When Comic Continuity Meant Something...
I was reading this piece and yeah… it hit a nerve a bit.
It goes on about continuity in comics and how it matter in the past. How when a new series started, you knew you were in for a nice story arc, and probably around 50 issues or so. You were excited that if you jumped on at #1, you’d be rewarded 20 issues later with some throw back to it. You felt like it was worth your time.
Now… its like, “meh”. It feels so different now.
Everything I pick up or even read digital on the various apps, is a quick stories, one shots, six issues, maybe even upwards of 12 if you are a lucky ducky. Then its over, the characters you come to enjoy by the team of writers is done. If you’re lucky you might get the same team of writers doing something similar, but its not the same.
And you’re supposed to just… move on. I get why it happens. Attention spans are shorter. The younger generations won’t buy what they are selling, and wont bother wasting time. They have so much grabbing for their attention like, streaming, games, podcasts, social media, all fighting for the same time. Comics can’t assume you’re sticking around for 50 issues anymore. Heck, this is why TikTok is around, its for short attention spans. Even wrestling has figured this out and came up with a “Speed Championship”, where a match is under 3 minutes long.
But I miss that commitment.
I miss picking up a run and knowing I was in for something long. Something that would take time. Something that would build. You’d see a character make a bad call early, and it wouldn’t pay off right away. It would sit there. Maybe for 10 issues. Maybe longer. Then it comes back, and it hits harder because you remember it.
That kind of storytelling needs patience. From the reader and the writer.
Well this article makes a decent point, its not that continuity is completely gone, its just a lot smaller and self contained now. Mini this and and mini that. You still kind of get a continuity, its just shoved into 6 issues or so.
I guess that works, but it doesn’t work for me. It actually prevents me from reading comics overall. I have the reverse opinion here:
“Why should I pick this up and read it, if its just going to be done in 6 or so issues. That is a waste of my time.”
Now it feels more like short bursts. Good bursts sometimes. Really good. But they end fast. Leaving me sitting here, again thinking:
“Well, I wish there was more…but I’ll never get it.”
Maybe that’s just where things are now. Maybe readers don’t want long runs the same way anymore. Or maybe they do, but the market doesn’t give it enough time to breathe.
I don’t know.
I just know I miss grabbing a stack of issues, sitting down, and knowing I had a long road ahead of me. A real run. Something that mattered because it kept going.
That’s the kind of continuity I still think about.
It’s like every title is jumping the shark every couple of months. Furthermore, the number of different versions of the same characters diminishes any storyline’s impact.
Spidey (take your pick, there are over 1,700 in canon) is trying to save Earth (again, take your pick) while MJ (again, a nearly infinite number, simultaneously dead, alive, married to a Spider-Person, married to Not a Spider-Person, divorced, widowed, pregnant, a mother to a world threatening singularity, etc) is working out important, all consuming relationship issues that will definitely have long term effects, possibly, maybe. At any rate, imminent mortal peril, Spidey has to make the tough decision, but a different tough decision from the one from two issues back. Join us next issue, when we give you an all-new, totally different, same story, but this time Spidey is back to wearing his black costume!
I know it’s tough to come up with complete, compelling stories, but at least give us a character arc that’s an actual arc, not a series of points of no gravity, depicted as having all the gravity in the world.
There's a reason I tend more towards graphic novels and completed comics.