Why do people care about continuity so much?

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LarryAshlynn

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Well, I'm kinda new to comics (just started reading this year), but I wonder why pretty much everyone had their panties in a twist when something is retconned/rebooted, or when some things are changed.

Just asking :)

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acer51

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#2  Edited By acer51

Because dedicated fans spend a lot of time getting to know the characters in the titles they read, they absorb everything the lore the knowledge all the little factoids about the character, his/her relationship with this characters the built up abilities and the development of the character him/herself.

If a character is rebooted then some of these things may be lost (depending on how severe the reboot). Like with One more day Spider-mans entire marriage is retconned which destroys his relationship with MJ which had been apart of his character development for the past 20 years a major change to most things in the characters life, this upset most fans because it destroyed a lot of character development and maturity that Spider-man had built from being married.

That's a relatively small thing you take a big thing like the new 52 where you basically have to throw out 90% of what you know about every character and only keep 10% of their core character, it's a true deal breaker for many DC fans but I don't know a lot of people like it for some reason.

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VanderSEXXX

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For many readers like myself and some other viners here continuity is what keeps us reading since it builds up the lore that makes the stories within it more entertaining.

Though it really depends on what kind of continuity. For example in DC I personally didn't mind the reboot but I guess many weren't that happy with some of the changes done by the editors particularly the new Kidflash Wally West who many here hate with the fury of a thousand suns, and some other characters who are no longer in character to what the old readers have been familiar with for several years.

Inconsistencies can also be what puts off readers who try to gain deeper understanding of the historical lore of the universe's events as it affects one character to another.

An example of that was in Marvel the 2010 event Thanos Imperative set in motion a cosmic event that supposedly killed Thanos, Star-Lord, and Nova Prime, however after recent Marvel events like Infinity, where Thanos and Star-Lord were once again seen alive (with no explanation how whatsoever) but without Nova-Prime particularly gave a big inconsistency to the lore of the Nova Corps. A retconned Nova was born sometime in 2011 or so and this gave a big question mark to longtime readers of Marvel cosmic space heroes as to how the Nova Corps can operate without its primary source of power which is the Xandarian Worldmind who was embedded in Nova-Prime who was supposedly killed in Thanos Imperative. The current writers somehow deliberately omitted this and are now scrambling to give a decent answer to this without drawing the ire of the longtime readers.

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LarryAshlynn

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Okay. I guess as a pretty casual fan I don't know that much, then.

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Hyperlight

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@larryashlynn: because some people are use to the way things are and retcons do t always do good things for charavters or stories

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acer51

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Okay. I guess as a pretty casual fan I don't know that much, then.

It's probably not something that'll bother you unless you read for a long time and (god forbid) someone retcons one of your favorite characters, but for a relatively new reader it's actually advantageous for you to be starting at the beginning of two big retcons (new 52 and Marvel Now! which is smaller changes) because you don't have the burden of having to read countless back issues to understand the plot, which can be fun actually I spent years reading back issues but it's not the kind of thing everyone wants to do.

Which leads me to one question.

Marvel or DC?

(or both)

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LarryAshlynn

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@acer51 Both, for sure! DC's New 52 got me into comics, but Marvel's got plenty of great stuff too, so I'd say to hell with fighting XD

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Eisenfauste

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Because people like it the way it is, and some reboot's/retconn's give the series or stories original characters a bad name. If there was a solid and semi-popular to popular idea or story in the first place why retconn it or reboot it when you can simply add onto it.

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acer51

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@acer51 Both, for sure! DC's New 52 got me into comics, but Marvel's got plenty of great stuff too, so I'd say to hell with fighting XD

Even better, your basically starting at the beginning they probably won't retcon anything major for the next 10 or 20 years.

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VanderSEXXX

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@acer51 Both, for sure! DC's New 52 got me into comics, but Marvel's got plenty of great stuff too, so I'd say to hell with fighting XD

He's right. As you continue reading overtime you'll probably start caring for continuity (especially if a character or a team grows on you). After all its what makes you look forward to read one issue after the next right?

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LarryAshlynn

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@vandersexxx True to that, though. Most of my favourite characters are more iconic, like Batman and Superman, so hopefully they don't, uh, ruin them in the future XD As for now I am pretty content/

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deactivated-5a162dd41dd64

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Because it's important. A character's past shapes who they are, and when comic writers or whoever change that past it changes who the character is on a fundamental level.