Talking Meta

Nov 03, 2006 21:24

Hi. I have been doing a bit more thinking about the question of why I write in the comic/superhero world. My "why I write" post can be found here.

After talking with T, Mina, Sasha, and Jen about the idea of a meta-discussion and after seeing the interest generated by the poll and discussion of the poll, I decided to start the ball rolling. It is not my ball--if you feel like doing the same thing, feel free to take the subject heading. The icon is also up for grabs. Share and share alike. Hopefully we can keep a variety of interesting conversations going.

Edited to add: Oh, and speaking of canon. It now seems that Dick Grayson quit being Robin rather than being fired! So we have come full circle on that one.



Today, I have been thinking about canon. Canon, of course, comes to us from the organization of religious works--especially the Bible. We have canon on one hand and apocrypha on the other.

Canon, to us comic book fans, is a complicated thing. Not only because there are constantly new things being added to the canon, but also because there are constantly old things being taken from the canon. Take our friend Batman, for example. What would you think is canonical about him? That his parents died? Sure.


That one is pretty consistent. But we all know that he kills people right? (Several of the early Detective Comics) And uses a gun? (DC #32) I especially like the time he let one mobster kill another one so that Robin could record it and use it against him in court (DC #38--also the introduction of Robin). Such hijinks! All of those formerly canonical works have long since fallen into apocrypha, of course--along with the reason Batman brought Jason into the fold...



When it comes to comics, we readers/fan-writers have a problem. Characters can swing wildly from one book to another. Recently, poor Dick Grayson had either a wonderful relaxing cruise or one of the worst years of his life. Clark Kent was either the most productive he has been as a reporter over the last year or so absent minded that Perry almost had to fire him. Events that don't make sense happen all the time. In a touching scene when Bruce Wayne offers to adopt Tim Drake, he notes that Dick Grayson "would have wanted" Tim to have his room... Would have wanted? I guess moving to New York is almost the same as dying, but sheesh. Bruce Wayne is made of money. He has hundreds of rooms in Wayne Manor. He couldn't either call Dick or give Tim one of the other rooms? In other words, even our current canon isn't exactly canon.

So what is a good fanfic writer to do?

I'm not a particularly good fanfic writer, but it seems to me that there are several possible reactions:

1) Integration. Here, a fanfic writer attempts to make the crazy blips in canon make sense in some fashion. Is the Nightwing in Outsiders a clone? Were Superman and Batman snarking at each other for the benefit of the public? Was Karen off-planet when the Auctioneer surprised Clark with news of a third Kryptonian? This is the fan equivalent of the editors notes in the old Marvel comics. I used to always grin when we got the "Prof. X was wrong when he sensed Jean. That was actually a cosmic force pretending to be Jean. -ed" Well, integration is your chance to do that for your favorite characters. Why is it that Superman can barely stand on the crystal island but somehow can lift it and carry it into space? How is it that Wayne Enterprises has not been raided--given that they developed (for the military) the Batmobile? Your call! This is a great starting point for writing fiction. Think of it as the grain of sand that bugs you now but might someday (soon) turn into the pearl of understanding you can share with others.

2) Departure. Here, a fanfic writer attempts to take the comic universe in a different direction from a specific point in time/event. What if Batman had joined forces with Kal-L? What if Zatana hadn't mindwiped Bruce Wayne? What if Jason Todd hadn't died? What if Lana hadn't been so crazy and Clark had fallen in love with her? This is the fan equivalent of the "What if?" stories. These were always among my favorites as a young comic book reader. It was in these crazy stories where we could find Superman landing in Russia or Gwen Stacy not dying or publicly blind Daredevil... what a costume! The fan possibilities here are endless. These stories can also be quite ambitious--sometimes even leading to whole new universes based off of the point of departure. This reaction to canon more closely resembles a "things were going so well until...." reaction. Why didn't Nick Fury just put a bullet into Bruce Banner's head? What if he had?

3) Insertion. Not OC insertion. Event insertion. Here a fanfic writer attempts to explain reactions/actions in the comics by adding experiences or adventures in the past. Clark and Bruce meet as children. OK, this happens in the canon also... at least twice that I can think of... but the fanfic author can add more. What did they do? (In both examples I can think of they hardly interact). Young Lex and Young Bruce meet at a Young Entrepreneur Club meeting. The adventures of Young Charles and Young Magnus/Eric. These "flashback" stories are, as noted above, quite popular. "The Man Who Falls" is one of my favorites in the Batman world. All the Year One books are also examples. Flashbacks allow the fanfic writer to add depth to the universe--give more weight to events that happen in the comic canon. These stories can be more limited in scope than the "what if" stories, but they, if done well, can add a real resonance to stories that we are all reading. Take Batgirl Year One and the looming image of the Joker... This is a little like integration--but the aim is to add detail rather than smooth out inconsistencies.

