QTF.

plus, you really don’t need to know everything that happened in comics in the past x years to jump on and enjoy any more than you needed it in soap operas. sure, both might seem bewildering at first, but it doesn’t take long to catch on as to who’s a baddie and who’s not, and so on. you pick up the details along the way.

Exactly why I can never get anyone into comics for more than a month or two, no matter how much they liked a movie or even the story arc they started with.

I love comics and I don’t hate either of the big two but even I am sick of all the cross-continuity and have been for years, which is why I only buy a handful of books from Marvel anymore.
I like some of their characters but I am by no means a “Marvel Universe Fan” and, even if they only costed a buck each, have no desire to read about tons of characters that I couldn’t care less about mudding up the books I do like.

You don’t need to read every appearance of Superman or Batman to get an understanding of these characters.

. . . one that Brevoort himself raised following the DC relaunch announcement, leading me to wonder (a) whether this is significantly different a tactic, because there’s no continuity reboot involved. . .

Continuity only matters in a Marvel comic now when a writer wants it to matter. Take a look at CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #7, for example. A casual, uninformed reader might think that the storyline is heavily dependent on continuity, because of all the references to past events, but the references are actually retcons, aka discontinuities. In the latest issue, Heinberg’s “Life Force” retcon eliminated the basis for his version of Wanda’s twins, but he probably hasn’t even realized that.

Continuity is a problem only when a writer makes it a problem; otherwise, it’s a beneficial limit which results in a better product, like the ban on two-letter words in professionally-created crossword puzzles.

Any story should provide enough information and context to make the actions and motivations of its characters understandable. In the past, narration made that pretty easy. By choosing the “no narration” approach to storytelling, Marvel made a fairly minor problem much worse for itself.

SRS

I’m a mostly DC reader, and I have tried to get into Marvel several times. I found it difficult (I’m not trying to diss Marvel here; I imagine a non-DC reader would find it equally difficult to get into DC, at least before the relaunch).

The X-men titles are particularly inaccessible. It’s not just the facts that worry me most. I’m not afraid to read some Wikipedia articles. The problem is also that the writers seem to assume that I already know and care about the characters, and don’t make an effort to give me reasons to do so. I felt as if I was in a party where I knew no one but all the other people were best friends. A good jumping on point would be one that showed me who these characters are and gave me reason to care about them.

Then we got the Ultimate Universe, which I think was a great idea for new readers. Well done there, Marvel! Ultimate X-Men still did not grab me (maybe they are just not for me), but I loved Ultimate Spiderman and I’m reading it to this day, along with the occasional miniseries or story arc from other titles.

I’ve said before, that not only didn’t i need a jumping on point as a kid getting into comics, but that not having one and wanting to learn all the backstories led to me becoming a fan.

A few differences. First, there was less backstory to get into. Decades less. I don’t know what your age is, but getting in the X-Men in 1970, 1980 or even 1990 was a whole different beast than getting into the X-Men now. I read X-Men for big stretches of time in the past and even I’m intimidated.

Second, it was way easier to catch yourself up. If you wanted to get up to speed with Spider-Man’s backstory, you just read old Amazing Spider-Man comics. You barely needed Spectacular Spider-Man. And the comics had footnotes pointing you in the right direction. If you wanted X-Men backstory, you just read old X-Men.

Nowadays if I want to catch up on things that happened the last 6 years, what do I do? Say for example I wanted to be up to speed on a major DC or Marvel character. Take Superman for example. I’d have to read a ton of Action and Superman, but I’d also have to follow the various event comics and crossovers and minis he’s appeared in. Same for Batman in the past 6 years. In addition to Batman and Detective, I’d have so many comics to read in so many places, like the new Batman and Robin book, the Return of Bruce Wayne mini, Final Crisis, Batman Inc, etc. In the old days, comic characters only had one or two titles where anything major was allowed to happen to them. Not anymore. Any event, any miniseries, any major tie-in issue can have a major ramifications. If I wanted to be current on Captain America I’d need to not only read old issues of his book but the miniseries chronicling his return and also Civil War and Avengers books.

Sure the kids could use the internet to catch up and get synopses, but where’s the fun in that? Who wants to be caught up on what’s going on by reading long articles detailing convoluted continuity, especially if you’re new to a hobby and not emotionally invested enough yet to care. You’ll be spending more time researching via text articles than enjoying new comics, especially thanks to decompression where the actual reading of a comic goes by in less than 5 minutes.

Also, it’s more expensive to catch up these days by reading the actual comics, both due to the sheer volume of stuff you must read combined with the higher prices.

Also, there’s more stuff competing for kids’ attention today than before. Videogames, 24 hour kids TV programming, the internet, etc. Also, even among comic books there is manga, which doesn’t have some of the drawbacks described above. All the major developments to a protagonist happen in a single title. If I want to be up to date on Naruto, I don’t have to read Naruto, then the Final Shonen Crisis event miniseries, then Naruto Civil War event miniseries, then the Return of Naruto miniseries, then the Battle for Naruto Cowl miniseries…I just buy 1 title, Naruto, and start at Vol. 1 and keep reading until I make my way to the current volume. No reboots, no tie-ins, no outside miniseries. Just read Naruto volume #1 to present day volume.

Even the kids who do have the patience to research old continuity find it easier to do so in manga comics or Harry Potter books than in modern DC and Marvel comics.

even though they are all but dead because of economic reasons, current comic storytelling is pretty close to daytime soap operas. even when certain storylines would end, they would always open up new storylines and the universe that the storylines occur in continues apace. they never seemed (that i noticed) to worry about jumping on points or reboots or any of the crap we seem to harp on endlessly.

Soap operas are different than comics in that they age in real time and involve real human actors who grow old and die or leave for greener pastures. That constant loss of old blood and gaining of new blood means high turnover therefore lots of jettisoned continuity.

For exam look at this charted history of All My Children:
http://images.nymag.com/arts/articles/11/09/all-my-children/nymag_amc09262011.pdf

How much of what happened 40, 30, 20 or even 5 years ago really matters in following the storylines today? A large amount of the old cast and storylines in the show’s history are barely referenced now. The continuity is long, but shallow. Comics aren’t like that. Everything from any era is fair game to be referenced and decades old continuity is often still in play in the present day.