I'm not surprised, on a DC message board, that Option A (aka the "Nuclear Option") is the more popular one. It's become a part of common wisdom in DC that this sort of thing is, well, "thinkable," as in, the opposite of "unthinkable."
In recent times, not only is it "thinkable," it's the editor's best friend: don't like Matrix Supergirl? Wipe her the hell out!
Okay, I understand, that's not fair at all. There's a big difference between something like ignoring one panel in CRISIS and "cafeteria continuity." However, the case can be made that some auidences are callused to truly outrageous breaks.
It shouldn't surprise anybody that knows me, that in this theoretical example, I'm very much on the side of Option B. My personal take on continuity is that it can make even bad ideas and bad stories WORK, if you look at ALL the pieces and see how something fits. Concepts should be reconciled with the past as much as possible, even minor parts of the past.
I never cease to be amazed with Mark Gruenwald, who, in one story, had the shades of everyone that ever used the Serpent Crown, it also featured a Conan enemy that used the Cobra Crown, a related artifact from a 1960s Lin Carter Conan pastiche novel!
But if one DOES take Option B, the question is, what continuity is worth explaining away...and what continuity isn't?
Going back to the above example, obviously a story as important as the MIGHTY THOR ANNUAL with Demigorge and Atum would have to be explained, certainly. So too, would the panel
I really like those puzzles that the great thing about continuity.
It's fun to play "how to fix continuity" and tie things together, though unfortunately Marvel, in a sign they've lost their way, no longer give No-Prizes anymore.
For instance: remember the Steve Englehart West Coast/East Coast Avengers war? There was a scene of the Legion of the Unliving featuring two characters it has since been revealed to be alive: the Green Goblin and Bucky. How to account for their presence as "dead" people?
For the Green Goblin, it is simple: reading the issues over, it was never specifically stated that he was Norman Osborn. Remember the second Green Goblin, ? He fits the two criteria needed to be this character: 1) he was at one point a Green Goblin, and 2) he is dead.
Bucky needs a little more explaining. Here's one possible explanation: perhaps it was another dead hero, Changeling, who had assumed the form of Bucky deliberately to rattle Captain America.
The point is, though, that this sort of thing is a worthy passtime, in addition to being how Roy Thomas got his job.
That would be the Eternals
That was a Roy Thomas idea, and while I give Roy the Boy an "A" for effort (I mean, the guy gave an ETERNALS connection to everything, even the history of the Sub-Mariner and the origin of a character like Armin Zola), I give him a "C" for Cluelessness: nevermind the fact that the Marvel Universe was clearly fictional in ETERNALS. The concepts there were, while not detrimental, when introduced made many of the Marvel Universe's big ideas smaller, and many of the ETERNALS ideas smaller. The Eternals went from being the origin of folklore, to being jumped up pretenders in a world where the "real" gods exist. And the Forgotten One goes from being the GREATEST HERO EVER, the inspiration for all great warriors and strongmen, to being Strong Guy #47 in a universe of strong guys. And let's not talk about the murky afterthought that ETERNALS made mutants.
While I agree with the Roy Thomas "Wold-Newton" mentality that things should tie together and connections should be found, some things are just not compatible; some concepts when brought together make both stronger by the connection, and some become weaker.
Must...EVERYTHING be in the Marvel Universe? Can't some things just be off to the side? An example would certainly be KILLRAVEN, which doesn't line up with anything and makes everybody look like a chump because the Marvel Heroes couldn't block one measly, piddling little alien invasion.
Yeah, I would take the Kirby approach (Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, Lords of Light Portfolio, 2001) and leave it to lesser lights to connect the dots and fill in the holes in continuity in a poorly-selling miniseries 20 years later.
That being said, Julian, I can't wait to read your Gods of Africa comic. Seriously. Fun concept --I hope you find a good artist.
Thank you for that vote of confidence, TELLE, but when have I ever let slip even the slightest ambition of being a professional writer? It was just a developed example i picked to prove my point, though considering some of the chuckleheads that work for the House of Ideas these days, even I could do better (though that's not saying much).
The reason for the purpose of the example we did the African gods instead of say, a pantheon that has more or less been established in the Marvel Universe (like, say, the Egyptians) is that it's a "gray" example. If somebody wanted to Reboot in the MU, say, the Egyptian Pantheon, which has been a stable part of the Marvel Universe for decades now, obviously that wouldn't be acceptable. It wouldn't fall under a "gray area" like crowd scenes and "cameos with dialogue."
You can't "reboot" an established property that ties in extensively to the rest of the universe. It is for this reason that the Reggie Hudlin BLACK PANTHER reboot is so justifiably reviled, but Gaiman's ETERNALS (a book that never really tied into the MU except after Kirby left), on the other hand, sounds very interesting.
Cary Bates's CAPTAIN ATOM reboot worked, not just because Bates is such a card, but because technically, Bates wasn't rebooting anything, he was actually creating an "Earth-1" Captain Atom.