Today, 2026 January 30th, marks the 16th anniversary of my premiere posting on Comics And...Other Imaginary Tales. I recommend reading the preamble (at least) from my initial offering, which can be found here, as context for today's post.
As this milestone "sweet sixteen" anniversary approached, I have now reached Season 5 of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, which I began watching back in early November, the day before my Planet Earth/Dylan Hunt post. I finished the eighth episode (s5.8) yesterday. It's been a great series so far, which I've enjoyed immensely (especially Harper and Rommy), but a friend warned me at the start that an abrupt change in direction occurs in the fifth season. After a brutal Season 4 finale, the status quo has been entirely upended as we encounter characters days, months, and years after we've last seen them, displaced in time and space. They've been living (and surviving) during this time, having undergone major changes along the way (and some regressions as well). This all reminded me of DC Comics' "One Year Later" event from twenty years ago (2006).
Maybe DC got the idea from Andromeda, since Season 5 began in 2004. Regardless of where it originated*, it was a pretty nifty publishing endeavor (I hesitate to use the term "gimmick"). After the big (miserable) Infinite Crisis event, DC dropped readers into each title, picking up with the characters "one year later". And a year in a comic book character's life is a looooong time in normal publishing. The character may be barely recognizable or their status quo has undergone tectonic shifts, leaving readers to ponder why and what caused this to happen to their "lives". Creatively, it allowed DC to mix up or establish new creative teams to move the needle on a character's story that otherwise would've taken years to achieve normally. It's both familiar and nouveau at the same time, with the ongoing story and the backstory unveiling simultaneously.
*Actually, Marvel did it first with Secret Wars back in 1984! Think Amazing Spider-Man #252 with the first appearance of his black symbiote suit or She-Hulk unexpectedly joining the FF in #265. (See my MMW post from last July for stories from that era, ironically not long before Marvel announced the cancellation/indefinite hiatus of the Marvel Masterworks line.)
[This is different from a hard reboot ala New Earth (post-Crisis), or a soft reboot like One More Day where they de-aged and de-married Peter Parker to make him sexually promiscuous and ruin his character for all time, as it happens in continuity.]
I co-opted DC's "One Year Later" label above for this comparison reflection on where I am...16 years later.
