When Retconning Within a Fictional Universe is Okay

This subject has been weighing on my for some time. Warning...this will probably only apply to geeks, but well...I'm a geek. It started for me with DC Comics and the move for to The New 52. But with this weeks announcement that LucasFilm will be dropping all previous uses of the expanded universe I can't help but feel like asking the questions, "When do you as a reader/collector/investor in a fictional universe feel cheated and are in the right?"

I had a very lengthy debate with this right after Avengers Arena came out. While not a complete changing of the universe my frustration at the time (I grew to love the title) was that I had spent a lot of time and money investing in characters that I had thought were the next generation heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe through titles like New X-Men, Avengers Initiative, and Avengers Academy that when I saw some of these characters killed off it felt as if that money had been wasted. In truth this isn't really a perfect example in that it wasn't a complete re-write and came down more to an issue of personal preference. It also revealed in me that just because a loss of a character is hard doesn't mean that all that came before wasn't still fantastic and have value.

That difference I talk about is MUCH larger when you look at complete reboots of entire universes. While this has been a tradition with DC (and many would argue that the publishing division only exists to expose IP to potential viewers of the same IP in other mediums which are worth much more money like movies and tv), the latest in the line which is now going on three years is The New 52. It was DC Entertainment's attempt at cleaning up some messes that came before in continuity, give new readers a chance to get in on the bottom floor of these long running characters, and inject other properties back into the DC Universe or into the DC Universe that only existed at other imprints or had been moved to other imprints. In some ways it has been fantastic...in others (most sadly) it has been a nightmare.

When it first started New 52 I read every title willing to give it a chance as while I had read DC my true universe has always been Marvel. I was drawn to DC through titles in their Vertigo line at first but branched out over the years into reading JLA by Grant Morrison, JSA with Geoff Johns, Green Lantern with Johns as well, and Hitman by Garth Ennis. It gave me a slight foot in the door to check out more title like Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and soon I was reading a lot of DC as well. But what drew me to these titles was a feeling of legacy. Even though it seemed rather silly I was okay with Superboy of Earth-Prime punching fractures in reality because lets face it, DC has always been a little silly at times. I mean Earth-Prime folks?! Really?!  But legacy gave the universe weight. It meant there would always be others to take up the mantle of aging heroes while still giving those aging heroes a say. But through Flashpoint we were offered the reboot with a promise of printing schedules, not making the same mistakes again, and having a streamlined continuity that made sense.

Well like most things there was a lot of good intentions but not a lot of follow through. My first sign that this might not be so well thought out was the creative on some of these titles and the titles themselves. Injecting some Wildstorm characters into DC's cannon might have been a fun idea, but when you take Stormwatch/Authority which at one time was one of the best titles on the market and push it with subpar creative teams and get off track of what made that title good I had little hope it would take off. And then add titles like Grifter (who already had solo titles that didn't sell well) and VooDoo (someone even avid Wildstorm fans had very little love for because her story was so confusing) that didn't exactly surprise me that they weren't sales juggernauts. This was only exacerbated by an aging EIC that decided it was a good idea to rehire some of his much derided talent and I was highly skeptical.

Well we sit here 3 years later. There have been constant continuity snafus (what the heck is going on with the 4 million Robins folks...wasn't this meant to simplify?), shuffling of creative teams, and gimmicks that don't really show confidence in an overall plan but a company that is committed to printing stories of these characters until they don't make money on them anymore. Swamp Thing and Animal Man, once Vertigo titles and previous to that main DC, had solid openings but pushed for too little from titles that have always worked better as their own little corner of existence. Scott Lobdell (sorry to pick on low-hanging fruit) wasn't a talent that could be depended on yet they give him multiple titles including one of their flagship characters and it has been an unmitigated disaster. Even the entire line shift in the Green Lantern titles has seemed rudderless. Like creative is just throwing darts at a boards and coming up with plot lines. It has gotten so bad that currently I'm reading only 3 (sometimes a couple more) titles of theirs a month. And this was meant to fix problems which is why I tried to buy the total retconning of all that came before...and why I don't buy it now.

This is my worry with Star Wars. While the franchise was never something I invested as much in as other people in my age group, I always had a love for the originals. So much so that I saw Phantom Menace in a blind "rat hitting the feeder bar" kinda way 7 times before realizing how horrible the movie was. I still gave George Lucas the benefit of the doubt when it came to the next two movies which, while better, still were just really not that good. Maybe nostalgia was stacking the deck against the franchise, but it is clear there is a very vocal group that agrees with me on this. So it was about that time that I began checking out the comics and novels. Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, the stories about Wraith Squadron (check those out...amazing!!!), and ongoing titles like Legacy and Empire were all outstanding additions to the stories I grew up loving so much. I gladly plunked down (as had many others I had turned on to these stories) the money needed to continue my experience within the HUGE universe that gave greater depth to something that already felt so huge. And this leads me to frustration at the recent announcement that previous expanded universe titles are no longer cannon.

Now I'm not stupid. I understand contracts and the mess with licensing and juggling things that have become such a expansive tapestry of tales. That is a daunting task to be sure. I also understand some things just don't make sense (*cough* Splinter of the Mind's Eye *cough*), but to take an entire 30+ year history of tales that go beyond the movies and essentially telling those invested in it that they don't matter now...well...I think it is an unfortunate cop out. Thousands of pages of story exploring tens of thousands of years of the Star Wars Universe now just don't matter. And I'm sure we'll be given the typical, "These titles can still be enjoyed on their own.", when does it come down to an issue of personal responsibility to your fans that have placed large portions of their lives showing that they value the stories you've created?

I'm not without answers. I really do believe there was a fix for this that would keep almost everyone happy. It is simple: allow those folks that have come before to keep all the ins and outs of the universe in check to begin to go through and select those titles that sold well, added value to the originals, and actually were good stories. It had always been my hope that these new movies would be Dark Empire related. Such a good story. And proof that they had to do very little to create the next stage in the tale that is Star Wars except turn a comic/novel into a film script. But there are a ton of gems that exist within this larger portion of the universe that are now left with little or no weight at all. It really comes down to two issues as to why keeping some of this was needed: the financial investment from Star Wars fans and the emotional/experiential investment. By keeping those tales that really pushed the narrative forward I think we could at least find some common ground.

So...what do you think? I'm sure some of you reading this will be bored and not care. This really isn't an issue like kid-soldiers in Uganda or sex trafficking. Still, it raises the question of when we've invested in someone else's IP what responsibility do the creators have to those that have spent large chunks of their time and paychecks on something that in many ways becomes such a part of a fans life. As a life long fanboy I know some fictional characters have gone well beyond just being something fun to read, but as an escape from being bullied, friends when I lacked them, and the joy of allowing my mind to wander within the possibilities. And on that note...kill Jar Jar. lol Thanks folks...J