Comics are awesome.

[138 Scourge]

It's Marvel that seems to prefer the big event stories every year to change the status quo.

Oh, Marvel and DC both still love their "Shakin' everything up" big event things.

[Sparky Prime]

Oh, Marvel and DC both still love their "Shakin' everything up" big event things.

True enough, but my point is that Marvel does the big crossover event stories much more often than DC does. Since 2004 look at how the two companies compare:

Marvel has 17:
Avengers: Disassembled, House of M, Annihilation, Civil War, World War Hulk, Annihilation: Conquest, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, War of Kings, Siege, Realm of Kings, Second Coming, The Heroic Age, The Thanos Imperative, Shadowland, Chaos War, Fear Itself

And if you count the Ultimate Universe, then there would be a few more stories to add to that list...

DC has 8:
Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, One Year Later, Amazons Attack!, Final Crisis, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Flashpoint

[Shockwave]

Alright. I'll consider myself thoroughly schooled. Or pwned. Whatever the term is nowadays. Mine was a half assed comment anyways mostly based on comments made here on the boards rather than having read anything myself. As I was explaining to Dom last night, I'm not really a comic book fan. I never really read them as a kid. I read Transformers, but I wasn't reading TF because I liked comic books, I was reading it because it's TF and it was really the only comic I read. It'l only in the last few years that I've branched out into other comics.

Shockwave
-In other words, it was a half assed comment.

[Dominic]

Avengers: Disassembled, House of M, Annihilation, Civil War, World War Hulk, Annihilation: Conquest, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, War of Kings, Siege, Realm of Kings, Second Coming, The Heroic Age, The Thanos Imperative, Shadowland, Chaos War, Fear Itself

Some of those are actually banner events though, which are different from cross-overs. "Heroic Age" and "Dark Reign" really were not cross-overs in the sense we are talking about here. Similarly, "Thanos Imperative" was pretty well contained and avoidable. (And, Shockwave was talking about "everything changes" events. Most of the events on the list above were not marketed that way.)


Dom

[Shockwave]

And actually I was really talking about retconn. From what I've heard (I haven't read either of these) but Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis were both retcons of each other which is why I was picking on DC. Again, I could be wrong and I probably am (especially since I'm given to understand that Spiderman's continuity is even more convoluted).

[andersonh1]

Today's comics:

Justice Society of America #49
Why am I still buying this book? To watch the train-wreck as it happens? That's a bit harsh, and Jay Garrick/The Flash has certainly been written fairly well and prominently featured, so that's a plus. But so much of the plot and characters are trite and cliched, and as for Alan Scott... he's got the willpower to fly, fight, and create lantern armor to allow him to move, but he can't find the willpower to repair his vertebrae? I'm supposed to belive he can do the one but not the other? Sorry, just can't buy it. At least with the pending cancellation of All-Stars, the JSA is liable to regain the mix of old and young heroes that I enjoyed so much when this current series began.

Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #8
War of the Green Lanterns part 3... in which the plot, once again, barely moves. I'm guessing that the two spin-offs have to follow the lead of the main book, so there's only so much they can do so they can end up where the next issue of Green Lantern begins, but it's annoying to read for the third time as all the Green Lanterns are possessed by Parallax and take off, with the exception of Guy and Kilowog. And last time Kyle and John got in a fight before figuring out that Parallax was influencing them and they had to remove their rings. This time Hal and Guy fight it out, before figuring out that they have to remove their rings. A great setup with part one of this story is being wasted with repetitive storytelling. Let's hope part four offers something more.

[Sparky Prime]

Some of those are actually banner events though, which are different from cross-overs. "Heroic Age" and "Dark Reign" really were not cross-overs in the sense we are talking about here.

Heroic Age and Dark Reign may not have been handled the same as other crossover events but neither of them were simply "banner events". Dark Reign had numerous one shot titles and limited series detailing the change in status quo across the Marvel universe. Heroic Age was much more constrained but it also spawned a few one shots and limited series for the same reason. They both still qualify as crossover events.

Similarly, "Thanos Imperative" was pretty well contained and avoidable.

That doesn't make it any less of a crossover event.

(And, Shockwave was talking about "everything changes" events. Most of the events on the list above were not marketed that way.)

Are you kidding? Someone at Marvel pretty much always says in an interview or statement at some point that any given event will "change things forever", regardless of how the story is marketed.

