Pro-Real Time comic line

[Iceburgeruk]

For those who would buy and read a line of real time comics (That time had run at our rate in the marvel universe so that Peter Parker became spidey in 1963 and that he would now roughly be 60) shout out here. This just for thsoe who would be in favor of it so it can be seen what kind of numbers of fans such a line could have.

By a line of titles i mena like ult. marvel, a seperate line which wouldn`t interfere with or replace the current crop of 616 titles.

The upsides of real time are:
Later generations of heroes get an actual decent chance of being top dog. New Mutants could actually become important and indespensable x-men for a while as the original team retires.

Heroes have to deal with aging. Spidey is dealing with family, crime fighting and middle-age. The vision has to deal with not having aged while his wife is in her 60s.

Change can actually happen. Big name characters can actually die in a tasteful manner and stay dead as faith is placed in newer characters.

The characters age with us. So if you are 40 and you become a big fan of 40 year Cannonball from the x-men then when you hit 50 he will hit 50 too and will have problems you can relate to.

So who else would buy real time comics?

(Sorry about the pointless poll I accidently clicked to add a poll.)

 

[Spider-Jay420]

If they did it in a seperate universe, I wouldn't mind it. I still wouldn't read it though.

The reasons you gave are good ones and you make a point, but I have no interest in a 50-60 year old Peter Parker. I mean instead, or on top of dealing with his web shooters running out or tearing his costume, he has to worry about taking his meds on time and getting bi-focals and arthritis and all that old people stuff?

I know all characters have to change and grow, but I just don't want to see them getting old. I wouldn't mind if Peter Parker stayed in his thirties forever AS LONG AS they were giving us entertaining, well written stories. So long as we have great stories though, that's the key.

 

[Iceburgeruk]

If they did it in a seperate universe, I wouldn't mind it. I still wouldn't read it though.

The reasons you gave are good ones and you make a point, but I have no interest in a 50-60 year old Peter Parker. I mean instead, or on top of dealing with his web shooters running out or tearing his costume, he has to worry about taking his meds on time and getting bi-focals and arthritis and all that old people stuff?

I know all characters have to change and grow, but I just don't want to see them getting old. I wouldn't mind if Peter Parker stayed in his thirties forever AS LONG AS they were giving us entertaining, well written stories. So long as we have great stories though, that's the key.

Peter Parker`s Spidey powers prob would have slowed the aging process a little but by now he would be forced to retire. And it seems like a total downer but look at the alternative options Marvel presents.

Gwen Stacy, Norman Osborne and the babies created therein. One More Day screwing up 30 years of continuity just to try and make him seem like he is 20again.

Good stories are difficult to write in Marvel or DC because growth of character, change and development are severely restricted. You can`t write about Peter Parker growing and learning or relating to real life events so what can you write that actually means something? Fiction is based on change, the mark of a good story is that the character changes within the stages of the narrative. I mean Friends was a popular series but they were forever stuck in the same 2 appartments and with the same six close friends so all the could really do was interchnage who was dating who. I swear if they had gone for a couple more series they would have run out of pairings and had either a same sex relationship or incest. Spidey seemed to have been making some headway with stretching the character. It seemed like they were making progress with some of the changes they had thrown in recently; Spidey`s movie powers, Spidey revealing his secret ID to the world and Aunt May finally kicking the bucket. Unfortunatly One More Day was just aroudn the corner so all the changes were nullified and then some (Harry back alive, the marriage never having had happened).

I`m not disputing that the stories at marvel and dc are well written but for how long can free and easy peter parker hold interest? We know he loves MJ and no amount of one-nighters will alter that. How long can the FF hold interest? I mean they used to explore and discover things, that was their hook. I can`t recall having seen them do much of that for years. How long cna Batman hold interest? Bruce Wayne is never gonna permenantly retire or settle down. Nightwing and the masses of Robins are never gonna permenantly take his place.

How long can any of the comics hold interest when a fan can read them for 20 years and realise that bnothing has changed permenantly in the entire time they have read the comic? I mean compare modern Spidey to the Spidey of 1988, Its pretty much the same. Compare modern Batman to the Batman of 1988. Batman is pretty much the same. Nightwing is the same. Some comcis have changed a little but it`s mostly just an aesthetic change. You`d be hard pressed to find a video game franchise or film series that has changed as little. I mean compare resident evil to resident evil 5. Or License to Kill with Quantum of Solace.

Marvel and DC`s policy of slowing time isn`t there to make better stories it is there to keep the character static so that they can merchandise them forever without worrying about the character changing beyond what thye have on the lunch boxes. Good stories under that scheme are expendable if it menas more money for the company.

 

[Bubonic]

I wouldn't, one of the parts I didn't like in Marvel Zombies was the old people heroes... They aren't fun, maybe a very well writen one-shot or mini, but not an ongoing series.

 

[masteryoda]

Marvel tried this with the New Universe. Didn't work out so well...

 

[Iceburgeruk]

Marvel tried this with the New Universe. Didn't work out so well...

New Universe didn`t work because they though real world meant nothing happens. The Champions didn`t work so does that mean super-teams don`t work?

 

[Iceburgeruk]

I wouldn't, one of the parts I didn't like in Marvel Zombies was the old people heroes... They aren't fun, maybe a very well writen one-shot or mini, but not an ongoing series.

Yeha but the old heroes would retire with dignity and new heroes would turn up. It would be a rollercoaster ride where you ACTUALLY would not know what might happen next. As opposed to the way comics work right now, you read a spidey comic and yeah he might die but its really really really unlikely.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The possibility of main characters dying is slim in pretty much every form of fiction, though. Who cares if the heroes can't die? It doesn't impinge on my ability to enjoy comics at all.

