Summer Events

We’re heading towards summer, and to comic book fans, that always means a big old crossover. Sometimes, crossover events can be world changing issues of awesomeness, and sometimes, they can just be an excuse for crappy storylines that force readers to buy a ton of books they normally wouldn’t.

This summer, Marvel is bringing us an event called “Fear Itself”, the details of which are still pretty fuzzy. Apparently, it involves the God of Fear causing problems for the Marvel heros, playing their worst fears against them.

DC brings us “Flashpoint”, which, as far as I can tell, involves Professor Zoom rewriting events in history, causing changes in the heroes, etc. DC claims that the event will change the universe forever. Oh, and the only hero that knows things are wrong is Booster Gold.

In light of this, I was pondering crossover events from the past, and trying to determine which of these events had the bigger chance of being decent. There are a lot of factors to consider, so let’s get to it.

Writing:

“Fear Itself” is written primarily by Matt Fraction, almost guaranteeing a million small word boxes with single word sentences. I don’t dislike Fraction, but I haven’t really enjoyed his work on Uncanny X-Men. “Flashpoint” is helmed by Geoff Johns, who has written some great stuff in the past. Lately, it seems like his job at DC is to shoehorn crappy third rung heroes in to marketable quantities. “Brightest Day”, when broken down to it’s components, is essentially “Hey, Aquaman and Hawkman are kinda cool… right? Guys? Right?”. Might be a coincidence that Cyborg is the biggest hero in the Flashpoint universe, but I doubt it.

Oh, and I should note that while it seems weird that there’s no “Illustrating” heading here, it makes sense, as often there are multiple artists on board for events. Andy Kubert is penciling the main books for “Flashpoint” and “Fear Itself” will be drawn by Stuart Immonen, Wayne Von Grawbadger, and Laura Martin.

Edge: DC. “Flashpoint”. Johns knows how to structure a big story, has the Gl Corp/Sinestro Corp war under his belt, not to mention “Blackest Night”.

Most Recent Events:

Marvel’s event prior to this was “Siege”. DC had “Blackest Night”. Full disclosure here: Didn’t read Siege. Read Blackest Night. I’ve never been a big Avengers fan, and thus I didn’t pick up Siege, which doesn’t seem to have hurt me much thus far. It seemed to be received decently, with little praise or impact. (SPOILER) The Sentry died. No one cared. Worst Ret-con hero ever.

“Blackest Night” was a cavalcade of colours, shiny covers and new characters. It was a lot of build-up with an underwhelming climax. The prismatic concept was a logical one for the Green Lantern universe, and creates a big sandbox for the writers to play in. Oh, and we got Larfleeze out of the deal, and Dex-Starr, house cat of rage. On the down side, we got a lot of dead heroes back that were probably better left dead.

Edge: DC “Blackest Night” made a much bigger splash than “Siege”, and energized the Green Lantern franchise.

The Last Decade

The DC events in the last decade or so center around “Crisis”. Not that surprising, as “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was the defining moment eventwise in the DC Universe. We had Identity Crisis, which might have done itself a disservice with that title, as it wasn’t a universe wide event, but rather, a well controlled murder mystery. Then we moved on to Infinite Crisis, which started with a fairly interesting premise (heroes from another version of Earth look at our world, see how dark and violent our heroes have become, and decide to set things right. A fairly bold self-examination of DC about its titles in the 1990s. Then it gets all dumb, and people punch things into existence, and way too many plot lines start running amok. There was One Year Later, which gave DC the chance to focus on their not Batman Superman and Wonder Wman titles. After which we get Final Crisis. There simply aren’t words to describe the bizarre, impenetrable, weird amount of suck Final Crisis represents.

The next time you’re at your LCS (Local Comic Shop) and someone starts going off about how awesome Grant Morrison is, don’t say anything. Just nod your head in the direction of the Final Crisis trade, and watch as their eyes follow yours, and the realization on their face, as they shut the hell up, knowing they can no longer make a reasonable argument. (Actually, I think, like Straczynski, Morrison is one of the better “starting pitchers” in the comics world. Both of them tend to wear themselves out early, and for the love all things good, make sure you take them out before they mess things up forever. The owner of my LCS gets credit for the baseball metaphor).

