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Rate and Discuss the Events
so, i thought it might be cool to have a place to discuss past and upcoming events. i'm going to list a bunch of events from both companies. read tehm over, rank the ones you feel like ranking out of 10. be cool to discuss what you liked so much and didn't like so much about them too. oh, and feel free to tell everyone what YOU think constitutes a GOOD 'big event'.
1. contest of champions 1
2. contest of champions 2
3. secret wars 1
4. secret wars 2
5. acts of vengeance
6. Infinity Gauntlet
7. Infinity Crusade
8. Age of Apocalypse
9. Onslaught/Heroes Return
10. Avengers Disassembled
11. House of M
12. Annihilation
13. Civil War
14. World War Hulk
15. Secret Invasion
16. Siege
17. Chaos War
18. Fear Itself
19. AVX
20. Infinity
21. Original Sin
DC EVENTS
1. COIE
2. Millennium
3. Armageddon
4. Zero Hour
5. Underworld Unleashed
6. DC vs Marvel
7. Genesis
8. DC One Million
9. Our World's At War
10. Identity Crisis
11. Infinite Crisis
12. 52
13. Amazons Attack
14. Final Crisis
15. Blackest Night/Brightest Day
16. Flashpoint
17. Trinity War
18. Forever Evil
rank what you've read and discuss--be sure to tell what was your FAVE of all. if you think i should have added something and didn't, just go ahead and add away. should bring back some memories--both good and bad..... lol
Gender: Male Location: Planning to take over the WORLD!
i'll start by just stating that the first contest of champions was......AWESOME imo. i utterly LOVED that series in every way and recall being almost unable to contain my eagerness for the next books. lol
as much as people around here don't like it, i was also ridiculously revved to read marvel vs dc and i actually really liked it. maybe i'll rank everything later on after some people have had a shot.
Gotta say, one of my all-time favorite 'events' in Marvel history was the original "Marvel Zombies" mini. Marvel has since cheapened their Zombie genre tremendously by releasing a shit-ton of sequels, but imo, the original story was, and still is, phenomenal. Not only was it a very original concept at the time, thus giving it an extremely unique plot, but it also gave us a chance to see something we've always wanted to see: superheroes eating one another alive... How can you not enjoy that?
DC is harder for me to say. Though I'd probably choose "DC One Million" if I were backed into a corner. This, again, was a very original/unique story(as were ALL of its tie-ins, which was refreshing), and gave us a glimpse into the distant future--showing us what the DCU will become by the 853rd century. Also, the final few pages of the main series(in which Superman Prime finally emerges from the sun and saves the day one last time) gives me chills to this day. The narrative for that scene is perfection.
There's been a LOT of other great events published by both companies, but those stand out the most to me on a nostalgic level.
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Last edited by Galan007 on Oct 11th, 2014 at 08:08 PM
1. contest of champions 1
2. contest of champions 2
Never read these
3. secret wars 1
IMO one of the best events ever, also the one that really introduced me to comics (the first comic I ever actually read was an Ultimate Fantastic Four comic back in 2005 but Secret Wars I was the first event I really read). It basically had everything you could ask for in an event - some of the most iconic heroes and villains all doing their thing, all getting chances to shine and show off their unique methods and plans, as well as huge battles, a neat backstory, and of course the Doom, Galactus, and Beyonder stuff. There are so many great scenes (Galactus snuffing out Ultron, Molecule Man dropping a mountain range on the heroes and Hulk holding it up, Spidey fighting the X-Men, Human Torch vs. Ultron, Magneto and Professor X trying to read Galactus's mind, the heroes' attack on Galactus, Doom and Klaw vs. Galactus and Beyonder, etc.) Personally this just defines the ideal comic book crossover event for me.
