A Universe of Universes Part Two
Last time around we looked at the development of shared universes, which started back in the Golden Age of Comics. Today we’ll discuss the next major option available to publishers when it comes to shared universes: Declaring from Day One that your series all share the same universe.
Several publishers since the 1970s have launched their slates with the stated intent that all their series would be part of the same universe, including Marvel’s New Universe in the 1980s, the relaunch of the Archie/MLJ heroes by DC Comics under the Impact Comics label, Dark Horse’s “Comics Greatest Universe,” and more. There’s even a pair of great books on the subject: The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide to Lost Universes Vol. 1 and 2 from Gemstone Publishing.
I’m going to focus on the Dakota Universe from Milestone Comics, mostly because I was somewhat close to it. When I was editing the Superman and Batman Magazine for Welsh Publishing Group in the mid-1990s, I also edited a Milestone special, and I got to visit their offices. A few years later, after I joined the staff at DC Comics, I spent a year or two as the DC/Milestone liaison, which often meant having to call editor/writer Dwayne McDuffie with “input” from on high at DC about their books. Fun times!
Milestone launched in 1993 with what would become their four longest running titles: Static, Hardware, Icon, and Blood Syndicate. One of the great things about the Dakota Universe was that many of the characters had the same origin event in common: The “Big Bang,” in which the local authorities’ effort to stop gang wars led to the use of an experimental tear gas with a radioactive element that killed many but gave a few super powers. The heroes and villains who emerged from the carnage were dubbed “Bang Babies.”
These four core titles performed the best of the bunch, of course – but before long, Milestone added more titles as well as spinoff miniseries.
Unfortunately, within a few years, the initial impact of the Milestone titles had faded, despite some excellent stories, and even a major crossover with the heroes of the DC Universe. By 1997 Milestone was sending its final issues to press – until a couple of years ago, anyway. Like many new publishers, they ultimately lost the battle against attrition, even with the support of DC. Other possible contributing factors that could lead to the end of a publisher like Milestone: Their funding dried up. The best of their talent got poached by other companies. That exciting first buzz of publicity went away.
The key learning I believe many comics publishers ignore is that most fans have a limited amount of money to spend each week. When a publisher says “all these books are interrelated,” you’re hinting to fans that they need to keep up with all of them. And adding ancillary series to your slate doesn’t automatically mean fans will pick them up, even if they tie to your core titles. Especially since fans know that whatever happens with your awesome new series, Batman and Spider-Man aren’t going anywhere.
At the end of the day, promising a shared universe doesn’t guarantee success. But wait! There’s another model for comics publishers – one in which none of their series share the same universe, and every hero operates independently of each other. We’ll look at that model next time.