Anonymous asked:

Tom, I kinda hate the Falcon as Cap just because we all know its going to be undone. Same thing with female Thor, Doc Ock as Spider-Man, Wolverine dying, Cyclops or Iron Man or whomever as a villain. They're cool twists on characters but they're stupid when they last maybe a year and then just get switched back. MAKE ACTUAL CHANGE IN YOUR BOOKS.

brevoortformspring answered:

Given all of the things that you listed, what would you consider actual change? It seems like you’ve eliminated all possibilities from consideration (not to mention made assumptions about dozens of storylines.)

[xcyclopswasrightx]

This is an inane view to me. It is through these temporary shifts that the reader is able to experience the characters, and world in all new situations. The die has been cast in regards to the foundation of the Marvel Universe. 100 years from now, Steve Rogers is still likely to be Captain America. Periodically the creators are able to develop situations that allows for the types of status quo changes we would have got if true linear development were allowed. I welcome them.

[nolapfau]

Okay, so now that I’m at my computer (and xcyclopswasrightx sent me an ask to remind me to get back to this:

I’m of two minds on this subject. On the one hand, change and development are a wonderful thing in comics, and due to the way the medium is built, I can understand completely how these things are meant to be temporary. It’s part and parcel of a consistent storyline running for decades. When you read comics, you kind of have to embrace that, or at least learn to live with it–the cyclical nature of comics, the way they return to the status quo. It’s worth mentioning, too, that not everything returns to the status quo 100% the way it was before. Continuity’s like a piece of elastic, it snaps back into place, but if you stretch it far enough, you can see the stress marks afterward.

THAT said, there’s no reason this anon’s viewpoint isn’t as valid as any other. We HAVE examples of lasting change in comics. We HAVE examples of legacy roles taken up and held that way. How many Robins have there been? And yes, if you ask a non comics reader who Robin is, they’ll think of Dick Grayson (or, more likely, they’ll just say Batman’s sidekick), but that doesn’t change the fact that when Dick Grayson stopped being Robin, he never went back. 

Wally West was the Flash long enough that when Barry Allen returned, that was almost as much of a controversy, because by that point, Wally’s career had been almost as long as Barry’s was. 

Granted, comparing DC and Marvel is apples and oranges, but I do think DC’s always had a leg up on Marvel in that respect. Or at least, they did, until they reversed course a few years ago and started undoing all of their legacy work.

So, it’s frustrating, and I get that. I’m not personally against the changes, I think a new Thor is pretty kick ass, and if anyone deserves the mantle of Cap while Steve’s out of commission, it’s Sam Wilson. But that’s the rub, isn’t it? We know that it’s just while Steve’s out of commission. The two of these things might have evolved naturally as part of their writer’s respective arcs, but I can’t really blame folks for feeling like it’s a stunt, instead of a real change. I feel the same way. I’d love to be proven wrong on that point.

But, even if I’m not, I trust the writers, and I think we’ll get great stories either way.