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As we're all aware, Marvel are big fans of the "event" happening.

The Infinity Gauntlet/Wars/Crusade, Civil War, Secret Wars/Secret Wars 2, Dark Reign, Secret Invasion etc.

Events that involve most of the Marvel universe or parts of it.

I may be off here, but I don't ever recall these massive tie-in events happening nearly as frequently back in the day. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind Secret Invasion, and as much of a Watchmen rip-off as it was, I loved Civil War. Not to mention I haven't met someone who didn't appreciate the Infinity Gauntlet on SOME level.

My question is; is it too much?

I personally haven't read much of the Dark Reign stuff at the moment, though it seems cool.

However, for someone like me who has to bus around and hour and a half/two hours into the City to get to comic book stores (Because collecting and a love of comics is ABOUT that, I won't see comics go the way of CDs), it's a bit crazy.

I mean, I'm all for tie-ins. Civil War had the main limited series, then it had off shoot consequences in other peoples' ongoings. That said, I don't wanna have to buy Uncanny X-Men #...63 (Picked a random number) just to get everything out of a story. It costs money and time that some of us don't have. Even if you download comics (A pathetic notion to me), it must be crazy. If they MUST do things like that, to give fans of the ongoings a little extra, I don't feel they should be important to the main event, or important at all.

I mean, Parker taking his mask off wasn't followed on in the main series, but it was in his own comic. That's fine, because it's more to do with Spider-Man than the Civil War, though it still had some relevance.

Should Marvel try to chill things out a bit?

I think they're in danger of over-saturating the big "event". I think they are most impactful when they are done sparingly and cause massive changes in the 616, not every five minutes (Which is what it feels like).

I wouldn't mind, but to my knowledge they aren't handling the trade paperbacks well either. Civil War's main series had one, then you have The Road to Civil War, THEN you had Battle Damage Report, THEN you had the indivdual compilation trade paperbacks (Spider-Man: Civil War, Iron Man: Civil War etc).

Should they just release one big ass, in chronological order, trade paperback of a whole arc? At the least compile it into volumes of ONE series? Like...The Entire Civil War: Part One. Kinda like the Essential... series.

What are your thoughts on this?

-AC

i agree?

i cant really think of a way to put it more eloquently then that. but i do agree with you. the frequency of these major events lessens their shock value/hype imo. id kind of like for the comics to go back to their old ways where individual series had individual plots.

every year a new big event happens that claims to change the world at its core yet its always a rather minor change at the end.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21638

marvel talks about event fatigue

Let's hope he's telling the truth and that there isn't about mega involving even for a while. They need to keep to one a year, but my concern is, as I said, all the tie ins.

This bothered me, though;

"Deadpool fans rejoice because Deadpool is starting to get a little bit of cache, and he's starting to get a little bit of a Wolverine vibe around him where he's really growing in popularity amongst the X-Men books.".

Books? He's been in X-Force and Cable for a couple issues. Let's not overkill the character cos people were too stupid to realise his greatness more than a decade ago.

I fear for Deadpool, I fear he's gonna be Marvel's new cash cow. I don't want that

-AC

I drive to my comic store every Wednesday. I meet all the regulars there & we all geek out together about comics/movies/current events/whatever. Its pretty cool!

Than again, my comic book store has been nominated for an Eisner many times. They have won the "best Canadian comic book store" award.

Even Gail Simone says "the Happy Harbor stores are RIDICULOUSLY awesome." She was at the store on free comic book day, along with a host of others.

http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/web/message.jspa?messageID=2005285099

Nice and everything, but it doesn't really address my question about how you feel about Marvel's way of dealing with events.

-AC

If these events keep selling big, they willl keep making them.

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Should they just release one big ass, in chronological order, trade paperback of a whole arc? At the least compile it into volumes of ONE series? Like...The Entire Civil War: Part One. Kinda like the Essential... series.

What are your thoughts on this?

-AC

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

seriously.

and agree with the overall sentiment--too many big events lessen there impact and frustrate readers. people don't WANT to be forced to buy a hundred tie-ins to fully understand the story. i thought marvel would have addressed this issue more thoroughly by now, but i guess if it sells, it won't stop.

i found the dc final crisis damn near impossible to follow . . .

