LogFAQs > #891475834

Zeus posted...

Kind of an issue whenever you have never-ending series with no clear overarching story plans leading to a definite ending and everybody is allowed to have their own vision for characters.

That's part of why Marvel was so strong in the late 70s/early 80s - for a while, they actually DID have character growth. Peter Parker graduated high school and started dealing with adult issues. Reed Richards and Sue Storm had a kid. Chris Claremont was all about the idea of phasing out old X-Men characters in favor of new students every few years (which is why he married off Cyclops and essentially "retired" him). Iron Man became an alcoholic, recovered, had heart surgery to remove the pacemaker in his chest, Thor became an epic mythic storyline taking place over years worth of real time, and so on.

The idea that "STATUS QUO IS GOD" and that everything will eventually revert back to baseline, and no character will ever undergo meaningful growth or change really didn't start kicking in at Marvel until the later 80s (again, after they dumped Shooter), which is around the same time a lot of weaker writers started taking over titles written by giants of the industry, and rolling back most of their plots to be more like the comic they grew up liking (Thor and Spider-Man being particular victims of this), or trying to embrace the more "xtreme" mood of the era (the main downfall of the X-Men titles in the 90s). Then it kept getting worse, to the point now where it seems like there's an insane cosmic crossover happening every other month that will be forgotten 20 minutes after it's over, so literally nothing matters and nothing is worth caring about. It's barely worth getting interested in a title when a new, good writer comes along and starts telling interesting stories, because as soon as they leave the next guy is just going to ignore or retcon it all anyway.

If anything, the problem these days is the LACK of actual continuity, even as companies like Marvel and DC still pretend that they havecontinuity.

(And the fact that the industry has been hemorrhaging readers for years and is withering on the vine as the publishing arms keep trying to desperately stunt their way into grabbing new audiences is a reflection of that.)

These days strong continuity and story growth is usually only present in independent titles with a sole author, who can do what they want with characters without worry that the next writer is going to be brining characters back from the dead or magically undoing marriages and character development because they liked the old version of the character better. Unsurprisingly, those sorts of titles also seem to be the only titles comic fans or casuals actually CARE about these days (see also, The Walking Dead).


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