"Big Event" Comics

afroloq · Post by **afroloq** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:34 am

OK So fresh off of reading Secret Invasion and attempting to read Final Crisis.

I have a few concerns part of which pushed me away from comics years ago about "Big Event Comics"

- If you are going to tell a story, please do your best to contain it IN that book. It seems like so much of the back story and in between story stuff was told in the various Avengers books and should have been told in the SI titles. I also found the spin off titles SI X MEN, Thor, Spider-man, etc really lacking and unneeded

- While Final Crisis seems to be doing the opposite by keeping teh stories contained within the "Final Crisi" line, the fact that it's constantly late bothers me.

- Give us a chance to breathe after it's over. Seeing Dark Reign start up RIGHT after this is a headache. There are still questions that haven't been answered about the Skrull invasion. A lot of that hasn't been dealt with such as hwo or why people were kidnapped ( I mean we know but there has been no depth added to it) The Skrulls that remained behind. and so forth it's like before one crisis has been solved soemthing else has been shoved in front of us with no breaks in the story.

- Is it just me or am I kind of PO'ed that the TPC and I think hard cover is coming SOON. Kind of makes me ask...why did I buy the comics for when I could have waited for a bit? And this is not the first time I have seen this...I am of the frame of mind, wait for a while before you release stuff like this and it makes us who collect the actual comics feel a bit better than seeing a TPB right next to my comics, if you know what I mean...

spid · Post by **spid** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:50 am

I am not burned out on events. I did sit out Marvel's big event this year, but that is due to the creative team. I am not that big a DC fan so I did not check out their event, but I am sucked into Wildstorm's event line up.

If done right an event really energize the titles and they provide a good jumping on point for titles. I also do not consider Dark Reign, the Initiative, or One Year Later "events. They are just official labels to the new status quo.

Frank Castle · Post by **Frank Castle** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:38 pm

I don't hate the big events, I just need to be more careful when choosing which ones to read. I need to stick to ones that have my fav characters and creators attached too. Or ones that will impact books I read. I need to stay clear from ones just because everyone else is reading them ie Final Crisis. I don't read DC so I was lost and found myself just not caring at all. Why pitch money towards something you don't care about?

HipHopHead · Post by **HipHopHead** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 10:53 am

My last event will be Ultimatum...maybe. This event should not cost me nearly as much as Final Crisis and Secret Invasion, and I did not buy every tie-in. My hope is this will lead to some great stories under the Ultimate banner in 2009.

The best stories being told by Marvel were not "event" related. Well Civil War led to Captain America being assassinated, but the story being told has nothing to do with Secret Invasion. Daredevil, Nova, Immortal Iron Fist, Hulk, Thor are all telling stories independent of the "event".

astyak · Post by **astyak** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:15 pm

I am getting the feeling that Marvel is changing the paradigm and that we did not get the memo. Its as if each of their writer retreats spawns a new big change of 616. These are not really events but a long term change of direction for the U. Brian Michael Bendis has said that Dark Reign was the point. It sounds like he really hates the skrulls (If he didn't before, he does know) and used them as a tool to get to where he could write the story he wanted to write. I don't think that SI and Dark Reign qualify as real events. This story started, if we believe Bendis' version, with Avengers Disassembled back in 2004. I think Marvel will keep up this pace for years to come. Its going to be huge crossovers to huge crossovers. They want to change the U, we want them to maintain continuity, how else are they going to keep both?

That said, their authors of "Rarified Air" are causing a mess of the continuity. JMS on Thor, Brubaker on Daredevil and Captain America come to mind. Their books don't seem to match up with the "event" titles.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 8:58 am

astyak wrote:I am getting the feeling that Marvel is changing the paradigm and that we did not get the memo. Its as if each of their writer retreats spawns a new big change of 616. These are not really events but a long term change of direction for the U. Brian Michael Bendis has said that Dark Reign was the point. It sounds like he really hates the skrulls (If he didn't before, he does know) and used them as a tool to get to where he could write the story he wanted to write. I don't think that SI and Dark Reign qualify as real events. This story started, if we believe Bendis' version, with Avengers Disassembled back in 2004. I think Marvel will keep up this pace for years to come. Its going to be huge crossovers to huge crossovers. They want to change the U, we want them to maintain continuity, how else are they going to keep both?

