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Fantastic Four
by Wayne Markley
One of the things that made marvel Comics in the beginning, well in the Silver Age, was the strong sense of continuity the books had. You would see Spider-Man chasing a villain in the background of a Daredevil book as well as that scene would then appear in that month’s Spider-Man. It made all the comics feel like they were set in a genuine world where the effect of one action would impact whatever around them. as well as it made you want to checked out the other titles that marvel was publishing to try as well as get the huge picture. Continuity ended up being a comic book passion. Alas, throughout the years this had faded into the grim dark past of comic book history.
DC was never as great at continuity as marvel was outside of the single character book. For example what occurred in Superman may impact Superman down the road, however it was unusual you would see one more character just appear in the background randomly. DC definitely had the team-ups with the take on as well as the strong as well as the Justice league as well as there were occasional guest-stars, however you never had the feel that you did with marvel comics of the 60s where whatever connected together. While DC had the Silver Age Flash satisfy Jay Garrick, the golden Age Flash, it was since they were from parallel worlds. DC would ultimately have 52 different worlds. marvel would have Sgt Fury team up with Captain America in world war II. The exact same world, however different time periods. This was a huge difference to a fan. Over time, marvel complied with DC’s program as well as produced many dimensions where other characters (such as the Squadron Supreme) would show up. however it never got to be as challenging as DC’s several worlds. (To be fair, I am a huge fan of DCs early several Worlds books as well as there are at least five collections of them, mainly the JLA/JSA crossovers, all of which are worth reading.)
Crisis on limitless Earths
DC lastly pertained to the final thought that all the several worlds were as well challenging for the typical fan as well as they did an exceptional maxi-series called dilemma on limitless Earths. Within this series, Barry Allen, the Flash, died in addition to a number of other characters. This was a turning point in that DC was making an attempt to clean up their continuity as well as streamline it. as well as it worked extremely well from a story point of view. Unfortunately, DC might not leave well sufficient alone as well as they did a new 52 week series that restored all of the different alternating dimensions. as well as then there was the final dilemma which was meant to wrap this up as well as make sense of all these several worlds. I would suggest they failed as well as final dilemma made whatever worse in that the story is not clear. however if you would like to judge for yourself, which I extremely encourage, there’s a extremely great hardcover collection of final dilemma as well as 4 trade collections of 52 which I believe are much much better reading than final Crisis. In the twenty plus years between dilemma on limitless earth as well as final Crisis, DC did a great deal of tweaking as well as playing around with the continuity. With Zero hour to identity dilemma to limitless Crisis, they have modified as well as poked their continuity to the point of nearly being unreadable.
With all of these tweaks, DC has attempted, not with a great deal of success, to modification the primary characters around. With the death of Barry Allen, Wally West took over the function of the Flash. There were complaints from the fans however they ultimately accepted Wally as well as his own book (Flash) had a good, long run. They killed Superman as well as broke Batman’s back, however these were a lot more story driven gimmicks than genuine modifications to continuity. They then made a decision to make Kyle Rayner eco-friendly lantern instead of Hal Jordan. as well as the cherished Hal Jordon, who has been eco-friendly lantern for over 30 years, ended up being a poor person called Parallax. as well as then Hal ended up being the Spectre, as well as then Hal when once again ended up being eco-friendly Lantern. Why? It was an attempt to bring in new as well as younger readers. as well as to mess with continuity. It was not a quite sight. The fans never accepted Kyle as eco-friendly Lantern, as eco-friendly lantern was Hal Jordon. Hal was not a poor person or the avenging spirit of God, (that was Jim Corrigan). Hal was the all-American great guy. After nearly 10 years, DC provided in as well as Hal when once again ended up being eco-friendly Lantern. as well as recently, the only death in comics that has indicated anything, Barry Allen, was restored as the Flash. So what was the point of the last 20 years considering that dilemma of limitless Earths?
Doomwar
Now, marvel was fantastic at this concept of a coherent world in the 1960s when Stan Lee composed nearly all of the books. He was able to keep track of who was appearing where as well as which story they appeared in as well as when the Avengers were in the Utah desert as well as may come across the Hulk. throughout the years they have broadened their worlds to include a ton of alien races that are always fighting, (see the exceptional Annihilation collections for a feel of their area sagas) as well as a number of alternate worlds. as well as not let’s even go into the whole time travel mess that marvel has set up. however they are still much better at telling a challenging legendary story, even with ones where I felt the end was weak after a fantastic story, such as Civil war as well as trick Invasion. Of program there are exceptions to this, such as in the present stories in the Hulk books where Dr. Doom is being held prisoner by Modok as well as the Leader. At the exact same time, (to the fan reading the books, not necessarily in the continuity of the books) Dr. Doom is battling the Doom war with Black Panther as well as great Four. Both of these are extremely great stories, however they must have been told six months apart so the exact same character is not in two major storylines.
Perhaps the very best publisher to establish continuity as well as keep in nearly the whole time they were publishing was Valiant. They were lead editorially by Jim Shooter, who did an exceptional task of discovering from the early marvel days of having characters crossover as well as interact. The Valiant books were a fantastic checked out as well as they produced a whole as well as unified world with lively as well as interesting characters where the lead characters did not modification their character all the time. Unfortunately, Valiant fell sufferer to one more problem in comic books as well as that is catering to the collectors market as well as speculators as well as their service design counted on that. as well as when Jim Shooter left Valiant, they soon lost the coherent vision as well as faded away.
I am not all doom as well as gloom. I believe marvel has slowly moved back to the a lot more coherent world with Joe Quesada being in fee as well as overseeing the whole marvel Universe. as well as people like Brian Bendis undoubtedly have a like for the whole world of Marvel. DC has just recently altered around their leadership as well as has appointed Geoff Johns as innovative visionary, which he has been extremely great at, however I do not believe he must still be composing monthly books as well as overseeing the DC Universe. Making the DCU a coherent location when once again as well as the books fun to checked out will be a full time job.
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