quote:Originally posted by TheTimeTrust: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight is another good example, an excellent series (except for the gratuitous KnightQuest and No Man's Land tie-ins) which has never been a slave to continuity and as such has allowed a variety of writers and artists to tell the Batman story they've always wanted to tell, whether or not it fits into the so-called "Batman timeline" or within the scheme of Year One, Two, Three, et cetera.
I know that's the company line for LotDK, but it's not really true. That title is very much a part of continuity. The first storyline is clearly set in year one (referencing the Miller story), the Venom arc ended up being used as a prelude to Knightfall, and the Hugo Strange arcs were continued in Gotham Knights.
You're correct in that there have been some ties to other series, however you're ignoring the most obvious thing about that: The LOTDK series has always given the writers a great deal of freedom to write the stories they wish to... this means that they CAN use continuity to their advantage in their stories if they wish to do so. The stories you note are the exceptions that prove the rule (of writers' freedom to tell a good story in the way they wish to). What I and others are saying is that writers should have a great deal of freedom from the minutiae of continuity in order to tell good stories, which is their job.
They used to tell new writers at DC Comics that "Every issue is someone's first issue." It shouldn't be difficult to break into a mainstream DC Comic such as one of the Superman books (you certainly shouldn't expect everyone to buy them all) or any other mainstream book.
