In part one of DC’s Generations initiative, Generations Shattered, we got to see heroes from all across the DC timeline come together to stop the growing threat as was revealed to be Dominus as he was having his own WandaVision moment and trying to create the perfect life for him and his “family.” Dominus is a “newer” character for the DC Universe, but this is a major level of danger he is bringing at a time where we as fans are stuck between Death Metal and Future State. So why now, and what does Generations mean for the DC Universe and us?
Happiness is what it means. We all just want to be happy and enjoy what we have, right? Looks like that is the same goal that Dominus has, and in order to achieve that, he needs to destroy “old time” and keep building up his reality using “the chronal energy from other timelines.” It’s kind of funny, the “meta” message here, as we often find our fandoms clashing with opinions of what is canon and what isn’t. Like, who is the real Superman? Could it be Golden Age Superman, or the Superman of Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, the New 52, or maybe Christopher Reeve? There has been a saying floating around since Death Metal: “it all matters”. This story embodies that idea, as if we look to our cast of characters they shouldn’t even be able to interact with each other. Golden Age Batman didn’t exist in Steel’s time of publication, and Superboy being on this team really changes things because the Superman who died didn’t have powers as a boy.
Either way, the real fun of this series is that we can enjoy these characters coming together to stop evil. Writers Dan Jurgens, Robert Venditti, and Andy Schmidt just did something way cool by reaching into “DC’s toy box” and pulling out all kinds of great characters to have fun with. Should we really care about which timeline or world Superboy comes from? Or should we be excited to know that it came full circle when Steel, who became a hero after being saved and inspired by Superman, inspired him to rise up? I don’t want to spoil the other characters that pop up in this issue, but how awesome was it to see characters interact with each other that we didn’t think could? Plus, I liked that in order to stop Dominus, the characters really had to do some dark things and they even challenged themselves as a group on what is the right thing to do in a dark but deep conversation. So, if you’re looking for a wide mix of characters from DC’s publishing line coming together to face the end with some philosophical battle tossed in, check this out.
Now let’s talk about…SPOILERS! Something I found interesting was when the characters were put back to their time there was no erasing of memories, so can that change what they know and will that be played up later? Dominus has a lust for Kismet and it was interesting to see him build a family; could the wife have been modeled after Kismet?
From “old man” Booster Gold and Waverider’s explanation, time seems to be nicely put back together. We now have something called the “Linearverse”, and I can’t wait to see that explored. And that last page! Of course it ends with “the beginning” but I really can’t wait to see what comes next. Infinite Frontier, maybe?
It was nice to just let the characters come together and play. Why get hung up on continuity and chronology with these imaginary stories? After all…aren’t they all?
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