Do multiple titles test the suspension of disbelief?

[Mister Mets]

I came across an interesting comment by Roy Thomas in the introduction to the Marvel Team-Up Marvel Masterworks Volume 2, in reference to Marvel Team Up #16 leading to #17.

MTU's usual fare was stand-alone stories, because there was enough continuity going on in Spidey's own mag (he only had one, in those deprived days) that we didn't need a competing arc in another mag. That way, we figured, readers could imagine an issue of MTU was occurring in between issues of Amazing Spider-Man. If Team-up, as well, got a strong continuity going, it was liable to severely test the whole "suspension of disbelief" thing, almost as if there were two Spideys living parallel lives.

Within a few years, they had Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, which was meant to have a strong continuity. More titles have come up, to say nothing of all the spinoff books where Spidey routinely appears, as well as team books, event books and guest starr appearances.

Do you guys think this goes too far? Or is it worth it to get more options for fans of the character?

[Tuck]

The amount of continuity is a bigger suspension problem than inter-title discrepancies.

MJ, Liz, and Harry all running multinational corps before 30 (Harry being the only one who might have relevant education, and he and Liz being shown explicitly to be poor students) strains belief way more for me than multiple titles ever could.

Betty might be even worse, with going from always-on-edge high-school-dropout secretary to badass investigative reporter.

[Alan2099]

I'm fine with multiple books, but when characters are on multiple TEAMS, they lose me.

[boots]

suspension of disbelief in any mainstream sense probably went out the window decades ago. i think these days, as long as a comic universe adheres to its own internal logic and the audeince agree and understand that system, it should work.

[WebLurker]

I think that more series/crossovers can muddle the timeline, but I tend to think that more stories are better than fewer. (I also tend to assume that a character's solo series overwrites other series when discrepancies arise.)

[SpiderClops]

Comic books as whole test the suspension of disbelief. There is no way this amount of stuff has happened to this many characters in just 10-15 years. But we have to, and we do, go along with it if we want to enjoy comics.

The amount of continuity is a bigger suspension problem than inter-title discrepancies.

MJ, Liz, and Harry all running multinational corps before 30 (Harry being the only one who might have relevant education, and he and Liz being shown explicitly to be poor students) strains belief way more for me than multiple titles ever could.

Betty might be even worse, with going from always-on-edge high-school-dropout secretary to badass investigative reporter.

Yes.

I'm fine with multiple books, but when characters are on multiple TEAMS, they lose me.

At best I can handle two teams. Actually, no. I can't handle two teams. I am only ok with teen Cyclops being on two teams, but that's just because it was the first time in over fifty years that any version of Cyclops joined a different team other than X-Men.

suspension of disbelief in any mainstream sense probably went out the window decades ago. i think these days, as long as a comic universe adheres to its own internal logic and the audeince agree and understand that system, it should work.

I second this.

[darthblinx]

I'm fine with multiple books, but when characters are on multiple TEAMS, they lose me.

Yup. I hate he did FF and NA/A at the same time (ugh Wolverine's teams ffs). I get wanting to put Spider-Man in a bunch of team ups, but that's really what they should be. I actually like the team up books, because it's honestly more annoying than cute to see the other heroes in his main title (nowadays).

[Digifiend]

The amount of continuity is a bigger suspension problem than inter-title discrepancies.

MJ, Liz, and Harry all running multinational corps before 30 (Harry being the only one who might have relevant education, and he and Liz being shown explicitly to be poor students) strains belief way more for me than multiple titles ever could.

Betty might be even worse, with going from always-on-edge high-school-dropout secretary to badass investigative reporter.

Didn't both Harry and Liz merely inherit their businesses, Oscorp and Allan Chemical, from their Dads? Then they wed and merged their corps into Alchemax. MJ's not really in charge of Stark, she's the public face. The real boss is Friday.

As for Betty, it's true - she's basically Marvel's answer to Lois Lane now (though not used very often). Wasn't her career change due to having been inspired by and learning from her colleagues? And going from nervous to brave is character development, not really unrealistic. It can happen if you take martial arts classes for example.

[oldschool]

There is no question in my mind that the multiple titles/appearances damaged the character's linear narrative but that happened decades ago. The early issues of PP:SSM and MTU tried to weave in and out of ASM in an attempt to create one larger story but it got too difficult after awhile and, sometime in the '80's, the decision seemed to be made to have the other titles have their own voice and that was a wise move and led to ---IMO---the best era for the character. Since then, it has sort of fallen apart due to a few factors: way too many appearances, particularly on teams/too many life-altering events/too many restarts and reboots. My hope is that Spencer on ASM and Zdarsky on PP:SSM are able to have a year or so to do their thing without another reset or Civil War or some other big event.

