Thrust said:
my god 52 sucked ! and I am a casual reader
Total agreement. Just further solidified why I usually stay away from Big Two superhero books. There are titles I've followed religiously in the past, but the only one that comes close to a DC/Marvel superhero book was Joe Kelly's run on Deadpool.
I see these comics multiverses more as a mythology than a literary continuity. If you really pore over the old Greco-Roman myths, you'll find multiple character and story interpretations from writers living around the same time. Compare how Aeschylus handled the gods in his plays compared to Sophocles or Euripedes, for example. There's a lot of material to be mined for stories, so I'm perfectly cool with alternate interpretations of characters and stories. Some of the best stories have been "Elseworlds" or "What Ifs?".
But all those options and complexities make "gateway drugs" that introduce new readers to the universe without overwhelming them all the more essential. Like the Ultimate universe was supposed to do, and what Marvel Adventures actually could do. I watched the old crappy Hercules cartoon long before I read the Iliad, after all.
Rocketboy13 said:
I actual find it strange sometimes that casual readers of comics don't like the multi-verse concept, its what they are getting everytime they watch a cartoon of the series.
You have a good point. Devoted sports fans have no trouble tracking the statistics of dozens of players and teams over multiple seasons, dedicated soap opera fans follow multiple plotlines and characters, and
Lost fans...do whatever it is
Lost fans do. Are comics really exceptional in their complexity?