Drunken Comics Rage

So in part one of this post we looked at a couple of key elements to a good event book. Note that I said good event book, not successful. Most event books are successful from a sales standpoint, that does not make them good by any stretch. Anyhow, in quick recap the two elements we discussed previously were:

#1. A high level, easy to understand premise.

#2. It has to be a BIG event (IE: shit exploding everywhere).

So with that, one to the next key element:

#3. It has to actually have a story: Not just a story concept like in element #1, but an honest to Gawd story. You know what I'm talking about right? Beginning, middle, and end? Act 1, 2, and 3? You can't really just sell a book with a bunch of explosions and no story can you? Okay, set aside the original run of X-Force and practically anything at the launch of the Image comics line. Those books kind of did manage to pull that off. But even then I would contend that they still kinda fell flat didn't they? You absolutely have to have a story you are going to tell. Something that actually fleshes the premise out beyond the "What if . . .?" statement. And while we're on the topic of the story:

#4. The story has to be self contained:  None of this crossover to other books bullshit. Any story elements that begin in the main event book have to be concluded in the main event book. I know every single event done by the "Big 2" has something close to a fucking shitload (that's metric weight) of spinoffs and tie-ins to other books. And while occasionally I've bought a spinoff or a tie-in, let me tell you why I hate the idea.

Marvel's pitch as of late seems to be that "there are other interesting stories to be told as a part of this event" and thus the reason for the tie-ins or spinoffs. I can sort of understand that, even if I have basically no desire to get mired in those additional stories. And in all honesty, the sheer volume of these "other stories" leads me to call bullshit. Ultimately it's just a means to try and sell more books. I will give Marvel their due in that they have stated that you do not need to read the tie-ins to get the complete story for the event. The other titles are just ancillary. In my recent experience with their events, I do believe that to be true, at least as far as I know. Regardless of the final quality of the event book itself, I have never felt like I missed anything by not reading one of the ancillary titles.

DC on the other hand, seems pretty hell bent on convincing its reader base that every single book tied to the event is important. Like the whole damn thing is some elaborate tapestry that you can only understand by reading all the books. And before any DC Fanboys out there get all up in arms and accuse me of just arbitrarily hating on DC, let me just say that I know this to be true from firsthand experience. I attended a panel at SDCC last year during the early days of Countdown. As several attendees would ask questions about specific story elements, sometimes the answer would just be "keep reading" but quite often the answer would be "you need to go and read this other book to get more on that". How does that even make sense? How would you go about collecting a story like that into a trade later?  Should we expect the Countdown Omnibus volumes 1 and 2 out later this year? And who's the poor bastard that gets to try and put all that in an understandable order? I'm just sayin'.

Even without that bit of evidence, all one really has to do is look at the pages of Infinite Crisis. There are action sequences that neither begin nor end within the pages of that book. Anyone know why the hell Aquaman and the Atlanteans were in that big ass fight? Or what the battle in space was all about? Or how either ended up? They both show up within the pages of IC for a few panels at a time, but I sure as hell can't tell you. You had to have read the other mini-series that came out leading up to IC or at the same time as IC to know what that was all about. Had I not had EvilArtist there to tell me what all that was referencing I would never have known, which means the casual reader would be even more lost than I.

So regardless of the reasoning or the success of either company, the real reason for the tie-ins are obvious. Deep down they want to get you hooked in to as many of their books as they can, which is understandable in a purely captalistic kind of way. But I don't know that tying 15 separate books to an event is the best means to that end. I know, I know. At the beginning I said the primary goal of an event book should be to bring in new readers. But I have to think the idea of trying to buy every book tied to the event would be more than an little overwhelming. Would you start watching Lost or Grey's Anatomy if you thought you had to start watching every single show on ABC to get the full story? Not likely. Hell I'm a weekly comic reader already and the idea of buying every book tied to an event seems absurd.

And yet I've seen guys do it. Not too long ago I was in ye olde comic shoppe and listened to a regular reader just blindly tell the guy behind the counter to add every single book tied to Secret Invasion or Final Crisis to his pull. And this was before either book had shipped a single issue or we even had an inkling as to the volume of books tied to each event. I'm still a little in awe now. Hell the guy behind the counter was in awe. I think he even said "Really? Are you sure?" You can't help but wonder what else that dude could be throwing that extra money at. I presume the guy to be single because no wife on planet Earth would go for throwing that much cash at "a single story". And if he is single I tend to think that money would likely be better spent on women and liquor.

So thus ends part two of our event book saga. Tune in next time for the dramatic conclusion! Nothing will ever be the same again!

Filed under: DC Comics, DVO Reading Rage, Marvel Comics