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Let's hope he's telling the truth and that there isn't about mega involving even for a while. They need to keep to one a year, but my concern is, as I said, all the tie ins.

This bothered me, though;

"Deadpool fans rejoice because Deadpool is starting to get a little bit of cache, and he's starting to get a little bit of a Wolverine vibe around him where he's really growing in popularity amongst the X-Men books.".

Books? He's been in X-Force and Cable for a couple issues. Let's not overkill the character cos people were too stupid to realise his greatness more than a decade ago.

I fear for Deadpool, I fear he's gonna be Marvel's new cash cow. I don't want that

-AC too late, deadpool has been appearing everywhere, he has two on-going currently alongside his mini, he's appearing in Shang-chi's one shot and in Ms. Marvel next month.

Comics have a high turnover rate among the majority of fans (teens), then there are the diehard fans that stay into their older age. So short-term cash milking in the form of constant "giant events" is the best way to run their business, since they won't burn out the fans who will only be on board for 3-5 years anyway. Numerous tie-ins don't hurt either. And judging by their sales, they're doing a great job at it.

So yeah, from a fan perspective, it's way too much. But from a business perspective, we're not going to see a change until there's a drastic change in the comic market. So Civil War will lead straight into Secret Invasion, which will lead into Dark Reign, which will lead into.....etc. etc.

Originally posted by Digi
Comics have a high turnover rate among the majority of fans (teens), then there are the diehard fans that stay into their older age. So short-term cash milking in the form of constant "giant events" is the best way to run their business, since they won't burn out the fans who will only be on board for 3-5 years anyway. Numerous tie-ins don't hurt either. And judging by their sales, they're doing a great job at it.

So yeah, from a fan perspective, it's way too much. But from a business perspective, we're not going to see a change until there's a drastic change in the comic market. So Civil War will lead straight into Secret Invasion, which will lead into Dark Reign, which will lead into.....etc. etc. did you read the article? Marvel admitted that the events are getting old, thats why this year they haven't had a large event, rather just a status quo change. Dark Reign isn't like world war hulk or civil war.

Originally posted by Trackz
did you read the article? Marvel admitted that the events are getting old, thats why this year they haven't had a large event, rather just a status quo change. Dark Reign isn't like world war hulk or civil war.

I was responding to AC with my two cents. I haven't had a chance to read the entire thread.

It's true that Dark Reign isn't much a big event, because there isn't a core main series is there?

There's just ramifications in a few comics involving the premise that was set up at the end of Secret Invasion, with Osborn and his Cabal being in a position of power that most villains strive for.

Still, it's quite an important state for Marvel, and it's something fans will wanna know everything about, which is why it'll be a pain to keep up.

Regarding Deadpool, Way has said he wants him to be more of a main character. He has an ongoing, then he has this new ongoing (However long that lasts, which won't be long if current reviews are any indication, mine is on its way to me), and Suicide Kings is only two issues away from ending. I hope they just don't over-saturate.

-AC

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
It's true that Dark Reign isn't much a big event, because there isn't a core main series is there?

There's just ramifications in a few comics involving the premise that was set up at the end of Secret Invasion, with Osborn and his Cabal being in a position of power that most villains strive for.

Still, it's quite an important state for Marvel, and it's something fans will wanna know everything about, which is why it'll be a pain to keep up.

Regarding Deadpool, Way has said he wants him to be more of a main character. He has an ongoing, then he has this new ongoing (However long that lasts, which won't be long if current reviews are any indication, mine is on its way to me), and Suicide Kings is only two issues away from ending. I hope they just don't over-saturate.

-AC it apears thats what is oging to happen with him though he is due to appear in Hulk as well

Well, if they attempted to keep all the action in say, just Civil War #... then the book would run for a very long time. Tie-ins can be annoying, but it's important to have some build-up. Final Crisis is awesome partially because of Superman Beyond and Final Crisis: Revelations. Without those tie-ins the story would not have been as good.

"So Kris, why not skip the tie-ins and just have all the action and info in a main title?"

Well dear fan, because that would've made Final Crisis what, 13 issues? The crisis would've spanned a year and been way too long. They need to keep it snappy. In Secret invasion you could read just the main-story and get a good grip of what was going on (With the exception of Invisible Woman). Sadly, secret invasion was godawful and was not lacking in tie-ins....