4. secret wars 2
Not nearly as good as the original but a lot better than most people give it credit for. Overall I did like it and would gladly read it again
5. acts of vengeance
Only read parts of it, from what I remember it was okay
6. Infinity Gauntlet
Very good, I'd put it above Secret Wars II but below Secret Wars I
7. Infinity Crusade
Meh, not as good as Infinity Gauntlet or Infinity War, but okay
8. Age of Apocalypse
Never read it
9. Onslaught/Heroes Return
Read parts of it - not all that good
10. Avengers Disassembled
Never read it
11. House of M
Hated it, couldn't get past the first issue
12. Annihilation
Great, the best of Marvel's cosmic events of the entire decade
13. Civil War
Not quite as bad as some people make it out to be, but still not all that good
14. World War Hulk
Many people dislike it, but I thought it was pretty good. Filled with PIS fights, but other than that I liked it
15. Secret Invasion
A little below average
16. Siege
Have to admit I liked it, despite it being anticlimactic
17. Chaos War
It was fun in terms of huge cosmic events, even though a lot of it didn't make all that much sense. I liked Hercules getting the spotlight, though. I'd rank it solidly above average
18. Fear Itself
Again, better than most people say it is. Odin's big mean older brother who we had never heard of before was certainly an asspull, but I like the concept of the many different hammers possessing the characters and turning them into the Worthy, many of their designs were also very cool looking. The Serpent's ultimate defeat was anticlimactic, though (He really should have read the Evil Overlord List, especially point 34)
19. AVX
Like I said before, the only good part of it was Hope punching Cyclops to the moon
20. Infinity
Could have been good, but tried to do too much in too short a time. The Builders plot was such bullshit, they are built up as this incredible, unstoppable threat, but then suddenly the tide turns and they get their asses kicked. Lots of potential there if they didn't screw it up, but they did. The Thanos stuff was better, but the ending to that also came too quickly and was a major DeM
21. Original Sin
Haven't read it
DC EVENTS
1. COIE
Classic. I read it as I was first getting into comics, shortly after reading SW I. I didn't recognize most of the characters, but even so I really enjoyed the story. There's just so much going on but it never loses track of the main plot, and it has so many great moments, like Barry sacrificing himself and the final battle against the Anti-Monitor
2. Millennium
Never read it
3. Armageddon
Never read it
4. Zero Hour
I liked it, for the most part, Extant and Hal as Parallax were cool
5. Underworld Unleashed
Only read like one tie-in, don't remember much of it
6. DC vs Marvel
Meh
7. Genesis
Liked it, I generally enjoy the Fourth World stuff
8. DC One Million
Great event, lots of new and interesting ideas, and it basically introduced an entirely new setting with its own set of characters which was really fascinating, I also like how it spun off into stories like All-Star Superman and various other titles
9. Our World's At War
This is another one I would say is better than most people give it credit for, but not that good either
10. Identity Crisis
Never read it
11. Infinite Crisis
Tries to be what COIE was and fails. Not horrible, merely passable
12. 52
Excellent, has a lot of time to build up the story which it does well, tying all the plot threads together. Basically a model for how to do an event story
13. Amazons Attack
Never read it, and judging by Linkara's review I never intend to
14. Final Crisis
Kind of confusing, although the tie-ins partially explain it, overall better than Infinite Crisis but still no COIE
15. Blackest Night/Brightest Day
Blackest Night was fun, Brightest Day didn't quite measure up
16. Flashpoint
A jumbled mess. I really didn't like it much at all.
17. Trinity War
Never read it
18. Forever Evil
Never read it
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Last edited by Endless Mike on Oct 12th, 2014 at 02:19 AM
Subjective as enjoyment is, I'm not going to rank anything. But here's my plug for Infinite Crisis, an event that wasn't exactly universally hailed but I really, really enjoyed. After re-reading it not too long ago, it does a really nice job of showing the "darkening" of comics through the prism of Silver Age values. That tension makes the whole thing work. A deliciously polarizing new villain was introduced (SBP), and it brought PC Superman's story to an epic and satisfying conclusion.
Phil Jimenez is probably my favorite artist in the industry as well, so the book is beautiful to boot. And Johns was still doing great work at the time, so it weaves a lot of great narratives and characters together.
Among those listed in the OP, Civil War was transcendent at the time of its publishing. It's become a bit of a punchline since then due to soft retcons of the various things it tried to "change forever." But the story itself was gripping. And Spider-Man unmasking reached critical mass in a way nothing has since the Death of Superman. I remember having conversations about it with people who had never picked up a comic. It was strange. It was also the last Marvel event I enjoyed. They've been extremely tepid since then, and especially since the glory days of Secret Wars and the good "Infinity" space events.
Annihilation too, but that's more universally loved.
Same with Sinestro Corps War. Though the rainbow wars that followed it took a nosedive in a hurry.
I can't believe I've never heard of Contest of Champions. Might be worth some digging.
And I have to mildly disagree with Galan on DC1M. The tie-ins were interesting, but the main story never really captured my attention.
