Weekly Buy List
Apr 9, 2010 10:43:33 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2010 10:43:33 GMT -5
Interesting opinion piece:
www.comicvine.com/news/off-my-mind-should-events-be-spread-over-several-titles/140852/
My only real experience with this was the whole Maximum Carnage crossover across all the Spidey books. While I enjoyed the story, it irked me to have to buy all the books to get the story. And on top of that, it was distracting to me to have different artists (because of the different books) drawing the issues. Now, I have ZERO problem with there actually being different artists, but for a series event like that, it was just very distracting.
Now the only time I really actually pick up comics to read is at the bookstores when the big events are all together in one compilation. (And that's also why I'm a few years behind on things. May try torrenting one day, but that makes me feel a little "dirty". Then again, that's not really any worse than going to Barnes & Noble and reading the books without any intention of buying them.)
www.comicvine.com/news/off-my-mind-should-events-be-spread-over-several-titles/140852/
Comic stories these days are all pretty much about big events. You can barely pick up a comic without having it be part of some bigger story. This can be cool as it helps unify the larger universe. I just can barely remember the time we didn't have some huge epic story flowing throughout several titles.
One of the current events we have is Second Coming. The story starts out in a Second Coming one-shot. The second chapter appears in Uncanny X-Men #523 and next week it jumps over to New Mutants #12. My problem with this type of event is, what if I don't read a certain title? Sure I'm reading all the current X-titles but I guess I'm thinking about those that don't. These type of crossovers force you to either read all the issues involved or you have to miss out on what's going on to figure things out.
It was this type of crossover that actually lead to my dropping all the Batman titles (I kept reading Robin and Nightwing to stay in the loop). I've always loved Batman but when Contagion started in 1996, I had enough of the crossovers. I got tired of being 'forced' to pick up all the titles to get the complete story. I find it annoying picking up an issue that continues from a series that I don't normally read. I had to say buh-bye to Batman for a bit (but I did go back and pick up some of the back issues). Part of my decision was also in trying to cut back my comic spending. I just had one crossover too many in the Bat-universe. With Second Coming, readers will have to buy all the titles unless they want to guess what happened in between parts.
The other type of event we could have is one like Blackest Night. Yes, I felt it went on a little too long (dead character rises from the dead and says a bunch of nasty things to make the hero sad), but that was more because of the tie-in books. What I liked about Blackest Night was the fact it was a mini-series. You could just read the eight issue series and have a pretty good idea what was going on. Some of the tie-in mini-series did help to flesh things out in some cases. Others didn't add a whole lot to the overall story.
With Blackest Night, I felt like we had more of a choice. I could decide to buy or not buy any of the one-shots or mini-series. With Second Coming, each part is labeled as a 'chapter' so that means it's a bigger part of the overall story. I know I shouldn't complain too much. At least Marvel is keeping their word and keeping this event contained to the X-family books. With Dark Reign, it felt like almost every coimic had the logo slapped on the cover.
Pretty much the first crossover I read was Secret Wars back in 1984. It was a twelve issue series that didn't have a ga-jillion crossovers (although 1985's sequel did have them). With Secret Wars, you saw the heroes disappear in their own books one month but they returned in the next issue. Marvel took a gamble by making big changes occur that wouldn't be explained for months in the Secret Wars mini (like Spider-Man having an alien black suit or She-Hulk being in the FF instead of the Thing). What was nice was you could move on and keep reading your favorite titles. The explanation was in one mini-series and not spread across several dozen titles.
Will we ever see the end of the big events? It doesn't look like it. I would just rather see them more self-contained. Yes Second Coming is in just the X-titles but I suppose I'd like it even more contained. Rather than make one-shots to fill in the missing pieces, just make one big mini-series. I also wonder, how do people that subscribe to comics feel about these massive crossovers? What if someone only subscribe to New Mutants and not all the other X-titles?
What are your thoughts? Do you like the events spread over several titles to bring more unification or would you rather see a separate mini-series pulling the different characters into the story?
One of the current events we have is Second Coming. The story starts out in a Second Coming one-shot. The second chapter appears in Uncanny X-Men #523 and next week it jumps over to New Mutants #12. My problem with this type of event is, what if I don't read a certain title? Sure I'm reading all the current X-titles but I guess I'm thinking about those that don't. These type of crossovers force you to either read all the issues involved or you have to miss out on what's going on to figure things out.
It was this type of crossover that actually lead to my dropping all the Batman titles (I kept reading Robin and Nightwing to stay in the loop). I've always loved Batman but when Contagion started in 1996, I had enough of the crossovers. I got tired of being 'forced' to pick up all the titles to get the complete story. I find it annoying picking up an issue that continues from a series that I don't normally read. I had to say buh-bye to Batman for a bit (but I did go back and pick up some of the back issues). Part of my decision was also in trying to cut back my comic spending. I just had one crossover too many in the Bat-universe. With Second Coming, readers will have to buy all the titles unless they want to guess what happened in between parts.
The other type of event we could have is one like Blackest Night. Yes, I felt it went on a little too long (dead character rises from the dead and says a bunch of nasty things to make the hero sad), but that was more because of the tie-in books. What I liked about Blackest Night was the fact it was a mini-series. You could just read the eight issue series and have a pretty good idea what was going on. Some of the tie-in mini-series did help to flesh things out in some cases. Others didn't add a whole lot to the overall story.
With Blackest Night, I felt like we had more of a choice. I could decide to buy or not buy any of the one-shots or mini-series. With Second Coming, each part is labeled as a 'chapter' so that means it's a bigger part of the overall story. I know I shouldn't complain too much. At least Marvel is keeping their word and keeping this event contained to the X-family books. With Dark Reign, it felt like almost every coimic had the logo slapped on the cover.
Pretty much the first crossover I read was Secret Wars back in 1984. It was a twelve issue series that didn't have a ga-jillion crossovers (although 1985's sequel did have them). With Secret Wars, you saw the heroes disappear in their own books one month but they returned in the next issue. Marvel took a gamble by making big changes occur that wouldn't be explained for months in the Secret Wars mini (like Spider-Man having an alien black suit or She-Hulk being in the FF instead of the Thing). What was nice was you could move on and keep reading your favorite titles. The explanation was in one mini-series and not spread across several dozen titles.
Will we ever see the end of the big events? It doesn't look like it. I would just rather see them more self-contained. Yes Second Coming is in just the X-titles but I suppose I'd like it even more contained. Rather than make one-shots to fill in the missing pieces, just make one big mini-series. I also wonder, how do people that subscribe to comics feel about these massive crossovers? What if someone only subscribe to New Mutants and not all the other X-titles?
What are your thoughts? Do you like the events spread over several titles to bring more unification or would you rather see a separate mini-series pulling the different characters into the story?
My only real experience with this was the whole Maximum Carnage crossover across all the Spidey books. While I enjoyed the story, it irked me to have to buy all the books to get the story. And on top of that, it was distracting to me to have different artists (because of the different books) drawing the issues. Now, I have ZERO problem with there actually being different artists, but for a series event like that, it was just very distracting.
Now the only time I really actually pick up comics to read is at the bookstores when the big events are all together in one compilation. (And that's also why I'm a few years behind on things. May try torrenting one day, but that makes me feel a little "dirty". Then again, that's not really any worse than going to Barnes & Noble and reading the books without any intention of buying them.)