On the Marvel side, we had The House of M, which shook up the X-Men world! (Of course, that happens every 3 to 4 months…) Then Civil War, an all out battle between heroes, marked mostly by strange leaps in characterization for plot purposes. There was Dark Reign, which let Norman Osborne loose on the Marvel universe, and World War Hulk, which was just plain fun. Marvel, it should be noted, did an excellent job of weaving their events together, and having the ramifications of one effect the next.

Edge: Marvel. Their Universe feels more fleshed out, and there seems to be some direction and continuity.

Best of the Best:

The era of the modern crossover began in the early eighties. Marvel’s “Secret Wars” was arguably the first event to bring in a large stable of heroes, have its effects felt in other books, and create lasting changes in the Universe. Right on its heels was DC “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, which upped the ante with character deaths and increased stakes for the characters. Since then, there have been countless events, big and small. Which ones were the best? I’m sure you’ll tell me in the comments section. For me, the best ones are the ones that stand out in your memory. They have weight, they have a story that is true to the rules it sets up, and leaves things differently than they found them. I’d probably go with Crisis on Infinite Earths as the best big crossover. It felt more real than Secret Wars, had more impact. (Note, I’ve just realized it looks like I’m simply choosing between CoIE and SW. I’m not.) Another personal favorite was Age of Apocalypse, the X-Men event that took place in an alternate world, brought familiar characters in unfamiliar versions of themselves, and even took the step of changing the titles for the duration of its run. It was a big, fun ride. I also like Identity Crisis, which, as I mentioned earlier, might not deserve to be part of this fight, but is easily the best written of anything I’ve talked about today.

Edge: DC. Crisis still takes the cake.

Worst of the Worst

When crossovers go bad, they go BAD! Both major companies have had their share of bad, but only one has elevated the bad crossover to epic proportions. Marvel has unleashed upon us a wave of bad crossover dreck. Infinity War. Secret Wars II. Atlantis Attacks. Heroes Reborn. Hell, we could write another entire article plumbing the depths of bad Marvel crossovers.

DC isn’t innocent here either. Invasion/Armageddon, Knightfall, No Man’s Land, and the aftermath of the Death of Superman. They seem to try and keep the really bad stuff confined to a character and their books. Is there a term for crossovers that play out inside a small number of books? If so, someone tell the X-Men writers, they have constant use for it.

Edge: Marvel. They seem to have recovered lately, but historically, they’re the kings.

So, final tally has DC up 3-2. Is that any indication that “Flashpoint” will be better than “Fear Itself”? Nope. My gut says it will, but only time will tell.

*** It occurs to me that lately I’ve become a bigger DC fan than a Marvel fan, which is weird and surprising to me. I grew up on Marvel, worshipped John Byrne and Chris Claremont. Didn’t read much DC at all until my 20s. I haven’t looked at my current pull list, but I suspect I’m buying roughly the same number of titles from both. For some reason, I seem to be more drawn to DC lately. Better writing? Less of the “27 titles for a popular character/group”? Not sure. I know I really like Hickman’s Fantastic Four right now, and Uncanny X-Force is a blast. I’ve enjoyed Batman and Robin, and Booster Gold (not so much lately…) and was loving Green Lantern, up until the end of Blackest Night, after which I think it has cratered in quality. I had high hopes for JMS’s Superman and Wonder Woman runs, both of which were disappointing. Anyhow, the point of this massive rambling note was to state outright that I’m not a “fanboy” for one company or the other. I’m a fanboy of good storytelling.

13 Responses to “Summer Events”

1. Tbinns says:

   April 6, 2011 at 11:23 am

   I’ve read only Infinite Crisis and Civil War, so I’m in no position to comment, apart from saying this MIGHT be the nerdiest article yet posted…and THAT my friends is saying something

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   • admin_rock says:

     April 6, 2011 at 12:56 pm

     Strong words, coming from the author of Scott Baiowulf and XXXMen.

