Schrödinger’s Canon

(reposted from the Shadowgirls blog)

Prepare yourself for some real ‘dork talk’ here. To no surprise to any of you, I’m one of those old school nerd types and I love universes. I personally believe it’s the greatest literary invention. In fact, we might not admit, it, but we all love the notion of our favorite characters living in a bigger more exciting universe filled with other interesting characters. But this isn’t just a comic thing, as it goes into many other mediums as well. I mean, I’ve lost track how many times Richard Belzer guest starred on other shows as Detective John Munch, and deeply suspect this is one of the reasons Kingdom Hearts was so popular a game. In comics, it’s become so commonplace of a deal that quite frankly it’s a non-event now. Superman and Batman are so intertwined with each other, that not only are they’re on a first-name basis, their sidekicks and partners are on a first-name basis as well. I’m under the old belief that if there’s no contradictions between two properties, then there’s no reason they cannot co-exist in the same universe. The recent batch of DC Animated movies are a perfect example of this. Other than All-Star Superman and New Frontier, there’s nothing in those movies that says all they couldn’t exist in the same universes with each other, even though officially, only the two Superman/Batman are related to each other. We usually term this ‘personal canon’, because official or not, we like the idea, but it’s not official. All stories written are in their own universes. It’s just what we personally choose to accept as canon. Are those movies in their own universes? Yes. But could they co-exist in each other’s universes as well? Yes. It’s like Schrödinger’s Canon. Until events in one story dictate that a shared universe is not occurring, then they are occurring. (This works the other way too, if you don’t want them to be shared.) And crossovers are the proof of it. (I mean, you can have cameos, but really, it’s not much more than a simple shout out.)

Crossovers has always been one of those subjects in comics that excite a reader and at the same time, fill them with dread. But when it comes to crossovers, there has to be a certain amount of logic with it. It makes sense why Batman would meet up with the Punisher. They’re both dark urban vigilantes, and in the 90’s they were both written by Chuck Dixon. (God, I miss him on those books.) It makes sense for Ghost to meet up with Hellboy. One’s a ghost and one’s a paranormal investigator. Things go hand in hand. But when you get a little more out there, you got to get more creative with crossover. Batman vs. Predator makes perfect sense, as the Predator wants to hunt the most dangerous prey, and in this case, that would be the Dark Knight. But Batman vs. Aliens makes no sense, as in order to make it work, you got to put Batman in the jungle with a crashed spaceship or something. And while that makes sense for the Aliens, it doesn’t really make too much sense for Batman, being that whole fore mentioned urban vigilante. (I’ll elaborate on this on a later blog post.)

And that’s something that’s the most important thing about crossovers… It has to make sense. Especially if the concepts are different enough. That’s another thing we love about crossovers and universes is playing the ‘six degrees of comic characters’ game, linking them to each other through various crossovers. (For example, Sabrina the Teenage Witch has meet Archie, who’s met the Punisher, who’s met Spider-Man, who’s met Batman who’s been romantically involved with Zatanna. Thus is it logical in our heads that Sabrina the Teenage Witch and her cat Salem can understudy underneath Zatanna.) But you have to give real thought to how it works out.

All the same, yet different. Very whelming...

The big obstacle to overcome is to make sure your crossover is compatible. (You also got to be a fan of the comic and creator as well, but that’s a given.) Now you would think that’s the easier part, but it’s actually the hardest. Because you have to apply that Schrödinger’s Canon to every possible candidate. Now some might say “Is that really all that important” to which I say ‘YES, it’s important!’ It’s the most important factor, because without that Schrödinger’s Canon lining up, then it’s not really that character. It’s just someone who looks like it. It’s like in the DC cartoons. You got Robin from the Batman: The Animated Series, and then you have the Teen Titans’ version of Robin, and then you have The Batman’s Robin, and then you have Young Justice’s Robin… And they’re ALL same Robin, but they’re not. Schrödinger’s Canon had declared them alternate versions of the same guy. Which really, if you stop and think about it… Is really a strange concept.

Now is a shared universe really all that vital? It’s not important at all. It’s just a fun nerd concept we all love. But it’s the same reason we hung around after the credits for Captain America to see the Avengers trailer. We’re nerds and we like universes. Sometimes we get our panties in a bundle, and complain a bit too much that shit doesn’t line up with each other. And people make fun of us for it, and we DO need to lighten up sometimes about it… But we shouldn’t discard it. Shared Universes is comics’ gift to the literary world. Comics and the fans are usually put down by others medias, but the literary tool of the shared universe was created by the comics creators and it’s fans, and it IS something we should embrace whenever possible and be proud of.