23 Problems Only Comic Book Readers Will Understand
21. Annoyance At Constant Reboots
Granted, reboots occur in all forms of media, but Jesus H. Christ do comics overdo it with them - and one of the problems that comes with reboots is trying to keep up with exactly what has been rebooted. Take DC Comics, for example. There have been two major reboots, supposedly, to the entire DC continuity in the last thirty years - the first being the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline in the mid-1980s. Several characters such as Hawkman, Donna Troy and Power Girl saw their origins complicated by the changes implemented by the Crisis and the various reboots of characters. The Superman line saw particular continuity issues regarding its supporting cast (the New Gods in particular). More recently, the New 52 reboot seemed to effect everyone apart from the Green Lanterns for some reason. And, even with that in mind, characters like Batman keep referencing events that happened pre-reboot. Basically, it's all very messy. Of course, on the positive side, reboots can and often do inspire a fresh wave of creativity on the part of the company in question but, more often than not, they're done to inspire profit.
20. Retconning Things Out Of Existence
Ask a comic book reader to name something about their favourite character that happened, yet was never referenced again, and they will undoubtedly give you an annoyed face or a long sigh. If something didn't go down well with the readers, comic book companies do the equivalent of sweeping the resulting mess under the carpet by just conveniently retconning the occurrence out of existence. Take Marvel's Doctor Doom, for example. In 2009's Fantastic Four 566-569 by Mark Millar, Doctor Doom received a huge power upgrade. He was thrown back in time (50 million years or so) by the mysterious and enormously powerful Marquis of Death. Doom then fought through time and space to get back to the present to seek revenge on the entity. Doom stated, as he killed the Marquis, that he had rebuilt every molecule of his being and increased his power to destroy the Marquis. In later issues, and ever since, that upgrade and story was completely ignored. Baffling.
19. Annoyance At Plot Devices
The term "plot device" is one that will usually be met by rolling eyes in the presence of comic book readers (a plot device being an object or character in a story whose purpose is purely to drive the plot or resolve situations). It is usually used in a derisory manner, on the basis that the best stories are generally character driven and using an object to make things happen is thus seen as a sign of bad writing. Generally, the worst kind of plot devices are the ones that get the heroes out of danger (known as Deus Ex Machinas), which generally occur when some new event, character, ability or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected, unbelievably convenient, contrived and thus highly unsatisfactory way.
