What Big Two characters/titles are you well-versed in? (Possible continuity rowdydow)

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I was considering this question today specifically in regards to the thought of writing spec scripts for various series (mostly just for practice, but who knows?). I realized that there are very few titles/characters that I'm really well-versed in, despite having been fairly immersed in comics for most of my life. Partly, this can be chalked up to the fact that I'm just getting back into something resembling "The Loop" after a 2+ year absence from comics, but mostly I think it's just that most Big Two character/group histories become ridiculously unwieldy the longer they're around and the more they intertwine with the histories of other characters/groups. So I'm trying to get a handle on where I should begin and to what extent I should really concern myself (assuming that I'm writing with the goal of potential submission in mind) with these backlogs of history.

I guess this is as much a question of one's stance w/r/t continuity as much as anything. I mean...if you follow a particular character or group of characters over the course of many years (and particularly if you follow them outside of their native titles), that would seem to indicate that, on some level, you favor some degree of continuity as it applies to those characters.

I think I'm a centrist in the continuity debate. I'm no Roy Thomas when it comes to the maintenance of strict continuity when there's several decades of stories to consider. But I think the sense of a cohesive universe with intertwining-yet-separate storylines (that can and more importantly should function independently) is one of the more fun and awesome storytelling tropes in comics (and is, in many ways, fairly unique to comics, if only for arbitrary business reasons) when it's done well. With that in mind, I dig continuity in the short term (even if only in that very loose "super-consistency" sense).

Regardless of my own feelings on the subject, though, I acknowledge Marvel and DC's often unhealthy level of obsession with/enslavement to continuity, and hence the attempt to get a handle on what corners of their respective universes for which I currently have the best sense of. To wit:

* I've read (much to my shock and horror, in many many cases) almost everything (and I do mean almost everything) X-related up until the beginning of Morrison's run on NXM (which I've also read). From that point on, I've only read bits and pieces. But enough to know that, in that relatively short time, the X-Universe has become ridiculously complicated in a number of brand-new ways so as to make it virtually indistinguishable from where it was when I left off. Kudos, Marvel! So I really don't now how much familiarity I have with it nowadays. I don't think I'd have an issue with the changes if I didn't feel like they just added to the overall level of obfuscation.

* Slightly embarassing to admit to others, but I've also read almost everything relating to the shared-continuity Vertigo titles up through the beginning of my two-year comics sabbatical (with the exception of Hellblazer, which I continue to keep up with). Every shitty Sandman spin-off, every goofy mini-series involving a minor character that appeared in three panels of Swamp Thing, etc. I'll say it so no one else has to: I am a sucker. But I've definitely found some lovely, sparkly diamonds in that particular rough, and it's a much smaller and more manageable "universe" than the DCU proper or Marvel Universe. As such, I tend to feel more involved with it, on the whole (or used to, anyway, when there was more of a sense of shared continuity...and more good titles).

Having read through most of it, I'm at least happy to report that the "Gaiman's Magickally Twee Fairie-World of Wonderment" rep that this stuff gets is mostly (mostly) undeserved. Still, most of the best stuff seems to be in the past (and/or tangentially related, like Shade and Doom Patrol).

So what characters/titles have you had an extended relationship with, and how do those relationships affect your feelings on continuity?

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 03:22 (nineteen years ago)

Also: I think I appreciate that Vertigo stuff because DC pretty much roped it off into it's own little corner, which has spared it from being dragged through a lot of the stupid bullshit upheavals DC's pulled through the years. I kind of wish this would happen, if even for a short while, with some other sub-sets within the larger universes (like the X-titles, f'rinstance). Put up some partitions, forget about a lot of what's come before, and just bounce some shit off the wall and see what happens.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 03:39 (nineteen years ago)

Does having read Cerebus all the way count? (The only real "continuity" issues there were e.g. are the Cirinists free-speech absolutists or bluenosed censors?)

I read Green Lantern from 1978 or so on, and finally gave up on paying close attention shortly after Kyle Rayner took over; at least the continuity there is reasonably straightforward, if sort of stupid sometimes. I think I have read every Legion story ever, except for maybe a couple of years' worth from the early '70s; I approved, more or less, of the reboot ten years ago, and approved heartily of the reboot last year. Been reading Batman & Detective (but not necessarily other Bat-titles) most of the time for 25 years or so, and continuity there tends to be very slow and incremental.

I was really enjoying Uncanny X-Men for about five years there (started with #138, believe it or not, and gave up ca. #200). Since then, the only incarnation I've paid close attention to is Morrison.

All the Asterix books: does that count? Love & Rockets?

The original proposal for "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was that after it was over, every DC title would start over from #1, as a coordinated Silver Age-style reboot. In retrospect, that would've been a great idea. Actually, I would have loved for Infinite Crisis to have been followed by the same thing--esp. if the new incarnation of Legion had been presented as part of that overall reboot, just starting a year and a half earlier...

Deric, I think the Ultimate line is more or less what you're asking for, yes?

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 04:19 (nineteen years ago)

Pretty much, I guess. I'm probably just reacting to Marvel and DC's slow descent back into excessive company-wide crossovers. One every couple years can (in theory) be fun. But everything is an Event now, leading into an other Event. It's an abuse of that interdependence that I appreciate when it's used well and more subtly.

