Thursday, September 21, 2006

Cross-Overs

After excoriating Civil War and then reading what Jeff and Shawn have said about it, I do realize that the massive company wide cross-overs are never tales for the ages. Out of all the big cross-overs within a company I think the only one that has any true worth to it is Crisis on Infinite Earths and I'm not sure if that reads all that well on its own. What separates that one from every other massive cross-over is that it changed the DC Universe forever. Infinite Crisis might be next, but as a series it was not that strong, but had the impact of doing the one year later jump which allowed DC to relaunch every single title.

The massive company wide cross-overs almost never work because they are artificial and usually forced. DC has done Millennium, Invasion, War of the Gods and a host of others and all are eminently forgettable. Marvel has Secret Wars, Secret Wars II, Fall of the Mutants, Onslaught, House of M and others and again all forgettable.

The true series for the ages are Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, New Frontier, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sandman and a select few of others. Many comics have had great runs and wonderful stories, but the true seminal events are few and far between and a cross-over has never been it and still are not it.

For my money the best cross-overs that come to mind is the JLA/Avengers by Busiek and Perez. This was a well done story and a wonderfully illustrated book containing more characters then any other series I can remember. Another great cross-over was the Titans and X-Men by Claremont and Simonson if memory serves. Both series had good solid stories behind the cross-overs.

Essentially cross-overs are the companies way of generating big sales and I think they have to laugh at us for continuing to buy these series and many of the tie in books, when we should be buying Wasteland, Invincible, Local, Mouse Guard, Fable, Human Target, Losers and other great titles.

7 comments:

  1. Well said. Crossovers don't work cuz they are basically just stunts to increase sales in the short term. My fav was the Teen Titans/X-men that you mentioned. It felt more organic, coming off the Dark Phoenix Saga, and still holds up okay, though the dialogue is dated. I think the best thing Marvel ever did was the Kree/Skrull War. But even that pales in comparison to DC's Kingdom Come, New Frontier, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and the creme de la creme of Vertigo. I have all these I have mentioned in Absolute format and highly recommend their purchase. Sure, the $75-$100 price tag is high, but Christmas is just around the corner. Have you been good boys and girls??

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  2. I wonder if as fans we will ever get away from the event driven books. I know I can pass on all the tie-in books now days, but I'll still pick up the core event book becasue I have a fair amount of disposable income.

    Still I think we have hit the wall again on event books and if World War Hulk is a hit I'll be surprised.

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  3. Well you better start squirreling away your disposable income. A recent report stated that 50% of you aging baby boomers will have to sell your homes in order to retire. Time to start being the ant and not the grasshopper methinks.

    As for event comics, I could skip them all if not for my nephews who are big time into Civil War and loved Crisis. I've been let down by so many that I'm numb to them. Think about it.....what change came about from Crisis, Identity Disc, Hush, Secret War, Decimation or Annihilation? Nada, nothing, budkus, jack squat, skiddoo. Yet we suckers willingly continue to shell out $30 each time just to get burnt again and again. Heck, even a monkey learns not to touch the electrified banana after getting shocked a few times. Guess there's still hope for us dimwitted comic fans.

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  4. Jeff - I married ayounger woman to take care of me in my old age and keep working so we cna keep the house. My goal - Debt free but for mortgage in 5 years and Total debt free in 10 to 15 (with saving 25% of all income starting in 08).

    At least with Annihilation and its ilk they are self contained as I did not buy all the mini-series leading up to them. Annihilation has actual been fun.

    As for change - except for Crisis on Infinite Earths no lasting change has ever occurred from these massive cross-overs. Help Gotham had a plaque, earthquake and was a No Man's Land and now everything is back to normal.

    You know I always want real changes and it won't come until sales are so low they get desperate.

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  5. Jim, why put off starting to save? If you noticed, the Fed didn't raise interest rates this week. It brings up the theory that they feel we are heading toward hard times. They may have overdone it with rate hikes and the time to pay the Piper could be upon us. Also, you never know what life is gonna bring. Guys with daughters better have money stashed away for weddings and then grandchildren. Gotta look at the Big Picture.

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  6. Jeff - I have to put off saving until Karen gets out of school for being a Radiology Tech. Then a year to pay stuff way down, then the big save and travel push.

    As for the economy we are over due for a slow down and I think the fed went way too far and the piper is coming to collect.

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  7. Crossovers aren't any good.

    That's what I love about good indie books...the passion behind them.

    Tell me there is passion in IC and I will smack someone.

    True Story.

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