Making changes

"Change in comics" is (as usual actually) a hot topic of the moment. We have the drastic changes in the DCU that are all tied up in the current Infinite Crisis, then on the other hand, I had the opportunity to read Avengers Disassembled. That's the only Avengers I've read since my last major collecting period. In fact, near as I can recall, the last major Avenger's storyline I read was Sersi's insanity. That dates it a bit.

Of course, AD was a pretty deep "earthquake" of Avengers continuity. Also, it is needless to say, that it's been an extremely controversial book. All of this raises the question, just how much should creators be "allowed" to make changes in books? Whether you are talking about Barbara Gordon (hopefully, I'll have my copy of BoP #87 on Monday), the changes to Wonder Woman, or the changes to the Avengers, the changes have been more than a bit controversial.

In a very real way, change is absolutely necessary. Fiction and storytelling (at least interesting storytelling) are all about the changes in characters. Frodo Baggins is not the same in "The Scouring of the Shire" as he was ithe day of the Party. Likewise, Garion the kitchen boy is far from being the same person as Belgarion, Overlord of the West.

Comic Books should be the same way. The development of the books should also develop the characters. The constant grind should wear on Batman a bit, especially when the Joker is on another of his murderous rampages.

However, those changes should be reasonably organic. Generally, the seeds of what a person will become are found in what they were already like. The essential courage of Frodo can be seen all the way back to Weathertop (or earlier). So, while you can make changes to characters and books, they really need to grow out of who that character has been protrayed as. Superman suddenly growing grim and "batmanish" would be a violence against what the character has been.

The real problem that comics have is that their characters ultimately go through far more than the characters in most novels. Even if you look at characters in continuing novel series (say Honor Harrington) their overall personal arc tends to be shorter. That is what makes comics difficult. If you change characters too quickly, they become unrecognizable too quickly.

So, what of the current changes? I can't say much about Avengers. I've not read enough of the book recently to see if the changes are organic or not. However, I would hope that Wanda's breakdown was foreshadowed. If not, that would be bad storytelling.

Wonder Woman makes good sense to me. I'm not familiar with 1938 style Wonder Woman, but the way she's drawn now, her choice to execute Maxwell Lord is organic to the character.

Barbara on the other hand is a different case. Here, we are not talking about a change in who she is, but a change in her circumstances. It is that change that will shape her future change, so this bears watching.

I don't mind changes, but they do need to be done with respect to what has gone before.