Oh, also, Countdown to Final Crisis was the worst ever. Not just a horribly written series, but an incoherent one that actually confused readers heading into Final Crisis. Bad events are forgettable but ultimately not too damaging. But this was company-killing levels of bad. It was the beginning - and probably middle - of the end for me with DC (Flashpoint and early DCnU being the nail in the coffin).
Something I've noticed is that a lot of the "classic" events were 12 issues, and occasionally more. And sometimes the issues themselves were longer than we get these days. But even with tie-ins these days, you have your central plot in the main book. And most are only 6 issues anymore. It's WAY too short most of the time. And it ends up showing in the writing.
Someone said of "Infinity" earlier that it tried to do too much in too little a time. That's true, but it's not just Infinity. It's nearly every event.
^I really agree with your final assessment, and when I think about it Final Crisis would've been kinda shit if it didn't have Superman Beyond to back it up. The last 2 issues were just waaaaaay too rushed, and it felt like they were cramming a dozen huge fights into one issue. This really irked me when the tattooed villain was basically given an issue of his own...
1. contest of champions 1
Mediocre/good
2. contest of champions 2
Pretty bad, but I loved the fact that Johnny Storm was given a central role. His narration was actually pretty good.
3. secret wars 1
One of my favourites, very well carried out.
4. secret wars 2
Interesting read, but it dragged on a bit and I sort of soured on the Beyonder/MM thing. It was just empty hype about the gazillion majillion nathan fillion number of universes that the Beyonder could instantly explode by wrinkling his eyebrow.
5. acts of vengeance
Good, but spread too thin. It only lasted like 2-3 months, but was spread across several titles. It was an interesting attempt at wide but minor event.
6. Infinity Gauntlet
Instant classic. One of my favourites.
7. Infinity Crusade
Can't recall too much from this one. It was the whole goddess thing, right? Seem to remember liking it.
8. Age of Apocalypse
This was the **** when I was 12, not so much now that I'm turning 26...
9. Onslaught/Heroes Return
Onslaught, much like AoA, was incredible when I was a young'un, but bad now. This aged even worse than AoA.
10. Avengers Disassembled
One of the better modern-day events. The Thor: Disassembled by Oeming was incredible and this was when I could still stand Bendis' writing of the Avengers.
11. House of M
Liked the concept, enjoyed some of the tie-ins, disliked the main-event and hated the fallout. This was just Queasada's fat ass having a heart-attack after Morrison took the x-men to new heights. He tried to halt the X-men comics' evolution and increase sales at the same time. He didn't really accomplish either, but ensure that the x-men title would need a loooong recovery.
12. Annihilation
My favourite event of all time. High stakes (but not too high like SW2), interesting take on old characters, stellar execution and consequences that are still felt to this day. The Thanos limited series and Drax-prequel were both equally great and it paved the way for some OK/Good comics to follow in its wake.
13. Civil War
Like Digi noted it was a solid read when it came out (The frontline title was ace), but none of the changes lasted and when the entire book was about big changes being made that sort of causes the event to loose some of its groove when you're reading it 10 years later.
14. World War Hulk
Pure, undiluted trash. It followed the good, but overrated, Planet Hulk and then proceeded to shit all over middle rung of the Marvel heroes (Big cannons happened to be absent at the time). Bad art, bad writing and terrible fallout.
15. Secret Invasion
Good idea but bad, bad, bad execution. God-squad was a quality title but the other ones were bad.
16. Siege
Trash, as expected of Bendis.
17. Chaos War
Super-trash. Mishandling of Mikaboshi shows that Greg Pak should never be given free reins over anything.
18. Fear Itself
Bad everything. Fraction's attempt at 'rewriting' Odin backstory. In the end it was just him shoehorning in a few bland characters that no one took seriously.
19. AVX
Bad, terrible handling of the Phoenix 'mythos'. Expected nothing less from a title that was an obvious attempt at grabbing new readers with wild battles.
20. Infinity
Tried to do too much with too little. It was too early for Thanos to return and nobody really cared about what Hickman wanted to say or do.
21. Original Sin
Boring. The idea that Nick Fury has been some kind of retarded alien/mystic assassin the last 50 years, running around with gamma bullets (so retarded) and just shooting things is so ridiculous that I have a hard time finding the words for it. It's not hard to imagine Nick Fury being some kind of alien killer, but the event just....presented it so poorly. This whole ridiculous mystery with secrets and the watcher being killed, and it's just Nick Fury capping demons and aliens.
