What are your thoughts on having to read/watch supplementary material for a Comic Book Event/Anime Series in order to get a understanding of the plot.

[TheGamingNewsGuy]

Recently,Connor Marc Colquhoun aka CDawgVa made a intresting point in the latest Trash Taste Episode. He basically says that he feels that if you need to read supplementry material in order to understand aspects of the series then it automatically makes that anime convoulted. His point was reffering directly towards the Fate Series which is kinda infamous for its complexity but it got me thinking the same question but also applying it to comic book events which have put very nessecary material in comic book tie ins in the pasgt with the most infamous example of which had key plot details as well as set up for the main villain in a tie in issue. I am curious to know what pepole's thoughts and opinions are on this.

 

[Tamanon]

I think if you have to read supplements to understand main motivations and relationships, it sucks. If supplements are just there for color or to flesh out events, it's fine.

 

[TheGamingNewsGuy]

I think if you have to read supplements to understand main motivations and relationships, it sucks. If supplements are just there for color or to flesh out events, it's fine.

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I feel like Final Crisis and the Superman 3D Issue is some of the worst examples of this - without it - you would have very little clear on the final issue of FI and who Mandrakk is

 

[Weiss]

If it's not in the story itself its canon status is up to my discretion.

 

[OrangeNova]

I think if you have to read supplements to understand main motivations and relationships, it sucks. If supplements are just there for color or to flesh out events, it's fine.

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One and done.

I whole heartedly agree with this though, I love extra side content that can give more context to events, but I shouldn't have to read that to understand at least on a surface level why something is happening.

But also a story could have a point in which you're not supposed to understand why something happened until later. And supplemental reading could spoil that reason?

 

[Korigama]

I think if you have to read supplements to understand main motivations and relationships, it sucks. If supplements are just there for color or to flesh out events, it's fine.

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Basically this. Material that serves as an excuse to spend more time with certain characters/gain more perspective on the setting for flavor are one thing, but a work that requires anything tacked on to make sense of it or answer something important after the fact is a failure.

 

[Garrison]

I think if you have to read supplements to understand main motivations and relationships, it sucks. If supplements are just there for color or to flesh out events, it's fine.

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I mean, both of those situations probably exist to milk more money out of you either way thou. =/

 

[Korigama]

I mean, both of those situations probably exist to milk more money out of you either way thou. =/

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True, yet something made well enough for audiences to form attachments is bound to have people want more of it even if their questions were already answered.

 

[pbayne]

Im sure it can be done well but my mind just goes to Final Fantasy 15 and all the stuff that was in the anime/movie/dlc that was never touched on in the base game and then people wonder why some hate 15s story so much.

 

[shoptroll]

I think if you have to read supplements to understand main motivations and relationships, it sucks. If supplements are just there for color or to flesh out events, it's fine.

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I think this is what doomed StarCraft II Wings of Liberty for me. You start the game and there's a fresh cast of characters with barely any introduction to them, because Blizzard had done all their world building over the past decade in spin-off media. Absolutely frustrating and a big let down as someone who enjoyed StarCraft's campaign but wasn't invested enough to seek out the supplemental material.

Also I hated going to see Star Wars Ep 3 and never having seen any Clone Wars episodes I had no clue what the deal with Grievous was.

 

[LinguisticGoblin]

I personally despise it and it's a major contributing factor to me dropping Marvel and DC cape comics completely. I hate crossover events and I hate concurrently running series that are relevant to eachother. I want to start at issue/chapter 1 and just read to the end without needing to follow any other series or spinoffs.

It's why I like manga and non-cape comics so much more these days. You get the odd crossmedia mega-franchise like Fate where you practically need to follow the spinoffs to understand any "major" entry or series that ends up splintering across several titles as it goes on like Fables but they're the exception rather than the norm.

 

[King Kingo]

That's not at all true, television and film adaptation of graphic novels are always designed to be welcoming to newcomers. Reading the source material is nothing more than consumerism cross-pollination.

 

[SteveMeister]

They should enhance and flesh out the story, but not be required to understand it.

 

[Quinton]

A decent example of this being done mostly right would be the two Dragon Age novels leading into the third game (Inquisition). "Asunder" is Cole's tale; "The Masked Empire" is Celene's.

I wouldn't say it's perfect. Ideally, a little more from them would be integrated into the game. But for the most part, the game does a fine job of putting the Inquisitor into play with the important factors, explaining them, and inviting interested parties to find out more through the books.

 

[Deleted member 25606]

That's not at all true, television and film adaptation of graphic novels are always designed to be welcoming to newcomers. Reading the source material is nothing more than consumerism cross-pollination.

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That's not what they are talking about. They are talking about putting important info in official tie ins. For instance during the recent King in Black at Marvel there was King in Black, Venom, and multiple tie-ins. Their point is instances (and it happens) where say the Hulk tie in introduces the macguffin to beat Knull not the main book or at least venom (this isn't what happened just making an example).

