanded. In my mind, continuity means the best writer at a company is held hostage by the worst. We need to keep expanding what we can do in comics, not contracting it by adding more and more continuity nonsense that everyone has to adhere to.
I do believe, by the way, that you need to be true to each character. That's why all the changes made to either Hal Jordan or Peter Parker were completely wrong. You need to remain true to a successful character's core concepts. The further away from them you stray, the more you'll screw up the book.
I designed Crisis to get rid of all the old continuity so there would be no stranglehold on ideas. I would have liked to have seen a deliberate desire to avoid shoving that continuity right back in again, but that didn't happen.
Fortunately, although it took a little while, it appears that DC and even more so Marvel, have finally come to believe the same.
The following came from someone whose name I stupidly lost. Tell me who sent this and I'll publicly apologize.
What is your opinion of the different segments of your lengthy run on Titans? What was your best story arc? What was your worst? At what point did you realize you didn't want to write it anymore? Discuss generally your long run on the book and how it affected you as a writer and the concept of the team book in the comic medium. Also compare your run on Titans to the Claremont period on X-Men and the results on both books.
NEW TEEN TITANS ARCHIVES HC 
NEW TEEN TITANS #8 
NEW TEEN TITANS #38 
THE NEW TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT The New Teen Titans was the best of times and the worst of times. I loved writing the book, especially the first eight to ten years where I was in charge of it, either unofficially or officially. Those were the issues where I did what I truly believed in. Once someone else comes in - even if they are a great editor - things change. Sometimes for the best. Sometimes not so for the best. There are a number comics where I truly believe the editor makes the series much, much better, but a very few series where I feel the creators should be left alone. For me those series would be Titans, Crisis and Tomb Of Dracula. Everything else I've worked on has been helped by working with good editors. I don't think it's at all surprising that things weren't quite the same on Titans once that control changed.
Best runs: The first 50 issues. Or anytime I worked with the incredible George Perez. He wasn't just the artist. He was the co-creator. Favorite stories: "Who is Donna Troy?", the Terra storyline. And a story nobody ever brings up which is my all time favorite, "Shades of Gray," the culmination of the Changeling/Terminator story. There are dozens of smaller stories that I also love, especially "A Day In The Life," and "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Maladi." I loved the Kole stories and many others.
Where did it go wrong? The last year or two. The reason? See my note in paragraph one above. Also, along the way I lost interest in the series and thought of quitting, but then Jon Peterson became editor and reminded me what I loved about the book. We did "Titans Hunt" together which was as close to the 'classic' Titans as I had done in a long time. It would have been a lot better if it hadn't had to be broken up by two maxi-series, turning what should have been a four-five part story where Vic Stone would have been rebuilt to a year and a half storyline where he got lost in the mix.
I finally had it during that final year and decided to quit the book. I hated every story. Every issue. I wasn't even the plotter. So, at a DC Christmas out here in LA, I went up to DCU Editor-in-Chief Mike Carlin and said I wanted to quit and asked if DC would bring back Night Force and let me write that instead, but with a different editor. I thought there might have been a problem, but Mike said yes but asked me to stay on the Titans a few issues longer. He said he thought it would be best to cancel the Titans with my run rather than just hand it over to someone else. They would then restart it with new characters, concepts and a new number one, which I thought was a great idea. After sixteen years, a new voice and approach was needed. Mike assigned a new editor to my last four issues, and, with the exception of not being able to use Nightwing - who had been returned to Batman continuity - let me end the series pretty much the way I wanted. I still thank Mike for rescuing me from what had turned into a hellish nightmare.
I still love the Titans and would love to do individual stories about them, but DC hasn't seemed that interested. I recently proposed a character-driven Titans-3 series featuring an approximately 24 year old Cyborg, Raven and Starfire trying to figure out what they are about when they aren't being super, but nobody seems to be banging down my door for it. I also have tried to jumpstart the Games graphic novel George and I started a dozen years ago - of which he drew 80 incredible pages that have never been seen - but again, no interest.
As for comparing apples with oranges, I can't. I was never an X-Men fan and didn't read the comic. Sorry.
About team books. Strangely enough, I generally don't like them. I prefer single characters books. But, to me, the secret of team books is in the creation of and the mix of the characters. For there to be a team, every character needs to be an important component of that team. They need to have their own personality that can play with and against every other character. Their origins needs to be created in such a way that they can be milked for years.
Since all stories should stem from character, the characters in a team book need to be constructed so they can have a great number of stories. They need unresolved issues, good and bad. They need a purpose and they need to somewhere deep in their souls realize the people around them can help them find that purpose. They need to be able to stand up on their own but also need others. It's a tricky combination and not just a goulash of different characters tossed together.
Then you need to come up with stories that let each character shine. Maybe not at the same time, but they all need their moment in the spotlight.
Also, you need to understand the idea of A, B & C plotting where you juggle main plots and sub-plots that constantly move both story and characters in directions you don't expect them to go. You want to always see how characters will react when put in situations they don't have ready answers for. And while they do that, you need to be always true to your characters. Even if it hurts.
I did a story in Titans which the fans truly hated - and I know why - but it was 100% in character and I still stick by it. I had Starfire, Princess Koriand'r, marry a prince from her home world while telling Nightwing, Dick Grayson, the man she loved, that her marriage should not change their relationship. Dick couldn't accept that even though by Kory's standards marrying this man was something that was just ceremonial and always done on her world. Kory did it to prevent war. Kory had allowed herself to be put into slavery by her father to prevent war. Kory, as princess, was taught from birth that as a royal she would always have to sacrifice her own needs for her planet. We'd shown this since issue #1 and that part of her personality never changed. Dick, on the other hand, despite his love for Kory, could not change his basic morality. Kory was married. How could he still love her. It tore him apart.
I maintain this is a classic story of characters coming literally from two different worlds being torn apart by the very thing that brought them together. Kory wasn't wrong in what she did and believed. Nor was Dick. There was no bad guy here. That difference was what I wanted to explore. It was, in my mind, a very adult examination of cultural differences.
Yet, because I fractured the fan view of what true love in a comic book should be, I was nearly nailed to a cross for the story. Still, despite it all, I was true to the characters I had created. The anger was so vehement I retreated as quickly as possible from that storyline. I'm still sorry I had.
For characters to become real they have to act real, with warts and all. For team characters to work together, you need to make them face the very things they don't want to face and then use the other cast members to help them through their journey.
Ultimately, every successful team story is about family. You can love each other. You can hate each other, but you're stuck with each other. You know each other so well you see everything bad about them, but then you have to move past that. It's the constant push and pull of their differences that make the exploration worth writing about and reading about.
Whew! I'm exhausted. So that's it for this week. Please keep sending your questions, and I'll see you in seven.
