OMAC: Why Continuity Matters

One Man Argues Comics: Continuity

So Eric and I were busy alienating everyone else at the Gaslins' New Year's Eve party by talking comics, and I mocked him for reading Marvel's "Civil War," the latest in a series of earth-shattering events which will change the Marvel Universe forever. And Eric asked, "What's wrong with 'Civil War'?"

Taken aback and fuzzed by three or four of Glenn's "Dapper Dan" cocktails, I didn't have an adequate response.

But here's what really bothers me about "Civil War," and, by extension, it's the same problem that turns rabid fanboys of shows like "Lost," "The X-Files," and even "The Simpsons" into rabid enemies.

The writers don't bother to respect the continuity.

For those of you who dated in high school, "continuity" is the maintenance of consistency throughout the ongoing episodes of a story (or books, TV show, or series of movies).

(What continuity is not: think of that episode of "The Simpsons" where Lucy Lawless is quizzed on the different kinds of horses in "Xena" by a devoted geek. ("Yes, well, whenever you notice something like that, a wizard did it.") That's just nit-picking. The two are often confused, both by writers and fans. The difference is, continuity is about things that matter to the overall plot or characters. Whether or not Xena was riding a winged palomino or appaloosa does not fit into that category.)

Continuity is especially important in genre entertainment (like comic books, sci-fi, horror, etc.) because the creators are already testing the suspension of disbelief to its limits. As my agents are fond of saying, "You only get one 'gimme' in each script" -- one thing the audience accepts without question. Superman? You'll believe a man can fly. Spider-Man? You'll accept that radioactive spider-bites lead to super-powers, not cancer. But that's it. Everything else has to fall in line, or the spell is broken.

It's like those old 1940s movie serials where the earth explodes just before the next chapter, and then, as the next chapter begins, the explosion is prevented in the nick of time.

Boom. You're out. Even a five-year-old knows that the earth exploded, and you can't just turn back time -- like, say, Superman did. Once you paint yourself into that corner, you've got to find a way out.

It's not always anything earth-shattering. Often, the little cracks in continuity are barely noticeable. A character acting uncharacteristically. A well-known episode totally forgotten. A bit of shared history ignored. And then, cumulatively, the story's hold on the audience is broken.

Continuity is the internal structure that supports suspension of disbelief. You can hack away at it for a while, but eventually, you're going to bring the whole structure down.

Which brings me to Marvel's "Civil War."

Marvel has always been less stringent about continuity than DC Comics.* Aside from the period when Jim Shooter was Editor-In-Chief at Marvel, writers and artists have been pretty much able to make it up as they went along. And that's fine.

But "Civil War" is just one insult to the audience's intelligence after another.  The crossover series has gotten a lot of attention from the mainstream press, because it's a thinly veiled allegory for the Patriot Act and the War on Terror. After a hideous super-villain/super-hero smackdown leads to a school exploding, the public demands all superhumans register with the government. Some do. Others refuse.

Good idea, as far as it goes. But the execution is... well, just awful. Never mind that this is a world where whole cities have been destroyed before, where the planet was nearly eaten by a giant spaceman wearing purple armor. We'll allow that this bit of carnage is the thing that puts the general public over the edge.

But that's the one gimme. Everything else should fall in line, and it doesn't. Marvel heroes have always beat the snot out of each other; that's nothing new. But now, heroes are acting like villains, for no other reason than the plot requires them to. Super-heroes are suddenly being treated with far more violence than the heroes ever used on the actual villains. And in turn, the villains have been set free to track down and arrest the heroes -- even when their body count is far higher than the number of casualties that supposedly started this whole thing.

In short, it's too much. It violates the rules underlying this world, and it kicks the audience out. There isn't a Superboy punch strong enough to knock any sense into this mess.**

This is the same kind of sloppiness that has all of us here at BA! questioning our allegiance to "Lost." ("Wait, I thought Walt was important to the Others..." "Why doesn't anyone just ask a simple goddamn question?") It's what turned "The X-Files" from our favorite show into a cringe-inducing endurance test. ("Mulder's sister is where? What? Oh, that's it!")

