Human Target by Tom King and Greg Smallwood

[j9ac9k]

Its a standalone AU story though.

Its just the creative team telling a story with a beginning and an end. Its not supposed to be followed up on, Black Label stories aren't in-continuity stories. The point is allowing them do whatever they want without the trappings of the primary universe.

I think Pohzee's point was that it wasn't a totally stand-alone story.(like Watchmen) It was built on all the work that had been done building up the JLI. This series can't be told without knowledge of the work that came before. Personally I don't have an issue with that, but I also understand that it's too bad King isn't interested in adding to the collective lore. As you said, this story isn't meant to have a follow-up, which isn't usually the point of writing a story using these shared characters, where one writer after another contributes their stories to the larger mythos.

[comictimes]

I don't know about others, but if it weren't for the "knowledge of the work that came before" (shared history), I wouldn't be reading/buying 95/80% of the comics I do read/buy.

[HsssH]

It is an interesting point in light of new Batman Gaslight coming out.

[Pohzee]

It's true that while it's probably more fun for creators at times to "reinvent" popular characters and that it can be novel to read about, I would prefer that DC keep their talented creators on books that slotted into a shared history which is to me the main appeal of DC compared to other publications and mediums of arguably higher quality.

But I think this is especially true of Human Target compared to reinventions such as Gotham by Gaslight because it not just utilizes the recognition and iconography of established characters but also uses the work of other creators and history of the characters in the comics as a building block and tapestry without contributing to these stories for future works.

[comictimes]

But those future works could start from the same vantage point King had for HT, and the possibility to reach a comparable perceived quality would be there for them too. What you're asking is for him to contribute to the pool so that future works can jump from a higher springboard. Apparently, many authors want to be free of the constrains associated with that possibility (working inside the continuity).