Comic Book Talk

[puckace]

Well I was only collecting comics for the first 3 shown. The original Secret Wars got me back into comics. Absolutely loved it. Contest of Champions was fun and obviously I love the Thing, but I wouldn’t call it great. Secret Wars ll was a huge disappointment to me. Bloated and not a great story.
In general, I prefer a great story to be confined to the main book it’s in. I don’t like having to keep up with multiple titles I have no interest in to follow a story. Overall, I don’t care for huge crossover stories that require following a massive pick list

 

[Schizm]

Which one are you referring to?

Cap's body looks backwards in that third cover! YIKES.

 

[Chooch555]

I think Secret Wars I and Infinity Gauntlet were the only ones not designed to roll into another event so they win for me. I do love a crossover, but like them best when they tell a complete story without setting up the next thing.

 

[Jolene00Negative]

Be interesting to see this done from the DC pov, cause most of them are bad too!

 

[TheGillMan]

It's rare that an "event" comic is really good. There have been some truly great ones, but most are just overblown, bloated messes that really don't add much to their respective universes. Sure, the original Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinite Earths were incredible for their time...but that was before they became a regular thing. To me, they tend to wind up being these speed bumps for the regular books that detract from whatever stories are being told there. I tend to find stuff like Civil War and Secret Invasion to be all fluff, no substance.

 

[Jolene00Negative]

also....COIE is not good, actually.

 

[SDcomics]

Be interesting to see this done from the DC pov, cause most of them are bad too!

Well, I'll say this: Your screenname tracks.

also....COIE is not good, actually.

You're right, it wasn't good. It was bloody brilliant, maybe one of the best comics of the 20th century.

And here we go with the DC pov. Remember, you asked for it!

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST

 

[SDcomics]

 

[SDcomics]

Yeah, that's a lot.

Just glancing over all that, I'll say that COIE, Cosmic Odyssey, DC One Million, Final Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Blackest Night and Doomsday Clock were brilliant. Convergence, Knight Terrors and Beast World were bloody awful. Although I will say that the Batman/Deadman/Sandman team up portion of Knight Terrors was interesting. I liked that. The rest of it was bad, though.

The rest ranged from pretty good to merely decent.

I agree with my compadre @TheGillMan. The problem with these big crossover events is that they don't seem special anymore. They come out too often. Back in my Silver Age day a team up between two heroes, like say Green Lantern and the Flash or Spider-Man and Daredevil was cool because it was relatively rare. After they started happening all the time the novelty wore off. Now at least once a year you have all the heroes in an eight or nine part story. I believe that too much of anything can get old after awhile.

And while I'm on my "old man yelling at clouds" soapbox, Annuals used to be really special. When I was a kid the annuals were amazing. A new story plus a reprint, and the new stories always had a special event. With the Fantastic Four it was Reed and Sue's Wedding and then in the next annual the birth of their son Franklin. In Spider-Man you saw the formation of the Sinister Six. With the Avengers you had Thor and Iron Man returning to the fold and the new Avengers fighting the originals. It was great stuff. I think Stan looked at it like this: An annual cost twice as much as a regular issue, and if kids were going to pay that much, they may as well get their money's worth. I always loved that guy.

 

[puckace]

Agreed. Annuals used to be special and have great stories in them to boot. Today’s annuals are more of a tease and an excuse to charge even more for an issue. I’m often disappointed by the nothing burgers I get from most comics I pick up these days

 

[Jolene00Negative]

The good:
Death of Superman, Reign of the Supermen Knightfall and KnightsEnd, Bloodlines, Underworld Unleashed, Sins of the Youth (sadly omitted), DC 1,000,000; Day of Judgement, JLApe, 52, Seven Soldiers of Victory (not an actual event comic), Dark Knights Metal, That's it

The fine:

Eclipso, Our Worlds at War, Final Crisis

The unread:

Cosmic Odyssey, The Final Night

The Bad:

Most of the rest

The absolute worst thing ever written:

Identity Crisis

 

[Jolene00Negative]

Yeah, that's a lot.

Just glancing over all that, I'll say that COIE, Cosmic Odyssey, DC One Million, Final Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Blackest Night and Doomsday Clock were brilliant.

I am shocked to see anyone list Doomsday Clock, aka the comic where Geoff Johns has Dr. Manhattan show Mary Marvel his penis, is brilliant.

I think it's one of the worst things around, but not the worst thing. lol


Also, look. COIE, gorgeous, simply gorgeous, Perez wanted everyone to know he could draw a lot of people on the page at once, and he did just that!

That story is bad. Like, modern video games are kind of a mockery of it as they fight and beat the Anti-Monitor like five different times, you can just imagine the health bar growing joke for each return. It's long and meandering and the worst part of all, it was a mistake.

They should never have gotten rid of the multiverse and they spent years realizing that. And then having to do another event to retcon things again in Zero Hour Crisis in Time, where at least that good for nothing piece of crap Hal Jordan was the bad guy.

Others may have forgiven you for Arisia and Darkest Night, but not I. I'm like Batman, I know you're trash.

another unlisted mega event that's bad: Countdown.

 

[Jolene00Negative]

Events: Mostly bad!

Solo and team series: Good!

Crossovers: Fun!

 

[SDcomics]

I am shocked to see anyone list Doomsday Clock, aka the comic where Geoff Johns has Dr. Manhattan show Mary Marvel his penis, is brilliant.

Dr. Manhattan showed everyone his penis.

That story is bad. Like, modern video games are kind of a mockery of it as they fight and beat the Anti-Monitor like five different times, you can just imagine the health bar growing joke for each return. It's long and meandering and the worst part of all, it was a mistake.

I would think if it were as bad as you suggest, it wouldn't still be in print 40 years later.

You got a LOT of hot takes. But everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

[Chooch555]

I have a soft spot for Invasion! , but I only had issue 2 as a kid. That was the meat of the team-up to turn the tide story. I've said it before, War of the Gods to this day baffles me. I've tried several time and could not follow.