What is your view of headcanon?

[Sacred Knight]

I only utilize it when things are specifically up for interpretation, be it on purpose or just because of muddy history/continuity. Other than that, I roll with what is. It doesn't particularly make me feel better pretending something I don't like doesn't exist as canon even though it concretely does, or vice versa. So I just deal with it. But that's me.

[Vakanai]

Are you for it? Against it? Do you use it? If so, what for? When is it okay and when do you think it is not?

For it. Not against it. I use it. All the heroes. It's okay whenever you prefer one version of characterization or events, and not okay if you try and use it to debate other nerds.

Seriously, I'm all about headcanon. DC has made a ton of hits and a ton of misses, why should I keep the misses in my head as the way things went down just because it's current continuity? I'm not writing for them, I'm just reading comics. So I just cherry pick my favorite stuff from my favorite stories and say that's how I'm going to imagine and remember it.

Edit - Reading through the rest of the thread, that's easy. Sure I hate that they made Superman a dad, but I don't buy the monthly floppies, I buy trades. There's so much Superman material out there for me to discover that I can spend years digging into Superman's lore and get new (new to me) stories without having to worry about Superman having a kid (bad, BAD idea). And that's not even counting all the elseworlds/imaginary stories/alternate universe Superman stories, stories that revisit Superman's past, or a reboot coming in and changing things for the better (or at least what I consider better - a childless Superman). I don't need headcanon for that, I got plenty to help me ignore the super-child. And if we're stuck with Jon forever? Hell, maybe I'll change my mind about Supes having a kid and he'll grow on me. Stranger things have happened in Superman comics.

[Miles To Go]

And if we're stuck with Jon forever?

Hopefully we are.

[Vakanai]

Hopefully we are.

Hopefully we're not. But that's the thing with comics, we can disagree and still get something good out of it.
But come on reboot!

[stargazer01]

If you really don't like something, you don't have to accept it or support it.

I don't like what the CW did with Superman and Mon-El, so I quit watching the Supergirl show. Easy.

[Ascended]

Are you for it? Against it? Do you use it? If so, what for? When is it okay and when do you think it is not?

Hell yeah I'm all for it. There's eighty years worth of material for these characters, thousands of individual issues, hundreds of creative voices.......you can't absorb all that, and head canon allows you to filter the stuff that sticks out the most.

Plus, if it helps you enjoy what you're reading, well, that's all the justification one needs.

I'm a little vague on how you're defining "head canon" though. I mean, there's literary analysis; where you read into what's on the page and find more/deeper meaning. And then there's ignoring what's on the page or "changing" it in your mind so it's more palpable to you. Literary analysis, I think, is pretty necessary for comics because you have to internalize almost everything, while prose tends to provide a deeper insight. Ignoring what's on the page because you just dont like it and pretending it's different....that just leads, in my opinion, to misunderstanding the IP.

For myself, I have no issue with the analysis. Actually, a lot of the opinions I have that're in the minority at CBR are things I only came to approve of after analyzing the history (Clark killing is a chief example; dude's got a bigger body count than a lot of us realize). I don't get down with ignoring stuff. Clark's married and he's got a kid whether I like it or not. He's a good, attentive, Rockwell-ean father whether I think that fits his history and classic characterization or not. Ignoring it wont change that. But if that's what some fans need to get through an issue, who am I to judge?

[KC]

In my opinion, it doesn't exist. To me, the only thing that matters is what DC says is canon.

Fans trying to change something or jam something into the canon because they don't like something DC has done with its universe has always struck me as being childish. At the end of the day DC owns their characters and they can do what they want with them.

[stargazer01]

In my opinion, it doesn't exist. To me, the only thing that matters is what DC says is canon.

Fans trying to change something or jam something into the canon because they don't like something DC has done with its universe has always struck me as being childish. At the end of the day DC owns their characters and they can do what they want with them.

It's not that simple, though because Superman has a very long and rich history. If someone prefer something, he still can even if DC says it's not like that anymore. Sometimes things change and we have more of what we crave. The stor is never final.

[KC]

It's not that simple, though because Superman has a very long and rich history. If someone prefer something, he still can even if DC says it's not like that anymore. Sometimes things change and we have more of what we crave. The stor is never final.

I disagree. Superman is DC 's characters. Anything DC says is canon, is canon. It doesn't matter if you don't like what they say is canon or want something else to be canon.

[sunofdarkchild]

The problem with headcanon is that the writers at DC keep ignoring it.

