This is the inevitable result since Marvel has dark publishers, editors and writers.

Well then, I misunderstood you and apologize. However, what you call 'overuse' I call a solid theoretical invasion plan. By the point of SI, the Skrulls had gone up against pretty much every team Marvel had hero-wise and lost by using normal soldiers. Obviously, something had to be done if the invasion was to be a success. They took a chance and, once again, failed.

As for other Dark Marvel titles, Dark Avengers, as well as the Bullseye and Elektra minis have been cool so far.

What I find most distasteful is the fact that one mega-event (CW) leads into Another mega-event (SI) which leads into ANOTHER mega-event (Dark-nonsense). What a bunch of carp.

That, and the cancellation of She-Hulk gives me no reason to buy Marvel.

I think it's important to remember that the "Dark" is only their for our benefit -- it isn't, of course, as if Osborne's Avengers are being referred to as "The Dark Avengers" any more than recent predecessors were calling themselves "New" or "Mighty." Similarly, the ill-planned "Illuminati" (an interesting concept that was thought of decades too late to avoid any retroactive insertion of it as being anything less than brutal) is an editorial-level tag that the characters themselves were never meant to use.

Perhaps Marvel's greatest, crying need continues to be an effective editorial overlord for these Big Events. Someone to bring more consistency to who the characters are and where they're supposed to be at a given time. For a moment I'd thought to suggest Steve Whacker, but given the CF that's happening in AMAZING these days (the ludicrous timeflow differential story recently done with the FF, which made zero sense*) he apparently can't even handle a single title competently these days.

I know from hearing Quesada and company address this point at conventions over the past several years that they believe it's almost always been this way -- that most fans really only remember big event arcs. For relatively newer fans it's almost all they know. It's a weak argument, but from their side of things I can see where these benefit them by potentially adding not only miniseries but issues of ongoing series onto the pull lists of people, just as crossovers have always tried to do.


* Spidey and the FF respond to a call from a "higher" universe (a different reality) they'd visited once before, and find that a vastly greater period of time's passed for the beings of that reality than has for our heroes. So, rather than follow through with that and play with the idea that they could stay there for days, weeks, even months and return to their normal reality only to find that mere hours had passed... they reverse it, because their intent all along was to get Pete out of circulation for a couple of months so his supporting cast could all move on with their lives and present him with major changes. I still can't figure out if the "editorial" folks are abject morons or if they simply have even less respect for the readers than I'd imagined.

Actually I thought it was

CW->WWH->SI-> Dark nonsense.


ANd yes LOEB Dickery.

what's the story in the elektra mini?

Apparently, unlike the other captives of the Skrulls, Elektra was experimented on by the Skrulls. SHIELD(and now HAMMER in place of SHIELD) is trying to figure out what was done to her and why it was done. Also, someone is trying to kill Elektra while she's in custody and doped to the gills. The first couple issues(all that's out so far) cover a time period of at least 3 months from the end of SI, so don't look for this to impact anything for awhile. The first couple issues also give us our first inside look at HAMMER.

The downside is, these mega-events sell really well, like top ten well, which only encourages the companies to keep doing them. And no, I'm not a fan of them either.

I can't wait for Marvel After Dark. If it's anything like Skinemax, I'm gonna have to stock up on tissues!

One thing that I've noticed with both The Initiative & Dark Reign. they both have the scary Patriotic Tin man as there poster child. I think Bendis was just jealous of what Millar did after Civil War so he flipped it on him!

I'm calling it now - Eric Roberts as Cyclops and Billy Zane as Professor XXX. Now to figure out a role for Cynthia Rothrock...

Too bad Shannon Tweed is too old to play White Queen. LOL

More nonsense! Shannon Tweed will never be too old for our nefarious purposes!

And to the point, JQ can blather on about whatever he wants but that doesn't make it so. Back in the day, good stories sold comics. Now the only reason why these mega-events are around is because no one can tell a story and they're just preying on folks with OCD tendencies with too much cash and a fear of not catching them all.