That said, their authors of "Rarified Air" are causing a mess of the continuity. JMS on Thor, Brubaker on Daredevil and Captain America come to mind. Their books don't seem to match up with the "event" titles.

Secret Invasion qualifies as an "Event" in every sense of the definition. It was massively hyped, involved tons of characters and impacted tons of titles.

Dark Reign does seem to be more of a branding thing than an actual "Event" so far. Same with The Initiative. Both of those lacks a core miniseries while things like Civil War, World War Hulk and Secret Invasion has a core miniseries a couple of secondary miniseries and the tons of tie-in issues of the ongoing titles.

We've been on this non-stop event roller coaster ride at both Marvel and DC for years. Marvel usually had a short gaps between them (akin to the uphill parts of a roller coaster). I don't see this trend stopping until it stops working. As a result, I suspect that DC will stop the major events before Marvel. Both will probably do the smaller "family events" like New Krypton and War of Kings for a while longer.

As for those handful of writers that seem to be able to ignore the Events in the Marvel Universe, I kind of think they have the strongest continuity within their titles. Given that those characters are involved in the events in other titles, I don't really mind Burbaker being able to focus on telling great stories in Captain America and Daredevil without having to involve Skrulls or the Hulk destroying (albiet only briefly) New York City.

afroloq · Post by **afroloq** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:49 am

SO far I am not happy with Ultimatum and worse yet, the fact that Jeph Loeb got a chance to butcher Ultimate Hulk in another book with teh Ultimate banner on it that had nothing to do with the storyline.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:59 am

afroloq wrote:SO far I am not happy with Ultimatum and worse yet, the fact that Jeph Loeb got a chance to butcher Ultimate Hulk in another book with teh Ultimate banner on it that had nothing to do with the storyline.

Ultimatum has been kind of lackluster so far.

afroloq · Post by **afroloq** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:44 am

JohnMayo wrote:
afroloq wrote:SO far I am not happy with Ultimatum and worse yet, the fact that Jeph Loeb got a chance to butcher Ultimate Hulk in another book with teh Ultimate banner on it that had nothing to do with the storyline.
Ultimatum has been kind of lackluster so far.

"Kinda" is an understatement...another gripe I am also having as of late is comics that are going for a 'shock value' with killing off main (esp. in Ultimatum) characters only to resurrect them later...it would be nice that if you kill someone...leave them dead...I dare ya.

That should become a new rule: If you make the decision to kill a character regardless of how big or how small, leave them dead and don't undo it.
LOL

Post by **JohnMayo** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:04 am

afroloq wrote:
JohnMayo wrote:
afroloq wrote:SO far I am not happy with Ultimatum and worse yet, the fact that Jeph Loeb got a chance to butcher Ultimate Hulk in another book with teh Ultimate banner on it that had nothing to do with the storyline.
Ultimatum has been kind of lackluster so far.
"Kinda" is an understatement...another gripe I am also having as of late is comics that are going for a 'shock value' with killing off main (esp. in Ultimatum) characters only to resurrect them later...it would be nice that if you kill someone...leave them dead...I dare ya.

That should become a new rule: If you make the decision to kill a character regardless of how big or how small, leave them dead and don't undo it.
LOL

To me, that is an aspect of continuity that creators and editors tend to ignore. What they are doing now will impact them and future creators to some degree. Killing characters just to bring them back undercuts the dramatic impact of death in comics across the board.

When Captain America was killed, they'd just (seemingly) brought back Captain Marvel. Killing Martian Manhunter lacks impact when the Barry Allen Flash returns in the pages of the same miniseries.

Stories are about actions and consequences. If the ultimate consequence of death is meaningless, then aren't all the less severe consequences also rendered somewhat meaningless? And if the consequences are meaningless, then the actions become that much less important. By constantly resurrecting characters, having a hero risking one's life for the greater good is that much less heroic. Because how big of a sacrifice is it if there are better than even odds they'll come back to life?