I am not a big fan of the huge mega-crossover event that seems to dominate comics these days. That’s not unusual. I’m not really a big naysayer of such events, either. I view them as a necessary part of the industry.
I understand those that hate them. From a purely budgetary point of view, they can be a thing of pure money-sucking evil. If you’re only purchasing a handful of comics on a monthly basis, a huge crossover that requires you to purchase several other titles to understand the basic story can be a real burden. (Confession: I purchase pretty much every major title from both of the big two, along with my several monthly pounds of indies. So crossovers rarely, if ever, force me to purchase something I’m not already getting.)
Unfortunately, crossovers often are poorly executed, with issues that don’t quite fit where they should, contradictory behavior in the same character from title to title and plots that are forcibly fragmented to maintain the timelines involved. With no coherent and clearly defined reading order, they often come out as a muddled mess.
However, when you put good writers at the helm, even though flawed, some very good work can emerge. The Civil War event at Marvel is a good example. The main title was too strained, but still readable thanks to Millar. Frontline had some interesting stuff. But the real gems were in Amazing Spiderman by JMS and Captain America by Brubaker, both of which had some outstanding issues.
The smaller crossovers, those limited to a particular character or subset of books, like the X-Men titles or the Batman titles can be better controlled than the larger ones, so they often hold up better. Except, for some reason, Spider-man crossovers.
I have been a fan of Spider-man for most of my life (since 1974 to be precise). Every time a big Spider-event comes up, I get excited. And I always end up disappointed. From the Clone Saga to The Other, every time Marvel gives it a try, they seem to fall on their faces.
And despite the track record, every time one comes up, I get excited all over again. Which is all a very roundabout way of pointing out that I’m really looking forward to One More Day, JMS’ swan song on the Spider-titles. I have no reason to expect this one to be any different than previous crossovers. But I have faith…..
(and yes, reason and faith ARE mutually exclusive)
Good Lord do I know what you mean…
Back in the days before I sold my comic collection to move across country, and thereafter stopped collecting… I used to friggin’ DESPISE the crossovers. Two primary reasons - first, I was not exactly rolling in cash, so had to limit myself to purchasing comics only from my primary four favorite families ( X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman ), and a “Super Mega Important Crossover” meant me digging for the cash to pay for the crossover titles that weren’t in my primaries. Try explaining THAT to the wife
Secondly - the crossovers always seemed to SUCK ASS. For every Crisis on Infinite Earths caliber crossover… there was also a Secret Wars. And a Secret Wars II. And an Infinity (Gauntlet, War, Crusade)…. you get the picture.
I was usually much happier with the “intra-family” crossovers… The X-Men crossover books were usually pretty good… but you’re right. The Spider-Man crossovers pretty much all sucked major ass. The Clone Saga. Eeeccchhh.
Comment by Berend — September 5, 2007 @ 10:30 pm