Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5041674-20150904184555/@comment-4966483-20150905115403

The way comics work is basically changing the status-quo of a character or theme. Stan Lee himself likes to call it the illusion of change, a controversial change to the story in some way that is later reversed back to normal. It's been that way for years. Reboots, character deaths, new charcaters taking the mantle etc. it always happens to make sure more people keep buying, even if the change can only last a couple of years at most.

I was a big fan of the pre-52 DC comics, where the comics moved in real-time, and there seemed to be real stakes. Batman retired, a new flash etc etc lead to a genuine feeling of progression. Marvel on the other hand have had the charcaters age little since when they began. With nothing but these gimmicky changes to the story to help keep stuff from being stale, otherwise they would be telling the same stories with the same characters since the 60s.

While I think such changes are nessisary, I don't always think they are handled in the right way. I feel comics moving in real time would be much more effective as threat, death, and story changes would be meaningful and would allow characters to evolve in more perminant character arcs.