Infinite Crisis - A work in progress? SPOILERS and rumours

[Mulett]

There are various rumours going around that delays in upcoming issues of Crisis and related comics is because the IC writers are revising the planned outcome of the main series.

I've read in several places (and this is where the SPOILER warning comes in) that the original plan was to leave the DCU pretty much as it is (one earth) but with major changes to the dynamics between the key characters.

Now, however, there seems to be a rumbling that some form of multiverse is on the way back - either because of fan reaction so far, or because the writers have changed their minds about what would be the best outcome for the ongoing DCU.

Has anyone else heard this or got the impression that decisions about the conclusion of Infinite Crisis are being reconsidered?

[Evan Lanctot]

It seemed to me that they were going to bring back the Multiverse all along.

[trickster]

They said they had everything planned until 2008. With only two issues to go they'd have to rewrite all of 52. I kinda doubt it.

[FanboyStranger]

I read that the delays had more to do with script and art tweaking than any reconfiguration of the plot. Johns and Jimenez want this thing to be perfect and so do the higher ups. So, it had more to do with fixing small things than a new conclusion.

[Michael P]

Sounds to me like wishful thinking by people who *want* the Multiverse to come back.

[JBeckett]

I read that the delays had more to do with script and art tweaking than any reconfiguration of the plot. Johns and Jimenez want this thing to be perfect and so do the higher ups. So, it had more to do with fixing small things than a new conclusion.

I dunno-I thought a good bit of the art in issue 5 was lacking. I like Jurgens and Reis but in my opinion, it wasn't perfect. Storywise I'm okay with it. The upcoming throwdown is going to be outrageous. If SB Prime's punches alter things before....

[Joe Acro]

The end of IC has changed from whatever it was going to be. There was a meeting between some of the top people in DC, including those working Infinite Crisis. After quite some discussion, issue #6 was rewritten. (I'm sure #7 wasn't far behind.) The art is supposedly going to be done entirely by Perez, as he's the only one at DC fast enough to get the comic out close to its original sollicitation date so that they don't have to re-sollicit. 52 could have easily been fixed because, when all this was decided, 52 hadn't even been sollicited yet. My only concern was with the OYL titles. With them about to come out at the time of this meeting, I worried if maybe DC would be put on hiatus so that the OYL titles could be rewritten to match the new ending. However, after reading a few OYL titles, it seems that the writers have kept it ambiguous enough to allow for more than one earth, if that is what the change is.

[Paul Newell]

The end of IC has changed from whatever it was going to be. There was a meeting between some of the top people in DC, including those working Infinite Crisis. After quite some discussion, issue #6 was rewritten. (I'm sure #7 wasn't far behind.) The art is supposedly going to be done entirely by Perez, as he's the only one at DC fast enough to get the comic out close to its original sollicitation date so that they don't have to re-sollicit. 52 could have easily been fixed because, when all this was decided, 52 hadn't even been sollicited yet. My only concern was with the OYL titles. With them about to come out at the time of this meeting, I worried if maybe DC would be put on hiatus so that the OYL titles could be rewritten to match the new ending. However, after reading a few OYL titles, it seems that the writers have kept it ambiguous enough to allow for more than one earth, if that is what the change is.
All rumours that have since been discounted or replaced.

The Perez pencilling one was discounted by Perez himself:
've been reading a bit of misinformation regarding my involvement with INFINITE CRISIS #6. When I read I was drawing all of Issue 6 I knew that the lines of communication had gotten tangled up a mite.

Here's the real scoop: Due to scheduling conflicts and time constrictions I will only be drawing 5 pages of issue 6, instead of the originally planned 12. Three of those pages are being reproduced from my pencils while the others (a double-pager) have been pencilled and inked by me.

This will allow me to get right to providing more artwork for Issue 7, although I don't know exactly how many pages that will be.

One of the recent LITG's discounted the original "ending changed to multiverse" rumour saying that the rumour now was that its still a single Earth.

And I'm pretty sure that "Issue #6 was only having a few tweaks to plot and art" was mentioned at a convention recently.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

According to Dan Dido, Geoff Johns & Phil Jiminez, the delays were due to Johns taking more time to get the scripts right (particularly the Superboy vs. Teen Titans scene) and Dido asking for a little more clarification on some specific character moments.

According to rumor monger Rich Johnston, its because the multiverse wasn't coming back, but now it is, but maybe its not. Considering how often Johnston has been wrong about Infinite Crisis thus far, I wouldn't put too much stock in what he has to say...

[PatrickG]

Didio did say, "The Multiverse as you know it is gone" at WWLA and Johns chimed in that the EXACT wording of the statement is key.

I think DC, following fan reaction, realized that there IS fan support for a multiverse. But still has no plans to split the earths back out into the pre-Crisis model nor is Didio interested in Hypertime.

