I know we've had several discussion on whether COIE ultimately ended up being a mistake or not and why or not that was the case. But then I started thinking about the different characters and them sharing a universe. Obviously, there was the JSA back in the day. But I admit I'm really talking about more since the '50s.

For me there are so many advantages that I can't say it's a mistake. I thought a lot of people would feel that way, so I didn't title the thread as such. But I did want to discuss some of the downsides.

Firstly, of course, is continuity. It's something really noticeable in more recent years, even if it's an older problem. Different writers will say different things happened. Stronger editorial is the solution, I think, but when characters may show up in so many books that happens. The second is probably use of a character the primary writer doesn't approve of or that undercuts their characterization. I believe I heard something about an alleged threesome that Simone went out of her way to refute in BoP, but I haven't read the story. Third is the sheer number of characters. I heard that long ago Galactus invaded, and the Avengers were trapped so they couldn't fight him so the story made sense. That sounded brilliant to me. But the world's gotten too big to trap all the other heroes so the ones in one title can fight alone. Obviously, we can suspend disbelief, but it's a bit annoying. Even worse when they give weak explanations as to why others aren't there instead of just not mentioning it. Longer events (taking months instead of hours) make it worse and more untenable. And, of course, there's the competition between characters. Fans want to know who's strongest, smartest, fastest, best, etc. And some writers will definitely diminish other heroes to fluff the feathers on their own. Not a fan.