Previous Post Out of sheer morbid curiosity on my part, might I ask you to name an example of any continuing character in any medium with multiple writers who doesn't suffer from "clay continuity?" EDIT: This also excludes series that have some sort of "head writer" who essentially co-writes every episode, a la Babylon Five or Joss Whedon shows.

You nailed the problem on the head.

The problem with DC and Marvel is two parts. Their comics most of the time don't have just one writer writing a specific character for one comic book and their comics don't have a long story with a clear beginning, middle and end. So what you then have is multiple different versions of a specific character in one comic book, but if you are lucky you can find for each character at least one great incredible definitive run by a writer that understands the character.

Dark Horse's Hellboy that is written by its creator Mike Mignola is an example of how DC and Mavel should be handling their comics. They should for each of their comic books have one writer writing for a certain amount of time a comic book with a long story with a clear beginning, middle and end.

Now, here is the part where I become fair to DC and Marvel. Once the writer finishes his take on a specific character ending his story, DC and Marvel should have the right to reboot the comic from the beginning with a new writer with a new story. No big event would be needed for this, DC and Marvel could just be honest and say this is a new comic book with a new version of the character. This way everybody is happy. The comic book readers are happy because they have a consistent comic book they can invest in knowing their investment will pay off and they can actually understand what is going on without having to deal with tons of rewrites, retcons and reboots. The comic book publishers are happy because they have a comic book that keeps selling out and every few decades they get to if they want reboot their character from the start and all they have to do is release a new comic with a new writer.

I think this is the right effective balanced way to do a comic book.