Marvel Should Make Up Its Mind

25 issues of Gambit.

12 issues of Gambit Volume 2.

16 issues of Bishop.

32 issues of Mutant X.

7 or so issues of Nightcrawler.

24 issues of Mystique.

6 issues of Rogue.

What do all these have in common?

They were all ongoing titles starring X-Men characters that had no real tangible effect upon Marvel continuity.

No X-Men stories were being re-written to jibe with what happened in John Layman's Gambit.

No crossover spun out of events in Bishop.

So when the final storyline of Rogue was solicited (before the book was cancelled)...who the heck could have possibly have predicted that a lasting change would have occured!?!?!

Yet, in the last storyline of Rogue, Rogue permanently absorbed Sunfire's powers.

Pretty surprising, huh?

In any event, while it was amazing to me that such a major occurance would occur in the last issues of a cancelled peripheral title, that's not what I am referring to with Marvel's inability to make up their mind.

No, what I am referring to is Marvel's contradictory position regarding continuity in their titles - they do not have footnotes, but they also have interconnected titles.

You really should not do both.

If you want to have footnotes, fine.

But if you DON'T (which is fine as well), you really cannot have an interconnected continuity, because it just isn't going to make sense.

Case in point, in Peter Milligan's X-Men, Rogue has her new powers - and there is not a single explanation given for HOW she got these powers.

Because Marvel does not use footnotes.

What a bass-ackwards approach.

If they do not want to use footnotes, fine...but just do not have such close continuity. Otherwise, things like footnotes are going to be necessary.

Make up your mind, Marvel.

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