From my brief knowledge of Marvel Comics I have noticed one thing in particular. They like to change the universe, a lot. Take for example Civil War a giant mega-crossover that changed the course of every series it touched. My argument here is not that this kind of strategy is a bad thing, just that is a pain in the ass to catch up on. I haven't been reading Marvel for hundreds of years so I don't know what they mean when they mention a reference from Secret Invasion in a Marvel NOW series. I don't think that this is fair for anyone who wants to read a quality comic without having to buy every single comic that preceded it. I am however, enjoying how most have the Marvel NOW series have been based off of AvsX. I am not saying that AvsX was at all decent (it wasn't.) It's just kind of neat to see how the X-Men are dealing with Scott Summer's being so changed. That being said I don't think they should stop putting out big Marvel events (Mostly because I want to be able to read them as they come out, now that I have a better sense of the Marvel Universe.) I just think that Marvel should think through what will happen before they write the story. I say this because now with Marvel it seems like all of the writers who are writing about the aftermath of AvsX have to compensate for their co-workers lame story by writing about something that was minor but interesting in the event.
This is a problem that only Marvel has to deal with (Enter DC Comics.) It seems as though DC is scared to ever change anything in their universe. What was their latest event? Flashpoint? All we got from that was an origin reboot. If anything I would have DC do a what-if story. Take Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe even though I haven't read it, it seems like a fun story that would never actually happen but is cool to read about. May I suggest Lord Grayson, an alternate universe where Dick gets so drunk on power when he is Batman that he decides to kill Bruce when he returns and disbands the Justice League, making him the king. And what if Jason then challenged him for the throne? The main question is why not?
What I want to summarize about this post is two things. Marvel is too ambitious and needs to work on the actual content of their mega-events and DC needs to be more ambitious and throw a curveball sometimes. Please tell me what you think about it and if a Lord Grayson storyline is a good idea.
Marvel changes their universe going forward, but they usually don't change the past. Events that happened in X-Men #50 from the 1960s still "happened" in the Marvel canon. Meanwhile, in DC, many events that we read about in the past have been "erased" from the continuity. Just look at Supergirl. First she was Superman's cousin. Then they killed her. Then they erased her so she had never existed. Then they created a shape-shifter called Supergirl but NOT Superman's cousin. Then they erased HER and brought the original cousin back to their universe again. And that's just one character. It's happened for many others.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason readers get upset by this is that we've READ those old stories. So when the company waves its hand and says, "Those stories you read about never happened," people get frustrated (especially when they are stories we really enjoyed). Marvel may have changed Spider-Man going forward, but the old stories you read about 100 issues ago still happened.
And I say this as someone who doesn't read Marvel at all, and only reads DC... so this isn't meant as a knock against DC. I'm just explaining why I think Marvel can get away with changing their universe but DC can't.
I agree w/Mr. Viscido. If you're ever looking for back story just check out some of the character bios on their website. I don't think either Marvel or DC will be shaking things up all that much as far as universes go since they both seem to have to gear their books towards what may take place in their films. The storyline from all of the books seem much more unified than when I started reading them years ago (I'm 28 btw). Marvel also has the Ultimate universe to fall on when something may be too outlandish for their main titles.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Lord Grayson story line goes, it is a very interesting idea. We've just seen something similar when Azrael took the mantle of Batman & was drunk from its power. I would rather see the Bat Family almost completely fall out & have territories within Gotham that they rule w/their own forms of justice while Batman is absent.
I just have a friend do the sketch for what Lord Grayso might look like. Take a look on Google+ as I will be posting the pic soon.
ReplyDeleteMarvel does mess with the past albeit they are sneaky about it: Clones. How many stories give us some crazy moments in a characters history, only to find out that it never actually happened to THAT character, it happened to a clone. Marvel also employs stories about the Phoenix when they need a massive fix but we always see it coming because the Phoenix is so integrated into Marvel's history.
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