Just getting your attention. Here's my question to you: Big, universe-spanning crossovers, good or bad? I know sales numbers indicate that fans like them, but I want to know from you, my ten loyal readers, my 'true believers'.
See, I have a conundrum. I recognize that if there is going to be a massive event, then it should be reflected in the other books in that universe. For example, when the Avengers had the war with Kang a few years back that took over a year, I thought that was great story, epic stuff. But, this battle was all over the world, Washington D.C. got blowed up, and none of the other Marvel books reflected this. Not a peep about it in Daredevil, or Fantastic Four, nothing. It was kind of silly.
At the same time, I can't stand these events where everybody is in everyone else's books, and everyone has to deal with this event. Case in point, during 'Disassembled' Paul Jenkins did a 5-part story where Peter gets transformed into a giant spider, dies, emerges from the shell of the giant spider, and has organic webshooters, and the ability to communicate with arthropods, to some extent. It was that book's tie-in to the whole 'Disassembled' thing, and it just didn't seem to fit with the tone of the book as Jenkins had been writing it until then. But I figure editorial told him this tie-in HAD to happen and Peter HAD to have organic webshooters, and so Jenkins did the best he could.
See, the problem is these events take away time the writer could be further developing the plots they had been working on. Based on what I've read, Greg Rucka had a bunch of plots that he was building up gradually in the pages of Wonder Woman. Then along comes 'Infinite Crisis', and all that stuff goes out the window, because DC just HAS to have a huge OMAC battle. Sure, it's probably a lot of fun for the casual reader, but if you had been reading Wonder Woman for a long time, and you wanted to get some closure on those plots threads Rucka had been teasing along, where are you? You're square in the middle of S.O.L. City. And I think that's my main problem with these things. The stories that you've been reading, that you wanted a conclusion to, get dropped, and you're left hanging. It's like if I was reading The Stand, and all of the sudden, three-quarters of the way through, it becomes the Da Vinci Code. Sure, I liked parts of The Da Vinci Code, but I was reading The Stand. That's what I wanted closure on.
So anyway, there was another beef I had, but it's more of the same really. It just seems that when writers kill off a character in one of these things, it's not going to have ramifications on anything they write. Brad Meltzer kills Jack Drake in 'Identity Crisis', well why not? He doesn't write Robin, so it doesn't affect him. But if Bill Willingham had plot ideas for Tim and his dad, too bad. I don't know, I guess if they're going to do them, I would be happier if they were confined to one title, and all the others could ignore them. Doesn't appear that's going to happen.
Anyway, that was my bitchfest. So what are your thoughts? Do you like the 'Infinite Crisis' style events? Should all the books tie-in? What say ye?
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7 comments:
In a perfect world, the editors for the books and series would get together and have a big meeting with the writers and hash all this out ahead of time so no one's toes get stepped on, a la your Jack Drake point.
I tend to like crossovers, mainly because it USUALLY gives writers a chance to write a few pages or an issue with a character they might not otherwise get to play with.
Like anything, though, you have your good ones and your bad ones. Regardless of what I thought of the story for House of M, for example, at least it was positioned where I could stick to just the main miniseries and didn't HAVE to read all the other stuff to get what was going on.
I hear what you're saying on the interrupting plot thing, though. Hawkman is a great example --- Palmiotti and Gray clearly had this whole 8-part story arc set up, and the ending felt a bit rushed because now they've got to shoehorn in this Rann-Thanagar War crap.
I like world events sometimes, but when they're mostly special and in their own book, preferably. Stuff like Identity Crisis for example.
I think the occasional event like 1,000,000 or Zero Hour or Infinite Crisis are fun, but I'd prefer it not supercede everything else either.
I think the best crossover was DC 1,000,000. The one that made the elast effect on everyone's stories. Writers could work it into their ongoing, or they could just take a break and write a story set in the 853rd Century with a future version of their heroes. Underworld Unleashed worked otu fairly well, too. It didn't derail the plot of any books, they just worked a fight in with an upgraded villain, then went on with their life.
That said, I am enjoying Infinite Crisis as is. Despite problems like with Wonder Woman, it does seem far better planned than any other crossover I've seen, which makes it intriguing even if it is distracting.
If, for example, the Ultimate Soviet Super Soldiers invade New York and topple the Statue of Liberty, I do want to see that at least mentioned (even as a background news item or something) in the other books.
But I don't want full-blown crossovers. If I don't read Superman, I don't want to have to buy it to know how a Wonder Woman story ends.
So in the case of the Kang War, yeah, I'd have liked to see the other titles acknowledge that it was going on, but I didn't need to see them cross over fully.
I think the Ultimate books have done a good job of crossover so far, actually, by having the "crossover" occur not in the main book, but in a separate miniseries you can choose to buy or not, without missing out on any story. In that regard, I too liked House of M. It's just a shame the story was so awful.
Ah, to have continuity or not to have continuity.
Back in Marvel's Silver Age, crossovers weren't a big deal. Why? Because for the first ten years, Stan was writing everything, in collaboration with great artists, so it was all good, and if you weren't buying one of the books, you were an idiot.
And then, for the 70s, even after Stan left, nearly everything was still good, so, again, if some piece of random continuity led you from one book to another, it was still all good.
Nowadays, though, at both universes, you have to tread as carefully as a barefoot boy moving through a cow pasture. Both Marvel and DC have, maybe, two good writers, those good writers can only handle a few comics, so, yes, when some huge cross continuity event suddenly forces you to move from the oasis of a Johns or a Rucka into the horrifying abyss of a Giffen or a Waid, it can be truly appalling.
So, I'm fine with crossover events, if every issue I have to read to keep up with them can be written by Geoff Johns.
If the crossover will require me to by anything by Keith Giffen or Devon Grayson, however, I want nothing to do with it.
Overall, I do enjoy continuity, but these days, I'm nostalgic for DC's Silver Age, when, outside the books specifically designed as team up titles, every hero essentially existed in their own little sub-universe. No real continuity, but, nowadays, well, I kind of yearn for that...
As with anything, continuity is great in the hands of competent writers, and it's onerous otherwise. Unfortunately, there are far more mediocre and outright bad writers working in comics these days than good ones. And since no editor at Marvel or DC will hire me, there's nothing I can do about that, either.
Heh. Geoff Johns. Good writer. Heh.
"n a perfect world, the editors for the books and series would get together and have a big meeting with the writers and hash all this out ahead of time so no one's toes get stepped on, a la your Jack Drake point."
I kinda think each publisher should have a bunch of action figures or clix, one for each character. Writers couldn't write about a character without physical possession of the character's figure.
And, hey, maybe it'd give them some ideas. Writers brainstorming with a bunch of tiny Clix on their desk would probably come up with a lot more giant robot stories.
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