I was actually thinking about that. But, as we've all figured out, Dragon Ball continuity isn't exactly perfect, either. It's a lot easier to just disregard things as non-canon.
The *Legendary* Super Saiyan is motivated by a crying infant! He is a literal giant f***ing baby!Yeah, Dragon Ball's universe is just more palatable and consistent, in general. All of its weirdness comes from the same place. It started out as a kid who could effortlessly move big rocks, progressing with said kid getting gradually stronger from teachers and rivals who knew their stuff, and eventually he learned how to take out bigger threats in the form of demons, aliens, genetic abominations and ancient eldritch abominations, all with the power of hard work that produces consistent results. When Toriyama couldn't come up with bigger threats, he stopped. One of the reasons fans are so eager to discount movies and GT is because those writers played fast and loose with the rules of consistency of this universe.
Meanwhile, we have Superman, who was conceived to be a normal man, but with super abilities, like jumping really high, being really fast, or possessing the power of flight (which might be one of humanity's biggest desires). This was explained by him being a well-meaning alien.
But since he has no upper limits on how strong he's actually supposed to be, over the course of different writers we eventually get stuff like him being able to be faster than light, move planets by muscle strength alone, and recognizing the heartbeat of everybody on earth simultaneously. That's not a man, that's a God for whom men are smaller to him than bacteria is to men.
Not only are we supposed to believe that these are just freebie powers given to an entire species, we're supposed to believe that he ever cared for a normal life as Clark Kent, or for people like Lois and Jimmy, or that someone like Lex Luthor ever posed a threat to him. And if we mix powers created by other authors for other stories (like the Green Lantern ring), we get stuff like Superman becoming a God because...one of the writers thought it was a cool idea to turn what was supposed to be a hero into an even more frightening deity?
Yeah, it's not about weirdness, it's about good writing. And the medium of Superhero Comics guarantees that there will be inherent flaws within their continuities. Marvel and DC should revise their entire publishing model, honestly. It sure is hard to get into, and not as profitable as it could be.
What I like about manga over comics is that manga tell one story (generally speaking) from start to finish and are all created by one or two people so they're usually extremely consistent in both quality and continuity.
Comics, meanwhile, have about 500 different writers and pre-writers and post-pre-writers and editors along with inkers and colorists and shaders and whatnot that tell about 7,000 different different stories with the quality and continuity being all over the place.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!I've been a Doctor Who fan for 30+ years.
You're not going to convince me that continuity and canon are positive or that inconsistency and variation are negative.
No, they aren't, but they are the flagship comic companies, and the one all the others are judged by. In some respects, this is beneficial, since Marvel and DC tend to screw up in particularly amazing fashion when they do, and they're often run by executives who have no clue what the actual business is like, because the grand majority of them has never read a comic in their entire lives. So they look much better by comparison. In others, it's not so much, since an outsider might expect all comics publishers to be as bad as DC and Marvel, preventing them from getting into comics in the first place.
Point is, why are so many companies run by people who have no flipping clue what the market is actually like? It's like how the videogame industry is run by old farts who are completely out of touch with reality.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimariComics, meanwhile, have about 500 different writers and pre-writers and post-pre-writers and editors along with inkers and colorists and shaders and whatnot that tell about 7,000 different different stories with the quality and continuity being all over the place.
Not always so.
Many manga are as aimless as western comics are generally assumed to be. There's not always a story at all; many, including this one, are written by the seat of the author's pants, and many more are just plain episodic. There's also countless doujinshi and 4komas of varying quality and consistency with many different writers and artists as well, because in Japan, you can sell fanfiction.
Now, you could say that only the original manga by the original creator counts, but you can say that about Western comics too; you can pick and choose writers here as well. You could say that anything not written by Stan Lee isn't real Spider-Man, or say that Garth Ennis did the best Punisher and any Punisher that isn't Garth Ennis's Punisher isn't real Punisher.
The only real difference between the West's Shared Universe structure and the East's doujinshi structure is that the West tries to maintain more editorial control over its derivative doujins in order to improve consistency and quality across the board.
Meanwhile, especially in the modern day, western comics often do have a concise story being told from beginning to end. Take, for instance, Journey Into Mystery, which told the story of Kid Loki, or The Death of Captain America, or The Secret Origin of Tony Stark. These stories have a clear beginning and a clear end. That the characters do not promptly drop out of the medium and never star in anything else again changes nothing of the fact that they are often used for concise storytelling.
Whereas with manga, a thoroughly planned story that is concise and to the point from beginning to end are the exceptions, not the rule. For every Fullmetal Alchemist, there's a dozen Narutos, Dragon Balls, Ranmas, Inuyashas, Negimas, etc.
edited 22nd Apr '15 11:57:21 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.There's J-Pop in my Dragon Ball.
This is great. I don't care what anyone else says.
The *Legendary* Super Saiyan is motivated by a crying infant! He is a literal giant f***ing baby!I don't think it's fair to equate Japanese fanfiction with official American comics. They're not even remotely the same thing.
And there's no dichotomy between "original author only" or "all authors, including fanfiction but only for Japan".
I think most people will go with "what is official" which excludes Japanese doujins. There is absolutely no reason not to include the works on fanfiction.net (for both sides) if you're going to count doujins. Selling something doesn't legitimise it.

See the Marvel universe for instance currently being killed by the Beyonders.
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