The issue is what Wildstorm could do in the past is NOT what they can do under DC.
You lose certain advantages once you get under that banner.
Certain subject matter and tone can't be done at DC.
Look at DV8's Frostbite-he was raped. That can happen at Image. That won't happen here.
Stormwatch has 64 issues.
Gen 13 had about 150 issues.
Authority about 70
They can't even SNIFF shots here unless you shoehorn a DC person in it.
Jackson King has done things at Image that 90 percent of the black characters at DC struggle to do.
Excluding Ivy, Harley and Batwoman-what gay character mainly male has had the success Midnighter had?
At Image put these guys under certain writers-NOBODY is throwing fits. They read the book or not.
Here it can be how dare DC does Wildcats over JSA or Legion or Young Justice.
Those books had freedom at Image that they can't get here.
Reading List (Super behind but reading them nonetheless):
DC: Currently figuring that out
Marvel: Read above
Image: Killadelphia, Nightmare Blog
Other: The Antagonist, Something is Killing the Children, Avatar: TLAB
Manga: My Hero Academia, MHA: Vigilanties, Soul Eater: the Perfect Edition, Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, Witch Hat Atelier, Kaiju No. 8
When, for example, Tim Drake goes from always having been been portrayed strictly as heterosexual to “a switch flipping” and now he has a boyfriend, that's a retcon. Note in this case in particular, Tim has always been an open book to the audience: the writing style used for him lays bare his innermost thoughts and feelings. So arguments to the effect of “he's always been secretly bi; we just didn't know it” don't apply. And while he's technically being described as bisexual, he's being written as if he's gay. The “it doesn't have to be a binary is our isn't” isn't there in the writing.
Alan Scott likewise: prior to the 2013(?) Earth 2 series, there was never any indication anywhere in his history of him being gay. The Earth 2 Alan Scott was gay because at the time, it looked like Obsidian wasn't going to be appearing in Earth 2; so with the removal of Alan's gay son, Alan himself was presented as a gay man. After Earth 2: Society ended and the primary Earth's Alan Scott was brought back, the decision to make him gay on Earth 2 was retroactively applied to the mainstream Earth's Alan Scott as well. And in Alan's case, he's explicitly saying that he's gay, not bi; again, the binary “is or isn't” is in the writing itself.
There are others who don't count as retcons: Jon Kent's sexuality was never explored before he was aged up to be a teen and, later, an adult (which is a good thing, because why do we need to know anything about the sexuality of a prepubescent boy?); so the revelation that he's bisexual doesn't contradict anything that came before. Kate Kane (Batwoman) was created during 52 as a lesbian; no retcon there at all. Likewise with Renee Montoya.
Rogue wears rouge.
Angel knows all the angles.
Such a change does not occur in life? Have you not heard of scenarios where say a Josh in senior year of high school and he was a reputed hound; only to be encountered in say Sophomore year of college as bisexual, homosexual, or some other orientation? You have no knowledge of such a thing happening?
Your point?
EDIT: I also note that you've not addressed anything else I said.
Last edited by Dataweaver; 06-09-2023 at 04:28 PM.
Rogue wears rouge.
Angel knows all the angles.
That exactly how "In Dry Cement..." a person's sexuality might seem is never as concrete as that unless you have a window into exactly what they are thinking every single second of every single day.
Unless you know of some issues where it was laid out in that degree of detail?
Some of what you mentioned is nowhere near as "Strictly..." as you might believe.
The Court Of Owls do not become any less real because we were not told in great detail on a weekly basis in the lead up to it's eventual appearance.
Except that it's all something that a new writer introduced, with no background from anything previously established and directly counter to earlier writers' stated intents concerning the character.
This isn't about whether or not it's realistic; it's about whether it's a character rewrite. And it is a character rewrite.
Rogue wears rouge.
Angel knows all the angles.
I think there is a difference between a change that comes out of nowhere and a character's personal development. I have read stories in GQ, Details, and Cosmo about men and women who are very advanced in life (the guy in Details was 86) who talk about that very thing. If you have encountered such a thing among your friendset then you could easily learn more about it in men's or women's magazines (I don't know if all of them are fashion magazines per se but the ones I saw had lots of clothes and these fragrance inserts).
There are articles about people revealing their struggles at advanced ages and there are many current discussions in the present. Granted I don't know all of the terminology but I do know just because you enter a person's life at point A on the timeline doesn't mean they will be that same thing at point B ion the timeline.
That isn't something that we can call a retcon because people can naturally progress to different things from when they were young. If you were given life by Gods after your mom sculpted you from clay or marble, you can't go back in time and be grown in a lab; THAT is a retcon. A person feeling they were bi or whatever the other states are and who discovers they are hetero or gay or not really interested in anything is simply growing.