Countdown, Ion and Green lantern: Pros and Cons of a shared universe in comics

I have recently reread the collected editions of the 2006 12-issue series following the adventures of Kyle Rayner, Ion: Guardian of the Universe. Reaching the end of the book I realised a few things, including why some books are never as strong as the could or should be. Namely, when they are used to set up other plots in other books.



Another stab of the knife as
Kyle is plotted against.



Taking Ion as an example (if you haven't read it, there will be spoilers):



I think that some books just need to be left to stand alone, other wise the writers can't really develop any satisfying drama. In the case of Ion, I really felt that it was hampered by editorial mandates to include outside stories. The only drama coming from the death of Kyle's mam, not from any internal or external conflicts.

The Monitor plot could have been completely contained in Countdown and didn't need to encroach on Ion, and the hints to what the then unannounced Sinestro Corps were doing didn't have a pay off because they lead to another book (Sinestro Corps Special, which kicked off the Sinestro Corps War).


Sinestro Corps Special - here Kyle's descent
happens in a couple of pages.
Coupled with the panel space
devoted to the Monitor story line in Ion,
 have we seen enough for Kyle
to break down like this?



Yellow rings shown at the end

of Ion. Why couldn't Kyle

have found one of his
 enemies wearing one?

The irony is that the Sinestro Corps War would have kicked arse without the lead up in Ion, where as Kyle's journey in both books suffered because there wasn't a strong enough connection between the two. Take away the interference of the Monitors and the Countdown tie-ins. Let Kyle's mission be to hunt down Sinestro - on the way he is attacked by old and new foes with a common leader. Make a bigger deal about the link between Alexander Nero, Effigy, Grayven, the Qwardians and of course the mystery illness that killed Kyle's mam. At the end Kyle could have found that Grayven was wearing a yellow ring (since yellow rings were on the last page anyway), this would have given the final battle more relevance and an in-book pay off to the plot against Kyle storyline before we find out who orchastrated it in Sinestro Corps.



Just as Ion lacked a punch at the end, we shouldn't have to read other books for the pay-off or conclusion of a story arc. Ion's drama came from the plotline involving his mother, which had only been set up a few issues earlier, rather than being in place from the beginning of the over all story arc.



Bruce Wayne returns just in time to get
Dick and Damian out of trouble.



The end of Grant Morrison's run on Batman & Robin showed the worst example I have ever seen of this. At the end of the big story line involving Dr. Hurt returning to destroy Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne's Batman and Robin. It looks like he is about to win, when in walks Bruce Wayne, fresh from The Return of Bruce Wayne to save them and kick the bad guy's arse. I'm sorry Mr. Morrison, but having a character who hasn't been in the storyline come back from the dead to solve the protagonists' problems isn't good writing. At the end of the arc, the protagonists should be able to (or not) solve the problem themselves. Bruce could easily have met up with them in the next story (see Batman: The Return), but how are first time readers going to react when they pick up the trade? "Where did the f*%$ did he come from?"

So having said all that, would I opt out of a shared universe for the sake of better stories? No, because happily we have stories like Identity Crisis that fit the other side of the coin. That prove to us that something really special can come out of the kind of shared universe that only comics can create. This was a story that had fingers in all the DCU pies, continued to affect stories for years afterward and it was really good. Part of the reason it was really good is because it explored the history and relationships of these characters that inhabit the shared world of the DCU and how their lives and adventures affect each other.

Deep down it is the relationships between characters that keeps us coming back each month. How the different storylines test and strengthen these ties. The next big crossover is War of the Green Lanterns and I have no doubt that it will be great. Why? Simply because Geoff Johns and the rest of the Green Lantern team have proven themselves capable of remaining true to the characters, no matter what tests befall them? No, but because editorial also has such faith in them, that they are left to write the best stories that they can.