Nominations clean up: the Comics Conundrum!

[aphrodite_mine]

Hopefully all of the nominations have been fixed aside from any issue caused by multiple tag associations (this happens when a character, say "Cassie Lang", is nominated under a particular category [Young Avengers] and already has tagged associations within the archive in other categories [Marvel 616, etc

Comments

[lilacsigil]

If characters who appear in several media (e.g. Black Widow in comics, A:EMH cartoon and in the movieverse) still appear more than once, I'm totally fine with the big categories and intend to offer as many characters as I can.

ETA: I should say, Black Widow in movieverse, A:EMH and 616 comics are separate characters, but Black Widow as she appears in Iron Man 2 and Avengers are the same movies character; Black Widow as she appears in the Avengers comic and the Daredevil comic are the same comics character.

[somehowunbroken]

I think the second option makes more sense. I agree with the comment above that says someone might request one version of a character and get another, but like that person said, that's a risk most comics fans would be familiar with and would be willing to take with certain characters. I'm for merging :)

[greerwatson]

And then, of course, there's the problem that I've been reading comics for forty years, and I just had to google "Marvel 616" to find out what-on-Earth you were talking about. To me, it's just the "regular Marvel universe" as opposed to the movieverse or the Ultimates-verse. (And there are other people who feel the same way: see the "Editorial Reaction" section of the Wikipedia article.)

Honestly, there are times when AO3 seems to have its own little universe!

[greerwatson]

On a somewhat less peevish note....

I think it depends on how distinctive the title is-or was, since the most distinctive tend to be short-lived.

For instance, if I were to request Maggie Sawyer in Gotham Central, I would be seriously annoyed to get a different version of her (esp. if it were from her Superman era, but even from the other Bat books). That's because Gotham Central took an unusual approach to the DCU, being mostly seen from the POV of the police characters. A lot of its cast appeared only in that title, which would affect the choice of supporting characters in the story.

Of course, Gotham Central was a short-lived title, and hence presented a fairly coherent version of all its characters. There wasn't a lot of change, at least until the final issues. (In the Marvel Universe, Alias would be a title with a similarly distinctive quality.)

Someone mentioned Barbara Gordon. (The various Batgirls are...a pain in the neck, quite frankly.) Babs is particularly problematic. I remember her before she was shot; and

[muccamukk]

One would assume that, in that it's gift fic, someone would at least try to write what you want. Optional details are optional, but mostly people aren't going to write you Batgirl from the current run if you asked for Oracle.

It just seems to me that there's a lot of fool proofing the system that doesn't really add anything. I can lay out and be as specific about which Jess Jones from which title I want, and still get a story I don't like or that ignores my likes and squicks, even if it's set in Alias like I asked, not New Avengers Vol 2.

[amathela]

And there's also the problem that, even if you requested Barbara Gordon under one of the smaller fandoms, eg. Batgirl (comics), there's no stronger way of specifying Oracle!Babs in that fandom than there in under the DC - Comicsverse general banner. That being said, whatever fandom you used to request her, I'd seriously side-eye anyone who wrote you Batgirl!Babs instead of Oracle!Babs if that's what you requested in your optional details, optional though they may be.