Posted: 26 July 2014 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | 4
|
|
|
Alan Moore said all stories were imaginary. All of them. Homer. Jane Austen. David Lynch. All of them. Yes, that includes comic book stories, but there was no slam against those in particular. Quite the reverse. It was a sly reminder that those stories which we label "imaginary" (a terrible pejorative amongst the "better," more knowledgeable comic book fans) are no more or less real than any other story we've ever read or been told.
What we're seeing today has no bearing on the imaginary stories of old except that both recognize that readers want and enjoy a sense of consequence in the stories they read. They want to see the impossible occur. The unthinkable. They want the reading experience to count. They want to come away knowing that they're ahead of the guy who hasn't read this month's issue. Why are they ahead? Because stuff happened which advanced the story. Things are different now for the characters than they were last month. Next month they'll be different again, so we have to buy that book as well.
This is why Imaginary Stories back in the day got such a bad rap. Sure, Superman died, but not really, fannish fans would contend. From last month to this one nothing changed. They just wasted our time with a bunch'a maybes and might-have-beens. Such tales didn't matter in the long run, especially once we had editors and writers in the lettercols bashing these "cheap tricks" of olden days and promising on the cover that this one wasn't a hoax, wasn't a dream, wasn't an imaginary story...
Marvel took every chance to trumpet their exciting, cutting-edge approach in which character developments mattered and you weren't stuck reading the same old guy-in-the-newspaper-office or billionaire-in-the-cave every month. Stuff happened! Did you see what happened with Crystal and Johnny this month? Check out Iron Man! New girlfriend! You know, I think that Spider-Man villain might really be dead this time!
What's occurred in the upper ranks of the companies today is a tacit recognition of the fact that 1.) Readers want such developments as marriages, deaths, births, graduations, and such and 2.) It doesn't matter anymore if we give them exactly that.
Since the 80's style-reboot was introduced, everything that came before can be erased with a wave of the hand. Before changes, big and small, came along gradually and in a more organic fashion. Over time, enough changes would build up that the story itself was fundamentally different than it had been, but there was no "line in the sand" drawn. Origin stories would be written every few years that incorporated these organic changes, but they existed to catch readers up on the new developments, not to banish the old stuff to the cornfield.
In the 80's we got the first "everything that ever happened NEVER happened" big erasures, and the way was cleared to do one of these whenever the mood struck. Do one each time a new creator comes on the book, or some storyline becomes too convoluted. How many "true" origins of the Beyonder have there been now? I count at least three. Deadman's history past a certain point was erased. The Grant Morrison Doom Patrol was too wonky, so the whole kit and kaboodle got tossed. Strange as it was, there used to be a clearly drawn line connecting each DP series to the one before. But now? Why not start fresh? Why not make today Wonder Woman's first day in America? You know what we need? An entirely new take on Doctor Fate!
Hey, it's not like anything written before by some other writer matters a damn. What matters is what I'M bringing to the table! These days, we no longer have to find some new direction that somehow branches off from a previous one. We just declare the last book null and void and go from zero. This time it will count! We promise!
Back in the days of Imaginary Stories and What Ifs there was a status quo for the writers to play with. Yes, it changed over time, but there was no "reset" button to hit over and over again. Today, nothing is nailed down. Every development may as well have an expiration date stamped on it. Nothing matters very much, certainly not the hoopla surrounding any new development. Earth's Green Lantern is still Muslim, right?
We no longer need to say, "this story wouldn't fit" or, "Everyone in this one behaves differently so we're setting it outside our normal line of comics." With a whisper from Wanda or a bend in time from Apocalypse, any event, no matter how extreme can happen "for real" rather than off on some no-account Elseworld somewhere.
How much is DC kicking themselves for publishing "Red Son" as a stand-alone Imaginary Tale when it could have, hell, should have been the crossover event of that year? Sure, we kind of brought it back as a parallel Earth later, but even that's a bit wet. Commie Batman should have had his own eight-issue series, minimum! Commie Diana, well, maybe three issues... We'll see. Thing is, we had a great story there and we blew it on a one-shot. Well, no one's making that mistake again...
Everything can fit now because nothing matters anymore! Even if we don't "No More Mutants" everything away, we can just pretend Reed and Tony didn't kill Bill if we just don't mention it. It was a big development, killing a guy who'd been around since the 70's, but how it happened, why it happened, well that's not as important! Hey, look over here! Johnny's dead! No, really! Eaten! Okay, he's back now... but we had you going, right? Hey! Look! Peter Parker's dead now! Ultimate Peter, but still...
And that'll last as long as it needs to. The 80's reboot taught us to erase, erase, erase. The fans will come back thinking the new stuff written on the board will be there for the long run. It won't, but hey, at least we're not insulting your intelligence with "imaginary" garbage anymore, right?
|