DC Universe #0 By Hervé St-Louis May 4, 2008 - 9:13:20 AM DC Comics Writer(s): Grant Morrison, Geoff Jones Penciller(s): Various Inker(s): Various Cover Artist(s): George Perez 50 cents

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I have not followed any of the multiple crises from DC Comics for a long time. All I can tell is that there is another crisis coming up and once again super heroes and villains are recruited to play a part in some big story that promises to change the future – again. Here a narrator introduces readers to the current DC Comics’ universe and tells them about the new threat to the universe. Most of the story is based on snippets from various DC Comics series.

Having Geoff Jones and Grant Morrison, who were the architects of the last crisis, be the ones designing this one again is not a good idea. It is too soon and the storyline may only be perceived as a salvo for the last big incongruent crisis. At this point as a reader, I don’t care about crises anymore. The first multipart series from the 1980s was great and really improved the storytelling and the way such stories are told. But here, barely a year or two after Infinite Crisis which did not make much sense to me and which I did not even read completely or bother to get the trade paperback, there is another crisis that promises to change everything again. At this point I don’t care about change or lack of it with DC Comics. I really don’t care and have given up on reading about the company.

DC Universe #0 shows everything that is wrong at DC Comics these days. It relies on the brand awareness of the 1980s best story and other great events from the past, instead of recreating new threats and challenges for its characters. It’s as if expecting that the publisher will survey new grounds is too much to ask, and readers are supposed to enjoy themselves reading the same story over again. We all read Crisis on the Infinite Worlds in the 1980s. We have all enjoyed it and hated it. We all know it changed things for the better or the worse. Do we need to go through that process every second year now? Can’t DC Comics take a cue from Marvel Comics which introduces a new major storyline to its universe every year and have readers coming back and asking for more?

Reading DC Universe #0, I have gained no knowledge and even worse, I have not being entertained. The return of Barry Allen, the second Flash is not what I consider interesting. How many times will this carrot be used to lure readers back in this arcane universe that really is on its last legs these days? How about a return to simpler times where super heroes just tried to make it to next day and had to deal with problems such as maintaining secret identities?

I don’t know what else to say. I’m just so confused about all these crises, these countdowns, these infinite whatever. I don’t care anymore.

The cover by George Perez, which looks good, helps in making this story feel like a retro rehash of the past. Nothing has changed in the DC Universe, although its creators like to think they have. The story is a series of spread by the various regular artists who work on the several regular series, such as Justice League, Wonder Woman and Batman.

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