The Pickytarian

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September 16, 2005

I Got Yer Ramifications Right Here!

I've been a bit MIA from my beloved comic blogosphere lately. Some of the various reasons for my absence have been: a trip to Chicago for my wife Amy's opening, a stretch of daily stabbing headaches that prevented me from staring at a computer screen for my usual 12 hours per day, and a general sense of ennui that comes from yapping about the same 15 comic books month in and month out. I'm sure my fellow bloggers experience this as well; the nagging question of what could I possibly have to offer to the discussion that hasn't been said already and better? It's best not to go down that road. Even though others have stated, for example, that they aren't reading Crisis of Infinite Crossovers because it makes their head hurt, it's still a tiny bit meaningful to throw my hat into the ring and offer the same opinion, if only for the sake of seconding an opinion. Isn't it? The beauty of the Lectrick InterWeb is hypertext; I don't have to re-hash someone else's opinion, referencing it with a link does as much if not more to bolster it by increasing its accessibility.

So let's smash that existential angst back down into that self-doubting brain-compartment from whence it came. I have an opinion on one of comic punditry's current-ish debates and I'm going to share it, by gum. Feel free to click away if you're tired of this kind of thing...

Ramifications

It started with Heidi MacDonald from The Beat questioning writer Peter David's promise that his new Spider-Man story will have lasting ramifications for the character. Paul O'Brien from Ninth Art chipped in a defense of ramifications in his column this past Monday. I'm coming down squarely on MacDonald's side on this one. I've been reading superhero comics for, God help me, nigh on 22 years now. I remember the thrill of discovering this secret, crazy world of the Marvel Universe. The little footnote-asterisks hinted at a larger world that had an interconnected history, one that was expansive enough that I could easily transport myself into it and escape from the difficulties of my seventh-grade life. That's the thrill that fueled my weekly allowance-blowing on every scrap of the grand Marvel Universe quilt that I could get my hands on. It was a clever bit of marketing, one that had been honed over two decades by Stan Lee and his progeny in the Marvel editorial office.

Honestly, though, that's all it was. Like most other market-driven editorial decisions, continuity issues get in the way of quality stories more often than they contribute to them. Strict adherence to continuity is a snowball that grows and grows until it weighs down every story. Batman's 60 years of history is not the cause of his popularity, it's an unavoidable by-product of it.

The question of "Will the ramifications of this story be referenced in the next story" is a question in whose answer I have no interest. If they do, that's fine, but the current story better damn well recap that previous story so that I have an idea of what's going on. Otherwise I feel manipulated into buying the previous chapter. I also feel disappointed that the writer has to resort to referencing a previous work in order to bolster the current one.

The American superhero comic industry makes its money from weird little habits of a closed group of rapidly-aging obsessive-compulsive fans. I know this because I'm one of these fans. That doesn't mean that I can't recognize the flaws in my logic when I try to rationalize the purchase of an issue of The X-Men in which I only expect to be disappointed. By prioritizing things like the creators' creativity and craft over the relevancy to the overall big picture of the character's accidentally accumulated history, I keep myself from falling into the trap of missed expectations. I also like to think that I'm doing my small part to provide an economic disincentive for publishers to continue down that editorial dead-end street.

Obsessive lust for validation of your decision to purchase last year's comics is a vicious habit. I understand the desire to recapture that thrill of being an insider, that lower brain rush that comes from being accepted into the clubhouse of people who recognize the reference without following the asterisk down to the footnote at the bottom of the panel. But that's all you're doing when you demand ramifications. You're not getting an epic tale. You're buying in to the age-old trick of episodic entertainment, the constant cliffhanger. There's nothing inherently wrong with these thrills, but don't mistake them for the satisfaction that one gets from enjoying a cohesive, well-told story.

Posted by jdonelson_nyc at September 16, 2005 01:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: Peat at September 23, 2005 09:20 AM

Posted by: jdonelson_nyc at September 23, 2005 09:38 AM