discussions about comic book continuity

[Extrocomp]

I'm in a particularly nerdy mood today. I feel like reading a long article that discusses how confusing and convoluted Marvel and DC continuity is, with plenty of examples given. Several years ago, I read such an article but now I don't remember where it is.

Where can I find a long nerdy discussion about continuity?

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Well, here is one that is mostly about Star Wars but touches on other franchises and dwells on continuity in general.

 

[crookeddy]

I'm in a particularly nerdy mood today. I feel like reading a long article that discusses how confusing and convoluted Marvel and DC continuity is, with plenty of examples given. Several years ago, I read such an article but now I don't remember where it is.

Where can I find a long nerdy discussion about continuity?

Well, wikipedia explains WHAT the continuity is in lots of details...

 

[coolghoul]

Why do fans like continuity so much?

I don't read individual monthly/weekly issues - mostly trades. And only those that become available. So most of the times I have no idea of what came before and what came after. Most of the times, it's not really necessary to know that. As long as you know who Superman is and the main characters in his series, you should be able to pick up a Superman trade collection and be able to read it (except maybe for the Blue Costume years). You might wonder about the weird mullet or something or how come he's working as a telecaster (as opposed to a newspaper reporter) depending on which era it's from. But in general things should make sense.

Does the continuity need stem from waiting for the next monthly, where during the wait, you start to add up clues and try to define the storyline of what needs to happen in the future? Or is it because of a need that we all have to know what is the beginning of a story and not join a story mid-way? Or is it about knowing more about the superhero(ine) that you follow than the average fan?

Idle musings - but there's the other need also that is in all of us and that's to listen to the same story again and again. I see it in my young neices/nephews all the time. It doesn't matter that they've seen a particular DVD 15 times, they will happily watch it all over again. Similarly I read the same trades again and again (or read the same book again after a bit of time). For superhero(ine)s, I think I am comfortable reading take-after-take of the origin story - some of which I'll like and some which I won't.

Things are somewhat contradictory about how/why we want continuity in our stories.

Thoughts?

 

[Christopher]

Why do fans like continuity so much?

One answer is that we like to be able to see our works of fiction as events within a larger reality, a world that holds together and has a history and interconnections and such. That's probably the root of it. Indeed, the impulse goes back to ancient mythology. The saga of Jason and the Argonauts increasingly became one big crossover orgy as later chroniclers retconned practically every hero of Greek mythology into the Argo crew. For that matter, the big ancient pantheons probably arose from various local communities getting together, hearing stories of each other's local gods and spirits, and then starting to tell stories of their interactions.

But I think a lot of it is just that it's expected. It's the preferred norm today that fictional universes have elaborate, cohesive continuities. It's fashion. I'm sure eventually we'll see a backlash as more people get tired of its excesses and want to see more self-contained, episodic stories. I'm sure some of that's happened already.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I remember when I was so innocent that I assumed that all fiction abided to and respected it's own continuity.

Good times.

 

[Smiley]

It's just the simple desire for stories to make sense and for important stories to remain important to the characters or at least be remembered. People don't tend to like a Seinfeldian "Never happened!" to be leveled at the stories they like, especially if they are invested in the character for the long haul.