Vercingetorix VII
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- Posted: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:16:23 +0000
Long answer:
Basically, it's wrong to think of any given comic line as being a single story in the continuity sense. Even within a supposedly singular world, such as the Ultimate Marvel Universe, or Earth 616.
What happens is that even though you have characters that are nominally the same- Batman, Spiderman, whoever- the authors change. And each author brings a different take on each character. Bob Kane's Batman is different from Adam West Batman is different from Frank Miller Batman.
And what's true about character personality is WAY more true of storylines and the supporting Universe for the hero or heroes. The last author may have wanted to turn the title line into a space opera, but the current author wants to bring the line back into a gritty, street-crime level, vaguely noirish feel.
This transition from author to author is the biggest single source of plot confusion in comic books. One author may sow the seeds of a long-running story they plan on telling, but leave before finishing it. The next author wants to pursue their own vision, so they alter things. This is also where a lot of characters get killed off, brought back from the dead, made evil, made good, converted or unconverted. Magneto will go from being a genocidal maniac who kicks puppies into a misguided visionary, into a good guy, back into a genocidal maniac depending on the desires and personal preferences of whoever's writing the story.
On tv.tropes.org, the term "Kudzu Plot", for plot ends that grow out of control, used to be called the Claremont Coefficient, for an X-Men author notorious for leaving unresolved plot lines.
And this is before there's a big crossover event or push from editing that throws a monkey wrench into whatever plot the author was planning for that standalone title.
The Ultimate universe is a good example of this. It started out as a vision of a streamlined, clean repackaging of decades of Marvel plotlines. They threw out what didn't make sense and constructed coherent backgrounds. However, it's been a few years on, and it's already starting to fall apart. Loeb's Ultimates (the Avengers) is one of the most egregious examples; Pyro is portrayed as basically a rapist puppy-kicking villain in one issue, for instance... despite the fact that Ultimate Pyro is actually one of the good guys in Ultimate X-Men.
Personally, I enjoy stories where the continuity issue is left vague and the author just creates a self-encapsulated plotline using whatever makes sense for them. Kingdom Come, The Dark Knight Returns, and 52 may all contradict each other, but they were great reads by themselves. The Joker, for instance, is a character that's gotten a fair number of dramatic deaths, but he's also too iconic and fun a villain to tell any new author, "Gee, well, we killed that character way back in '84, so you can't use him". They're not telling the same story anyway, they just happen to feature protagonists with the same name.
Short answer:
Joe Quesada has serious parent issues.
Basically, it's wrong to think of any given comic line as being a single story in the continuity sense. Even within a supposedly singular world, such as the Ultimate Marvel Universe, or Earth 616.
What happens is that even though you have characters that are nominally the same- Batman, Spiderman, whoever- the authors change. And each author brings a different take on each character. Bob Kane's Batman is different from Adam West Batman is different from Frank Miller Batman.
And what's true about character personality is WAY more true of storylines and the supporting Universe for the hero or heroes. The last author may have wanted to turn the title line into a space opera, but the current author wants to bring the line back into a gritty, street-crime level, vaguely noirish feel.
This transition from author to author is the biggest single source of plot confusion in comic books. One author may sow the seeds of a long-running story they plan on telling, but leave before finishing it. The next author wants to pursue their own vision, so they alter things. This is also where a lot of characters get killed off, brought back from the dead, made evil, made good, converted or unconverted. Magneto will go from being a genocidal maniac who kicks puppies into a misguided visionary, into a good guy, back into a genocidal maniac depending on the desires and personal preferences of whoever's writing the story.
On tv.tropes.org, the term "Kudzu Plot", for plot ends that grow out of control, used to be called the Claremont Coefficient, for an X-Men author notorious for leaving unresolved plot lines.
And this is before there's a big crossover event or push from editing that throws a monkey wrench into whatever plot the author was planning for that standalone title.
The Ultimate universe is a good example of this. It started out as a vision of a streamlined, clean repackaging of decades of Marvel plotlines. They threw out what didn't make sense and constructed coherent backgrounds. However, it's been a few years on, and it's already starting to fall apart. Loeb's Ultimates (the Avengers) is one of the most egregious examples; Pyro is portrayed as basically a rapist puppy-kicking villain in one issue, for instance... despite the fact that Ultimate Pyro is actually one of the good guys in Ultimate X-Men.
Personally, I enjoy stories where the continuity issue is left vague and the author just creates a self-encapsulated plotline using whatever makes sense for them. Kingdom Come, The Dark Knight Returns, and 52 may all contradict each other, but they were great reads by themselves. The Joker, for instance, is a character that's gotten a fair number of dramatic deaths, but he's also too iconic and fun a villain to tell any new author, "Gee, well, we killed that character way back in '84, so you can't use him". They're not telling the same story anyway, they just happen to feature protagonists with the same name.
Short answer:
Joe Quesada has serious parent issues.
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