Marvel Events.

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

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.

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

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!