Event comics (again)

Fysh

Going back to the same notion in this old thread, I got to wondering....post-Infinite <strike>Bumthreat</strike>Crisis, in the midst of Civil War and nearing the end of 52, has anyone changed their minds on the Big Event idea that the Big Two keep going for? Anyone found a recent event series good enough to change their mind, or found the one that was the proverbial last straw?

Specific things I've found : the ending of Seven Soldiers of Victory, while a lovely-looking book in its own right (and more interestingly to me, one that used some very bold design ideas for a mainstream comic), didn't actually feel like it properly concluded the story. (Though as I mentioned previously, this seems to be because it was serving at least partially as a launchpad for the characters to become involved in the DCU again).

Something else that relates to this is : delays. The Seven Soldiers closing issue was delayed by what, 6 months? Completely killed the momentum of the story and a lot of my interest in it. Sure, there were gaps in the story before that, but none so big that I couldn't read the latest chapter of story, then go back and re-read the whole thing so far. This time round I had to start from scratch because I realised I didn't know what was going on, and wasn't as interested in finding out as I might otherwise have been.

While this was an annoyance for SSoV, it must be a royal pain in the arse for Civil War readers in particular and Marvel fans in general. Having a rake of books pushed back to avoid spoilers? Not clever. Comic shops aren't gonna be happy, fans aren't gonna be happy, and the end result isn't worth the effort in general.

So, onto 52. It seems to have been pretty popular, and I must admit it's a nice idea - it gets you into a particular rhythm for the story. Succesful enough to merit discussions of a 52: Year 2 storyline as well, from what I've read. Anyone been reading it?

(Just throwing these out as starting points, feel free to talk about other events or crossovers if you want. I know Worldstorm is either under way already or about to start, and wouldn't mind finding out what that's about. But I don't intend to read it because very few Wildstorm comics interest me enough to merit me spending money on them.)

constitutionus

though not slavishly addicted to em i like the "event" stories because generally there quite good. i understand your qualms about delays but i can relate to something i read in an interview once. the guy postulated if watchmen was being done and the artist suffered a misshap would you want a fill in to take over and ruin the flow of the art or would you wait till he recovered and allow him to finish the book maintaing its consistant quality? particularly with an eye to posterity

i have to admit the guy has a point, particularly considering most money in comics nowadays is in the tradepaperback market seeing as they can be sold in outlets comics wont get to. and the way the industry looks at it is if that means we monthy collectors get shafted then so be it. its sad to say it but there are books out there that are only profitible because of the trade and wouldnt survive as a monthly ongoing alone. and with that mindset a book that they can sell as a trade for 20yrs (watchmen, natch!) is a better product for it.

to be honest the big problem i have with the events is how ****ing confusing they can be. house of M for instance. i bought the trade and enjoyed it but when it was being released in conjunction with all the other marvel books tying in i hadnt a ****ing clue which books were important to the story and which werent and as a result i avoided the whole mess till it was collected. the worse thing is i find myself in the same position again with civil war. ive flicked through the book and think it really looks good but once again its too sprawling for me to follow so im just gonna wait for the trades and decide which ones i wanna get. the prelude for example collects new avengers illuminati, spiderman and i think fantastic four, how the hell was i meant to know at the time that they needed to be read together without collecting those titles?

ah im just bitching now, but you get the point:D

the Shades

I've been reading Civil War and just reading the mini, which pretty much tells you all you need to know. I picked up X-men Civil War because Carey got me back into the X-men and it was out around the same time but it was so loosely connected to the main Civil War story I just didn't bother worrying abput picking up anything else. As far as I can see the mini is the story and the tie-ins are just to flesh out the impact a little for the characters involved. Nothing major is going to happen and you don't have the headache or wallet strain.

I didn't read Infinite Crisis and I'll admit I don't know what format it took in the monthlies, but from what I've learned of it through reading current monthlies it seems to have been a terrible story and just a complete mess. 10 years ago DC was the place to go if you wanted good writers and artists telling quality stories but since Didio took over DC seems to be just about lame, badly thought out events that just alienate fans and make no sense where the characters are involved. It's no surprise that if you compare Marvel and DC's creative rosters these days all the real talent seems to be working for Marvel.

