I had to decide pretty early what would count as my One True Canon and what wouldn't... Exactly. This is what anyone who plays in the DCU *has* to do... at least if they want to tell halfway legible stories and/or stay sane (which actually might explain something about many comics fans, but). A lot of the published stories are either total crap or don't work with each other, and it'd be a mistake to try to make them. It's the *characters* and the *myths* that count.
One of the other things that is weird is that, One True Canon aside, sometimes you have to use different issues as your base, depending on *which* (eg) Tim story you want to tell. This is why I get confused when I try to fill out any poll on AUs. The whole of the DCU fandom is AUs. Hell, the whole of the *DCU* is AUs. Then on top of that we've got Elseworlds and Legion and, like, anything written by Loeb.
And that's another reason why I shout that there's not all that much difference between the creators and the fans around here. Someone sitting down to tell a story, *their* story, doesn't often go off on a tangent and write that story's equivalent of What if Bruce was a Green Lantern? What if he was *Superman*? What if the Joker was the *good guy*?
It's fans who worry about stuff like that.
With the exceptions of things like the latest run of MANHUNTER and FIRESTORM, *nods* That's why I was careful to talk about the *DCU* as opposed to comics in general, because otherwise I'd keep inserting, except for anything creator owned, or indy, or most of the Vertigo line, or.... And, yeah, books early enough in their run to have one or two writers fall into the same category. They haven't... diffused into the general domain yet, I guess. If thirty years from now Kate's still around as Manhunter, we might be having a different conversation (or at least different examples).
and *not* just because many of us do it better -- or even 'better' -- than the people who are paid good money to do so.
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Exactly. This is what anyone who plays in the DCU *has* to do... at least if they want to tell halfway legible stories and/or stay sane (which actually might explain something about many comics fans, but). A lot of the published stories are either total crap or don't work with each other, and it'd be a mistake to try to make them. It's the *characters* and the *myths* that count.
One of the
otherthings that is weird is that, One True Canon aside, sometimes you have to use different issues as your base, depending on *which* (eg) Tim story you want to tell. This is why I get confused when I try to fill out any poll on AUs. The whole of the DCU fandom is AUs. Hell, the whole of the *DCU* is AUs. Then on top of that we've got Elseworlds and Legion and, like, anything written by Loeb.And that's another reason why I shout that there's not all that much difference between the creators and the fans around here. Someone sitting down to tell a story, *their* story, doesn't often go off on a tangent and write that story's equivalent of What if Bruce was a Green Lantern? What if he was *Superman*? What if the Joker was the *good guy*?
It's fans who worry about stuff like that.
With the exceptions of things like the latest run of MANHUNTER and FIRESTORM,
*nods* That's why I was careful to talk about the *DCU* as opposed to comics in general, because otherwise I'd keep inserting, except for anything creator owned, or indy, or most of the Vertigo line, or.... And, yeah, books early enough in their run to have one or two writers fall into the same category. They haven't... diffused into the general domain yet, I guess. If thirty years from now Kate's still around as Manhunter, we might be having a different conversation (or at least different examples).
and *not* just because many of us do it better -- or even 'better' -- than the people who are paid good money to do so.
*laughs* It's so very true.