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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vigilance" data-source="post: 2362312" data-attributes="member: 4275">Like it or not, there's a good chance that Quesada's no continuity policy saved Marvel.When Marvel began to realize under Jim Shooter that the size of their market was trending downward from its height under Lee and Kirby, and was not likely to grow back to that market size anytime soon, they realized they needed more titles to survive and that they needed more creative people (writers and artists) to make those titles.In an attempt to maintain continuity, the editors ended up running the show at Marvel. Claremont left because of it and claimed he was never coming back. In fact he never DID come back... until the no continuity policy was in place.Several other writers I respected either quit the industry altogether over this issue or went to DC and many of those writers have never come back.I also read that no continuity contributed in the recruitment of outside talent like Grant Morrison. His New X-Men comic was WAY different than the other X-books.Something else that Marvel discovered through market research is that most of their customers weren't GOING to read everything anymore. Marvel had expanded titles to the range that people who could afford to buy every issue of everything were few.On top of curing the problems listed above, Marvel has also used the no continuity policy to its benefit in other ways. Lots of people (some of whom have posted to this thread) have bought Marvel titles solely for the high profile creators they have lured to write them: JMS, Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon.No continuity is a selling point for these creators. In fact some of them would never have worked for Marvel without this policy. For someone like Kevin Smith or Joss Whedon, comics is a fun side job. They like the medium and have a story to tell. If some editor says "well due to the events in FF #234 where Kang and Negative Zone sucked Colossus into a portable hole you cant..." these people are going to say "sorry, could have been fun, I dont have time for this- Im going to make a movie".No continuity also makes these "event titles" Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith do accessible to people who have never read a comic before. They also make it easier for those casual readers to pick up all of Smith's titles "a la carte".Dont get me wrong, I miss tight continuity too at times. But anything that gets Chris Claremont and Grant Morrison writing X-men titles is something I am willing to live with. I also think it has done more harm than good for Marvel overall.Last point on this topic: If you like tight continuity, I would read the Ultimate books. I have subscribed to Spider Man and X-men and Ultimates from the beginning, as well as picking up the side titles (Marvel Team Up, Daredevil etc) and the Ultimate universe seems to have tight continuity since there's only a few titles largely written by only three writers.Also the "Bendiverse", those titles written by Bendis seems to have a tight continuity as well.So there are options out there, for those who must have continuity, and folks like me, who frankly dont seem to care.</blockquote>

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