Let's Talk January: Mithen's Personal History of Superman and Batman!

[mithen]

I got an anonymous request for either Clark or Bruce's (or Dick's, but that's so tied to Bruce's) story as I see it from start to present--that is to say, what do I pick and choose from different continuities and canons to make my Superman or Batman? This is a hard and interesting question! The simple cheating answer is that I change it depending

Comments

[navaan]

I'm much the same that my headcanons change depending on the story I'm working on, what's best for the narrative, or depending on what exactly interests me at the moment.

I love Silver Age Kypton and for me too it's part of my ideal Superman "canon". And Birthright is so amazing and full of wonderful ideas for the Superman origin story. I come back to it quite often.

If he has a het relationship it absolutely should be Lois and they should get married. I miss that marriage so bad.

The murder in the alley should always be something random, cruel and pointless--not part of any larger conspiracy or the result of something Thomas or Martha had done earlier, the point is that horrible things can happen that you didn't call on yourself and that don't serve any larger picture.

I agree so hard about this! Sometimes tying these things into greater stories and conspiracy (as happened with all the Robin's origins stories too) actually takes away from the tragedy. Sometime tragedy works better because it's just a random, unconnected and thus senseless and unpredictable event that takes someone from you. Life is like that. We can't control it. And the feeling of helplessness that arises when we realize that is what's so powerful.

I wish they'd left it alone--he has at least 4 Robins, most of whom work with him for five-ten years without his getting much older than 35. No, it's not possible, but that's the way it is.

Amen. And that was the way it worked best for me. Sometimes the obsession with continuity actually annoys me. No it's not possible in real life to stay one age and have different partners for year and years, but it's superhero comics so who cares if that's possible or not.

(yes, I have headcanon Elseworlds, apparently)

:D

[mithen]

If he has a het relationship it absolutely should be Lois and they should get married. I miss that marriage so bad.

I tried to tell myself it might be a good thing that it was gone because it made my OTP more possible, but...the fact of the matter is that marriages have never stopped me, I just set everything in an "identical but no wife" world and go on my merry way (cf: Sherlock). Losing the marriage to Lois ended up fundamentally changing the way the character was written in canon, though, and THAT actually does interfere with my shippy times!

I absolutely cannot believe how often people want to make the Waynes' deaths part of "something bigger." It's a ludicrous impulse and undermines exactly what Batman stands for. *annoyed sigh*

Also, yeah, "continuity" needs to be put in a wood chipper and ditched. The idea that we can piece all of this together into one nice consistent story is one of the biggest problems with modern comics (you mentioned this problem crops up in Doctor Who as well!)

[navaan]

Losing the marriage to Lois ended up fundamentally changing the way the character was written in canon, though, and THAT actually does interfere with my shippy times!

And it really didn't do him and any of his supporting cast any favours. I still think that something like the New52 could have been exciting and interesting with better planning and with changes mindful of who these characters are at the core.

(you mentioned this problem crops up in Doctor Who as well!)

It does happen in Doctor Who sometimes, but it has only become really annoying with Moffat recently with the way he's wrapping up the seasons he's been writing so far. It started out much like the seasons that were made by his predecessor with nods to Classic Who serials here and there that were fun and engaging and then went overboard with it and in the process contradiction or fundamentally changing the things that were established in the first four season of the Doctor Who reboot. It stopped being clever and charming and became annoying then - and a bit stale I think.

I'm asking myself if this isn't because of something that's very prevalent in comics too: nerdy fan writes canon now and takes opportunity to make own fanon and preferences canon. This doesn't have to be a problem when the writer in question is aware of it and treads carefully and with keeping the narrative in mind, but sometimes it simply has the potential to go wrong.

Although I've seen it happen with writers who weren't the long-running fans of something, who were brought in and tried to leave their mark and completely misunderstanding the characters and their backstory in the process...