HALLOWEEN H20, the seventh entry in the franchise, completely ignored the events of earlier films. If I remember rightly, it's a direct sequel to the first two HALLOWEEN movies. Excluding HALLOWEEN III, which was a different story, H20 ignores the 4th, 5th and 6th films.

I believe the upcoming HALLOWEEN reboot, if reboot is the right term, will completely disregard everything but the first HALLOWEEN.

Were some pleased by that? I doubt it. At the time, I thought it was a tad odd to just completely retcon a few films away. But sometimes wiping the slate clean is preferable to tying things up in knots with explanations, retcons, etc. If your table is a mess, and you can't clean it, maybe sometimes you should just rip off that tablecloth and let the cutlery/food be destroyed!

HALLOWEEN is an imperfect comparison, I know. But it just stopped referencing earlier films and wiped the slate clean with H20 (as the upcoming reboot will do). Maybe instead of CRISIS, they should simply have stopped referring to certain things. Perhaps they should simply have stopped talking about multiple earths and let things continue on their own merit.

It seems CRISIS, and numerous sequels, have been "untying the knots" ever since. 

***

I'm seeing this with Dr. Who fandom at times.

The show started in 1963. Even within the First Doctor's lifetime, there were elements presented to us that contradicted each other. I am sure the contradictions piled up with the Second Doctor, Third Doctor, etc.

But I wouldn't expect a show that ran from 1963 to 1989, and again from 2005 onwards, to dot every i and cross every t as far as continuity is concerned. How could they?

Everything was supposed to get a new 'number 1' in January of '86. That didn't even come close to happening. Everybody had too many subplots going on in their own titles to wrap everything up on the original schedule. That bearded Canadian guy couldn't start 'Superman' that soon, thanks to that tall dude who ran the other company...and that Miller fellow needed more time than that to finish doing all the wonderful things he did to 'Batman' that would eventually be stolen by every other Bat-writer.

The only thing that went according to plan was CRISIS # 10 ending as intended. The confusing 'everybody on one Earth, but people remember the other Earths', and the umpteenth 'Shadow Demons attack' subplot filled out the 12-issue run.

 So, everything got pushed back, and so DC published a lot of forgettable 'filler' in the first half of '86. By summer, any idea of characters having residual memory of 'alternate Earths' was long gone. In 'post-Crisis' continuity, out of the entire series, maybe half of the last issue was still 'official'. There were a few passing references during 1986 to 'red skies last year' and a 'Crisis' that almost destroyed the Earth, but almost no mention of what it was about in the 'revised' universe.

Watching the episode "Comic Book Caper" from the series MYSTERY DINERS. They are undercover (it's usually restaurants) in a comic book store to catch a thief. They are filming unrelated stuff now.

Some berk has bought a comic. And his words were this: "I'm not a comic book guy, what shall I do with it?" Yes, he's buying it for investment. The guy selling it has told him to just keep hold of it and let it go up in value.

That comic may be desired by a person who WANTS the imagery/writing inside. It may be desired by a person who likes the character, writer, etc. And we have some berk buying it and telling the owner he's not a comic book guy.

There's a special place in Hell (I hope) for people who buy comics SOLELY for profit. Not a comic book guy, eh? Then why didn't he fuck off and go invest in a bar of gold instead? Not a comic book guy? Great, but you've just taken a comic which a REAL fan might have wanted.

I suppose that elusive issue of THE INCREDIBLE HULK (where he fights the Abomination and Rhino) won't be mine as someone no doubt has an investment copy somewhere!

——

If I buy a comic to read, as an investment, to swat flies with, or to use as toilet paper, it’s none of anyone else’s business. I don’t owe anything to anyone else who might have purchased that book. I mean, it’s a dumb investment, but if someone buys something legally, who am I or who are you to tell them the proper use for it. The issue is not a person buying a comic as an investment, it’s the retailers and publishers who cater to these investors at the expense of their readers.