Crisis of Multiple Characters

There’s been a proliferation of multiplicity taking place in comics over the last year and it does not seem to have affected comic sales or turned fans off. We’ve seen an army of Flash characters, a gaggle of Hulks, two Captain Americas (sort of), and a whole mess of Avengers.

But it seems as though the true test will be if two Batmans can coexist. Let’s take a look at this multitude of multiple characters:

Flash
You would be hard pressed to find a point in comic history where there were more Flash-family characters in continuity than there are now. We have three Flashes: the original, Jay Garrick; the first modern-day Flash, Barry Allen; and Barry’s protégé, Wally West. Add to the mix Kid Flash, Impulse, Jesse Quick, and Max Mercury and you are a few people short of a small town.

These characters are currently used throughout the DCU but not yet in their own book. To fully understand the history of the Flash characters is to understand the myriad of time travel stories (a crutch of a comic book plot device if ever there was one) that have made up their existence.

Hulk
How many Hulks are there? Well the title of the original Hulk’s current book is The Incredible Hulks. The book features the green Hulk (I’ll get to that shortly), She-Hulk, Red She-Hulk, Savage She-Hulk, and the three non-Hulk monikered characters A-Bomb, Korg, and Skaar. I don’t believe there is a character in comics whose status quo has changed as drastically or as frequently as Bruce Banner’s. He has gone from out-of-control misunderstood monster to in-control misunderstood genius innumerable times. He’s currently in control of the monster and traveling alongside a cadre of Hulks.

Then there’s the Red Hulk who has been terrorizing Banner and the rest of the Marvel Universe over the past two years. Recently revealed to be Banner’s former nemesis, General “Thunderbolt” Ross, Red Hulk is currently fighting on the side of the good guys in the pages of Hulk.

Captain America
While there is currently only one guy running around calling himself Captain America, it is difficult to not refer to Steve Rogers as Cap. After all he’s worn the red, white, and blue outfit since the character’s creation in the early 40’s. Steve was murdered a few years ago and has only recently reemerged; Cap’s former sidekick “Bucky” Barnes took over the patriotic mantle.

Now that Steve has returned, and often inhabits the same space as “Bucky”, it’s difficult not to refer to them as Captain Steve and “Bucky” Cap. As long as Steve Rogers is in the comic books, and he’s appearing all over the Marvel Universe these days, it’s going to be difficult not to see him as Captain America—mask or no mask.

The Avengers
For a team not founded by Charles Xavier, there are a hell of a lot of Avengers teams. Two teams reside in Manhattan and call themselves the Avengers (we call them The Avengers and The New Avengers). Then there is the Special Ops team called the Secret Avengers, a team of young heroes called the Young Avengers, and there’s a school for superhero education called Avengers Academy.

Someone must have done a whole heap of bad to warrant this much avenging.

Batman
Finally, the biggest name in comics is about to become a pair: Batman. This month Bruce Wayne makes his official return to the DCU in the final issue of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. Dick Grayson, his original ward, has taken on the role of the Dark Knight in the caped crusader’s absence.

Now that Bruce has returned you’d expect that Dick would go back to being Nightwing. Nope. They’ll both be Batman—and there may be additional Batmen. Dick is going to continue protecting Gotham City while Bruce takes his business internationally in Batman: Incorporated.