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Read it again: there is no STORM. Not in any real, continuous sense. This is what Fly and Fecund are trying to point out. Every writer mutates their subject matter.
Yes, characters evolve. New writers bring change. In most cases, new writers do not give characters entirely new personae without this evolution. Storm is a good example to use, because her MU incarnation has changed over the course of time, but in an evolutionary manner. The UU version of Storm is the same in name and look only - the persona is an entirely new creation that has no relation to the MU Storm. If the UU version was white and called Claire the only similarity would be that she controls the weather. It is therefore not surprising that an interest in one version does not necessarily translate to an interest in the other.
This isn't a difficult concept to grasp and frankly I'm surprised at the posts suggesting they're interchangeable. Or, to pull this slightly back on track, that having a different writer on Ultimate X-Men just start using the MU persona wouldn't be poor writing.
Like all Marvel heroes, she's buffeted this way and that by the whims of individual writers and the result? An inarticulate, incoherent mess (but only if you insist on imposing the RULE OF CONTINUITY). And, as Fecund also points out, The Ultimate Storm could, depending on those funny whims, end up, for all we know, as a carbon copy of the Storm you dig. You dig?
Yes, I get it. But it would require an evolutionary shift in the character that would A) create its own continuity and B) demonstrate that the current UU and MU versions of Storm are wildly different.
I also don't think in Storm's case her development has become an incoherent mess, but I guess this isn't the place to get into that.
The point is, Lawrence: THERE IS NO CONTINUITY. That's why Grant and co. wanna replace it w/ "super-consistency".
Of course there is continuity! It's just a matter of degree. Do you expect specific comics to retain an internal consistency? That's what continuity is! Should NEW X MEN 144 be consistent with NEW X MEN 143? If the answer is yes, then you don't have much ground to argue that it shouldn't be consistent with NEW X MEN 1.
We can expand that, of course. Should NEW X MEN and Wolverine be mutually consistent? I don't particularly care. I suspect this is what Grant and the others mean about superconsistency - that the series and characters mesh in spirit but not necessarily in detail.
I'm perfectly fine with having two universes. I'm fine with not reconciling the various X-Men titles. But individual series should be internally consistent, and that means they each have their own internal continuity. This isn't a radical assertion, and almost all storytelling relies on it. Any series creates continuity to from one installment to the next, whether comics, film, television or prose. It shouldn't be surprising that there are probably many readers like me, who will be interested in one continuity but not another. A great example would be the two Dark Shadows television shows, or the two Randall & Hopkirk, Deceased series. Nobody expects the two versions to be consistent, but they do tend to expect each individual series to be internally consistent. And a fan of one Barnabas may have no interest in the other...
Marvel Comic's aren't life and they look bloody silly when they try to impersonate it. None of the characters in ER are 30 odd years old, but Marvel's ARE. And it gets messy and the odd Crisis event turns up and...urrgh.
Did you actually read the part where I suggest that replacing universes is probably a good idea that resolves the problem of continuity? I don't have any problem with multiple versions of the X-Men. I'll read the good ones and skip the bad ones. Ultimate X-Men IMO is a bad one, just like the 2099 and animated versions. The film version and MU version are good ones, and I'll happily follow those. This thread originated with the rumor that Marvel aims to end one continuity and replace it with another. I'm all for that. It doesn't mean I'll buy the books - but then, they're not written for me, are they? That's fine.
Hellblazer might be a good example here. Say you like the comic. But then the film comes out and it's a $300m hit. So Vertigo puts out issue 224 with the 'standard' version of Constantine and next month you pick up 225 and suddenly see Nicolas Cage staring back out at you. Constantine's American. He cruises around in his themed car. He's never known Kit. Chas? Who's he?
I'm sure you can understand that many readers of the 'original' version might not be interested in reading the new version. I'm sure you can understand why they might be irritated by the "superconsistency" of the title. After all, it's still about a magician named John Constantine, right? Fuck continuity, right? Constantine is Constantine is Constantine?
No one's arguing that we do away with continuity altogether, just that the rules are loosened and that the shape of the stories should cease to be dictated by obsessively anal fanboys
It's a good idea. I'm all for ending NEW X MEN at 150 and rebooting. If it's good, I'll read it. If it's not, I won't. What I think is silly are the assertions that internal continuity of each version is a bad, limiting thing, or that Storm is Storm is Storm no matter what personality a writer gives her. |
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