15th September 2004, 12:14 PM
Could somebody quote me, please?
DJ, I agree that it's important for many stories to have an actual beginning, middle, and end, but for many fictional characters having them last basically forever with no real finality to their stories can also be a very good thing. It looks like you never read comics for very long. The structure of Superman and Batman is very different from that of Frodo or Spike Spiegel, neither one being better than the other. With the latter characters you can go through an entire story without having to commit to the characters for a very long time, and you can proceed to move on after you've had your enjoyment. With the former characters they have incredibly long, detailed histories behind them and their stories are told through story arcs within their never-ending existences. True, Superman's death did not and cannot have the same kind of impact as Spike's death since he did come back, but the story is not effective because it is the end of the character but rather because of the plots that crop up because of it. I think of these serials, these comic characters as a long, winding river that just keeps on going with no end in sight and you just have to enjoy the moments without expecting to reach a final destination, while the Frodos are like great big lakes that are finite and have closure. Messy analogy but hopefully you get it.
If the status quo of these comic characters never changed and it was literally just the same thing over and over again with no plot or character development, then I agree that it would have gotten old many decades ago. But that is not the case, as most of these characters have changed dramatically since their creation and continue to do so.
And about the overcomplicated universes thing with DC, that is true and DC has had to basically restart their universe a couple of times in the past. Perhaps with JLU they might have to do that with the animated universe as well, but with JLU the creators don't seem to worried about contuinity bogging them down.
DJ, I agree that it's important for many stories to have an actual beginning, middle, and end, but for many fictional characters having them last basically forever with no real finality to their stories can also be a very good thing. It looks like you never read comics for very long. The structure of Superman and Batman is very different from that of Frodo or Spike Spiegel, neither one being better than the other. With the latter characters you can go through an entire story without having to commit to the characters for a very long time, and you can proceed to move on after you've had your enjoyment. With the former characters they have incredibly long, detailed histories behind them and their stories are told through story arcs within their never-ending existences. True, Superman's death did not and cannot have the same kind of impact as Spike's death since he did come back, but the story is not effective because it is the end of the character but rather because of the plots that crop up because of it. I think of these serials, these comic characters as a long, winding river that just keeps on going with no end in sight and you just have to enjoy the moments without expecting to reach a final destination, while the Frodos are like great big lakes that are finite and have closure. Messy analogy but hopefully you get it.
If the status quo of these comic characters never changed and it was literally just the same thing over and over again with no plot or character development, then I agree that it would have gotten old many decades ago. But that is not the case, as most of these characters have changed dramatically since their creation and continue to do so.
And about the overcomplicated universes thing with DC, that is true and DC has had to basically restart their universe a couple of times in the past. Perhaps with JLU they might have to do that with the animated universe as well, but with JLU the creators don't seem to worried about contuinity bogging them down.