4) AU. Alternate Universe. Here, the fanfic author takes the characters for a ride. Canon gotten too crazy to follow? Wonder how Batman would look as a female Japanese ninja? How about a pirate? Superman as a knight of the Round Table? We can forget and forgo the constraints of canon and just imagine the characters in whatever new universe/new setting we want. How would the Justice League do in the Marvel Universe? DC does Elseworlds and some stand alone stories. Marvel does a ton of these. One of my personal favorites is Marvel 1602. Nick Fury as a government spy working with young squire Peter Parquagh to track the activities of renegade teacher Charles Javier on the run from the Grand Inquisitor (Magneto)! C'mon. These stories can be wonderful discussions of the characters if done well. How would the attitudes and actions of one character be reflected/changed in a new setting?

5) Backdrop. Here the fanfic author takes the canon as a starting point from which to create their own stories. In a very real sense, this is what the monthlies do. You work from what has gone before. Stories in this sense are not really a reaction to problems with canon but rather a fan created continuation of canon. These stories exist in something more akin to a golden age/silver age setting, of course--when continuity and canon were not so closely guarded and when one did not need to worry about things like who was where at what time. (Don't even try to figure out during which week Green Arrow was in the Justice League with Zatanna in that outfit and Barry and Hawkman and... well, you get the idea). The author has their own story to tell and tells it. This is much like departure, but it doesn't seem to be as interested in creating a new universe as it is in exploring the characters in the universe.

6) Counterfactual. Here the fanfic author takes the characters into the next closest world (technical term) in which there is some slight difference. In other words, the story is set in the DCU--just one where Clark and Bruce are lovers. The idea, then, is that the rest of the universe operates the same as the comic universe--realigning itself with the fewest possible changes that would make such a thing feasible. Lois might be a "beard" or a former lover or just a buddy. Nothing happens to Jimmy. He is still "Superman's Pal." These stories differ slightly from the "backdrop" type of story because they begin with the universe aligned in a certain way rather than realigning the universe in the story. In this way, these "next world" stories are a split between an AU or departure and a backdrop. The focus is often on the subtle or not so subtle differences in the relationships of the characters given this one change.

7) P.O.V. Point of View. Each story is told through a kind of "lens" or from a certain perspective. Who is thinking, who is watching? Here the fanfic author doesn't change events or add events, but rather adds to the depth of the event as shown in the comics. In the actual comics, this usually happens as a "flashback" scene--where we can see another person thinking/doing things. If done from multiple perspectives, we get the "Roshamon" approach, but it doesn't have to get that involved. Some scenes practically cry out for a P.O.V. story. When Avon shoots Blake (in Blake's 7) and stands over his body--Federation troops circling around him... what is he thinking? WHAT? What is Batman thinking as he fondles the scrid of Superman's cape in "Hereafter?" In the comics, this might lead Chris Claremont disease, but in fanfic, we don't have to worry about fitting twelve pages of thinking into one thought bubble. Very limited point of view stories work great in mysteries. Sometimes, by changing from one character to another, we get a different take or understanding on events. Babylon 5 tried to do this (with some success) in the episode "View From the Gallery."

That is all I could think of off the top of my head. If you write longer arcs of stories, you may find yourself crossing all of these types of stories. Each has its own appeal.

What ties them together? Well, I'd like to introduce a new term I call "sticky" although others might call it Krypto-revisionism. "Sticky" to me means those things that persist across time and resist any effort to change them. Things are sticky based on character or on universe, of course. The reason some people call it "Krypto-revisionism" is that Krypto the dog is surprisingly sticky. The canon has tried to do away with the poor pooch on several occasions but they just can't seem to do it. He keeps coming back. So does the batcave. Wonder Woman's invisible jet is fairly sticky. Alfred is super sticky. That darn A at the end of JLA is sticky. The funniest thing that is sticky to me is the crazy, shut down carnivals in Gotham. There must be dozens of them. And each one is a hideout... The thing that a fanfic author has to be careful about is unsticking something sticky. You can ignore it in many cases--how many people put Krypto in their stories? But be very careful if you intend to change something sticky about a person, place or thing. Readers read stories about these characters and in these settings for a reason. (I'm talking to you, here, DC and Marvel). If I want to read a story about Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson but get a story about Scott Forrest and his son Billy (World's Finest #97) instead... well... That isn't going to be as satisfying as I want it to be, no matter how skilled a writer you are. Eliminate the sticky and keep the title and you have something akin to "bait and switch." Keep the sticky and everybody should be happy.

That's what I tell myself, anyway.

So how about you? What kind of stories am I missing? What kind of stories do you like to read? What kind of stories do you like to write? What is the strangest thing that you think of as sticky to a character or universe?

discuss: comics

Previous post Next post
Up