Omniverse by Mark Gruenwald, Fictional Realities

[Ryan]

Doing some research into comic book realities that I hope to apply to a study of VALIANT, but I'll post this here since it's not directly related. I think this will be interesting to a lot of the fans on here who love VALIANT and other dead universes.

Mark Gruenwald made 2 issues of Omniverse, The Journal of Fictional Reality. Prior to that he made 2 other fanzines, Treatise on Reality in Comic Literature (1976) and A Primer on Reality in Comic Books (1977).



Those are quite rare and hard to find, TORICL recently went for $375 on ebay. There are some digital copies of Omniverse floating around however. Here's an excerpt from the first issue.

CASE STUDIES:COMICS

by MARK GRUENWALD

Scarcely a month goes by without the publication of a new comic book story whose premise deals with some aspect of fictional reality. This column will stay abreast of current comics by reviewing them in light of their reality depiction. Several factors will be taken into consideration in each review. First, intrinsic consistency: does the story contain contradictions, lapses, or logical loopholes? Second, extrinsic continuity: is the story consistent with previously established events and characters? And third, the Omniversal Theory: does the story fit into the framework of the simplest synthesis of the most knowns?

The seeming problem with something designed to be as all-inclusive as the Omniversal Theory is that it encompasses the "good" stories and the "bad," the well-wrought with the hackneyed, the careful with the flagrant. After all, if the Omniverse has room for everything to be real, doesn't that grant equal validity to all stories, regardless of their merits?

By no means do all stories (as written) readily fit into the Omniverse as it has been described. It sometimes requires massive reinterpretations of phenomena to award a given story a place in a rational system of co-existent realities. The excuse that a given story takes place on its own Reality Line, to explain its inconsistencies is a cop-out if the story is not upfront about it, stating in effect, "The story you are about to read is true, but not for the characters you read about in last month's issue."

This column, then, will determine which stories are Omniversally sound as written, which ones have to be reinterpreted, and which had best be ignored. After each case study, we will assign a Reality Rating, assessing the story's overall depiction of reality. Our scale shall be:

A: Enhances continuity or illuminates some new facet of reality.

B: Despite some minor oversights, solid in its depiction of reality.

C: Major problems in its depiction of reality, but still explainable.

D: Detrimental to the reader's understanding of reality.

It would be fun to go through Post-Unity and apply this Reality Rating. I have a feeling the C's and D's would start piling up post Birthquake.

[Man-of-The-Atom]

Cool.

[Ryan]

Cool.

I thought you might appreciate this. I'll post a couple of the reviews soon. He breaks down some time travel comics which is interesting.

Gruenwald was also the one who established the time travel rules in the Marvel Universe. I think it was that every time someone time travels an alternate reality is created. Not sure if that's still followed at all these days.

[Man-of-The-Atom]

Cool.

I thought you might appreciate this. I'll post a couple of the reviews soon. He breaks down some time travel comics which is interesting.

Gruenwald was also the one who established the time travel rules in the Marvel Universe. I think it was that every time someone time travels an alternate reality is created. Not sure if that's still followed at all these days.

It was, but yeah, I don't think they respect that anymore.

[Ryan]

Cool.

I thought you might appreciate this. I'll post a couple of the reviews soon. He breaks down some time travel comics which is interesting.

Gruenwald was also the one who established the time travel rules in the Marvel Universe. I think it was that every time someone time travels an alternate reality is created. Not sure if that's still followed at all these days.

It was, but yeah, I don't think they respect that anymore.

Were there any time travel rules for VH1? I'm trying to remember. When Ivar would change something, would it make it so it had always been like that, or did it create another timeline? Maybe they didn't even get that specific. I'll try to take some notes when I re-read.

[Man-of-The-Atom]

Cool.

I thought you might appreciate this. I'll post a couple of the reviews soon. He breaks down some time travel comics which is interesting.

Gruenwald was also the one who established the time travel rules in the Marvel Universe. I think it was that every time someone time travels an alternate reality is created. Not sure if that's still followed at all these days.

It was, but yeah, I don't think they respect that anymore.

Were there any time travel rules for VH1? I'm trying to remember. When Ivar would change something, would it make it so it had always been like that, or did it create another timeline? Maybe they didn't even get that specific. I'll try to take some notes when I re-read.

Ivar had two rules.

One was that history could not be changed. If someone found themselves in another era, they were always meant to be there.

The other was to always carry bubble gum to give out.

[Ryan]

Cool.

I thought you might appreciate this. I'll post a couple of the reviews soon. He breaks down some time travel comics which is interesting.

Gruenwald was also the one who established the time travel rules in the Marvel Universe. I think it was that every time someone time travels an alternate reality is created. Not sure if that's still followed at all these days.

It was, but yeah, I don't think they respect that anymore.

Were there any time travel rules for VH1? I'm trying to remember. When Ivar would change something, would it make it so it had always been like that, or did it create another timeline? Maybe they didn't even get that specific. I'll try to take some notes when I re-read.

Ivar had two rules.

One was that history could not be changed. If someone found themselves in another era, they were always meant to be there.

The other was to always carry bubble gum to give out.

yeah I need to put that one on my re-read pile.

[Man-of-The-Atom]

Cool.

I thought you might appreciate this. I'll post a couple of the reviews soon. He breaks down some time travel comics which is interesting.

Gruenwald was also the one who established the time travel rules in the Marvel Universe. I think it was that every time someone time travels an alternate reality is created. Not sure if that's still followed at all these days.

It was, but yeah, I don't think they respect that anymore.

Were there any time travel rules for VH1? I'm trying to remember. When Ivar would change something, would it make it so it had always been like that, or did it create another timeline? Maybe they didn't even get that specific. I'll try to take some notes when I re-read.

Ivar had two rules.

One was that history could not be changed. If someone found themselves in another era, they were always meant to be there.

The other was to always carry bubble gum to give out.

yeah I need to put that one on my re-read pile.

It was a good series, heh.