O Jericho, Where Art Thou? Oh brother...

Back in the days leading up to INFINITE CRISIS, continuity was (supposed to be) at an all-time high in the DC Universe. Pretty much all the storylines in all the books were reflected back on each other. It was so bad, that if (ha, when) a book shipped late, you had to backtrack your thinking to keep it all in order. Everything was tied together. Dan Didio said in an interview (and I'm totally "quoting" this from memories that are a few years old) that it was important for the continuity to be tight, so that the importance of INFINITE CRISIS could be felt, that it was affecting the entire DCU, and some other crap like that. But that after IC, the reigns would be loosened a little.

Well, the reins were loosened a lot. So much that it was impossible to follow any one character, as they'd be appearing all over the place with no discernible connections from appearance to the next.

• Supergirl was in the present and the future.
• Power Girl was running around with the JSA while apparently adventuring in Kandor with Supergirl.
• Giganta was simultaneously romancing Ryan Choi in THE ALL-NEW ATOM and pounding the crap out of Donna Troy in WONDER WOMAN.

It was just this side of ridiculous. But at least you could "justify" it as different writers and editors just playing around without checking up on one another. But...

Backstory:

Waaay back in THE NEW TITANS #83 (February 1992), Deathstroke ran a sword through his son, Jericho, to save Jericho's soul from the Trigon-tainted Souls of Azarath who were possessing him.

Between 2003 and 2007, in TEEN TITANS, it was revealed that Jericho had been inhabiting Deathstroke's body since his "death." He was then trapped onto a computer disk (what?), and eventually grown a new body and made whole and good. He took possession of Match (the evil clone of Superboy) and stayed in him to keep him under control at S.T.A.R. Labs until they could figure out how to deal with him.

But...what if you have the same writer and the same editors working on two different books, using the same character, but in no way connected to one another? How do you justify that...?

Two weeks ago:

TITANS #6
writer: Judd Winick
editors: Rex Ogle, Elisabeth V. Gehrlein and Dan DiDio
release date: October 15, 2008
artists: Julian Lopez, Prentis Rollins & Bit

The Titans return to Titans Tower, after rescuing Raven from the influence of Trigon (again), to find Match waiting for them. But his speech patterns are different. He cries out: "It's me! It's Joey! I'm Joseph Slade! I'm Jericho! Please, I need your help! I can't get out!"

So now we know that Jericho has been keeping Match under control since...
Oh. Wait...

DC UNIVERSE: DECISIONS #3
writers: Judd Winick and Bill Willingham
editors: Rex Ogle, Elisabeth V. Gehrlein and Dan DiDio
release date: October 15, 2008
artists: Rick Leonardi and Dan Green

Our heroes can't figure out why presidential candidates are trying to kill themselves, other than they are being controlled by somebody. Of course, the first person they suspect isn't even a super-villain, it's (as far as anyone knows) another hero! And they're right!

Jericho has been possessing the candidates and planting bombs so they'll be blown up!!

Except that he's still keeping Match under control at S.T.A.R. Labs. Isn't he...?

WTF? I'm so confused.

And why is Jericho suddenly a bad guy? Even in the solicitations for TITANS #9 it says: "With Jericho around, no one is safe. He can hide in plain sight, and he's far more powerful than he's ever been before." Yeah, he was bad when he was possessed by the evil Souls of Azarath. And still tainted from spending so much time living in Deathstroke's head (apparently he's so messed up that he can't even remember his name!). But Geoff Johns fixed all that before Joey took over Match. What up?

I know that Judd and Dan loved the Wolfman/Perez NEW TEEN TITANS. That's why they brought the line-up back together. But do they have to love it so much that they keep retelling the old stories? Raven under Trigon's influence, check. Jericho as a bad guy, check. I suppose the next storyline will be Cyborg getting a new flesh-and-bones body that rejects him... Or Donna Troy searching out her past...

C'mon guys, fresh, please. Fresh!

If anyone but Winick and DiDio were working on this book, I'd think the "Joseph Slade" slip was a clue. That maybe we're dealing with an alternate-earth Jericho. But neither of them are that clever, so it was just a stupid mistake that no one caught.

On the other hand, Julian Lopez's art has been a breath of fresh air!! I really wish he was sticking with the book.

Okay, the end.

Oh wait...

P.S. This is why I almost never write lengthy posts. They ramble and make almost no sense. And I don't have an ending to wrap it up pretty. Oh well, I guess you'll get over it. LOL