If we're honest, we'll all admit that continuity is what keeps us with these stories. Sure, there are good characters, and funny jokes, and fight scenes, but there's nothing like that little thrill we all get from continuity porn. (Or conporn, if you're looking for a slicker name.) Those are the little moments where the writers recognize we're paying attention, and they bring the whole universe into focus with one little aside. Like Indiana Jones, when he looks at the wall art in "Last Crusade," and says, "The Ark of the Covenant." ("Are you sure?" "Pretty sure.") Or why Rick digs it when Robin's secret history as a Canadian pop-star is revealed on "How I Met Your Mother."  Or when Buffy crosses over with Angel. Or when Batman meets Superman.

Put another way, continuity is the idea that the writers and creators of a series should remember what happened before at least as well as you do. And when they don't, it doesn't just feel like an oversight. It feels vaguely like an insult. After all, they get paid for this, and we're just the audience.

*By the way, where did this idea come from that Marvel's continuity is less troubled and convoluted than DC's? If anything, the years of neglect have made it worse. Marvel fans love to say, "Yeah, well, at least we don't have Earth-2..." Riiiiiiight. What Marvel does have: the Ultraverse, where Thor and Loki hung out after the ill-considered purchase of Malibu Comics; Heroes Reborn, where the entire cast of Marvel (save the X-Men and Spider-Man) were shunted into a rebooted history; Heroes Return, where they came back, and it was revealed the whole thing was created by the Fantastic Four's kid; Fantastic Force; Fantastic Five; Iron Man's killing spree, death, and then rebirth as a teenager; Captain America reveals his secret ID not once, not twice, but thrice; Spider-Man's clones; Aunt May's clone; Norman Osborn, dead, alive, and now the father of Gwen Stacy's children; Jean Grey's multiple deaths and rebirths; Scott Summers' multiple children from alternate futures and their clones; the Age of Apocalypse; the House of M... Really, I could go on.

** A "Superboy punch" has become derisive fanboy shorthand for the device that DC used in its "Infinite Crisis" crossover to explain its continuity screw-ups. An evil version of Superboy was punching the walls of reality itself, causing all kinds of shockwaves to run through the DC Universe, and in some cases, revising history. Lame? Yes. But better than just ignoring those screw-ups, because it brings the audience back inside the story.

Comments

[Eric Almendral]

Gee, I feel I should rebut, state my case and defend my taste in comics. Which, I guess, I will.

[Mayrav]

How does a post about continuity in comics garner four comments when a post about Stephen Friggin Hawking going to into OUTER SPACE not even warrant a "Hmm"?

[The Nickel-Plated JA]

Stephen, inn all fairness, when Bond and Blofeld first met in YOLT, Bond had had plastic surgery to look Japanese... so the subsequent meeting in OHMSS, when Bond looks like himself and is trying to pass himself off as Sir Hilary Bray, Baronet, Sable Basilisk of Arms, is excusable. But you're right in that the Diamonds are Forever script is FULL of continuity holes -- which I would attribute to Tom Mankiewicz' rookie status as a Bond writer.

[Stephen]

Wait -- you're looking for continuity in Bond, Nickel? Howabout him and Blofeld bantering in "Diamonds Are Forever" after, let's see, he KILLED BOND'S WIFE? Or Blofeld not recognizing Bond after Bond had not only foiled his plans in four previous movies, but he actually captured him? (OK, both characters were played by different actors, but shesh).

[Chris]

Thanks, Jeff. You're too kind.

[The Nickel-Plated JA]

Chris, that is brilliant and compelling! The continuity departure is precisely what bothered me about Bond's sudden amnesia regarding the workings of atomic bombs, and the relative lethality of exposure to different radioisotopes, in "The World is Not Enough."

You might have just found your way into Bartlett's with this one though: "Continuity is the internal structure that supports suspension of disbelief." Absolutely brilliant.