Don’t Pump Your Brakes Yet, Marvel

by David Brothers

Michael San Giacomo’s latest column on Newsarama, Journey Into Comics: I Have A Dream, is an interesting one. He posits the idea that what Marvel really needs right now is a story to “pull together all its disparate, raggedy-edged storylines into a whole, complete, satisfying finale.” Go and give it a read. I may not agree with his point, but it is an interesting read.

I really don’t agree, though. The beauty of the Marvel universe is its disparate threads. It has been for years. It’s even one of the big differences between Marvel’s way of doing things and DC’s. Where DC Comics has Crises and “narrative spines,” Marvel is perfectly content to let their stories flow freely and separately. They may cross over occasionally, but not quite to the same extent that DC’s stories do.

There are a few separate narrative threads running through the Marvel Universe now. There is the chaos in outer space due to Annihilation, civil unrest in Captain America, current event analogues due to Civil War, the wreckage in NYC due to Planet Hulk, and Red Scare-style mistrust due to the oncoming Secret Invasion. These are just the major stories– I’m leaving out the dissolution of the X-Men, kung fu kickery in Iron Fist, or the shenanigans in Amazing Spider-Man.

This is a huge part of why I love Marvel’s comics. Their motto just seems to be throwing everything at the wall, seeing what sticks, and then throwing even more stuff at the wall. It gives the feel of a fast-paced, hectic universe, and also one where you can always find the cure for what ails ya. If you don’t want to read about Skrulls invading, pop on over to The Order for some post-Civil War intrigue. Are you still mad about the death of Cap? Well, the X-Men just went through a big upheaval, maybe there’s something there for you. Don’t dig on outer space epics? Amazing Spider-Man is about as street level and old school as it gets.

I’d hate to see Marvel tie all this together. With DC, at least, the stories are planned to coincide at certain points. With Marvel, it’d be a disaster. It’d be continuity pandering in the worst way. It doesn’t matter that Nova is off doing outer space things while Spider-Man is busy resetting his life– they’re separate stories by separate teams. They are both fulfilling a different need.

Yes, Mephisto rewrote the universe, or at least the past. But– why should that impact Wolverine? Why should the problems be solved by a team of heroes? There are continuity questions involved in Brand New Day, but those should be able to be handled in Brand New Day. Magneto destroyed a bit of Manhattan back during New X-Men, but that’s no big deal. It’s contained continuity at work. Each book exists in its own sub-continuity, giving it its own shape, feel, and form.

We don’t necessarily need Marvel Secret Crisis to wrap up these loose ends, in large part because they aren’t loose ends. They are plot points. We are going to find out what’s happened to the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Skrulls in due time. However, it should happen in their own books. We don’t neccessarily need to see Hulk popping up in New Warriors, asking what’s up with registration and explaining the whole red thing. It’d be weird and disorienting.

Tying everything together makes for an interesting experiment. The Superman books did it for years, for example, and DC has kind of made a big deal out of interconnecting their storylines, as we can see with the coming of Final Crisis. I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing at all– DC has had a nicely cohesive universe ever since Infinite Crisis. However, that isn’t Marvel’s thing. Marvel provides a different experience. Their universe is crowded, hectic, over the top, and fast-moving, which gives you a chance to dip your toes into a bunch of different stories at once.

Let’s keep Marvel’s plate full to overflowing. Why clear the plate when you can sit down at a buffet and stuff your face like it was ancient Rome?

Alternate Current is a series of weekly posts on thought-provoking, or simply fun, topics from bright minds all throughout the blogosphere. We take submissions, so if you’d like to get into the mix, send an email to David Brothers. This week comes courtesy of David Brothers, the Senior Comics Editor for PCS.