Comic Book Events, what was your favourite?

[incredibledave]

Hey guys

In an effort to expand my experience with comics I plan to go back and read some of the comic events that have been published by DC and Marvel. So far I've only read Blackest Night which I felt was an offensively bad comic but Im convinced that if DC and Marvel keep doing them they cant always be awful.

I plan to pick up the trade for Final Crisis next week and probably Civil War a few weeks after that.

What were some of your favorite Superhero comic events? What were some of your least favorite?

[Vampyr]

Planet Hulk.

[incredibledave]

He looks so cute with his arm brace thing

[BreakABone]

Oddly enough not huge on events, I read them more often than not because they tend to hog the spotlight for their run.

I guess my two favorites would be Infinite Crisis, which oddly enough is more enjoyable because of what happened before it (OMACs, Max Lord/Wonder Woman, Justice League: Crisis of Conscious) and what happened after (52)

The event itself wasn't bad, but the build-up and fall-out were more enjoyable to me.

Then there is of course

[incredibledave]

And now, my review of Final Crisis

I dont think I liked it. But it was interesting.

As far as summarizing the story for people who havn't read it, its the story about how Darksied takes over the world, its not immediately obvious that thats whats happening at the time, but most scenes can be connected to that central idea. The story seems to change plot threads and entire casts of characters every 3 - 4 pages, which does give the story a very large sense of scope, but makes it incredible hard to follow. To be fair there are lots of strong moments in this (the end of Final Crisis #4 sticks in my mind, and pretty much any of the early scenes with the "Super Young Team"). You could talk for hours about some of the ideas in this but I think that ultimately it was just an interesting experiment that didnt really work out in the end.

Now, onto the crazy ideas in this book.
This is kinda like an incredible exaggeration of superhero event comics. Its clearly trying to introduce as many characters and plot threads as possible and the way it cuts between scenes almost gives the feel of reading a bunch of really short tie-in issues. Reading Blackest Night feels incredibly scaled down next to this. Given how good Morrison is at using a page to tell as much as he needs to tell (no doubt due to his time writing on 52) it pretty hard to image more being put into this comics, which raises the question "am I loving this, or would I like it to just calm down and focus on one guy?".
It reminds me a lot of discussion I heard around the discussion of the film Avatar, with a few people suggesting that now that special effects are that good they cant be relied on to impress audience so filmmakers will need to go back to strong characters and drama to bring in an audience. This seems to be trying to do the same for superhero crossovers, we've seen absouletly everybody team up with everybody else, thats not really gonna be that impressive when you do it again (unless of coarse its a Marvel/DC crossover).

The collection I got also included the 2 "Superman: Beyond 3D" issues, which tie-in (in a way) but are mostly a comment on Stories and how the connection people feel to stories can give them power. Frankly, its not particularly insightful (or maybe im just not getting it) or very clear, and that lack of clarity really robs it of what could have been a very strong final page. If a meta commentary on the power of stories is what you want read Unwritten, its good stuff.

Another thing I think is worth pointing out is the comment Superman makes at J'onn J'onzz's funeral "we'll all miss him, and prey for a resurrection". A snappy little jibe at resurrections in Superhero comics, even they seem to be aware of how often they occur.


So yeah, feel free to post your thoughts.

[Default]

Annihilation. I'm a sucker for cosmic stuff

[incredibledave]

Just finished reading Civil War on my iPod. Reasonably sure it end up cheaper than buying a trade and I was able to read it on the bus

I really liked it. Much more than I thought I would.

First things first, Civil War fails spectacularly as any sort of political commentary. The build up to the event is fairly contrived (are citizens of the Marvel universe really that stupid) and there is not enough exploration into what the SHRA (Superhero Registation Act) would mean to everyday people. But thats ok, I dont read Marvel comics to form my political opinions.

As far as the story, it works fairly well. There is an understandable central conflict, and the tension seems to build each issue without getting ridiculous (Blackest Night im looking at you). There were quite a ew plot threads (the main Tony and Cap threads + Spidey, FF, Doctor Strange) but it didnt become distracting.

Ending was a bit of a let down, but seeing as the alternative was basically either Tony or Cap being murdered its servicable. And the lead in to the initiative seem interesting enough. Art was awesome, but you didnt need me to tell you that.

All in all, despite the somewhat questionable characterization of a few characters (Reed comes across as a real dick, but hes consistantly a dick for the whole thing) and the laughable attempt to say something political, this is a pretty damn good crossover.

[BreakABone]

Civil War is both what is wrong and right with Marvel in my eyes.

It is a well told story, for the most part, but its origins run much deeper than its first few pages, and its ending was only properly resolved last month.

I mean comic book events usually have poor resolutions, but this just kind of ended. Neither side gave in exactly, and was pretty much ignored until the act was abolished recently.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Default

Annihilation. I'm a sucker for cosmic stuff

Agreed. The hardest thing to due in a "epic" comic event is to give it a sense of gravitas. There is so much going on that every moment is given little time to really sink in. Annihilation was nothing but gravitas from the moment is began.

I know the Sinestro War got all of the attention, but Annihilation was far and away the superior cosmic event.

[Combine 017]

Its published by Marvel so it counts.

And its the only "comic" ive ever really read.

[Teuthida]

At first I thought those were metroids but they're the wrong color and normally don't have tentacles. Next I assumed they were headcrabs, you being Combine and all. Then I take a look at the file name...a Halo comic. Too many head-latchy aliens in videogames.