Into the Pages: Internal Comic Book Vocabulary

Photo by Frank Parker from Adobe Stock

We've already covered some of the physical vocabulary for comics, that you can find in the post here, and now we get to move into the pages. In this section I'm going to talk about some of the vocabulary words that will help you navigate the comics you read. I think that it's important to remember that these are just base definitions and examples, they go deeper than what I can provide you here. I've included some links in case you want to look deeper into these topics.

Mantles

Mantles are identities that have been used by more than one person. An example of this is Batman's young sidekick, Robin, as there have been numerous characters that have gone by the name "Robin" over the years. Most of those characters have, at some point, left the Robin mantle behind and grown into their own hero identities.
 
Continuity 

This was by far the hardest definition to come up with because continuity is used all the time in a very broad way. The definition I've settled on is 'the overall facts and events that the story builds off of'. Now let me explain in some more detail. Often you'll hear it referred to as "main continuity". Main continuity means that the story being told is pulled from or happening in the same universe as the rest of the "main continuity" comics. Outside of main continuity, you have other continuities, other universes, and Elseworlds. All of which, I'm going to cover in this post as well.

Other continuities usually revolve around things like events or limited runs. For example, if Captain America is currently teaming up with the Avengers in the main continuity, but there is simultaneously a Captain America limited series coming out at the same time, the limited series would likely be its own continuity. It's complicated, but I'm hoping it gets easier as I explain more. 

If you're still a little lost and want to see another explanation you can look here at this blog that has a pretty good definition as well.

Universes

I mentioned universes before. In comics, we recognize universes as kind of a multiverse system. Each universe created has its own comics and its own continuities. Often universes share characters, but not always. A popular example of the universe system can be seen in the Into the Spider-Verse movies. Those moves are a great example of how universes can have similar characters but change key parts about them in each. 

Each comic publisher has a format that they use to note which universe they're referring to. Marvel numbers their universes like Earth-616, which is their main continuity, and Earth-1218, which is the universe we live in. DC numbers some of their universes, like Earth-1 and Earth-2, but also use other names like Earth-Prime. DC also has a set number of universes in one continuity that is commonly referred to as the 52 or New 52 for more recent books. Characters within these universes may or may not have any knowledge of the existence of the other universes or what happens within them. 

Marvel, by far, has the most universes under their belt. If you're interested in looking at all 199999 earths in the Marvel comic universe this link here has a thorough collection of each and what happened in them. 

Elseworld

The term elseworld was actually originally used by DC, but it has been used by fans of other books as well. Elseworld is used to refer to a story that takes place in an alternate reality completely separate from the established continuity. Often these worlds are only used for one story. Most of these types of stories are 'what if' stories where writers get to play with scenarios and characters in ways that they can't in main continuity, but aren't enough to create a whole universe. That's where elseworlds come in. Marvel is a little unique, as some Marvel elseworlds do get official universe numbers, even if they're only used for that specific series. That's why they have universes for nearly 199999 earths.