Continuity can be a huge thing. As comic book readers, we tend to cringe when we see an event happen that contradicts another or simply doesn't fit in with other happenings. It's something that has slowly been ingrained into our thinking. We become so invested with the characters in which we spend so much of our time and money on. We want it all to make sense.
This wasn't always the case. Comic characters appeared in several titles and it really wasn't questioned. Look at Batman in the 90s with BATMAN, DETECTIVE COMICS, SHADOW OF THE BAT, LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, and numerous appearances with the Justice League, Superman, and other books in the DCU. The same could be said for Spider-Man with his various appearances. The late 90s showed us characters like Wolverine, Punisher, and Ghost Rider also had the ability to appear practically everywhere.
When DC launched the New 52, continuity really became a concern with readers. We had that mysterious "five years" and we all wondered what the heck happened in that time, particularly how could there be four different Robins (since Stephanie Brown got retconned out of being one). This month's ACTION COMICS #40 shows us maybe we really don't need to obsess over continuity.
ACTION COMICS #39 wrapped up a bearded Superman's adventures in Smallville. Even that story may have raised some questions since Clark (or Superman) didn't have a beard in SUPERMAN, BATMAN/SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN, or JUSTICE LEAGUE. Issue #40 simply begins with Superman traveling through a portal, with no explanation how or why this was happening. He even mentiones, "But this Wednesday...I don't know where or how...I find myself spiraling miles beyond unpredictible...straight past continuity..."
The result was Superman ending up on Bizarro World with a pretty fantastic encounter against the backward character.
Besides the lack of explaining how this story followed the previous issue, there was also the fact that we had just been introduced to Bizarro in the New 52 during FOREVER EVIL. Barely a year and a half later, we see this other, more classic version.
It seems writer Greg Pak was allowed to tell a wacky and entertaining story which also seems to be setting up the Bizarro miniseries coming in June. It doesn't matter that this issue didn't explain how Superman ended up going through a portal or the fact that Bizarro World and its inhabitants exist despite a more serious Bizarro having already appeared. We got a comic that was entertaining. When it comes to readers spending their money on comics, that seems like a huge selling point. Even on the comic review aggregate site, ComicBookRoundUp, ACTION COMICS has a combined average review score of 9.2 out of 10. People seemed to like it.
A looser continuity is something that DC Comics Co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio told us they'd be leaning towards when we visited the DC Office in February. This doesn't mean all continuity is being thrown out the window. We can see in the June 2015 solicitations for DC that there is a Superman story, "Truth," that will take place in ACTION COMICS, BATMAN/SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN, and SUPERMAN. So we can still have continuity. The characters and creators just don't need to be locked down to making sure every single issue lines up or connects to another. It's more about the big picture.
This isn't anything new either. We've been seeing this more and more lately. What immediately comes to my mind is Captain America appearing in AVENGERS, UNCANNY AVENGERS, and CAPTAIN AMERICA.
We had Captain America spend 13 years in Dimension Z (time flowed at a different pace). We didn't know how this fit in with his appearances in the 616 Universe. Two of the books were even written by the same writer. It just didn't matter. Knowing where Cap's Dimension Z adventure took place would spoil the outcomes of other stories. If you didn't worry how it fit together, you could easily enjoy some great stories.
Having a looser continuity allows us to have different stories told at their own pace. This won't mean they'll contradict each other. Wolverine is still dead in the X-Men books. Thor (or Odinson) still is without Mjolnir. Lex Luthor is still seemingly a good guy. We won't have a character drastically affected or changed in one book and then see this ignored in another. In the big picture, these separate events will fit together to give us the definitive version of who the characters are today. This is likely what readers that wait for the trade paperbacks experience. It's not always clear where they fit in with the other titles due to the various printing schedules.
Continuity can be a good thing. We just don't need writers chained down and not allowed to take a character to different places because it would be too difficult to explain how they got there in another title. Writers and publishers are aware of this and we've been seeing this change slowly become more and more evident.
There will be some readers who fight this feeling of a looser continuity. As long as we keep getting great stories or even better ones, we all win. No one needs to map out a comic book character's day to day schedule and line up all the books. Just enjoy the great stories.