X-Men Writer Explains Marvel and DC’s Different Approaches to Continuity
Leah Williams — known for her prolific Marvel work on X-Men books including X-Terminators and X-Factor before recently turning her attention to DC for Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton #1 — addressed differences between the continuities of both companies.
“I think it creates a fascinating differentiation in the culture around the characters…because it’s about the character mythos,” Williams said in an interview with CBR, addressing DC’s emphasis on making continuity a fluid concept, with all stories about their superheroes considered canon to some degree depending on the whims of the writer. DC adopted this approach with the 2021 Infinite Frontier initiative, and it marked a dramatic shift from the company’s previous strategies and wrangling its complicated canon. Perhaps the most decisive of these old strategies was 2011’s New 52, a total relaunch that wiped away decades of continuity.
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“Everybody knows who Bruce Wayne is,” Williams continued. “Everybody knows what he’s like. It doesn’t matter who is writing him — everybody knows. Compared to the X-Men line, where you can get a wildly different take on a character, depending on who is writing them, what they were introduced to, and when they were brought into X-Men. It creates story dendrochronology — these tree rings or a patchwork quilt of qualities. They become the sum of their parts, but everybody knows who Bruce Wayne is. Everybody knows who Diana is. It’s mythos.”
Williams, who penned the Power Girl story “Deus Ex Magicka” in Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton and will also write an upcoming three-part arc for the character in Action Comics, said it was “intimidating” stepping into an environment where heroes like Batman and Wonder Woman were living examples of modern mythology. After becoming accustomed to the idea of writing larger-than-life characters, however, Williams said the experience was freeing when compared to the relatively strict continuity of the X-Men books.
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“[DC’s] always turning over a new leaf and looking at it from a standpoint of, “Okay, what can be improved? What’s relevant to readers now? What are people connecting with?” It stays fresh and topical,” Williams said. “…I did all this research for Power Girl and encountered the contradictions, got confused, and asked my editors, ‘Okay, so what’s the truth?’ And then they responded, “What do you want it to be?’ So that’s not intimidating. It’s been wild, and it feels like it should be an illegal amount of fun.”
Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton #1 is written by Nicole Maines, C.S. Pacat, Frank Barbiere and Williams; illustrated by Skylar Patridge, Scott Godlewski, Sami Basri and Marguerite Sauvage; colored by Nick Filardi, Alex Guimar?es and Hi-Fi; and lettered by Andworld’s Morgan Martinez, Andworld Design, Dave Sharpe and Becca Carey. The special features a main cover by David Marquez and Alejandro S?nchez and variant covers by Mario “Fox” Foccillo, Prasad Rao, Nathan Szerdy, Jen Bartel and Ariel Col?n. Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton #1 is on sale now from DC.
Source: CBR
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