Warning: Spoilers ahead for Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales From the DC Vault #4!
Even DC Comic’s silliest character – Ambush Bug – makes fun of continuity reboots. In the latest issue of Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales From the DC Vault, Ambush Bug is continuing his role as narrator while being the janitor at DC Comics’ headquarters. In addition to providing new stories to readers, he is also providing commentary that may be very familiar to fans.
Ambush Bug first appeared in 1982 in DC Comics Presents #52 and has been both a hero and a villain. He has the ability to teleport and has proven to be self-aware of his comic existence. He has helped various teams including the Doom Patrol, though he saw his role shifted during The New 52 era. At that time, Ambush Bug was a reporter in the “Channel 52” closing features of New 52 comics. Recently, Ambush Bug underwent a career change, becoming a night janitor who has access to DC’s “secret vault” of unpublished stories. Now he provides commentary and gags for these assorted tales and their featured characters.
Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales From the DC Vault #4, written by Elliott Kalan with art by Mike Norton, features a story about Wallace West, also known as Kid Flash. This story highlights the trouble Wallace finds at school when one of his teachers opens a portal to a dark universe. Just before this adventure begins, however, Ambush Bug provides commentary that fans have heard – and made – countless times. He introduces the story and its characters, remarking on DC’s “tradition” of having a new generation that older heroes mentor and pass the torch to. He makes sure to finish this remark by adding in that the older heroes yank “that torch back when the universe starts over.” Just for good measure, he also throws in a revamped bar of “Circle of Life”: the “Circle of Continuity” that “reboots us all.”
By this point, DC has rebooted their comic universe numerous times, resetting and adjusting continuity. Just recently, they published the Dark Nights: Metal and Death Metal events, which caused rifts in continuity. These events paved the way for the upcoming Infinite Frontier, which allows all stories to be part of continuity, even if they happen in alternate universes and under different DC labels. These endless reboots have become more frequent and there is no guarantee that Infinite Frontier will succeed where every other continuity has failed. What is certain is that DC knows that this is a problem – so much so, that a silly character who is self-aware cracks jokes about it without hesitation.
The craziest part is that Ambush Bug isn’t wrong – and he knows it affects him too. Although DC introduces new characters and sidekicks who are supposed to take up the helm of their mentors in the future, those futures rarely seem to actually come – aside from in the pages of events. Usually, when events – like Futures End – are over, they still reset and go back to the former status quo – typically as a result of the Flash himself! The multiverse was only revealed because of The Flash and it has been altered many times by the speedster. Ironically enough, Barry Allen just recently fully handed over reigns to Wally West, as the original Flash plans to take on a new role – if DC Comics lets him.
