Continuity in comics

[andrewducker]

I just wrote a massive comment about how I feel about continuity in comics and TV, inspired by reading The Mighty Godking's post about characters and aging in comics. And I wanted to preserve it over here. You'll probably want to read the article there before you read my comment, for context. But it's not mandatory.

I'll join the "because stories/universes that hit the big red reset button" don't tend to interest me over the medium term. I can happily watch an episode or two (or read an issue or six), but after a while I want character progression and change.

This is a grown-up thing. Kids don't need this so much, because kids are interested in the "here's a cool story about when the x-men met a mutant shark" without caring about the soap-opera elements so much. Adults care more about the changes that happen over time, and character growth. Again, not exclusively, but it matters more than it used to.

Babylon 5 broke TNG for me. Because suddenly I had a series that didn't just tell me a cool story of the week, but told me a story where people changed, and grew, and dealt with ongoing situations, and people referred to last week's episode, rather than ignoring the fact that this week's problem could be easily solved by the tech that they used to solve the week before last's.

Comics in stasis very much feel that way to me. It's great for writers that want to tell a story about version X of that character. And I think it's awesome that (for instance) Grant Morrison can write All-Star Superman. But if I was to be reading something regularly nowadays it would have continuity that mattered. And, indeed, the main thing I pick up issues of works like that - which is Powers. The last comic I bought in issue format, before I switched to trades was Lucifer, which was basically a single 75-issue story.

I prefer the way that DC handles this to the way that Marvel does. DC has a meta-storyline, which includes reboots, so that they can say "Yes, there was a version of Superman who did these things, but that was before Zero Hour/Crisis On Infinite Earths/Infinite Crisis. Now there is a new Superman with a different backstory, that allows us to tell different stories." Marvel just puts its fingers in its ears and pretends the issue isn't happening - that the current crop of superheroes always came into existence about 10-15 years before whatever year the characters are in.

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

So aging in real time isn't just aging realistically relative to the setting, it's aging relative to the publication dates?

[andrewducker]

Yeah, that seems to be what some people want.

[dpolicar]

(nods)

When B5 came out, everyone I knew was going on about how it was this radically new approach to storytelling because it didn't have the big reset button, it had story arc and continuity and actions had consequences and stuff.

To which my reaction was mostly "Oh! Like soap operas?"

Which didn't make me a lot of friends.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Soap operas have been known to reboot too. "Dallas" anyone??? :-)

[andrewducker]

Perfectly good point though. Soap operas have long storylines - but generally on subjects I'm not that interested in. SF tends to have explosive plot, but lacks on the character front. Mixing the two is great, as far as I'm concerned.

Take True Blood, for instance, a lot of that isn't really hard-plot based, and that's fine with me.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

It's hard to imagine a soap opera having a "Severed Dreams" moment, though.

[andrewducker]

God, I love that episode. Particularly Delenn's lines when she arrives.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was looking up exactly what they were only a few days ago. In very many ways, those lines are the exact high point of B5.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

Got to agree about B5. I've grown up watching a lot of tv with my parents. We started out with Buck Rogers and via Robin the Hooded Man ended up with Star Trek TNG. Which was great at the time. But having watched B5 the TNG has become so much less enjoyable, I want at least some continuity in my shows. The only one that has some, though not that much is Burn Notice. One of the few current tv shows I enjoy. Even if they aren't airing over here anymore. They cancel all the good shows. They did the same with The Pretender. I like a lot of things about my country, but the way they handle tv shows isn't one of them.