So what I think IS happening is that a few pages might get changed so that, while the JSA/JLA/Freedom Fighters/etc. remain on a single earth with a shared history, the earths lost in Crisis (aside from 1, 2, S, X, 5, 8 and Prime) will get seperated back out. This gives the heroes a kind of emotional victory (redeeming the loss of a thousand earths in COIE) without affecting the progress of 52 or the mainstream DCU.

As long as the JSA, freedom Fighters, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Question, etc. remain in the DCU, relatively unchanged, it really should be a matter of tweaking the last issue so that there IS a multiverse.

And I consider a multiverse where the DCU is the only one with heroes to still be a major victory.

My big problem with COIE is less related to the clustering of continuity and more related to how we're expected to be happy that one earth lives when thousands die. I also regard it as highly implausible that there could only be one universe. Parallel earths are more plausible to me and make more sense than a single earth.

I think it would be fine to bring back a multiverse where the DCU is the only one with super-heroes.

[Justin D.]

I think it would be fine to bring back a multiverse where the DCU is the only one with super-heroes.

What would be the point of that though? We'd still only get stories with that one DCU so why would there even need to be a multiverse.

[PatrickG]

What would be the point of that though? We'd still only get stories with that one DCU so why would there even need to be a multiverse.

There is NO point from the perspective of fan politics.

However, to the characters, I imagine it would be the greatest victory ever, snatching thousands of earths from the maw of death.

The bakers, lawyers, doctors and used car salesmen of the Multiverse got SLAUGHTERED and then shoehorned into a single earth where some or many of them might not fit.

If there's a chance they can live their own lives again, I think it'd be a victory for the heroes.

[Mulett]

Certainly, all the One Year Later titles I have read so far have been vague enough that anything could happen at the end of IC.

In JSA, for instance, there wasn't even a decisive moment when you knew for sure which earth they were on.

[Buried Alien]

There is NO point from the perspective of fan politics.

However, to the characters, I imagine it would be the greatest victory ever, snatching thousands of earths from the maw of death.

The bakers, lawyers, doctors and used car salesmen of the Multiverse got SLAUGHTERED and then shoehorned into a single earth where some or many of them might not fit.

If there's a chance they can live their own lives again, I think it'd be a victory for the heroes.

The Crisis On Infinite Earths represented the greatest defeat that the heroes of the DCU ever suffered. They defeated the Anti-Monitor, but they failed in the objective of saving the Multiverse.

Perhaps they can finally rectify that.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Tom]

According to Dan Dido, Geoff Johns & Phil Jiminez, the delays were due to Johns taking more time to get the scripts right (particularly the Superboy vs. Teen Titans scene) and Dido asking for a little more clarification on some specific character moments.

According to rumor monger Rich Johnston, its because the multiverse wasn't coming back, but now it is, but maybe its not. Considering how often Johnston has been wrong about Infinite Crisis thus far, I wouldn't put too much stock in what he has to say...
Actually, Rich's record on IC is shockingly good. Better than his average, I'd say.

[Effect]

If they did bring back the multiverse, would this basiclly mean they would put out titles that are clearly defined as being alternate universes?

Kinda how Marvel's Spider-girl is another universe (MC2 I think it's called or something else) and how Spider-man that we all know is another one (called the 616 universe, which is Marvel's main universe, number was just picked for the hell of it as I understand)?

Or would DC do something else? How exactly was it handled back before the first Crisis was done?

[Paul Newell]

If they did bring back the multiverse, would this basiclly mean they would put out titles that are clearly defined as being alternate universes?

Kinda how Marvel's Spider-girl is another universe (MC2 I think it's called or something else) and how Spider-man that we all know is another one (called the 616 universe, which is Marvel's main universe, number was just picked for the hell of it as I understand)?

Or would DC do something else? How exactly was it handled back before the first Crisis was done?
No reference was made in delineating between titles that happened on Earth-1, Earth-2, etc. DC just published and let the fans work it out for themselves.

[Effect]

I was afraid it was something like that.

[Mulett]

I think the multiverse and, in particular, Earth-2 had a massive potential that was never fully realised by DC at the time. The great thing about Earth-2 is that it could enable writers to show stories about the next generation of heroes without them having to be 'what if' tales or 'possible future' stories.

You had Robin and Huntress taking over from Batman, Power Girl taking her place as the only active Kryptonian hero, Wonder Woman happily married with her daughter ready to take up the fight!

I know, to an extent, you still had this with the older JSA members on the single earth, but I think it just worked better when the heroes 'visited' their counterparts on an parallel world.

I just wonder if the current writers (as they have been writing Infinite Crisis towards a single-Earth conclusion) have begun to reconsider the single-earth scenario and seen the benefits of some kind of multiverse.

[UniqueFrequency]

i'm not sure about the idea of a multiverse coming back.

as a pretty new (last 6 years) DC fan, i only know one universe and even Infinite Crisis and all the bits with Beast Boy and Rita and all are getting confusing.

However, if they can find a good way to get everything settled out nicely and easily for the new readers.... then i might not be so against it