While I was reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, I was struck by a number of short, painful scenes where Scott is basically just explaining 80′s X-Men comics to his girlfriend, Ramona.

It reminded me of a number of times that I’ve done the same thing to past girlfriends when I was in my late teens through early 20s, even though they usually cared even less than Ramona did.

I know this from experience, never try to explain “Crisis on Infinite Earths” to someone who doesn’t care about comics.

But it hit me the other day. I have a four sentence description that sums the whole thing up:

“In 1985, DC Comics felt that parts of their fictional universe, like flying dogs with capes and multiple earths, were silly and confusing. So they wrote a story where they rebooted the universe and got rid of flying dogs with capes and multiple earths. Then, Grant Morrison reminded us that flying dogs with capes and multiple earths were awesome, and they brought them back.”

Can you be even more succinct? Can you find a way to condense a confusing and convoluted crossover into something that fits into the attention span of a non-geek?

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