 

[IDreamOfHime]

It ruined Halo for me. I'd guess 99% of people think Halo 3 takes place immediately after Halo 2 and not a week later after Chiefs little adventure on Mars. Then it just snowballed out of control with Halo 5 especially being difficult to follow with all the characters and events being referenced that didn't originate from a game.

 

[Weiss]

That's not what they are talking about. They are talking about putting important info in official tie ins. For instance during the recent King in Black at Marvel there was King in Black, Venom, and multiple tie-ins. Their point is instances (and it happens) where say the Hulk tie in introduces the macguffin to beat Knull not the main book or at least venom (this isn't what happened just making an example).

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That's a bit of a grey area since they aren't really supplenentary, they're chapters of a story in a shared universe.

They are, also, incredibly and deeply annoying to follow, so let's still count them.

 

[The Unsent]

I didn't like how in the Loki TV series they keep inviting the audience to guess who the mysterious mastermind is, and only comic book fans were allowed to work it out because of their knowledge of Kang/Immortus.

In series 2 I have no interest in engaging in what the mystery arc might be now because I felt I was alinated, not completely knowing the comics. It wouldn't have been as bad if they didn't keep dangling the "Who is the mastermind?" question, like you're being encouraged to work it out.

 

[Weiss]

I didn't like how in the Loki TV series they keep inviting the audience to guess who the mysterious mastermind is, and only comic book fans were allowed to work it out because of their knowledge of Kang/Immortus.

In series 2 I have no interest in engaging in what the mystery arc might be now because I felt it was alinated, not completely knowing the comics. It wouldn't have been as bad if they didn't keep dangling the "Who is the mastermind?" question, like you're being encouraged to work it out.

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Actually yeah I wonder how that shakes out in the MCU where comic readers already know the character relations.

 

[The Unsent]

Actually yeah I wonder how that shakes out in the MCU where comic readers already know the character relations.

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They don't exactly name him, the true mastermind is called He Who Remains, but it's a bit annoying for a casual fan like myself, where we're on Loki/Sylvie's journey to uncover the true villian, she destroys the time keepers who were just decoys, suggesting there's going to be a mind blowing true enemy behind it all, and when they open the magical door, the identity of the culprit behind it all, is one of Kang's alter egos, means more to comic book fans, more than anyone else. Personally I just found it annoying storytelling.

 

[Tigerfog]

Sometimes, supplementary material is not even penned by the same person, so I can't convince myself that it's canon even if it's official.
On topic, if something from a supplementary material is important and referred to in the main work, it should be in the main work. I don't want to have to go look for it elsewhere.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

It can largely fuck off, though with big event comics, it's kind of the entire point.

Most event comics are bad though.

 

[BlackGoku03]

Comic book events make sense... most of the time.

Only time I can say it sucks is with Star Wars.

 

[The Unsent]

Comic book events make sense... most of the time.

Only time I can say it sucks is with Star Wars.

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The knights of Ren really sucked and I guess were just added to sell a comic and fill that craving for more. Snoke's guards were better than they were.

 

[MinerArcaniner]

Supplemental media should be just that...supplemental.

The main story should be whole and self-contained so it can stand on it's own.

 

[Deleted member 25606]

That's a bit of a grey area since they aren't really supplenentary, they're chapters of a story in a shared universe.

They are, also, incredibly and deeply annoying to follow, so let's still count them.

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I only used that because in the OP they were bitching about a Final Crisis thing being revealed in a tie-in.

 

[Pellaidh]

If something's required reading to understand the plot, then I wouldn't really call it supplementary, it's just a core part o the plot. And it almost always sucks, because it basically tells you that the people behind the story are more interested in selling you stuff than actually telling a story. Mass Effect in particular stands out to me for just being so terrible with this that it was legitimately funny.

But there's an interesting question here about what's actually complementary vs main content though. In the context of Fate, the core VN is mostly standalone and explains everything pretty well, and the rest is just extras for existing fans who are really into the story. The VN isn't supplementary material, everything else is. It's just that a lot of people aren't interested in the VN, and only want to consume the complementary material instead. And at that point I don't think it's fair to complain about not completely understanding it, or about having to wiki stuff that was explained in the VN.

 

[RoninChaos]

Tell it in the main story. I hate when something super important is told in supplemental materials.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

If it's just a free and easily accessible animated short then it's fine. If it's like a whole feature length movie or something I have to go out of my way to pay for, please don't.

Good:




Bad:

 

[BlackGoku03]

The knights of Ren really sucked and I guess were just added to sell a comic and fill that craving for more. Snoke's guards were better than they were.

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Yup. Don't forget what they did to Capt Phasma. Huge waste.

All of the SW tie ins feels forced (no pun intended).

 

[Pokemaniac]

Generally speaking, supplemental material should be well... supplemental. It's kind of in the name.

 

[DaniThePinguim]

I barely read events so I don't get much of this problem but when I do I don't realy care for any tie ins unless they sound interesting and/or have a good creative team.