RE: Single Issue Review - Elektra #2
The recap pages are pretty standard fare now, although in many cases they don’t so much replace the standard splash page as supplement it.
I do like them for reminding me where I left off a month or two ago, and some titles create fun ways of integrating them into the story. But some writers may lean on the recaps as too much of a crutch. It can be a sort of justification for a convoluted & bordeline unintelligible plot!
For many years I’ve always heard comic writers espousing the virtue of writing each issue as if it were the first comic someone has ever read... because for at least one or two readers that’s probably the case! That’s a bit of a dying art & technique.
It’s an understandable move as comics are now geared more toward 6 issue arcs and collected editions. If you’re reading a collection, the in-plot summaries & recaps no matter how well done can get repetitive and awkward. Summary pages can simply be omitted in a final trade compilation.
So glad you took @blewitt up on the offer and are enjoying exploring some #comics!
Thanks for such a detailed response. I think you've got some really great insights here. I have read some collected editions where the recaps every issue did get repetitive, but I never minded, because I knew they were originally intended as single issues.
For me, on some level, comics will always be the monthly strung together serials I grew up with. Graphic novels are a completely different beast, and it seems like a bit of a money grab when they reissue an entire run as a collected edition. I feel like whatever entertainment package you're buying; whether a single issue, hardcover collected edition, graphic novel, print book, DVD, whatever; should be consumable and make sense as a standalone.
I can see why the recap pages are attractive to publishers, but I think you're right that there's a lot of potential for it to breed lazy writing.