The Big Picture: Continanity

[ZeroMachine]

And this is why the only comics I ever read were Watchmen and the Halo comics...

I like a normal and simple continuity, thank you very much.

Though I never knew it was THAT insane

 

[AC Drawings]

A fine episode, MovieBob, it really covers basically what is wrong with the superhero comic book company universes and I hope you elaborate further in a future installment.

 

[Redd the Sock]

I'm detecting a series here. Next will probably be "event addiction" for Marvel and "Character abuse" for DC.

Still it does seem the underlying premis will always be that comics aren't popular because they expect you to retain more historical knowledge than any other form of entertainment. While I contend this is less of a problem in the days of the internet and wikipedia than it was in the 80s, I do see the delema. Too much convoluted continuity makes books inacessable, too little kills the connection with the book reducing them to episodic distractions (think James Bond, Perry Mason, or the Simpsons).

Still, I prefer a little convolution to my story. I may have to hit wiki every so often to see what was up with Firestorm in Blackest Night, but it sure beats the scouring of back issue bins that I used to have to do.

 

[malestrithe]

Power Girl is a feminist!? Are you kidding me? Her tits are her super hero logo!

Actually, she was an icon of feminism. What is often overlooked, especially by modern feminists is that feminism was originally about sexuality. Women started their plight for liberation in the bedroom. It was about showing their husband and boyfriends that sex was an enjoyably experience for the women too.

 

[theultimateend]

You need balls to end something and start something new.

So many testicles wasted on forced new ideas.

When it comes naturally I'm all for it though.

But it comes naturally so rarely.

 

[rddj623]

Comics have a bit of a problem with continuity in general. That's ok though. It's part of the fun. Jump in and figure it out. It's also why there are so many reboot's, or separate series. In my opinion that is all Marvel's Ultimate's was, a place for newbies to start fresh.

 

[Ericb]

A fine episode, MovieBob, it really covers basically what is wrong with the superhero comic book company universes and I hope you elaborate further in a future installment.

Ditto.

You need balls to end something and start something new.

So many testicles wasted on forced new ideas.

Spectacular reply. XD

In my opinion that is all Marvel's Ultimate's was, a place for newbies to start fresh.

That and one valid to attempt to explain the surge of so many super individuals.

 

[Raregolddragon]

You know DC dose need to set some ground rules for there comics.

Like how about this you have just a simple sires with the standard TV rule of one universe/reality. This simple sires has only one rule no multi-universe stuff so as to keep it friendly for the non nerds or new comers to comics. DC then gives it the simple stamp on the cover so new comers can find it easily.

Then we have everything else with the multivers. They do not have the simple stamp.

 

[NeoShinGundam]

Big Picture? More like tinniest sliver. In order to properly explain DC's continuity you'd need a full 2 hour documentary. Maybe more.

Incidentally, Cracked.com had a great article last week about crazy comic book resurrections:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18835_5-absurd-ways-comic-books-have-resurrected-dead-superheroes.html
One of the ones mentioned is Jason Todd, a product of that whole Infinite Crisis thing.

 

[FlayD]

See, this is why I don't read comic books.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Bob, I don't want to be picky but theres high tone background noise in your microphone or audio. Most of people can't hear it but it is annoying the hell out of me since I have extremely good hearing.
Please fix this... Try cutting all useless high tones with compressor or EQ...
Thanks.

Good episode otherwise, even I am not a comic person.

 

[Tanis]

This is why I got out of comics for so many years...stuff got too damn stupid for me.

Started reading manga and rarely went back until 52 & Final Crisis came out.

 

[elvor0]

I quite enjoyed all the Crises-es-es, although Final Crisis did become a bit of a cluster fuck, and there's lots of side stories and stuff that make it all make sense, even the hardback "Compilation" of Final Crisis, leaves a massive chunk out that requires you read Batman RIP (I think) alongside it, as otherwise Batman goes missing at the start of Final Crisis and then turns up at the end to save the day, with no explaination of how he escaped or anything.

If you're a casual reader, just pick one series to read and go, I would assume if you're a casual reader you're not going to get -too- much into it, so you may not even notice the continuity errors, although if you're a hardcore fan, then you may end up having to read a heck of a lot more than you intended to make things add up at times.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Power Girl is a feminist!? Are you kidding me? Her tits are her super hero logo!

She's oldschool "liberation"-era feminist, i.e. "I should be able to dress like this and have it be no big deal, and if you look at 'em the wrong way I'll put you in traction."

Believe it or not, her cleavage "logo" at one point had a feminist origin: Earth-2 Supergirl decided that wearing a girl version of her cousin's outfit was sexist and wanted a new look/identity. When Superman presented her with her new "grownup" costume, she got pissed because he'd still stuck "his" symbol on the chest; so she burned it off with heat-vision and just left the empty spot to make a point. I'm not sure where that was originally published, or if its still canon, but apparently that's why she looks "like that."

So goes the legend, her breasts are so big because a certain DC artist decided to keep making them slightly bigger each month to see how long it'd take for the editors to notice. By the time they did, they'd become her "trademark."

While indeed Power Girl's massive tracts of land have become her defacto symbol, when under the command of a good creative team like writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti with artist Amanda Conner, actually become a bloody good fun comic.

Spoiler

I'll admit I bought the first paperback trade cos I thought 'can TV Tropes' chosen Mascot for Most Common Superpower be a good character?'. The answer is yes, because it embraces the sort of escapist lunacy that I personally look for in a comic. Seriously, the first volume involves a super intelligent gorilla lifting Manhatten out of the Earth's crust.


And indeed the breasts getting bigger, is a legend. Snopes covered it.

Plus I'm a big fan of anything that makes the cast of the Big Bang Theory look like the douchebags they are:

My only regret is that the situation didn't allow for full on Kryptonian intimidation.

 

[MFunction]

Comics to me is starting to sound the dumbest and stupidest things ever. The stuff just seems dumb. When a franchise goes on for 60 years with thousands of stories told. you can see it will never be any good. Also how are comics the big picture. I was hoping for something a little more intellectual. Something like Extra Credits but not just devoted to games.

 

[Saxnot]

this may just be because i'm european, but... does anyone get the idea this is not so much the big picture as the american comics industry picture?

no offence, the idea here is that bob talks about whatever interests him, but for me most of this stuff just doesn't ring any bells. i'm aware these characters exist, but i never really read any american superhero - style comics, so all of this doesn't really interest me.

maybe you could lay off the (american) comics subjects for a while?

 

[Draconalis]

Marvel are doing him to death though. I love Deadpool but they've run characters into the ground before... Enjoy him while he lasts.

It's true... but that's why I've stopped reading most of the side series'.