In the modern day we see Comic Books being adapted into movies and television, film studios attempting to cash in on the new craze and build entire universes of their own while comic book companies catch along the coattails and change their entire layout to fit the public's perception. But in the modern age of comic books, what matters more: Creativity or Continuity?
Comic Books. You know many years ago admitting your interest in these ink-cascaded issues was something you'd get teased over. But as soon as Batman and Iron Man took the movie screens the escalation jumped for the comic book genre. Now everyone and their mother-my mother included-is gaga for Tony Stark! Everyone thinks Captain America is cool and people actually know who The Black Widow is. Characters like The Flash and Green Arrow are getting attention by people unaware of their existence beside Batman and Superman. These days if you admit you like superheroes, you're welcomed into conversation instead welcomed into the inside of a locker. Guys like me who bury their nose in comic books now won't have to worry about people teasing Aquaman or misunderstanding how Superman's powers work. It's a great age we live in! Isn't it? For as popular as these movies are, we comic book fans can't ignore the obvious pandering to the film industry from our favorite comic book companies. Wolverine didn't die because he lost his healing factor, he died because the company distributing his comics can't put him in their movies. More than ever we are seeing an age where the consistency of comic book companies are becoming a dangerous factor. How can Marvel brand Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as Inhumans when they've been mutants for so many decades? How can we have an old Hank Pym in the movies if our comic book Hank Pym doesn't look like Michael Douglas? Comic book fans: our world is changing. All of them. DC Comics just killed off the universes of every story we've ever read before The New 52. And look at Marvel, I may have been wrong about "The Fox Segregation" but how wrong was I? Johnny Storm is joining The Inhumans, we're getting a new Wolverine who isn't Logan, characters like Vision, Black Panther and Ant-Man are getting more attention not for their credit as characters, but solely for the reason of their cinematic appearances. And how is Marvel Comics explaining this "All-New Marvel Universe"? With an event called "Secret Wars". Homages and callbacks made simply to excuse their movie-branded reboot. Oh and it is a reboot, no matter how you slice it. If you were going to write this event off as "a new chapter" why end the first issue of "Secret Wars" with a tombstone that says, "The Marvel Universe 1961-2015, The Ultimate Universe 2000-2015"? When you kill one universe and replace it with a new one, it's called a reboot.
Now I've been thinking about this over and over, guys. Deciding if DC Comic's claim to be more about story than universe is a good idea. While I do factor story beyond all else when reading a comic book, the world at large lends to the story. Sure, maybe I want to know what happens when Bruce Wayne becomes a New God, but I'd also like to know who's going to look after Gotham as Batman? Oh, Jim Gordon? Okay, what does Batgirl think about her father being Batman? Will she tell Tim Drake? Will this event effect Tim Drake while he's on The Teen Titans? You can't just drop a jar and not expect glass to get everywhere! Stand-alone stories are all fine and good but when you've been pitching a shared universe for some seventy years and you've "revamped it" numerous times you're not just going to wash away fan response by saying "oh well! Do-over".When the first issue of The New 52's "Teen Titans" came out, they confirmed that the old-school team (Dick Grayson, Wally West, Donna Troy and others) never existed, we also saw Starfire appear in "Red Hood & The Outlaws" confirm to Roy Harper-who was also an original Titan-that she has no memory of her fellow Titans despite the older Teen Titans never existing. And of course upon complaints of this, DC Comics edited the book and took that dialog out. If comic book companies really want to make a shared universe without the worry of misplacement or inconsistency they should just do this:
Draw up an encyclopedia of your characters and have a few close employees manage it. Every time an important event happens to a character, add it to the character's bio. Before any writer decides to use a character, they have to check the encyclopedia, read what the character has been up to and adjust the character to include those events. If a writer wants to do something with a character unrelated or within a different version, write it off as "What-If story" that has nothing to do with the main universe. You want Iron Man in your new Avengers book, fine. But you'll have to read how Writer #1 gave Iron Man a new cybernetic limb and include that so this ties together. Is it a simple solution? Yes. Is it necessary? No. But when your story isn't just your story, you have to be willing to make acceptations and respect the toys your borrowing.
Comic book companies think that ditching connectivity, dishing out good stories and using their best-known assets is a good strategy, and for a business it is, but not every comic book fan is a new reader. Some readers have been by their sides for decades, through every universal reboot, through every crossover event, they've been there as loyal as when they came. And they deserve recognition for their commitment. It wasn't just the movie industry that launched comic book characters, it was the fans behind the books who said, "No, this is a cool character". Making things simple for a new audience may be a clean idea, but comic book companies can't erase the past in which they were nothing but comic books distributors standing on one leg to stay in business. You can't erase that past, especially when every comic book store in the country has that past inside long, white, cardboard boxes. Continuity and creativity should stand hand-in-hand despite criticism or hardship, instead of submitting to a less-than-interested target demographic. Comic books aren't about branding, they're about another world. And this new world of comic books shouldn't be old or new, it should be ours. That is what the modern age should be. Thanks for reading.
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