Continuity vs. Attracting New Fans
Valerie D'Orazio at Occasional Superheroine has an interesting post up about the intentions of DC's Final Crisis. When everyone is asking what we can do to attract new readers, is DC content to keep the fans it has and simply feed ideas up the pipeline to its Time Warner parents?
Are comics nothing more than a breeding ground for movie ideas and characters? Do sales of the monthlies matter little anymore? Or is Valerie just a tad too cynical in her thinking?
Check out the post right here then come back and let us know if you agree with her.
Goblin
Posted to Comics on 2 June 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: DC, Final Crisis, Movies, Sales
For DC, I think she’s on the money. For the WB Corporation, the entire floppy and trades of its DC shared universe is chump change. Feed the hardcore and you’ll maintain a starting audience for your more expensive television and movie productions.
Of course, DC isn’t the WB’s only comic imprint, just the largest. Get out that line and there are the titles trying to appeal to more casual audience. Get away from the big two and their business imitators and you’ll find different approaches to the business side of the art. Or head for the wilds of the webcomics, where the business side is even stranger.
It's actually possible to write comics that are consistent with existing continuity, and make good and nuanced use of it, but are accessible to new readers as well.
Right now, DC is doing the exact opposite. They are writing stories that will utterly confuse anybody who isn't steeped in DC's history, cast of characters, etc. *But* the stories contradict each other and existing continuity, thus irritating many long-term readers. I have no idea who these stories are being written for, but it's not me (and I am a big-time continuity fan).
The Superman at the end of Countdown, watching Darkseid battle Jimmy Olsen and Orion, does not talk like he's the Superman who just watched the New Gods get wiped out in The Death of the New Gods. The Orion and Darkseid at the end of Countdown don't seem to be the versions present at the end of TDotNG, either.
The JLA in Final Crisis all sound like the New Gods are characters that they have had vague, rare, and mysterious dealings with, and don't know very well. Despite the fact that Mr. Miracle, Big Barda, and Orion have been members of the JLA, and practically every major character has been to Apokolips and taken on Darkseid at one time or another.
None of the JLA seems to wonder why the Guardians are going postal over "deicide" - going so far as to cordon off Earth - when they know that Orion is of the same group/race as Lightray, Big Barda, and Darkseid, all of whom have been killed on Earth recently - with no major reaction from the Guardians.
And no one (such as Oracle) who has heard about the Dark Side Club has said "I wonder why these new, seemingly-human, characters are using the same names as the recently-dead New Gods?" Instead, they're acting like they've never heard of them.
Mind you, I'm only talking about the end of Countdown and Death of the New Gods, and the beginning of Final Crisis, all of which came out within a few months of each other. But these kinds of contradictions have been piling up steadily since Identity Crisis, and my willing suspension of disbelief is sagging below sea level - the level at which I say "who cares anyway?" and DC doesn't get any more of my money.
And yet everybody is saying these stories are designed only for lovers of DC continuity. I don't think they're designed for anybody.
Dan Didio says that Final Crisis will lead to a "cohesive universe" for the fans. That'll be different, anyway. But it's a lot to expect from a 7-issue series - especially one that starts out as contradictory as this one.
The Green Lantern: Rebirth trade paperback is what got me reading comics on a consistent basis again. Without this partial reboot and retcon, neither DC, nor this site would be enjoying my dutiful readership. When I was a kid I could only get the occasional, random comic at the grocery store, before that practice met it's demise in the mid nineties. Then over the years I stopped in and checked up on characters that I liked.
This is easy because comic book characters exist outside of time as merely character profiles. We evaluate comics by comparing them to these profiles. When Hal Jordan went crazy and became a villain I got really ticked off, because he wasn't behaving like he "should" behave. Sure it mixed things up, kept them from stagnating, and they introduced the blandest Green Lantern ever, but I didn't want any of it. I wanted Hal Jordan. Geoff Johns granted my wish and now I repay him monthly with small sums of money. He's earned it for bringing Hal Jordan back to where I wanted Hal Jordan to be. Geoff had a lot of work to do to come up with an inventive solution, and it was a little hard to stomach certain points where logic gave way to "just 'cause I said so" but I glossed over them because I got what I wanted.
The urge to have uniform continuity will always be at odds with the desire to keep our favorite things from changing.
Maintaining the DC Pantheon isn't just good business sense, but it makes casual fans happy. Many hardcore fans forget that we do exist, and we do buy comics and memorabilia on an irregular basis. Every now and then DC shakes things up, and then they have to invent a way to "unshake" them. They periodically retell origin stories with updated events (Batman would be in a nursing home without this) but they maintain the essence of the character. This also makes it easy to introduce people to the comics. The details of their lives shift around but basic events, and the basic feelings persist.
I used the word "pantheon" intentionally because the Greek gods were also subject to partial retcons, mistakes, and enough continuity errors to make Star Trek blush. However we all understand the basic profiles of each character. We can pick up any story involving Zeus and understand who he is, in the same way I'm totally cool reading a rehashed origin story about Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern.
Final Crisis will result in some changes, but not many, and almost nothing will be cleared up or clarified. The next continuity will also be replaced by another event, and another, etc. Until we reach Eternity Crisis XVII: Epilogue: Part III.