From: francis@styracosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (RD Francis)
Subject: MARVEL:  Preserving Tradition???
Originator: francis@styracosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: Ohio State Computer Science
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 21:05:06 GMT

In article <sdsQhFa00VoiQ7V18g@andrew.cmu.edu> cl2g+@andrew.cmu.edu
(Charles Anthony Leone) writes:
   [Talking about Tom DeFalco]
   ... However, in the latest FF letters page DeFalco comments
   that the reason the FF and Thor are the way they are is that he's trying
   to preserve the "tradition" of the 60s.

The "tradition" of the 60's is difficult to preserve; it is *far* from
preserved by throwing away all the changes in the characters since
then.  In fact, continuing to allow characters to change and grow is,
perhaps, the *only* true way to preserve the 60's Marvel tradition.

Let's start with the FF, since it is arguably Marvel's flagship title
(these days, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or X-MEN might seem mor elike it;
still, it's the *first* Marvel book).

When the FF started, they were costumeless adventurers who happened to
have super-powers.  They quickly picked up costumes, presumably for
easy identification on the newsstand; a minor change, but one that was
simply the firsat of many.  In the early days, Sue was as attracted to
Namor as she was to Reed; she finally made her choice, and *married
Reed*.  Now, I'm not sure where this falls in comparison to the Barry
Allen-Iris West marriage, but this could have been the first major
active super-hero marriage.  Then, Reed and Sue even had a *baby*!
Cyclops & Maddie and Aquaman & Mera are the only other active
super-heroes to have a child that I can recall off the top of my head.
[Note that the "active" classification ignores events that happened
between series; for example, the children of the JSA/All-Star group
were born off-stage between series.]  Sue left the group for a short
while, being replaced by Crystal.

OK, now let's take on Spider-Man.  He, too, went through changes.  He
lost his "first girl," graduated from high school and started college,
went from being a "nerd" to someone who was fairly average.  How to
"preserve" this tradition?  Will he never graduate college?  Will he
and Mary Jane get a divorce?  Maybe Mary Jane gets killed and Peter
moves back in with Aunt May?  Certainly tradition would never allow
Aunt May to die, even though death has almost haunted Peter since he
became Spidey:  Uncle Ben, Capt. George Stacy, Gwen, Norman (Green
Goblin) Osborne; more recently, Nathan Lubensky.  

Gee, maybe "tradition" would require that Sandman go back to being a
"bad guy."  After all, Marvel villains never reform, right?  After
all, that's why Magneto had to go back to the "dark side," right?
Yep, Marvel villains *never* reform.  What's that?  AVENGERS 16?
Where three characters previously used a villains become the new
Avengers?  I guess we just call that the exception that proves the
rule.

Change has always been a part of the Marvel Universe; the *best*
stories have revolved around change.  Tony Stark's heart condition was
eventually cured, in spite of a couple of attempts to bring it back.
Sure, there's the paralysis thing now, but at least the *feel* there
is different; the current status quo almost certainly *will* change
there.  The X-Men went through changes; in fact, they had to face the
death of their leader.  It's a compliment to Chris Claremont's writing
that so few people remember the kludgy continuity patch that brought
Professor X back to life (given the timing, one suspects this was an
attempt to sav ethe book), and everyone remembers the kludgy patch
that brought Jean Grey back....

Anyway, the idea here is that Marvel has been willing to change
characters in the past, and that those changes have *made* the
characters what they are today.  I thought that the Johnny/Alicia
relationship was the *strongest* character development done to Johnny,
Alicia, and Ben in the book's history.  I don't necessarily object to
the outcome of DeFalco's changes, but he simply slashed the
characters' history for the past several years out from beneath them.
A story involving Johnny sleeping with another woman, resulting in a
break-up between them and a rekindling of Ben and Alicia's
relationship, could have again powerfully developed the characters.
Instead, we got the equivalent of the infamous "dream season" from
Dallas.

Please, Marvel; preserve your traditions by *letting* your characters
change, instead of throwing out the changes in the characters over the
past 20 years.  You're doing yourselves a disservice, as well as your
readers.
-- 
R David Francis                         (Alternate addresses): rdf+@osu.edu
                                                            osu-cis!francis
B:If you can't believe what you read in a comic book, what can you believe?
R:Oh, Bullwinkle!           B:It's enough to destroy a young moose's faith.