Superman & Batman: Generations III #9: "Century 27: A Soldier's Story"

[superboyprime]

'Once GENERATIONS is presented as any kind of coherent "universe" or "ElseWorld", it completely falls apart. It's like looking behind the curtain and finding out who Oz really is. The "hypertime" inclusion springs directly from Alan Moore's infamous "but aren't they all" line, in reference to "imaginary stories". For some reason that became a battle cry for FAR too many over-aged, ennui-engorged "fans", people who simply could not accept the old stories for what they were -- or GENERATIONS for what it was meant to be. Sigh.' - John Byrne

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

For all Byrne's... everything, he's still got good, solid storytelling instincts. Lara's turn here is logical and sobering.

A lot of authors have had to deal with their work being interpreted in ways they don't like, so I can relate when Byrne talks about that. But I'm not really sure what he means by "Once GENERATIONS is presented as any kind of coherent 'universe' or 'ElseWorld,' it completely falls apart." Does... does that mean it's not a coherent story? Are these just a series of non sequiturs? "I was aiming for incoherence?" What?

[superboyprime]

Generations has built-in continuity contradictions to mimick publication history. The big example is how the chapters set in the late 30s/early 40s portray Superman as only being able to leap, just like the comics of that period. While later decade stories portray him as having been flying since his Superboy days, just like the comics of THAT period.

[ozaline]

Okay that conceit makes sense for the first two Generations series which take place mostly in the past, but how does it work at all for this one which mostly takes place in the future?

[superboyprime]

It doesn't, really. It mainly applies to the first two. Though Byrne does do something that's a liiiiittle similar in 3, as will become clearer in future issues.

[tcampbell1000]

Gotcha. But we already seem to be well away from that, because (to be very very very optimistic) we don't know what comics will be like in the 27th century. Seems like Byrne crossed that line as soon as he skipped ahead of actual history...

[superboyprime]

Yeah, but his quote is about the Generations universe, or "universe" as he'd see it, as a whole, not just 3.

[wizardru]

He gets really hung-up on these distinctions between 'an imaginary tale', an Elseworlds, Hyper-time and whatever else, doesn't he?

This feels a lot like his Next Men work, where he was goofing on the timeline and psychic trickery and continuity resets and so on. It got very tedious THERE and no less so here. Especially with some of the problematic elements, like sending a black woman back in time, having her become a slave, get mutilated and then live out like 20 years in that past before murdering her slave master. Not a high point.

[ozaline]

Aside from cause and effect, I don't get the idea of launching multiple attacks further back in time. If the point is to hit them before they build up adequate defenses, then why not just take your whole fleet to that point?

[ovaltinepatrol]

In the group shot with Wonder Woman in the center, who is the character flying above the Green Lantern?

[superboyprime]

Just some random extra.

[starwolf_oakley]

It looks a *little* like Ultra-Boy from the Legion of Superheroes.