Is it a bird..?

[caddyman]

Me no unnerstandee.

I was just looking at some comics covers for the Marvel Ultimate Comics range and I find myself wondering why they (and all other comic companies) ever bother with these relaunches. They start off doing something to show that the new series is different from the usual product, grittier, odder, funnier, more surreal or what have you. The continuity is reset to the beginning and all looks rosy.

After a relatively short period however, assuming that it doesn't all get cancelled (anyone but me remember Jim Shooter?) because no-one cares, it all inevitably creeps back towards the mainstream and becomes indistinguishable from the original lines upon which the revamp was based, but is supposed to be different from.

Comments

[itsjustaname.livejournal.com]

Niope, I remember Jim Shooter. Around the time of the New Universe was the era of Marvel comics that I was reading in my early to mid teens when I was really into comic reading, and therefore consider to be the finest era of comics!

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

Is it cynical of me to suggest that the ultimate line exists to sell movie ideas to producers, and spin-offs to movie goers?

I do like the early Ultimate stuff though, pre-ultimatum.