So basically the same as regular canon.

[SiegePerilous02]

I utilize it. These characters have existed for decades, DC has released several rebooted and/or contradictory takes, and there is no way to make it all fit coherently anyway. Superman especially. I can read some post-Crisis stories, and enjoy them, but in my head canon I will imagine him as the guy who grew up as Superboy and went on adventures with the Legion. Like when I read Morrison's JLA for example. Continuity at that time be damned, he is the guy who was Superboy with the Legion, and is now married to Lois Lane after dying against Doomsday, at least to me. Ditto Wonder Woman, she came from an island of advanced Sci-Fi Amazons, which is easy to imagine because Morrison didn't dwell on the post-Crisis Amazons at all. Similarly, Rucha sort of treats their advancements in his run as NOT being the recent development it was, and I'm cool with rolling with that, because that'd be how I prefer it to begin with.

[superduperman]

Hell yeah I'm all for it. There's eighty years worth of material for these characters, thousands of individual issues, hundreds of creative voices.......you can't absorb all that, and head canon allows you to filter the stuff that sticks out the most.

Plus, if it helps you enjoy what you're reading, well, that's all the justification one needs.

I'm a little vague on how you're defining "head canon" though. I mean, there's literary analysis; where you read into what's on the page and find more/deeper meaning. And then there's ignoring what's on the page or "changing" it in your mind so it's more palpable to you. Literary analysis, I think, is pretty necessary for comics because you have to internalize almost everything, while prose tends to provide a deeper insight. Ignoring what's on the page because you just dont like it and pretending it's different....that just leads, in my opinion, to misunderstanding the IP.

For myself, I have no issue with the analysis. Actually, a lot of the opinions I have that're in the minority at CBR are things I only came to approve of after analyzing the history (Clark killing is a chief example; dude's got a bigger body count than a lot of us realize). I don't get down with ignoring stuff. Clark's married and he's got a kid whether I like it or not. He's a good, attentive, Rockwell-ean father whether I think that fits his history and classic characterization or not. Ignoring it wont change that. But if that's what some fans need to get through an issue, who am I to judge?

I'm mostly talking about changing stuff in your own head. If you don't like something, for instance. I don't necessarily see filling in the blanks as headcanon so much as a necessity. If a story doesn't tell you something, you kind of have to do that yourself. Take, for instance, All Star Superman. Was he Superboy? We don't know. Was he a member of the Legion? Don't know that either. How did he find Krypto? Just to use the most obvious example. This is more along the lines of simply not liking something so you change it in your head.

[qwertyuiop1998]

If you really don't like something, you don't have to accept it or support it.

100 percent agree,writers has authority to decide story,but readers also has authority to decide accept/support.this should be how fictional stuff interact with readers.

[Superham]

Technically it's all head Canon

"This is an IMAGINARY story. . . aren't they all?" -Alan Moore

[Ascended]

I'm mostly talking about changing stuff in your own head. If you don't like something, for instance. I don't necessarily see filling in the blanks as headcanon so much as a necessity. If a story doesn't tell you something, you kind of have to do that yourself. Take, for instance, All Star Superman. Was he Superboy? We don't know. Was he a member of the Legion? Don't know that either. How did he find Krypto? Just to use the most obvious example. This is more along the lines of simply not liking something so you change it in your head.

Okay, then in that case I can't really agree with the practice. I mean, its one thing to take what's on the page and try to find the unsaid undercurrent that'll bring you from your perception of the character (point A) to the actions the character takes in the narrative (point B) and quite another thing entirely to pretend that what is on the page happened differently, or not at all, because it doesn't fit your perception.

Like, in my opinion Superman was never treated as a family man. Historically he's got a pretty bad record with kin. But now he's all Norman Rockwell Superdad Americana. It goes against how I perceive the character and his history and I've had to imagine what events took place in Jon's youth to get Clark to this place he's at now. That's my head canon; that Clark had to go through this journey to become a good parent, because it doesnt come naturally to him. But that's just trying to make sense of where we are in the comics; it'd be another thing entirely if I decided that Jon doesn't exist at all and I tried to blank out all the panels and pages with him in them, or tried to pretend that Clark was talking to Conner or Kara instead of Jon. That makes me feel like maybe it's time to stop reading the comic, yknow?

But thats me. Like I said, I personally dont care how a individual gets down with their comics. Who am I to tell you how to enjoy them? As long as you dont come at me trying to prove a point with claims that're only supported in your imagination, it's all good.