 

[Iceburgeruk]

The possibility of main characters dying is slim in pretty much every form of fiction, though. Who cares if the heroes can't die? It doesn't impinge on my ability to enjoy comics at all.

Yeah and all good fiction is about changes. DC and Marvel are opposed to changes. I mean look at spidey they just wiped out twenty years of changes through some stupid devil pact. DC and Marvel want their characters the same age, dong the same things forever which goes against everything that drama and fiction stand for. Its no wonder people get bored with comics. There is no other medium in the world which stifles creativity and actual significant change as much as the big two. Grant Morrison makes actual significant changes in x-men and marvel immediatly retcons it all. How can art flourish under conditions like that?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't know, ask the guys writing The Incredible Hercules or any of the other titles that are great without the leads being in any real danger or changing much over the decades.

 

[Iceburgeruk]

I don't know, ask the guys writing The Incredible Hercules or any of the other titles that are great without the leads being in any real danger or changing much over the decades.

Look.

I`m not demanding marvel and dc switch to real time.

I`m simply suggesting that if they have room for the Ultimate, M2 and Marvel Age lines. Then surely there is room (especially once one of those lines gets dated and is cancelled) for a Real-Time line. Where you would see third generation heroes (M2 would probably have occurred in the eighties if marvel had done real time. some lements are obvious from 90s stuff but it seems to be the next generation of marvel which would have been about 20 years after the first generation) fighting crime while being watched over by the classic heroes. So you would have the original and 70s x-men acting as retired tutors/mentors for the Young X-Men (and perhaps their own grandkids) while their kids and the members of the new mutants and generation x are the frontline x-men.

In real time we could finally see the second and third generation promises pay off. In marvel time the ex-members of x-factor, new mutants and generation x will never be the core of the c-men team but in a real time line we would be able to see them take over running xaviers. We would see jubilee and cannonball having to deal with the responsibiility of running the x-men and protecting those that fear and hate them.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Don't they have a series like that with the X-Men right now? GeNext or something?

 

[Bubonic]

Yeha but the old heroes would retire with dignity and new heroes would turn up. It would be a rollercoaster ride where you ACTUALLY would not know what might happen next. As opposed to the way comics work right now, you read a spidey comic and yeah he might die but its really really really unlikely.

I get what you are saying, I think there was a thread on this weakness of comic fiction... But it also turns out to be its strength.

Marvel has a bunch of cash cows, and no guarantees that they could retire all their heavy hitters, introduce a new generation, and then not go bankrupt.

Audiences ask for change but they usually ***** and moan once it is offered. Any of the big changes like Cap's death have been met with a lot of resistance.

Like I said, I wouldn't mind a mini exploring the evolution of a character in real time, and I think it might have even been done.

 

[Microchip]

They did a Spider-Man set in the future when he was old. It was creepy. I don't think anyone would want to read about a bunch of dottery old fogies trying to save New York long term, maybe it'd work as a one-shot, or even a limited series.

The one example I can think of off the top of my head where it DID work is Punisher MAX, but even there he doesn't look old or act old. He just has the experience of 30 years as a vigilante, and has fought in Vietnam.

 

[yenaled]

But by real time you would have to present the comics in real time. Each issue records a month of time (like they did in 52) - so essentially you can't have an issue end on a shock reveal and then open the next issue up at the same point because it would mean for a month they have been staring at each other. This is one of the biggest challenges the 52 writers had that you had to throw out all normal writing tools to tell this story. That's the only way you can have characters grow in time with the real world.

Which really throws out being able to tell any story you want - for instance if you have a two issue story about a villain robbing a bank, you can't have him robbing it in one issue and then escaping in another issue. You'd have to condence your story telling into one issue events - and infact miss a lot of characterisation.

If you throw pacing out of the window you aren't going to tell better stories you are just limiting what a writer can do with a story.

Otherwise this just falls down to saying in the October issue every year "oh it's my birthday" and really acheiving nothing.

Frankly, I think DC/Marvel have done quite well in telling stories about growing old and people dying it's just after all the deaths and mantle changes in the 90s we are hitting the back end of it now where it all reverses.

 

[CBG]

*raises hand*

Although, I wouldn't say exactly real-time (such that after 1 real-time month passes in-between the issue, an entire month passes in the story, which is impractical and ridiculous in certain situations), but at least some sense of progressive time.

 

[fifthfiend]

Don't they have a series like that with the X-Men right now? GeNext or something?

Nah, that's just skipping ahead to an entirely new status quo.

I really don't think I'd enjoy a 'real-time' universe because I just don't think you can pack a year's worth of character into 12 issues of a comic book. I'd be happy if they'd just let their universe actually develop and age at whatever reduced rate, instead of periodic cheatbacks to maintain a static status quo.

 

[Mr. Green]

I would but it definitely wouldn't be the main thing drawing me to the line. If the characters/plot/dialogue/characterization/action isn't good, I probably won't read it one way or another.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Nah, that's just skipping ahead to an entirely new status quo.

I really don't think I'd enjoy a 'real-time' universe because I just don't think you can pack a year's worth of character into 12 issues of a comic book. I'd be happy if they'd just let their universe actually develop and age at whatever reduced rate, instead of periodic cheatbacks to maintain a static status quo.

5 years of real time = 1 year of comic time. That'd be a good system for me.

 

[Anubis]

That's kinda hard to do when most storyarcs take place over the course of like, a couple of hours to a couple of days. Even if you added up all the time spent on one story in one particular comic you might not get Spidey in his forties and retired, cuz maybe only about 10 or eleven years have actually passed.

I'd say it's simple just to go with what the Fiend said. Just do your character development and no givesies, backsies. At this point Spidey should be in his early thirties, married with a kid.