Fysh

Infinite Crisis in 30 Seconds (but with no bunnies)

I didn't read Infinite Crisis but I followed it, if you see what I mean. I read and enjoyed the Countdown issue, chiefly because the Ted Kord Blue Beetle turned out to be quite a good character.

Then he got shot in the head.

Frankly, I was quite glad not to read the rest of the story as that seemed to be the order of the day. Superboy prime goes all angsty, then punches the spacetime continuum (no, I'm not joking), then the people who were in the pocket universe from Crisis on Infinite Earths create an Interdimensional Tuning Ford (again, not joking), then stuff happens and the Big 3 heroes disappear off for a year.

Did I mention I was glad I didn't bother reading it?

AngryBadger

As long as the story is good I have no problem with big event crossObviously I'm not a fan of "Lip service" tie-ins, i.e. where you buy a comic for an "essential" tie-in, and it winds up being a bunch of capes drinking coffee discussing some other big event, the big event in question told from a slightly different perspective, or some passing remark about said event. But in fairness Marvel is not so guilty of that these days. All the "House of M" mini-series really enhanced the story, but they were in no way essential to following the main series.

The same is true to a point with "Civil War" for the most part, while all the tie-ins do enhance the story and really add depth to everything (for the most part!), I do feel the stoy is getting too big for the "Civil War" series. The first 2/3 issues were very much self-sufficient and the bulk of the story was driven by the events unfolding therein, massively padded out by ancillary events in other titles (eg. New Avengers). But by issue 5 it feels at times like "Civil War" is just summarising events happening in other titles which kind of pisses me off.

*******SPOILER ALERT*********

This particularly applies to the fight between Spider-man and Iron Man. Apparently this kicked off in "Amazing Spider-man" (536?), which I hadn't read, then suddenly in "Civil War" #5 Spidey and Stark(ey?) were duking it out. That irritated me, because it diluted the impact of a huge plot development, and also because it smacked of trying to bleed fans for extra cash. In my view that shoud have happened in either "Amazing Spider-man", or "Civil War", (i.e. it should have happened in "Civil War"), and not been split between the two.

DC is a huge offender with ig events, as is well known every ten years or so they have a "cleaning house" event where they "streamline" dozens of characters. Basically the make minor tweaks to B- and C-list properties, enough to get maybe a years worth of stories out of them, (see "Blue beetle"). I was hyped about "Infinite Crisis". But by the time the actual series came around I'd lost all enthusiasm for it. "Countdown" was phenomenal! But the minis were alc rap, with the possible exception of "O.M.A.C.". I read the first 2 issues of "Infinite Crisis", but once again it smacked of a hundred or so cameos from characters I didn't give a crap about, bolstered by the big A-list guns.

To be fair to Geoff Johns I think this is an editorial thing. the cleaning house event at DC is exactly that, a cleaning house event. You have to (re-)introduce al these second stringers so that they can be relaunched once the event is over, which has to make plotting and maintaining a coherent story and absolute nightmare. Especially when you allow for DCs reticence to accomodate any kind of changes to their properties.

Marvel is definitely once again the house of ideas, and I think thats because Quesed is willing to give creators more lateral mobility with properties, whilst also focusing on developing smaller numbers of characters. Characters which I think are also better chosen, and handled. I mean everyone and their mother loved Ted Kord after "Countdown", so what do DC do? They launch a new beetle series with some kid in a cybernetic magically alive alien beetle costume. Couldn't have been further from the Ted kord that everyonewas suddenly in love with again. Off the top of my head, a series which detailed Kord life pre-crisis, going back any length of years would have been WAY more interesting to read.

constitutionus

you know the spidey thing pissed me off too. whats the story with his new uniform? my only exposure to spidey now is the new avengers which im collecting in paperback/hardbacks. from flicking through civil war if looked like one minute he's wearing the classic dud's then suddenly he's in tony stark designed armour! ok i know i shouldve been reading JMS spidey but it comes back to what i posted earlier. apparently he gets the duds in the prelude to civil war or some such.

ok i admit im lost but thats kinda the point, its a big change that comes out of left field if your collecting the book as single issues. ya just dont know what to keep a look out for:)