Scans_Daily

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about people noticing at the time. I'm talking about everyone in the future, reading these issues as back issues or old trades. Almost none of them are going to notice the similar original publishing date, and those who do aren't going to think anything more than, "Huh, funny coincidence." Or they know already because it's a piece of trivia they've heard it from another fan or on the internet, but their response to that is likewise "Huh, funny coincidence," not, "Dang, knowing these two old stories came out around the same time is going to lessen my enjoyment."

To tie into an example from another comment I made to this post, I think it's silly that Kurt Busiek and Carlos had to completely scrap their entire original plot for Avengers Forever just because it was similar to Mutant X. Looking back at it decades later, it's a silly concern. I'm sure people would have joked about the similarity at the time, but it would ultimately just be a bit of trivia. Nobody today cares that Avengers Forever was 3 months late, and nobody today would care it resembled Mutant X.