Last week saw the much anticipated launch of the DCnU and while we haven’t been able to dive into 51 of the “New 52” yet, there has been a disturbingly consistent trend made evident by the pre-release info for these books: apparently when the DCU restructured after Flashpoint, marriage didn’t exist. Now obviously I’m exaggerating a little bit when I say that, but it certainly does seem that most of the prominent and non-prominent marriages of the DCU no longer exist within this status quo and have, in fact, NEVER existed as far as the new timeline is concerned. Click below and lets look at a few of the angles of this somewhat perplexing occurrence
Within the last two decades, the only type of event comics that came close to challenging the almighty death comic was the wedding comic, and the 90s sure were rife with them. However, its been a few years since both Marvel and DC orchestrated a large scale union of two characters and even the last pair of major company marriages (Green Arrow/Black Canary & Storm/Black Panther) are either dissolved (and I guess now written out of continuity) or on a break of some kind as mandated by some soul searching…or something. Then came the DCnU.
As of today, the only semi-prominent DC marriage publicly left intact is (mercifully) Buddy “Animal Man” Baker and his wife Ellen. This leaves such prominent couples as Lois and Clark, Barry and Iris and Apollo and Midnighter all ring-less and several other unions left suspect at this time (Aquaman and Mera chief amongst them). Like many continuity shifts, it appears as if none of these separations will be given an individual explanation other than what was given in Flashpoint #5 (more on this later).
This is not the first time this line of logic has been seen. Several years back, the One More Day storyline rocked the comics world as Marvel famously and dubiously pulled apart one of comics most enduring and long lasting marriages, Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson, though a quirk of retroactive continuity. While many fans were left wanting with the final modus for end of the union (a deal with the devil is just bad storytelling for any occasion), Marvel at least gave one and a few years later actually revealed how the continuity shift went down in the sequel story, One Moment in Time. Similarly, Marvel has had several mid to high profile separations over the last few years, be it Scott Summers telepathic infidelity or Hawkeye and Mockingbird’s marriage not surviving their multiple returns from the grave. However like it or not, these moves were explained and written into continuity whereas DC is seemingly maintaining that the unions never took place within their new status quo.
Obviously once it was revealed that these separations would be taking place, the backlash was almost instantaneous. However, according to DC Editorial there is more story potential in writing a character fighting super villains AND navigating the dating world than just one or the other and single characters are somehow more “relatable” than ones in committed relationships. But is that actually true? It depends who you ask.
Despite the efforts of evangelicals and hopeless romantics, the American populace at large seems to not view marriage in as high a regard as it used to. Divorce rates in the United States as well as percentages of children born out of wedlock both grew by at least two percent since 2009 and several polls indicate that youths and adults approaching or just outside of college age no longer consider marriage a do-or-die part of life. Given that, the shift from characters being married in comic books reverting to characters playing the field in comics does make a bit of sense as it creates a disturbing-to-some instance of art imitating life. However, I think there’s a little more to it than that and despite the somewhat dire picture I’ve painted, there still are a few beacons of logic for marriage in the comic world.
First of all, there are still plenty of healthy marriages and relationships in comics, be it the Cage/Jones union over in New Avengers, Invincible and Atom Eve or the aforementioned Buddy and Ellen Baker. Paul Cornell has stated that while Apollo and Midnighter are no longer wed, he absolutely does plan to reboot that relationship along with the rest of Stormwatch and insert some legitimate romance into it rather than making it an “oh look! Two gay super heroes!” spectacle type situation as it has been before. Even in the case of Spidey, while his marriage to Mary Jane may be off the books, he is still developing a quite committed relationship with new Belle Carli Cooper. Not only that, but the VAST majority of comics creators I have spoken to in my time are happily married (sometimes to each other) with families (don’t believe me? Check out Tom Brevoort’s Twitter for some adorable family vacation pic action.) Given that, to assume marriage won’t seep back into comics at some point would be foolhardy.
Like many things in the world of comics, only time will tell with this one.
