Rewrites

Ok, so if the author of a series of novels kept rewriting their basic concept over and over into different versions we'd all be annoyed. Yet, when they do it in comic books, we love it. Is it the visual nature of the medium or the simple longevity of the property that makes it acceptable?

I bring this up because I'm currently reading through Spider-Gwen which is a rewrite of Spider Man. There's at least a half dozen versions of Spider Man/Spider Woman/ Spider Girl/Spider Ham floating around currently. All of the old comic book properties have had similar rebirths.

I suppose that it isn't just comic books that get away with this, but I can't think of anything else currently that just get's to rewrite the backstory of its characters.