Occupation: Highly respected assistant manager of a very, very popular comic store.
Group Affilliation: I have chosen to grace the SBC with my wisdom.
Base of Operations: Florida
First Appearance: Nearly 40 years ago.
History: For more than seven years I have been an invaluable asset to the comic industry as a knowledgeable and talented assistant manager.
Powers and Weapons: Unlike so many other columnists and "professionals," I know the truth about comics. I will not waste your time with opinions, dear reader, I will give you only the facts.
I am a nearly life-long reader of comics and a stickler for continuity. Combine that with the fact that I am the assistant manager of a well-known and respected Florida comic book store; and it should be clear that I am somewhat of an expert on comic book continuity.
No comic series continuity should last longer than twelve issues. This is the truth.
These days, especially on the Internet, everyone has an opinion on what it will take to breathe new life into the comic industry. I’m here to tell you the truth, as always.
What comics need is more reboots. Everyone knows what a #1 issue does for a series, sales-wise and story-wise. Imagine what the sales would be like if a new Batman #1 came out every year? And imagine if you had the chance to buy a Batman #1, with an all-new origin, every year?
Let me help drive the point home. Why would you want to read issue four hundred something, something of the same old character, when you could read a year’s worth of a new book, re-telling that character? And since it’s only a twelve-issue continuity, that character could do all sorts of outrageous things. Superman and Lex Luthor could, alternately, kill each other at the finales of two continuities. Then maybe Lois could kill them both at the end of the next one. See, the potential is as limitless as the worlds accessible through The Guardian of Forever!
Furthermore, any creator who is not working on a reboot is not worth his weight in spice. Why work on some tired old continuity, striving in vain to make it interesting when it is so much easier to throw all the rules out the window and make the character distinctly their own.
Why not a red Hulk created by solar radiation? Why not a Legion consisting of teenaged sleuths using their wits in the future? Why not a Tarzan who lives on the moon and guards the Earth against an alien invasion? And with a twelve-issue continuity cap, why not have every character kill or die as much as you want? I’m sure by now, reader; after reading my eloquent points, the only “why” you must be asking yourself is, “Why don’t comic publishers listen to Hal?” I understand your frustration.
More reboots will bring us more interesting characters. How much cooler is the shape-changing-protomatter-being-from-a-pocket-universe-who-becomes-an-earth-angel, Supergirl than the old, contrived, cousin-of-Superman, Supergirl? Imagine how fascinating Supergirl will be after five, ten, fifteen reboots?! We won’t have to wait long as I’m sure someone at DC must be reading this. You can all thank me later.
Reboots also serve a basic wish fulfillment that all humans crave. Just as many editors state (erroneously, but I’ll get to that later) that a reboot does away with superfluous continuity, I’m sure many of you wish you could change segments of your own pasts. If reboots were possible in the real world they would be incredibly popular. Even I would like to take advantage of a reboot. Like rebooting the day I hired Jimmy, our jr. high school stock-boy. Jimmy once mixed Marvel’s Star Wars with Dark Horse’s Star Wars in the back issue bins. What a fool!
Lastly let me address the true beauty of reboots. Some say that rebooting throws out years of precious continuity. Others say it is a way of cleaning house of archaic continuity. It is neither. All lovers of dizzying continuity should embrace the reboot, because it actually spews more continuity at the comic audience.
For instance, there is the Lee Spider-Man origin, the Byrne Spider-Man origin and the Bendis Spider-Man origin. Each with their own unique differences and all of them gleefully categorized in the minds of the continuity buffs. Thank goodness publishers are lying when they say that they are rebooting a title to streamline continuity. Each reboot murkies the continuity waters a bit more; just the way we true continuity fans like it.
So, reader, now you understand that a twelve-issue continuity cap would undeniably help revitalize characters, creators, readers and the industry as a whole. Reboots are the wave of the future, and, ultimately, the savior of comics.
The opinions expressed above are entirely the author's and do not represent those of Silver Bullet Comics, or any of its staff, or contributors.
