Crisis On Infinite Earths - Continuing Continuity Issues

Continuing Continuity Issues

The changes made in the wake of Crisis were not implemented consistently. The series was published over the course of a year, with ongoing series continuing simultaneously. In addition, several stories set in the previous continuity were published following the series' final issue. Initially, characters who were present at the final battle at the dawn of time remembered their original histories until their post-Crisis histories were fully established, a process that sometimes required years to completely play out. Furthermore, revamped or relaunched versions of titles debuted at different times, with DC continuing to feature old versions of characters until new versions were launched, sometimes a year or more later. As a consequence, a series intended to streamline DC continuity introduced additional complexities.

Several characters such as Hawkman, Donna Troy, and Power Girl saw their origins complicated by the changes implemented by the Crisis and the various reboots of characters. The Superman line saw particular continuity issues regarding its supporting cast. In an effort to return Superman to his special status as the "last son of Krypton" DC had used the Crisis and the Man of Steel limited series to eliminate most of the Kryptonian supporting characters. For Supergirl this was not a major problem initially since the character had died in the Crisis. However, later writers would bring the character back using various explanations ranging from her being a shapeshifting alien to her being an angel. Power Girl, originally introduced as a cousin of Superman still existed however. With the mandate to reduce the number of Kryptonians in the DCU, her origin was changed to being a descendant of ancient Atlanteans who mistakenly believed herself to be Superman's cousin. Donna Troy's origin was similarly complicated by Crisis. Originally she had been an orphan who Wonder Woman raised on Paradise Island. However, Crisis had eliminated Wonder Woman from history; the character would not debut in the new DC Universe until the next year. Her origin was therefore rewritten to involve the Greek Titans.

Other inconsistencies include:

• Action Comics #590: The narrator recounts exactly how Chemo is destroyed on Earth-4 by the Negative Woman in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9, stating, "Weeks ago on a parallel earth that no longer exists," and goes on to specify how he survived when all the Earths merged into one single Earth at the end of the Crisis.
• Superman #8: Superman was referred to mistakenly as Superboy (the young Clark Kent from the Time Trapper's pocket universe) by the Legion of Super-Heroes. He recalls meeting a Superboy (Earth-Prime) during the Crisis and that he was not around long enough to make any enemies. The problem is that the Earth-Prime Superboy should not be remembered.
• Legion of Super-Heroes #38: During the mourning of Superboy, a statue of Supergirl is seen. The statue, like the others in the background, is made in dedication to fallen Legionnaires. The Supergirl statue would be removed by issue #51 when DC enforced her nonexistent status.

The Crisis had also been intended to eliminate the multi-verse. All stories were now supposed to be set on a unified new Earth. However, as time went on many creators found the idea of alternate universes and timelines to be too interesting to abandon.