Add to that, there are certain stories that cannot be told for one reason or another. Either they take the character in a direction that makers them less marketable, or they kick off a natural “third act” that would effectively end the series, or the story doesn’t highlight the aspects of the character that current editorial wants to highlight. So, creators reach a point where their choices are: repeat, re-boot, or make HUGE changes in the story-telling engine.

Oh … and making huge changes almost never works.

I always thought the cheaper paper = cheaper comics was the answer, but more knowledgable people than I say that it would have a marginal impact at best. I think low circulation is the biggest problem with the high cost of funnybooks these days.

All that other stuff’s a line to con the rubes into paying you for it.

Manga, unlike American comics, has one thing going for it (a point so obvious that I despair in having to repeat it): Mangaka don’t *fucking switch books on a seasonal basis! It isn’t the continuity that acts as a bugbear, it’s the repetition of flawed/convoluted continuity that prevents people from wanting to spend their money. If you read Ranma 1/2, you get Rumiko Takahashi’s vision from beginning to end. If you read One Piece or Black Cat, you receive Oda’s and Yabuki’s vision from beginning to end. If you had the pleasure of reading any of the 1990′s era X-titles, though…

But to say, “Oh, I don’t think that we really stand a chance of getting everyone else, not with so many alternatives like manga and TV and video games for their entertainment dollars”…manga is comics. Manga is very popular with kids, easily fighting off TV and video games. Manga is just a comic book format that has figured out how to tap into that audience that comic books have abandoned in favor of continuity-conscious grown-ups with deep pockets, and it’s kicking Batman’s ass.

This mass continuity is a killer though. The large scale ‘event’ comics that spread across different lines that Marvel and DC use are ridiculous and need to be scrapped.

This might be a bit of an unpopular idea but I really think they should scrap the idea of continuity across lines. Like, I never saw the need for the X-Men to live in the same universe that Spiderman lives in. Or really the fact that no other hero needs to live in the same universe as Superman

It may have been how it’s been done but I don’t think I would do that. Why not intermix new characters and new story arcs with the retelling? No reason I can see not to do it that way.

No retelling of the origin either; decide what the core elements of the character and and that’s your guide. Any variations outside of that are told along the way.

They could also do the occasional miniseries after a particular version of the Batman is over for fans that still want some of the old character.

Okay, here’s the deal. I’m 25. I’ve only been a major superhero fan for about seven years.

When I was a kid, I read “Knightfall” and “The Death of Superman” and a range of other DC comics, along with some Marvel. Really, it was shows like “Batman: the Animated Series” and the weaker (my opinion) Spider-Man cartoon that really got me hooked, and I began to understand Batman as a folklore character because of re-runs of the 60′s character and the movies.

In high school, I would sometimes read trades and issues at Barnes and Noble. Despite missing a lot of continuity, I got the basics of each story.

I didn’t become a regular reader of superhero comics until college. I started reading independent comics, Tony Millionaire stuff and punk rock hand-stapled stuff. I started buying superhero comics around then and suddenly I realized there truly was this whole MYTHOS out there of stories, stuff that would take me a long time to master.

And that was exciting.

Let me be frank. I’m not unique. My friends who like superhero comics tend to be like me. I teach ancient history and literature at a private school. I get really excited when there’s a new Hittite scholarship journal published that has new theories about an obscure king. I like Latin and my friends have degrees in Sumerian and Attic Greek. We debate the relationships between Semitic and Indo-European mythologies.

For pop culture, we grew up on Star Trek. We obsess over bands. I can tell you date & time histories of the Magnetic Fields, Bruce Springsteen, Black Flag, Tom Waits, Prince, the Specials, etc.

There’s a lot of people like me. In fact, I’d say that anyone who has bothered to read this far is like me. And vast superhero universes appeal to us.

Out of my high school students, there are only two that really like superhero comics. And they’re not intimidated by the expansive continuity. They thrive on it. Wikipedia has aided this. When the students found out The Question is my favorite hero, one of the superhero fans asked me if there was any connection between Vic Sage and Mr. Zsasz because of Sage’s alternate last name. I was amazed to be asked that. Here’s a kid who loves basketball and wants to be a youth pastor, but due to Wikipedia suddenly has access to the Bat-mythos. And he’s not frustrated. He’s curious.

I think comic sales are dwindling because comics were developed before there was TV, and then proliferated when TV had only a handful of channels (no cable), and watching movies at home was a rarity. There was also no video games.

Now, kids and adults have DVD’s, Internet, cable, video game systems, etc.

Paying four bucks to read twenty pages doesn’t do it for ‘em. Sure, they like knowing how faithful the movie adaptations are to the original comics, but they don’t go buy back issues to find out. They check Wikipedia.

Many of my students, however, read manga (or as I make them call it, “Japanese comics”) because it’s “in.” More power to them.

Understood historically, comic books were the perfect product for the post-pulp, pre-home entertainment system world. Their era has passed.

Who buys them? People who honestly have a love for continuity. Some obsessively, some not. But if all Batman comics were like “Legends of the Dark Knight,” we wouldn’t see the characters progress.

When I was in college, it was the Cassandra Cain Batgirl who really hooked me into it. A character like that would never have developed outside of a continuity-heavy universe. Yes, they’ve wrecked the character now, but that’s beside the point.

I agree with Mr. Seavey that reboots often take forever to get underway. But this is because Spider-Man and Batman are more than their costumes and abilities. A Batman universe without Gordon is just odd. A Spider-Man universe without Doc Ock is missing something.