All--

While I don't want to encourage a whine-fest or a complaints forum -- you should write to your comics company and tell them your concerns -- I do want to hear from people about what I think is a problem with the way DC and Marvel frame their "major events."

Ever since the "company-wide summer blockbuster crossover event!" became the expected course of action back in the '90s - here I refer to Fall of the Mutants and Inferno for Marvel, and Legends and Invasion for DC - I've grown increasingly disinterested. Fast forward about five years to those eminently forgettable crossovers: Atlantis Attacks, the Evolutionary War, King of Pain, Shattershot at Marvel -- Bloodlines, Underworld Unleashed, Genesis, Day of Judgment at DC.

There have been projects that worked, at least for some readers. People on these forums still ask about Age of Apocalypse Clix, and Heroes Reborn just got some kind of new project (with Rob Liefeld, though -- good luck). Some great stories have come out of bad crossovers: the issues of Hitman during The Final Night and DC One Million come to mind.

But recently, both major comics companies have pitched large, long expansive events - "the [blank] Universe will never be the same!" And my reaction was not that they were going to be able to rekindle the spark and interest that characterized the original big events - Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars. My reaction was that they would be hard-pressed to avoid the sinkholes and pitfalls that have plagued all "big events" in recent memory.

Now that both Infinite Crisis and Civil War are complete, neither really feels like it was that important. Seven issues each of huff and bother, much ado about nothing. IC was a mystery that was mostly solved by issue three, with some superhero fights included to pad it out to seven issues. CW was a legislative process that could have taken one issue - maybe part of one issue - with a lot of superhero fights to pad it out to seven issues.

And then there's the aftereffects. 52. CW: The Initiative. CW: The Confession. Countdown. Mini-series that lead into the next build-up for the next big event. I'm might just be showing my age and my cynicism (or the fact that I can't afford that many comics a week) but I'm simply not going to read six books for eight months so I can be well-read before another hot-air "major comics event" can end up being disappointing and non-meaningful to me.

I'd like to hear others' opinions on this. I have some corroboration that I'm not alone in this feeling, but I welcome opposite opinions and refutation.

--wyld

My issue is that right from page 1 I start trying to figure out how they'll undue what happens from here on out in another series.

It used to be this big events were about telling a good story. Secret Wars etc.

Now it's about selling lots of books and OMG earth-shattering for the next decade! OMG! $$$$$ Civil War.

I agree with both of you - a false claim of permanence ("the (blank) Universe will never be the same!") and the apparent blatant marketing of books ("these four mini-series will lead into our big event, but only one will hold the true secret!") piggybacked off the "sure thing" sales of a Big Event - both serve to disillusion and disappoint.

--wyld

Fall of the Mutants and Inferno were both in the 80s, I believe, but I digress.

Empty spectacles and hammering round pegs into square holes by using characters to fill needed story roles even if it's acting against who they are.

Marvel's war on its own continuity.

Each mega event has its own reason to suck.

Identity Crisis got the 'let's rape and murder our beloved characters for fun and profit' bandwagon rolling. The insane amount of character death over the last few years is troubling, although I do admit that maybe it's being done so that a character coming back to life again has a bit more impact, and changing the expectations of the comic book audience to expect death to be more commonplace and resurrections to be more welcomed and rare. It occurred to me when Animal Man sorta reawakened in 52, after I'd assumed he was just one more corpse on the pile. The pile of corpses, though, is still unnerving.

House of M was empty and hollow and destroyed the Scarlet Witch as a character.

Infinite Crisis, I dropped after issue 2 because I don't care about Earth 2 at all, and it was already giving me a headache. Maybe I'm still too new to DC.

Civil War just felt like, as I mentioned before, hammering square characters into round plot holes. Just makes the plot holes bigger.

The endings usually seem weak, too. I liked Annihilation, but I knew from the beginning that it would end badly, and I was right. Endings are hard, I know.

I just try to ignore these things as much as I can, and occasionally snark at them for funsies. I still lurk in the periphery, trying to stick to titles that won't be all that affected by the 'big world-shattering' issues.