the whole "the impenetrabity of comics was part of the attraction" thing

Anyway, now I've kind of come around to the other side of the fence. I love the complexity and nuance that creators are allowed by manipulating past notions/versions of characters & events. I think this is fine when it's possible for someone like me to pick up on probably something like 10% of all the references and allusions in omics so long as the other 90% don't make comprehension difficult (i.e. my "who the fuck is this robot fixing dude" in last week's 52) or disrupt the narrative (like those pesky editors notes.)

I don't think I have a point really.
xpost

when i was younger and the internet was still a fairly new thing in most american households I would often futilely search YAHOO or EXCITE or WEBCRAWLER for places the detangle the confused threads in my head. it wasn't very succesful. one thing i was particularly upset/confused by was how the different x-men series could be running simultaneously--this still bothers me a little, actually. i dunno why.

One of the happy/unhappy side effects of getting into comics before the age of the trade is that certain storylines of the past would acquire a legendary status in your imagination - occasional references to these epics - in letters pages, or occasionally in the comic itself - would be all you could pick up without big back-issue investment. The result was to make the universe seem a lot richer - and to give the comics you were reading then and there an aura, maybe THESE will be the epics of the future!!! - but actually tracking down the stories could only disappoint.

I thought that I didn't feel this way anymore, but I really enjoyed reading the most recent Love & Rockets book, having to figure out who everyone was, then going back to the very beginning and having future context for all of the characters. It absolutely reminded me of jumping into comics as a kid.

It might have had something to do with social ineptness and having the same questions about everyday life, though.

Grant Mo' v. Geoff Jo', obvs. 52 will probably be an excellent showcase for this. Grant will continue to throw old, obscure characters and new characters at us and still provide us with an imminently readable story that doesn't depend on absolute knowledge of every player. Knowledge of said characters will give the reader enjoyment on another level, but the layman isn't adversely affected. Geoff will continue to showcase characters having conversations with/punching the faces off of other characters, which, if the reader doesn't know who's being spoken to/having their face punched off, will bring nothing to the table in terms of the larger narrative.

intriguingly, it is only recently I began reading any other avengers.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

hello, you are (were) me

I really enjoyed DC's gradually unfolding layers of impenetrability. I was a strict Marvel zombie 'til I was twelve, but I still felt I had a reasonable grasp on the DCU because they were always more prominent in the mainstream media. Every kid knows the major facts about Superman and Batman even if they've never picked up a comic. You can learn about Green Lantern and Flash and Aquaman and the rest through all those various Superfriends cartoons back in the day. So even though I exclusively read Marvel, I knew enough about DC, in my opinion. Then I actually started reading DC, first with The Demon and the funny JLA, and realized I pretty much knew absolutely nothing. I read up on the Who's Who, and all that, and eventually felt comfortable in my DC knowledge. Last week I started The New Frontier (uh, totally awesome) and I'm realizing, again, that there's a hell of a lot I know nothing about. I've always known about the Challengers of the Unknown, could recognize their logo and everything, but knew absolutely nothing about them until the last week or so. Wikipedia really helps on that point. But so, I'm currently experiencing another (minor) wave of DC impenetrability, and I'm kinda digging it. Gives me something to do at work, looking up King Faraday and Johnny Thunder on the internet.

anyway, on the letters pages of the weekly comic they would reproduce panels from (much) later issues, drawn by ppl like John Buscema and Neal Adams in a far more 'realistic' style than the Kirby/Heck stuff that Brit Marv were running in the front of the mag, and often featuring characters that had yet to appear in the comic at all - eg this absolutely WEIRD Vision character - i was too young to have any idea that these comics were reprints (as I remember, the editorial material and TV ads understandably didn't go into this) and almost all marvel comics at the time were ND - that's to say not available in newsagents, so as not to compete w/ the Brit Marv titles) - it was like some inexplicable glimpse into THE FUTURE

With killer art by Al Milgrom! A bullet in the head for even the most amazing scripts!

The same happens to me with The Korvac Saga and the Proteus issues of Claremont and Byrne's run on X-Men.