Yup, exactly. Something, or usually multiple things, always feel rushed. By contrast, look at COIE. It was gigantic by modern standards, but they got to tell ALL of a complex story.
Countdown to FC made FC a clusterf*ck, even for us diehards. And Morrison got a little too esoteric even by his standards, given everything he had to cover. I can't say I enjoyed anything about FC. Both prior crises were oodles more entertaining and coherent.
A friend of mine loves Darkseid, and I had billed FC as his finest hour. And the volume of "wtf" I got from my friend throughout the course of the event can't even be described. Even with an ok knowledge of comic history, and me trying to help him out, he gave up on it and, iirc, didn't even finish reading it. To this day, it remains the only story I've read that, to actually understand what was being told, I had to read an interview from the writer explaining it. That's poor planning; I don't care if you're comic writer royalty.
We all forgot Spider Island. Good event, though I'm not entirely sure I'd put it in the same category as some of these others. Marvel never marketed it as their big yearly thing like most of the others in the OP's list.
And if we want to go back further, Maximum Carnage is excellent as well. It was really a defining arc for Pete. The Clone Saga, not as much, though that's pretty much the consensus opinion.
Gender: Male Location: Planning to take over the WORLD!
i left out the majority of events that were sort of 'internal' to individual families of books. for example, the last hunt from the spidey books was among the best i've ever read. fall from grace, a daredevil arc, was also one of the all time greats imo. there were simply too many 'family of book' events to get into, but i agree, some of those are the best of the lot. within a family the story can be told more concisely. it tends to be a lot more focused and moves along a lot more smoothly and consistently. i loved the more recent court of owls for the same reason. in fact, i could list a half dozen batman 'events' that i thought were close to 10/10's. i tried to define 'event' as a more broad, company-wide series is all.
not to say i don't invite discussion of these smaller family-sized events, just saying why i didn't add them to the list, which was already long enough to at least get a conversation going....
imo, most recent events fail for the simple fact that there isn't a solid foundation that underlines them. too many different cooks in too many kitchens trying to keep tie-ins somehow meaningful but failing miserably and making nothing more than a mess. that's one of the reasons i didn't mind avx all that much--i thought the story itself was fairly tightly knit. i didn't like parts of the story, but at least it moved well and the story remained consistent. the event worked, i just didn't love some of what was in it. that, opposed to FC which, like digi, i found essentially terrible and unreadable due to the pre-build-up and the complete lack of clarity and consistency.
the point about a series acting as the spine of an event is a good one. you shouldn't be forced to buy 60 tie-ins to understand the main story of any event. but that seems to be the trend with these events....
multiversity is working well so far. i hope morrison keeps things tight though. with the esoteric ideas he always plays with, it is really easy to miss a lot of his message when he spreads it out over too many fronts. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to work and doesn't just become one more clusterf*ck.
i'm looking cautiously forward to the new secret wars that is coming out as well. the first one was a absolute classic, one of the best imo.
I like an event that brings serious change to a universe. Marvel may have gotten it started with Secret Wars, but it was nothing more than a large scale battle featuring an omnipotent being with a Hamlet complex. That's why I still favour Crisis On Infinite Earths over the rest, because it was the first rebooting in comics history and DC became better for it. Though they would get too Crisis happy over the next few decades and pull that club out of the bag repeatedly...
I'll give some props to Flashpoint too, because the new DC has a sharper look with all the character and costume redesigns.
At Marvel, I like the Annihilation, House Of M and Civil War series the best, due to the drastic consequences that followed. Secret Invasion was worth it because it upended the established order and led to the Dark Reign, which showed what the next logical thing would happen after Iron Man's pro registration side won.
The Infinity Gauntlet series was massive but kind of ended weakly. But it was worth it to show Thanos at his best; this is what made him the villainous superstar he has been ever since.
DC vs. Marvel was a stunt, but a fun one for the fans. And it gave us the crazy mash-up that was Amalgam comics for a while.
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Those weren't in Flashpoint, though, just came after.
(Personally I didn't like 'em, or at least I should say, didn't quite like that there was a more consistent look without much in-universe reason for everyone to have the more 'armor with lines' style. It fits with some but I don't think it should've been so widely applied.)
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