[Lukmendes]

I'd say it's less about messing with the suspecion of belief and more about becoming annoying.

MJ, Liz, and Harry all running multinational corps before 30 (Harry being the only one who might have relevant education, and he and Liz being shown explicitly to be poor students) strains belief way more for me than multiple titles ever could.

That's assuming Marvel vaguely resembles real life, which it really doesn't lol.

Betty might be even worse, with going from always-on-edge high-school-dropout secretary to badass investigative reporter.

That can always be excused as character development, Betty stopped being so nervous early on anyways.

My hope is that Spencer on ASM and Zdarsky on PP:SSM are able to have a year or so to do their thing without another reset or Civil War or some other big event.

Unfortunately it's not really up to them to decide those crossover shits... But on the bright side, Spidey hardly ever participates on those crossovers, Civil War II didn't affect him at all and Secret Empire only affected him slightly, I know fans are usualy annoyed at Spidey not being useful in crossovers, but I think it's great he wasn't participating in those shitty ones

[WebLurker]

I think there's a difference between realism and verisimilitude in fiction and comics. I don't think most readers require the former, but expect the latter. (For example, the way superheroes get their powers is very unrealistic, but if the heroes react to their power up in realistic way, it creates a sense of verisimilitude and so sells the suspension of disbelief.

[Digifiend]

Secret Empire only affected him slightly

Actually, Secret Empire caused the end of Parker Industries. Changed his entire status quo.

[Inversed]

Unfortunately it's not really up to them to decide those crossover shits... But on the bright side, Spidey hardly ever participates on those crossovers, Civil War II didn't affect him at all and Secret Empire only affected him slightly, I know fans are usualy annoyed at Spidey not being useful in crossovers, but I think it's great he wasn't participating in those shitty ones

That's a really good point I've always thought was interesting. The original Civil War and Secret Empire are the ONLY Marvel events (at least since 2000s) that directly effected the main Spider-Man story. Everything else was relegated to self-contained one-offs or mini-series. And from what I could tell, the only reason they did those two in particular was because they knew they were about to "reboot" Spidey anyway right after Civil War, and the Secret Empire story just needed a couple tweaks in order to connect it to the event.

It seems like they were much more willing to let the writers finish the stories they were doing than having them interrupt it to directly tie it in.

[Lukmendes]

Actually, Secret Empire caused the end of Parker Industries. Changed his entire status quo.

It was Otto who did it, all Secret Empire did was make Spidey and Otto not fight in London because Spidey had to answer an Avengers' call to fight, but Otto was going to destroy that building anyways if Peter didn't give PI to Otto, so it's a moot point on how much SE really affected him since it looked like it was going to happen anyways with or without it.

That's a really good point I've always thought was interesting. The original Civil War and Secret Empire are the ONLY Marvel events (at least since 2000s) that directly effected the main Spider-Man story.

While it's pre-2000s, the original Secret Wars affected him as well since it's what made Venom happen, quite ironic that Spidey didn't do much on it (His fight against X-Men while cool, achieved nothing since Xavier prevented him from warning Reed, he did knock out Bulldozer and Titania though, which is what prevented him from being useless), yet, he was affected by it far more than anyone else.

Everything else was relegated to self-contained one-offs or mini-series. And from what I could tell, the only reason they did those two in particular was because they knew they were about to "reboot" Spidey anyway right after Civil War, and the Secret Empire story just needed a couple tweaks in order to connect it to the event.

It seems like they were much more willing to let the writers finish the stories they were doing than having them interrupt it to directly tie it in.

That honestly made it look weird in Secret Empire because of that tie in, looked like "Oh yeah, Secret Empire is happening, here's a sudden tie-in", at least it didn't affect the pacing much.

[Pav]

suspension of disbelief in any mainstream sense probably went out the window decades ago. i think these days, as long as a comic universe adheres to its own internal logic and the audeince agree and understand that system, it should work.

I third this.

Also, you make **** up in your head to explain stuff. Headcanon.

Y'know: Franklin influences how time works in the MU, for example.

Sometimes, Marvel even comes up with its own official explanations for crazy stuff:

"How is Wolverine on so many teams, plus his own solo adventures?!"

"Well, there were all those Skrull Wolverines running around!"

To be fair, I started reading when there were four monthlies plus Unlimited, so figuring out how the storylines fit and which came first was inherent in my earliest reading.

-Pav, who is perhaps biased...