Publishers aren’t confused about anything. The idea that some readers like clear jumping-on points and isolated cannon isn’t news to anyone.
Ultimate Spider-Man proved it a long time ago. Graphic novels have been around forever. Both DC and Marvel published and still publish stand alone works all the time.
It’s that they choose to serve two different audiences: the readers that like the shared universe, lose cannon, and rotating writership, because those things aren’t that big a deal for them. Then there’s the readers that want small, self contained, one author experiences. The mainline comics aren’t made for the latter, and in fact they would lose the former if they tried to pivot in that direction.
It just never ceases to amaze me how some people can’t wrap their head around the idea others have no problem jumping into a series rather than worrying about starting from issue 1. It’s not that bizarre.
Publishers aren’t confused about anything. The idea that some readers like clear jumping-on points and isolated cannon isn’t news to anyone.
Ultimate Spider-Man proved it a long time ago. Graphic novels have been around forever. Both DC and Marvel published and still publish stand alone works all the time.
It’s that they choose to serve two different audiences: the readers that like the shared universe, lose cannon, and rotating writership, because those things aren’t that big a deal for them. Then there’s the readers that want small, self contained, one author experiences. The mainline comics aren’t made for the latter, and in fact they would lose the former if they tried to pivot in that direction.
It just never ceases to amaze me how some people can’t wrap their head around the idea others have no problem jumping into a series rather than worrying about starting from issue 1. It’s not that bizarre.