Quote:

I'm Not Mister Mxypltk said:
Why are you so afraid of making it an option and not an obligation? If it's so obvious that it's the only way to go and that it's done so much good for comics, then everyone should go for it, don't you think? Unless, of course, they're part of an international continuity hating conspiracy desgined to bring it down from the inside...



Of course continuity is an option... they're called Elseworlds at DC and pretty much anything at Marvel.

Look at Darwin Cooke's New Frontier.

He wanted it to be in continuity, found it frustraring to make it in continuity and then was told to just tell his story and not worry about where it fits, so he's doing it.

Other writers, like Waid, want what they do to BE continuity.

It's not enough for them to just tell their story, they want it to be THE story.

THAT'S the problem.

When writers aren't happy with just telling their stories, when they expect it to become the new rules.

Darwin isn't interested in reinventing the wheel, he just wants to have fun telling his story.

Waid is interested in reinventing Superman because his Silver Age fanboy ego won't let him understand Byrne's Man of Steel and Crisis.

Then you have writers like Kesel and his World's Finest maxi series.

This is a writer that can have fun writing comics IN continuity and doesn't have to bitch, whine and cry in search of fanboys that agree with him that continuity's wrong.

So maybe you can't read something like World's Finest without crying, but, you see, that's becasuse you're ignorant about the content of such a series and you assume that it requieres that you have knowledge from other stories.

All that knowledge does, in relation to this or any other continuity story, is ENHANCE the experience.

It makes you go "Hah, I remember that!"

Yesterday I saw an episode of Angel where Spike told Fred about when he met Wesley years ago.

For someone that's NEVER seen Buffy, it sounded like one character explaining his relationship to another character, the same way we had heard about Spike having known Angel 200 years ago but never seen it.

To those that saw Buffy, like me, such a scene, such exposition, brings a smile to their face.

Spike says "I met him when he was a young Watcher, just starting out".

A fairly simple line of dialogue that, to those who know better, brings a sense of nostalgia and a grin to their face.

To those that don't know better, hopefully, will make curious to know more or they will just shrug their shoulders and think "Ah, so he knows Wesley, that's cool".

See the difference?

Comics are like a Rorschach test; everyone has a different opinion on what they are and can be...