http://www.newsarama.com/pages/DC/Dan_Bob_2004.htm

Quote:

CB: Some have said that DC really need something like the Ultimate line, offering a new continuity-starting-over approach to the DCU for newcomers-and some have even described Supreme Power at Marvel as "Ultimate JLA." Have you considered a DC Silver line, or some similar DCU approach?

Dan DiDio: It's such a double-edged sword... We've considered it, and we've talked it about, but I have books now that haven't reached their full potential, and I want to focus our energies there. Until the characters that we're doing maximize their sales, we need to focus on that, not on creating a new alternative universe for those same characters, or some derivation of those characters. Continuity can be used as a plus or a minus, and that's one of the things that we've all become acutely aware of. The reality is, we're trying to tell the best stories rather than focusing on a given universe's continuity. We're experiencing, in some cases, what we call "selective continuity"-building upon the stories that people remember most and pushing aside-maybe even ignoring entirely- the stories that have less influence on current events, or those that can actually bog down characters.

People who remember the Silver Age sometimes overlook the fact that the Silver Age had a lot of stories that violated continuity; in the years since, creators have picked up the elements that worked best for them and ignored those that interfered. To a degree, we have to be willing to do that now. Books like JLA: Liberty & Justice sort of select and build their own continuity, and they do it so effectively that readers aren't at all confused or disappointed. I think that success breeds continuity. The more successful the story is, the more excited people are about reading a story and building continuity from it. We're being a little looser around the edges in paying attention to the continuity of the past.

What people remember most about the characters is what's important. JLA: Liberty & Justice and DC-The New Frontier are fine examples of that: we could have forced them into continuity or put them in an Elseworlds niche, but we didn't want to diminish the attention that the books would get by doing that. Ultimately, we have to realize that DC continuity is a moving target. We tell generational sagas, but our prime characters don't age, so we have to build a continuity around that. In some cases, such as Flash and Green Lantern, continuity moves forward and dramatic changes take place-but Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman don't change, and we have to work around that.

Bob Wayne: No one should expect that the characters are now in their late eighties because the books have been around for sixty years or so. I don't think it would make for very exciting comics.

Dan DiDio: Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily a good thing-and neither is continuity for the sake of continuity. I don't think it's the best answer. You can talk to any writer with a long run on a book and he'll tell you about stories he did that regretted-or even ignored-later on, because those stories interfered with better stories later on. And too much attention to continuity can really hold a book back. The last thing I want is to produce a new series that has to be footnoted to death in order for people to understand it.

Bob Wayne: ...And footnoted with references to comics that the average reader doesn't have a copy of or doesn't have any access to, so it's an exercise in frustration.




I'm starting to like this DiDio guy.