Funny enough I came up with the title to this post before writing it, and then decided to run with it. It makes sense though, sometimes, regarding comics, we tend to find a character that we are very passionate about and come to know that character to act and think in a certain way. When that character doesn't follow the rules, oh...let's call it his or her "Frame of Reference," we get very angry or distraught because we are not used to seeing or understanding the character that way and we sense a lack of trust in what that character may do in the future. Sometimes, and history has proved this to be true time and time again, characters tend to jump around a lot in regards to what they stand for. Different writers tend to change, and eventually perfect, those characters into what you may like most about them that makes their book a unique experience for you. I won't ever tell anyone to not read something because I didn't like how it changed a characters frame of reference. However, I will make suggestions on which stories to avoid, simply because they make continuity errors and cause confusion to new readers, (hence the title.) As a writer, I can say that when taking on someone else' character, you have a responsibility to that audience to keep certain keys the same. You can bend these keys and stretch them from here to the moon, but you cannot unjustifiably break them. Let me expand upon this a little more with an example.
With changes in a fictional universe there will always be reboots and relaunches of characters that have been around for more than 75 years. During which time we learn each character's frame of reference and what boundaries they can push and sometimes break, but for the most part they stay relatively the same. They have to though; for example, lets look at Superman and Wonder Woman. Disregarding their gender, if Superman were able to justify killing someone based on their actions, other than to save an innocent, he would be, respectfully, taking on a quality that Wonder Woman has been known to act upon. Now, before you start to "rage quit" my blog, I know for a fact that Superman has killed before, but I stand by an earlier argument that I have made that Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman each make up the trinity of characters that governs the rest of the DC Universe. Here is what it looks like.
Okay, so it's not my greatest work of art, but let me try and break this down. In my opinion, the perfect judge, jury, and executioner is made up of three parts; these being the brains, or capacity to understand and comprehend the judgement being made, the body, the physical being that is a collective consciousness capable of casting a vote, and the weapon, the muscle or axe that executes based upon the brains dictation. Batman is mortal, as much as that may surprise you, he has the potential to die much sooner than the other two. We have come to know Batman as a fairly reasonable person who doesn't kill, but he does have potential to do so. If Batman became a killer it would be out of temporary insanity; enter the Joker, which is his purpose as a Batman villain. Wonder Woman, who is nearly immortal, has lived a life of an amazon and warrior. She certainly has the capacity to do what is necessary when it comes down to who must die in order to save the day. She has killed to save and has killed out of rage as well. Superman, another God like figure, usually chooses to save people and not kill them, but he has been pushed before, and this is mainly under the circumstances that involve saving an innocent and has no other choice. Obviously, arguments can be made about these characters based on particular stories and situations, but that just brings us back to what this article is about.
Every character has to have a frame of reference, or a guideline, similar to what I made above so that the characters are governed in their own universe. If they didn't, then why would you buy Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman comics each month, why wouldn't you just buy one and be content? It's because each character has a different capacity for good and evil than the others and we want to see whats going to happen in those circumstances. We want to see how badly Wonder Woman can screw things up for the other two, and just the same with Superman starting a conflict that he is morally conflicted about for the rest of his life. Likewise, we want to see how far the Joker will push Batman to committing his moral taboo. You may also see that I gave each character the capacity for evil, but in regards to the natural DC cannon, they never use it. Perhaps in the Multiverse they do, but not here.
What sparked this whole discussion was based upon something that is currently happening in the New 52 Batman series. The current story arc entitled "End Game" is borderline rewriting Joker's origin. I highly recommend picking it up if you get the chance, it certainly peaked my interest. Again, this is just another risk that the writers are taking to keep things fresh, heck, it may not even be the Joker, but maybe a possessed Joker or clone, who knows? I trust Scott Snyder's writing enough to see where this is going, but it really makes me think what if everything I know about the Joker has been a lie, and how will that effect my opinions about him in the future. Betrayal could be a good word to use in this case, but Genius is also a possibility. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
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