Looking at "events" Article by aviewaskewed, 02:15 AM 21st Dec Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all creator comments have been gleaned from other sources and no creators have actually endorsed any aspect of this column. I got a good topic this week, so hopefully this is yet again the beginning of a “great column” streak. So as most of you who’ve taken the time to get to know me, and get to know my thoughts on the industry are well aware, I’m not sharing my comic book thoughts exclusively in this space week in and week out. I’m ALWAYS talking comics with somebody, I absolutely love this medium. Sometimes the conversations can be great for inspiring me in this space here. I’ve talked with a couple different people this week about some of the events of the recent past (Punisher: Born) and of the present (Infinite Crisis, and One Year Later) and it got me to thinking about what the central question is when a publisher decides to do these events. What is the ONE thing you’ve got to ask yourself as a publisher when a proposal to revamp, redefine, reinvent, what have you, a character/universe/piece of continuity, before you ask yourself ANYTHING else? The question: What does this do? That simple, what will this story do, and immediately following that, what do we gain from this? It’s just that simple, but looking over the crossover landscape, ever since the initial Crisis, it’s pretty easy to tell who’s been asking themselves that question, and who’s just been putting out a crossover simply to put out the crossover and try to rake in the extra bucks. I know this is kind of repeating some of what I said about crossovers in general, but I think in retrospect, that column was a bit too small, it also I think comes off as though I was making the statement that the only major change, is change that happens as part of a crossover. Any student of the major publishers will tell you though that that sort of theory is absolutely asinine, and untrue. It’s true that crossovers push the envelope and invite change on a major scale. But it’s also possible for a series, or mini-series to do the same type of radical change (Punisher: Born certainly does that, with no major crossover forcing it to happen). Let’s take a look at some examples of hits and misses in this respect, and what they can teach the Big Two as they seem intent on keeping the crossover dial turned up throughout next year, and tighten their respective universes: Things that worked: Crisis on Infinite Earths: While we can go back and forth about whether or not the multiple earths concept was too confusing (while I grant it was probably totally very daunting and problematic at the time, with the introduction of trade paperbacks now, and careful interactions, this would have probably remained a solvent concept) what you can’t argue with is the success of how it was all put to bed. Wolfman and Perez gave us a true epic, and established all the rules of how such a redefining series should be carried out. They changed the mainstream in 12 issues. Secret War: Marvel took this mini, and cleverly promoted it by having all the changes made in this series actually shown in advance (Marvel had all the involved characters disappear into a box in one issue of their respective titles, then return the next, with the post-SW changes in place). Then they hit us with perhaps the greatest pure super hero and super villain slugfest in history. Like Crisis, this work hasn’t dulled with the passage of time. Still a masterwork. X-Men: Age of Apocalypse: While not a “world changing” crossover in the strictest terms, it was a fun shake up of the X-Men concept that as I’m reading it in collected for now, I think I actually like it better then the current crop of X-titles, and the status quo of now. It was interesting to see a ravaged world where not everyone we knew as a hero was one, and to see Magneto as a strong, yet conflicted leader. They managed to hang onto the essence of what made each character great and memorable, yet found new and interesting roles to put them in. Not to mention that I think Magneto’s team was the best X-Men roster ever in terms of power, fighting, and characterization. A really fun sort of “alternate reality” story that on it’s own, is pretty wonderful in my book, it’s too bad they just HAD to try and ship parts of it out into the regular universe to force it to “matter”. Kraven’s Last Hunt: A dark Spidey tale that killed off the Hunter, and gave us an absolutely chilling look into how twisted the wall-crawler’s rogues could be. A really off-beat story in a time where just about everyone around Spidey was dying, or getting their lives mutilated. Too bad it didn’t come off the way the creators intended it, as a reaction AGAINST the darkening of comics. Avengers: Disassembled: Again, we can argue the advisability, the content, any number of things about the story ITSELF. But I place it in this section because of it’s aftermath, New Avengers started out of the blocks very, very strong. It’s still doing good numbers, so whatever the older reader’s feelings about who died, or the shakeup, the sales numbers don’t lie, it seems Marvel made the right move with this one. Identity Crisis: Same as above, controversial, but I think it’s given the DCU a whole new light, and it took an element from the past and made it a crucial part of the present. I personally didn’t have a problem with the content, though this story feels like a launching pad for the future really when you read it again knowing all the surprises. Still a good book though. Now on to the things that failed: Onslaught: Ah, a massive multi-part crossover that began by ripping the X-Men’s hearts out by making Xavier the villian…but then backed off on that in favor of saying it was the evil of Magneto and Xavier together. From there, the story becomes all about the rest of the Marvel U, culminating with shooting every major non-mutant hero (except for Spider-Man) into a pocket universe where Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld subjected us to some horrible rehashes. One of the lowest points in Marvel History. The massive multi-part crossover gimmick was also a headache. Last Laugh: A crossover so big, so convoluted, and ultimately? So USELESS, it swore DC off crossovers until the wildly successful Identity Crisis. DC hoped to have the last laugh by raking in the bucks here, too bad the readers decided to walk out on this comedy crapper. Secret Wars 2: The start of massive multi-part crossovers that just accomplished nothing. The Clone Saga: So, let’s replace Spider-Man with his clone, and say the guy we’ve been reading for 20 years was a fake, I’m sure this’ll make money, said the people in charge at Marvel at the time after doing, what I can only assume, were insane amounts of drinking and cocaine snorting. Oh dear, they said, this seems to have totally pissed off our reader base! Quickly! More drinking, more cocaine! We must have a planning meeting to fix this problem. Then someone suggested this: I know! We’ll make it all the evil scheme of Norman Osborne! A character dead even longer, who will piss off even MORE readers if we bring him back. Yes, that’ll work! I like having Norman back, as it’s lead to some great stories since. But this friggin nightmare made Spider-Man a bomb until J. Michael Stracyzinski saved the book…then he promptly fucked it up by spitting on Gwen Stacy’s memory, if you dig through the news section you can find my editorial rant on that one. Zero Hour: Unreadable, disrespectful, total dreck, everyone involved is I’m sure ashamed of themselves, and it’s baffling as hell to me when I read over who was responsible for this mess how they could have turned in something so ridiculously bad. Anything that pisses on the JSA is instantly garbage in my book, but this just devalued the entire DCU. Punisher: Born: A mini redefining the man’s origin…in which it’s revealed he made a deal with Death to have a war forever, at the cost of his family. Oh yes, bravo folks, let’s make the guy TOTALLY unlikeable as a human being, that oughtta really make that book palatable to people. Ghost Rider: The Hammer Lane: Ugh, so the only way to combat the Spirit of Vengeance is to try and make him the Spirit of Forgiveness? WTF? Ho hum art here too. Thank God the new mini is acting like this one never existed. Now let’s all try and do the same. Like I said above, publishers can’t just put something out there to make a buck. They have to be thinking about what it is doing to the property long-term, and what it does to the audience for that property. There is some precedence that throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks can have wonderful benefits, but that usually only works for newer characters, or one’s that have been out of the spotlight so long, any change would make them better. No notes today, as the only one or two things I could talk about are either going to be discussed next week, or later on tomorrow in the news section. Thanks to everyone for waiting. It was a rough weekend at work, and I had a long term project or two I wanted to finish. Hopefully you feel your patience was rewarded. Have a very Merry Christmas, and hopefully I’ll get this out on time next week Back to Rants