I completely agree. Last year alone saw two more takes on Superman’s origin (JMS and Johns). Even without the problems that have plagued recent Superman stories, it seems as though DC could never really grow the character because they were stuck on repeatedly trying to get his origin right.

To me, an origin nowadays should be treated more like a religion; believe the one you want, accept it on faith, and agree to disagree with someone who recognizes a different version. Siegel & Shuster’s? John Byrne’s? Mark Waid’s? Take your pick. But carry on with life, rather than becoming a zealot.

This touches on a good point; how many stories are really highly-regarded enough for anyone to even CARE if they’re canon or not? It’s probably a safe bet to say that no one clamored for the return of The Sponge, but if he / she / it did appear again, the writers could probably do whatever they wanted and no one would care.

And, I see that as a plus for continuity (as, an origin stays, and we all move forward!)

+1 for the Twilight Zone reference. I was so satisfied by that, I stopped reading.

Eh, I’m lying, I did read all of it.

I remember a few years back, when a certain largely forgotten Zatanna miniseries did away with Z talking backwards to cast a magic spell. A year or two later, Mark Waid used Zatanna in a story, with the reverse magic speak in full effect. When queried about that miniseries and its continuity, Waid invoked good writer’s privilege: Anything that sucks can be disregarded.

Sure enough, Z has spoken backwards ever since, so that early 90’s miniseries goes on the discard stack in the continuity card game.

The thing about continuity shackling is that you never know if it’s in effect or not *right now* – the moment you’re reading and digesting any given story.

I used to religiously document every book I read in a database which would be the foundation of all DC knowledge (to my naive self of 20 years ago). I look back on some of my notes now, and just have to laugh. “First appearance of The Sponge” – some random villain in some random book that nobody would even remember now. “World threatened” event – overshadowed by whatever “world threatened” event comes along in the next issue. By and large, the great majority of notes I took have no value to anyone now. All that painstaking tracking of continuity mostly doesn’t matter.

There’s a more recent good example of this unknown state you’re in at the moment you’re reading a book. In the Millar run of Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom is fried to a crisp right before your eyes. Stone cold dead. My old database would have been updated: “Death of Doctor Doom”

And did the world erupt with madness and did everyone rush to the comic shop for that milestone issue? Nope. A few issues later, as luck would have it, old metal face was reconstituted and life went on.

However, not very long after all that, Johnny Storm dies and the world DID react, and that event became a real FF milestone.

Certainly, there are external sources (CBR, Newsarama and even Marvel itself) telling us that *this* is important and *that* isn’t. But, we don’t always have that external context when we’re reading.

Is this book I’m reading right this moment going to be something that future writers and editors will describe as suckage and be disregarded? Or am I reading something that will become seminal and become the “Dark Knight” for future generations to keep coming back and re-reading?

It’s not always that easy to tell. Even really good reads slip away into the ether after a while. JLA: The Nail comes to mind as something really great that nobody really references anymore. But, then again, it was Elseworlds and therefore “doesn’t count!”