I See Posts Before My Eyes

Anonymous asked: Appreciate your response on continuity. Brings me back to Johnny Storm/character development. From your previous responses it seems you maintain continuity is not about "trivia" or D&D-style character stats. Rather it is about character/storytelling. Re: Johnny, I don't want to see him grow up but if you guys choose to tell stories that advance him in a broad/significant way shouldn't he stay that way unless another story brings him back to immaturity?

brevoortformspring:

Maybe, but another story does bring him back to immaturity: he begins to act in an immature manner! If you’re talking about him being struck by a ray that makes him more immature, or whatever, that’s a pretty ridiculous extreme to go to, I think, when dealing with the manner in which a character acts and interacts.

“Back to immaturity” may not have been a good way to say that.  But we’ve more than once seen the clock turned back on characters, in order to keep them at approximately the age most fans expect to see them at.  Not necessarily by some actual event or plot point, but perhaps by editorial fiat, or the artist simply drawing them younger again.  Reed and Sue’s kids are a prime example.  The power pack has clearly aged several years since whenever their adventures took place (about four to five years in-comic time, I’ll guess) but Franklin and Valeria remain about the same age.

So at some point in the future (perhaps sooner than later), likely at a point of transfer between creative teams, the decision will be made to roll the FF back a few years, and among other changes, Johnny will revert back to his brassy young man role, teasing Ben and generally being the brash youth of the team.  

It’s only really a problem for the long-time readers who will see it happen several times over the years.  New readers will simply see this current version as “their” FF. One could make a comparison to changes on Doctor Who or James Bond - only a certain fraction of the audience is comparing the actors, the rest are simply enjoying the current one.

I don’t bemoan the changes and revisions in comics, I merely hope that the latest Bold New Direction is one I’ll like. And if it isn’t, I may comment on it, but largely I’ll step off the marry-go-round, and hop back on later the next time the horse I like comes round.

I’m a Legion of Super-Heroes fan…I can trump ANY story anyone can tell about bad reboots.