I leave BBC America on a lot, and I guess the Brits think Americans are a poxy, zit-covered lot, since ProActiv ads are on all the time. And they are always far louder than whatever was actually on.
I was going to drop the DC reboot thing for the time being; but it's like your tongue poking the spot a missing tooth was, irresistible. But, I was also thinking that Marvel seems to do a better job of retcons or reboots than DC--just polishing things up a bit, like updating the Fantastic Four from first into space or changing whatever war Tony Stark was injured in. And if there's a bit of continuity that isn't working or they would prefer removed, Marvel just resolves to never speak of it again. Marvel is more situational with their continuity, too: it's there if they need it, and they'll leave it lie if they don't. I mentioned some time back an old Iron Man issue where Tony's old friend/rival/villain dredges up all kinds of embarrassment, like the Crossing or the time Tony faked his death. (That last one was actually really good, but embarrassing for Tony in context.)
Whereas DC, on the other hand, has to make a big thing of it, like Crisis or Zero Hour or something. And then devote years of side project stuff like Secret Origins and Year Ones to patching together the current status quo. I sort of wish DC would just make everyone look younger, and call it a day. Everything would still be there somewhere, but we're not going to bring it up constantly. Or, in some cases, at all, ever.
On the other hand, while Grant Morrison has done all right with the situational approach to continuity in Batman, bringing up issues that hadn't been thought of for years; could you imagine trying to write Teen Titans that way? Um, no.
Good blog man, really good. I enjoyed the fake commercial since it's the god's honest truth on that subject.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why DC has to make a big deal out of retcons either, as your right about Marvel being more subtle about theirs, except for the whole Magical end to Peter and MJ's marriage. DC should just cop to the fact that their making their characters young again and be done with it. We're all adults, and can accept that these characters are(for now) financially viable properties that have to be freshened up every so many years. Mr. Peanut and Toucan Sam don't look the same as they did when they 1st appeared, and no one has a problem with that, so again like you say, DC should stop making a big deal out of nothing.
The problem does arise though with the utter physical/visual erasing of said character's history. That needs to be worked on to be a smoother transition than what is currently taking place.
Heh. Fabulous as usual. DC DOES need some continuity gloss, but it would be nice if they were a bit more subtle about it, instead of making such a huge hoohrah about everything.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm thinking about Taskmaster when retcons come up.
ReplyDeleteJust finished Unthinkable, and that is a lot of history to toss on a character.
The interesting bit, from my angle, is how Van Lente didn't erase much. Changed a lot of context without losing much content.
Also, it was good. Being good excuses a lot.