Lou Cypher;3081725 said:
Can you explain the universes? like i know theres a Spiderman then theres this Ultimate Spiderman. are they the same people? are the stories happening at the same time? and say there is a x men comic where superman makes an appearance, does that effect the rest of the superman comics or does superman keep going in his story like it never happened?
Okay....
first off theres Marvel and there's DC. They're the big two of comics. The Nike and Adidas. They're not the only ones around, but they have the biggest, most recognizable characters.
Marvel owns Spidey, The X Men, The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and The Hulk. These are their most notable Franchises.
DC owns Superman, Aquaman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and the Justice League. These are their most notable franchises.
DC and Marvel are two different companies and unless their doing a company crossover (which is where some of their characters will meet or fight or whatever) which is very rare, they are two different universes with their own unique histories that are completely indepedent from each other.
Think of them as the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe.
Now as for Marvel, they have three lines of comics:
marvel, Marvel Adventure, and Ultimate .
regular Marvel aka the main marvel universe aka universe #616 ( lets refer to it as 616 from now on) is the continuing adventures of the your favorite marvel superheroes since their creation.
Meaning, in 616, the Spider Man that was created in 1962 is the same Spider Man featured in Amazing Spider Man, Avengers, FF, and various other titles tho he's been written by tons of different writers and 49 years haven't actually passed for him (more like 13 years. Comics operate on a different timescale to keep characters young).
The X Men and Spider Man cartoons of the 90's were based on the 616 stories.
Marvel Adventure is an imprint directed at kids and features its own "continuity" (more on this later) that I don't know much about Just know that its directed at kids so its not as violent or scary or mature or whatever.
Ultimate Marvel, created in 2000, was a line of comics created for the purpose of bringing in new fans (like yourself). The Ultimate universe is its own separate universe with its own unique history.
What differentiated Ult. Marvel from 616 was that the characters were created with more modern origins (Ult. Spider man was bitten by a genetically modified spider instead of a radioactive one since radiation isn't as much a mystery science as it was in the '60's), they're younger (the ultimate fanstastic four aren't older than 22 whereas the oldest member of 616 fantastic four was like 28 when they first started) and the characters themselves were more contemporary (all the teen characters are pretty much Generation Y).
Also the selling point of ultimate was not have as much backstory and continuity to understand so new fans could jump on easier.
Im not going to go into DC since that will take godknowshowlong so let me explain continuity:
Continuity is the term given to recognized events, people, and places that contribute to the overall metastory of a fictional universe. You asked that if the Superman appeared in an x men comic (who are in two different universes form two different companies i may add) would it affect Superman's titles/larger story.
And the answer is: Maybe. But typically? No. Its completely at the whim of the writers and editors (which makes continuity difficult to understand) but because Superman and the X Men are in two different universes, it probably wouldn't be in continuity as DC and Marvel are rivals and like to keep their universes apart as much as possible.
However? If say Superman appeared in a Teen Titans comic (who are a DC property), that would probably be in continuity BUT it might not have any substantial effect on the larger Superman story unless its supposed to be memorable event or is referenced in future stories (which once again is at the whims of the creative teams).