Anyways, it's important to find a decent middleground, but also important to show how certain things affect the rest of the Marvel universe. AFter Cassandra Nova had killed off 16 million mutants and torn the X-men/Shi'ar empire apart, I was surprised to learn that this had barely been mentioned in the other books. It's not a perfect example, since it was not a huge event, but it's an example of how one can be disappointed when certain storylines can disappoint when you're not really feeling the repercussions.

That's what I said, though.

If they're gonna include repercussions in ongoing series', it needs to either be specific to the character so that only fans need pick it up, or important to the main story.

Otherwise, no point in having them.

Spider-Man's consequences of de-masking were relevant only to those who read the Spider-Man comics, I didn't need to go read that. However, if you're including need-to-know plot in other ongoings, I find that a bit out of line, because we might not care about those characters enough to wanna buy it.

Marvel need to either change the way they do that, or release a more structured kind of trade paperback. Like, if Iron Man has a single issue of his ongoing that contains events happening between Civil War #1 and Civil War #2, they should just put that in between the two in the trade paperback. Do what I said, like the Essential... series.

Just my two.

-AC

I don't buy ALL the comics I read so there's no loss for me.

But it would be nice to see things settle down for a while.


I read the Gauntlet, didn't enjoy it.

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Spider-Man's consequences of de-masking were relevant only to those who read the Spider-Man comics, I didn't need to go read that. However, if you're including need-to-know plot in other ongoings, I find that a bit out of line, because we might not care about those characters enough to wanna buy it.

I agree. It's almost as annoying as concluding events in different comics. Like when they would start an event in Uncanny X-men and conclude it in X-men v2.

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Nice and everything, but it doesn't really address my question about how you feel about Marvel's way of dealing with events.

-AC

I thought it did address your question. You said you take the bus to your comic store.
I drive. So if I decide I want to go buy some comics in addition to whats in my weekly pile, I hop in my car & away I go!

Originally posted by Deathlok
I thought it did address your question. You said you take the bus to your comic store.
I drive. So if I decide I want to go buy some comics in addition to whats in my weekly pile, I hop in my car & away I go!

Did you ever read the first post???

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
It's true that Dark Reign isn't much a big event, because there isn't a core main series is there?

There's just ramifications in a few comics involving the premise that was set up at the end of Secret Invasion, with Osborn and his Cabal being in a position of power that most villains strive for.

Still, it's quite an important state for Marvel, and it's something fans will wanna know everything about, which is why it'll be a pain to keep up.

Regarding Deadpool, Way has said he wants him to be more of a main character. He has an ongoing, then he has this new ongoing (However long that lasts, which won't be long if current reviews are any indication, mine is on its way to me), and Suicide Kings is only two issues away from ending. I hope they just don't over-saturate.

-AC

Wait for the months before the movie's release. He'll be everywhere.

Actually Dark Reing is an event just not the normal type since this is a more subtle thing instead of some sort of attack.

But you can tell just by the future issue summaries that dark reign isn't a lasting change. Just some of the effects would be.

Originally posted by H. S. 6
Wait for the months before the movie's release. He'll be everywhere.

I know.

I was actually saying to my girl recently that on one hand, I feel slightly proud that a character I've followed for most of my aware existence has pushed through enough to warrant a Hollywood movie. Especially when it's entirely based on him being loved so much by, comparatively, so few.

Yet, I just hate the trend where everyone just acts like they've loved something the whole time.

My only fear is that we'll start losing who Deadpool is. We're seeing it now. As good as I feel Way is, we're losing Deadpool's identity. He's not JUST a joke machine and he's not someone who is black and white in terms of being sad and then making jokes. He's a very layered character who would genuinely like to find a place and purpose, find all the things your average human desires, but sometimes embraces what he is and WHY he is that way. That gives way to massively creative stories, like when Kelly wrote for him. Simone and, to an extent, Priest also.

Way has already said that he feels Deadpool has not been a big enough player in Marvel, and while he IS/was massively underrated, it was for a reason. By giving him purpose and giving him set storyline involvement (Such as Dark Reign currently), you're taking away what real fans love about Deadpool. I feel like Way does love the character, but that he is also prepared to make him a spotlight character at the cost of his truest character traits.

