Greek Tragedies: Origin of the Shared Universe

Over two and a half millenia ago, the Greeks would go into the woods every spring to honor Dionysus. The festival consisted of drunken revelry and ended with a sacrifice. Over the centuries, the Greeks decided that instead of sacrificing valuable livestock, they could just tell a story that ended in death. These stories avoided the problems of sacrifices while entertaining the audience. Thus, theater was born.

But these plays, called tragedies, also planted the seeds for another form of storytelling: superhero comics. Each playwright would take an event in Greek mythology and tell their version of it. Each author had his own perspective about the characters and events. Euripides wrote Agamemnon as an honorable leader trying to protect his people, while Aeschylus portrayed him as a cruel and selfish tyrant.

Today, each comic book publisher has a shared universe filled with characters, just like Greek mythology. Every writer picks a character or a group and uses them to spread his/her own message. Or that writer might retell a past story with a new interpretation. And like the Greek playwrights, each comic book writer might portray a popular character from any possible perspective.

Funny link for the week: Google Trends is a nifty feature that lets you see the popularity of search terms over time. The SomethingAwful forum members find the best use for it. There's some naughty words, so you might not want to read this at work. Of course, why are you reading my blog at work?