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     • spcMIKE says:

       April 6, 2011 at 1:09 pm

       @admin_rock, Yeah but it beats RRT’s usual “Why Doesn’t Anyone Love Me” posts.

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       • RobbieRobTown says:

         April 6, 2011 at 4:43 pm

         @spcMIKE,

         Shut your noise tube, Taco Human!

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2. Keith says:

   April 7, 2011 at 2:06 pm

   I am so that old guy who let a couple of years pass and now can’t find a hop-on point. Thanks for the bit of filler.
   My summer reading is the Superman/ JLI era stories from 86 to whenever I can stomach it til (which might be Final Night).

   I have great affection for DC’s cross-overs (particularly Zero Hour and Legends) but they seemed to get so good at it they had to crash badly. Final Night and War of the Gods were just awful.

   Acts of Vengeance and Underworld Unleashed are a wash as they are basically the same story. After Flash and Supergirl died in Crisis it was routine to kill a major character in any cross-over. By Underworld that “major character” was Blue Devil. Seriously. Earth-shattering stuff.

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   • spcMIKE says:

     April 7, 2011 at 3:14 pm

     @Keith, I’m not sure how good of a jumping on point this is, but Identity Crisis is pretty good. Especially if you are familiar with the Silver Age characters. It’s a quiet murder mystery, but provides back story and some really good character development and pretty much shaped the DCU for the rest of the decade.

     That leads right into Infinite Crisis subsequently everything else DC has put out.

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3. Will says:

   April 7, 2011 at 11:11 pm

   Great article, Admin_Rock!

   I would argue that the original Infinity Gauntlet was pretty awesome, all the spinoffs (Infinity Watch) and sequels ruined the whole thing – I consider it the Matrix or the Pirates of the Caribbean of the Marvel Universe.

   Overall Marvel characters are just more interesting than DC heroes. Other than maybe Batman and the current Green Lantern. This could be due to the better writers. Or the story lines, or the situations, or the villains, or even just the power sets and relationships of the heroes.

   As for Creators, I’ll normally bet on Mark Millar and usually Bendis (although he’s developing the starting pitchers syndrome). On DC’s side Johns is a sure bet and I’d love to see Simone pick up her game again, but for the most part, their writers can’t keep my attention.

   As for these two event summer blockbuster stories. My bet is neither of them really go anywhere. I’m kind of disappointed Marvel didn’t take more of a break after their last event. I thought the Heroic Age was meant to last more than a year. Doesn’t seem like Marvel gives itself enough time to enjoy a status quo.

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   • admin_rock says:

     April 8, 2011 at 12:26 am

     True, I should have clarified my comment to “Infinty War”, which was balls. I suspect the reason Marvel pumps out the events on top of each other is that it’s a good way to increase sales. The trends these days seem to be that anything with a #1 on it sells like crazy, but then the readership starts dropping again. More events mean more first issues, etc… It’s a little sad, really.

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     • Will says:

       April 9, 2011 at 1:20 pm

       @admin_rock, I think this could apply on some level to DC’s “weekly” books. 52 and Countdown were unbearable and even Brightest Day lost me pretty quickly. Interesting concepts upon launch, but they just drag on.

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4. Will says:

   April 7, 2011 at 11:26 pm

   I should also add that with the first issue of Fear Itself out this week, it’s already underwhelming. The villain(s) Sin and God of Fear seem pretty obscure and don’t fill me with a sense of dread. Odin also comes off as a bratty child having a tantrum.

   Already, the other DC event, War of the Green Lanterns seems like it’ll deliver three issues in. Although I feel I’ve already seen elements of the same story in previous GL events: Sinesto Corps and Blackest Night.

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   • admin_rock says:

     April 8, 2011 at 12:24 am

     RRT texted me once on this subject: “This week on a very special Green Lantern : somebody is parallax, and then someone else is.” Oh so true. Also, GL fights GL, or Hal gets apprehended. It should be a drinking game.

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5. Tomass says:

   April 11, 2011 at 10:21 am

   I like Tacos

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6. Keith says:

   April 15, 2011 at 5:47 pm

   Following the introduction of Green, Black, White Lanterns will be Salsa Lantern.

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