I wasn't really thinking so much about independent stuff when I started the thread. I've read all of Love & Rockets, but that's relatively easy to do, insofar as it doesn't involve much branching out into multiple titles existing in a shared world. Or you can at least pretend that it doesn't by waiting for Gilberto's various concerns to be collected in trades.

I like that post-Crisis proposal. I've been poking around in the immediately post-Crisis stuff lately, as it seemed like a fairly logical entry point for someone who isn't terribly familiar with the DCU as a whole. But there were too many holdouts and not enough baggage ditched for that period to really work well for newcomers.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 05:10 (nineteen years ago)

It just occurred to me that "independent" can (often) be used to distinguish both a lack of corporate ownership and freedom from the interdependence that most corporately-owned titles have with other titles within the same company.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 05:14 (nineteen years ago)

I was a full-fledged X-zombie up until maybe two years ago.

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

I know all there is to know about the Great Ten. I've read, like, every comic they have been in.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 13:32 (nineteen years ago)

I, too, have read every Green Lantern comic from about 1976 up to, well, about the 9th or 10th issue of the 1990 relaunch (though I wasn't following it until, um, 1985 or so--Dave Gibbons run), the other stuff was all amassed through hours and months of quarter-binning.
I also followed the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League from #2 until the middle of the General Glory story (high 40s?), Batman/Detective from the same period, and all the Superman titles until a little before the launch of Superman: Man of Steel (the Peter Bogdanovich ongoing, not the Byrne mini).
I was really, really enchanted by the first year or so 5yL LOSH, and back-issued quite a bit of the previous Baxter/Prestige Format (remember when DC had their line divided by format?).
Also had runs between 1987-1991 on Green Arrow, L.E.G.I.O.N., New Titans and Hellblazer.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

I was the foremost West Coast Avengers expert among my friends. Had every issue from #25 through the end, #102, plus a few annuals and stray issues from the first two years that I picked up in cheap bins. I also have a complete run of Gerard Jones' Wonder-Man, which I thought was really good and different when I was 14, but found pretty hard to read a couple months ago. So I guess I'm a fairly well-stocked repository of late '80's / early '90's Simon Williams knowledge.

― barefoot manthing (Garrett Martin), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 13:59 (nineteen years ago)

I know all that there is to know about THE INVISIBLES - excepting, of course, what it all means, which changes on a monthly basis. And I'm currently undertaking a concerted effort to devour everything I can find by Los Bros Hernandez (LOCAS - look out!).

I've often considered the notion of learning up on the Fantastic Four, simply because I like them from a pop art stand point. I still may follow up on this, but so far I've just settled for searching out a replica of Franklin's awesome "4 1/2" t-shirt

― Richard Baez (Johnny Logic), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

Oh boy. I could probably quote chapter and verse from the Marvel Jim Shooter Years, including:

- los X-books (X-Men from #94 through #143, and #166 through #270 - thank you Classic X-Men!; X-Factor #1 through #50; New Mutants #30 through #90ish)
- the Stern / Romita and DeFalco / Frenz Spider-Brah heyday [and that McFarlane joker] (Amazing from #229 thru #320ish; Spectacular from #90ish to about #150ish; Web of Spiderrr, #1 thru #40ish)
- the FF, from Byrne's run through nu-FF, FASAUD THE LIVING TELEVISION and just before Steve Engelhart cut bait (meaning #232 to about #320ish)
- Avengineering (East Coast - #219 thru #310ish, West Coast - #1 thru #58)
- ALFALFA PHLIGHT SUCKAS (up until #50ish)

There's more, but I'm starting to scare myself.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

FASAUD THE LIVING TELEVISION

Damn - now I'm searching out FF trades.

― Richard Baez (Johnny Logic), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

Ha - good luck finding that one @ Borders. The FF trades feature run-of-the-mill shenanigans with the likes of EGO THE LIVING PLANET and GALACTUS and SKRULLS.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

I think I know tons a stuff pertaining to the following titles, which I collected from 1978-1987…

Legion, Batman, Captain America, X-men( had to stop in 1985, since it sucked so bad), Teen Titans, Avengers, Ka-Zar (UNDERRATED), JLA, Batman and Outsiders, Defenders, Fantastic Four, plus just about every mini- and maxi-series they did during that period.

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

…and Alpha Flight, Infinity Inc., All star Squadron— I guess I liked team books.

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

X-men (had to stop in 1985, since it sucked so bad)

MADNESS!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 18:40 (nineteen years ago)

INFINITY INC??? WTF!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

I wrote my degree dissertation on Batman, but probably DD is my most hardcore geekout- although I think quite a lot of the 70s stories were a bit formulaic - 'I'm the bad guy and I'm stealing things', 'I'll punch your face in, and you go to jail/turn to stone/die/get blasted into space', 'Curse you -****** (insert Marvel hero name)'. Oh well, happy memories anyway... Saying that, I think we were treated to it again in the 90s except it was in Cyberspace with crappier artwork. Continuity, I think only started getting really important kind of late 70s (although important events seem to last). Does anyone remember or care what happened to all those second stringer thugs? The bozos worse than the Jester. Just watch some joker bring them all back in a team book... with special appearance by Uri Geller (see DD 133!)

― Eyemelt (Eyemelt), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 16:54 (nineteen years ago)

I only care about Turk. Is Turk still in the new DD?

― sLeeeter Kinney (Leee), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

Turk was in the last issue, although the way things are going in that title he probably won't be around much longer...

― Eyemelt (Eyemelt), Saturday, 1 July 2006 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

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