[138 Scourge]

And actually I was really talking about retconn. From what I've heard (I haven't read either of these) but Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis were both retcons of each other which is why I was picking on DC. Again, I could be wrong and I probably am (especially since I'm given to understand that Spiderman's continuity is even more convoluted).

Yeah, dude, I have no idea how the retcon thing got sidetracked into "Who has more crossover events?" but whatevs. I like turtles!

I bought some comics this weekend at the Planet Comicon, so that's pretty cool, no?

FF #1: Yeah, gimmickry galore! You got a new #1 issue that came after the death of a major character, you got new costumes, you got Spider-Man joining the team, you got a bold new direction, and you got a character inside the book saying "The Future Foundation is about changing the world, permanently". I think all we're short is a Ghost Rider guest appearance and some thighpouches, and this would be some total nineties crap-o-rama. Except Johnathan Hickman's actually a really good writer, and the art in this is outtasight. And I don't give a shit how gimmicky it seems, Peter Parker signing up to fill Johnny's spot on the team makes a ton of sense. Also, Alex Power is on this team. Maybe I'm just confused because of new-school Power Pack, but it seems like Julie would be the one more likely to jump at the chance to study with Reed. Look, either way, I'm curious as to how things with Main Marvel 'Pack are going these days, so I'm checking this out. Also, I almost bought the black "sketch version", but decided to get the regular cover. Thinking about it, I probably should've gotten the sketch version and just drawn Ben Grimm and Katie Power eating birthday cake on it. Well, file that for future reference.

Batman: The Cult. I'm a sucker for when a retailer bags up a whole mini-series and sells it at a discount. This four-issue thing was like, four bucks. I'm sure if I looked hard enough, I could've found it in trade, but again, sucker for this format. And I wasn't gonna not check out a series by Starlin and Berni Wrightson. The book...goofy as hell, really, with way too much Batman saying "This guy beat me. He broke me. I can't win this fight!" I ask you guys, does that sound like Batman to you? Also fun, how hard this book seems to be working to ape "The Dark Knight Returns". Especially in the use of TV news bulletins as big chunks of story. And since this came out right after Dark Knight...yeah, that was way intentional. Still, not a total loss, there's a lot of stuff about Gotham City before the city was actually built that I'm fairly sure was worked into some of Morrison's recent stuff, so now I've got an excuse to go reread that. Also: Berni Wrightson can just draw the hell out of anything.

Star Brand Classics: Aw yeah, they collected the first seven issues of Star Brand. Coloring's pretty atrocious, and the story doesn't really get going until the twelfth issue, but the first few issues of an inexplicable favorite character's run? Sure, why not. Plus first and last interior pages have perfect pictures of the Brand to use as reference if I ever do decide to get a Star Brand tattoo.

Faith: Vertigo series with Ted McKeever art for like five bucks? Yup, I'm in. Haven't actually read this yet, but any excuse to get McKeever art.

The Psycho: Copy-paste the above sentence, substitute "Dan Brereton" for "Ted McKeever". Also, it was three bucks.

Smax the Barbarian: I love this series. Already had it, wanted it in trade. Good stuff.

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter: Beta Ray Bill, the cyborg space alien horse with Thor's powers, has had his people consumed by Galactus lately. So he decides to go take out the big guy. All it took to sell me, right there.

Great Lakes Avengers: Misassembled: Dan Slott wrote a GLA mini-series. I wasn't reading much comics when it came out, and wasn't familiar with the man's work, but he writes funny, smart, fun superhero comics. And the GLA are kinda loveable misfits. And again, five dollars. I'd have been a sucker to not get it.

30 Days of Night: Yeah, I really don't know why, except my girlfriend kept pointing it out to me during the con, and I kept saying, "Nah, I'll pass". Then I found a dude selling it for two bucks and thought "Well, screw it."

Sadly, I didn't get to the show in time to meet up with any of the artists or writers I was interested in meeting, really. Last-minute lazy bastard. Still, good times.

[Sparky Prime]

Yeah, dude, I have no idea how the retcon thing got sidetracked into "Who has more crossover events?" but whatevs. I like turtles!

The big crossover events have the tendency to introduce status quo changes as well as retcons.

[Dominic]

There are different scales of cross-overs. Some are more contained (usually by editorial family) than others.

Again, I was not saying that Marvel does not engage in retconning. (I would actually say they are actually clumsier about it than DC, because Marvel still tries to pretend to have a linear structure. DC tacictly acknowleges being cyclincal.) But, I would also argue that the various events you listed were different enough to warrant being in their own categories.


Dom
-plumb forgot to hit the shops this week....