If you're gonna do that, don't. He's much better off with his own series, randomly bumping into people from Marvel, interacting and then going his own way. He can't afford to be at the mercy of another person's storyline.

Unfortunately, that's what's gonna happen, I think. I don't think I'll ever read a bad Deadpool comic, but I don't think he's ever gonna be as great as he once was, ever again, in the hands of Kelly or Simone.

Merc with a Mouth #1 was really funny, but it's just catering to the newbies. Hopefully it's not an on-going.

In general, though, Dark Reign is one of the most enjoyable premises I've read in a long time (Aside from the DREADFUL idea to create Dark X-Men). I sincerely hope it ends on a great note, and we don't get another f*cking event for about a year and a half.

I couldn't stomach another one.

-AC

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri


In general, though, Dark Reign is one of the most enjoyable premises I've read in a long time. I sincerely hope it ends on a great note, and we don't get another f*cking event for about a year and a half.

I couldn't stomach another one.

-AC

do you honestly believe we won't?

marvel loves the money they make i can see another one showing up 6 months after it ends

That's the thing, you're right.

If it gets to the point where I'm no longer thinking "YES! New month, new issue of *Whatever event/comic*.", but instead I'm seeing it as a chore...then I'm gonna seriously consider just how much I wish to support Marvel.

I'll always buy any and every 616 Deadpool appearance, but as for keeping up with main stories...they're pushing me away.

Maybe this is because it takes me so damn long to even get to a comic store. If there was one in my local mall, I might not be complaining.

-AC

There is one near me, but i dont like every series always needing to be read just to fully understand the story arc. It's fine every couple of years but not every single year.

Yeah.

With the now legendary Infinity Gauntlet, I literally tracked down every related issue and tie in with a salivating mouth, because it was sparing. Now, it's hard not to trip over a comic that isn't tied into SOMETHING.

-AC

It also makes me very confused about what happens when

...which is precisely why I feel they should just release volumes of chronological happenings, of everything involved in one event.

Not Civil War, Civil War Report, Civil War with Sprinkles, Civil War: Iron Man etc.

Just Civil War Vol. 1, with every happening in order. Then Vol. 2 etc.

-AC

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri

Sounds like someone's setting themselves up for a "I liked him before he was cool!" Godspeed, sir.

Originally posted by Doctor-Alvis
Sounds like someone's setting themselves up for a "I liked him before he was cool!" Godspeed, sir.

He was always cool, therefore I like him.

Nice try.

-AC

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
He was always cool, therefore I like him.

Nice try.

-AC
Nice try? At what? There's a plague of people thinking I'm trying things. It's annoying. The art of saying things with no meaning has been lost.

Originally posted by Doctor-Alvis
Nice try? At what? There's a plague of people thinking I'm trying things. It's annoying. The art of saying things with no meaning has been lost.

The important thing was that you were trying things first, before it became cool to try things, right?

Originally posted by Doctor-Alvis
The art of saying things with no meaning has been lost.

actually, i'd always thought you'd mastered that genre a long time ago.

heh

More on topic, Marvel does seem to get more frequent with these things. And I'm kind of split on the organization of tbp. It would be nice if they had it all organized, in sections if necessary, with everything related that came out in the proper order, but on the other hand maybe I don't need every side story.

Originally posted by willRules
The important thing was that you were trying things first, before it became cool to try things, right?
I don't try things, I do them. I took Yoda's advice to heart.

Originally posted by leonidas
actually, i'd always thought you'd mastered that genre a long time ago.

heh
Quite true.

Damn I have a hard time believeing that soon everyone will know who Deadpool is. If that's going to happen Id be happy for Deadpool but upset in general. Because now it feels like we're memeber of some kinda club or something.

Originally posted by SamZED
Damn I have a hard time believeing that soon everyone will know who Deadpool is. If that's going to happen Id be happy for Deadpool but upset in general. Because now it feels like we're memeber of some kinda club or something.

It's good to be a geek. And always a bit painful to see our beloved closet-interests go public. I hope Authority never becomes massively popular, for example.

It's why I also root for other comic franchises to do well. If Wolverine has 8 movies, awesome. I get some enjoyment from them, and I also won't have to care if they f--- his character to holy hell in the process. Fantastic Four 3....bring it!

Originally posted by Doctor-Alvis
I don't try things, I do them. I took Yoda's advice to heart.