Congratulations, Cheeseheads!
Despite my best intentions to play with my children and lead a pretentious, erudite life full of pipe smoking and goatee stroking, I ended up watching the Super Bowl again this year. I ostensibly watched it “for the commercials,” which by itself is pretty sad, but another part of me wanted to see what Green Bay would do, based solely on how many people I know were rooting feverishly for Green Bay.
It’s like what would happen if your mom started reading Thor: The Mighty Avenger just because she knew you liked it. In this analogy, I am your mom.
I’m a St. Louis native (which is probably why I never became a football fan; I grew up at a time when our team, the “Football Cardinals,” routinely lost to dedicated Webelos troops in exhibitions) but a lot of my friends recently became ardent, zealous Packer fans whose passions could roughly be boiled down to “Pittsburgh is relatively farther away from here.” Many others had an elaborate enemy-of-my-enemy diagram, which I begged them not to share to no avail; the Rams lost to this team, but that team beat the Jets, therefore, carry the two, Go Green Bay. If you logged in as me on Facebook, you would think my family had arrived in Wisconsin three generations ago on a Mayflower carved out of cheddar.
(Somehow, no one I know rooted for the Steelers. And I have friends in Pennsylvania. Whatever else it did, this contest made Pittsburgh come across like a ruder Mordor. You guys need a publicist.)
So I rooted for the Packers, even though I haven’t given sports a second thought since the ’82 World Series. Whatever crucial thing needs to happen to you during your early development to make you root, root, root for the home team and care about the designated hitter rule never ended up happening to me, much to Dad’s consternation. Maybe it was my second grade realization that none of the people on “our” team were actually from here: “But… if none of them are from St. Louis, in what way are they the St. Louis Cardinals?” (I still have this question, by the way.)
I’ll never be a sports fan, but when I see the celebratory tweets after something like this, I always think, “I wish I was into something like this.” Nothing I pay attention to has playoffs or culminates in a championship. Nothing has stakes quite like a Super Bowl.
But then, I remember Event comics.
It’s trendy right now to act like none of us enjoy the comics that somehow mysteriously go on to sell more copies than anything else being published. Conventional wisdom dictates that we cluck about “fatigue” and say, “Well, personally, I prefer comics about alienation and divorce. If anything I buy sells more than eleven hundred copies, I drop it. Into a drum circle bonfire at Burning Man. Also, I don’t even own a television.”
Well, to hell with that.
I love many an indie comic. Make no mistake. I am buying what you’re selling whether it’s zombies or noir or westerns or autobiography. I like good stories, and I don’t care who puts them out.
At the same time, though, I find that I’m really starting to look forward to Fear Itself and Flashpoint, especially the former. I don’t have playoffs or championships, but I do have the best and the brightest getting together once a year or so to play for All The Marbles, both in terms of the heroes and the creators depicting them. Events are the championships of the Big Two.
Geoff Johns? Matt Fraction? Stuart Immonen? These names have built-in skepticism-melting rays within them. I want to believe. They want to entertain. I’ll see them at the counter this spring.
All the heroes against a Big Bad for the fate of the universe? Absolutely. No, it’s not likely they’ll lose—it’s bad business for a character licensing company to kill off all its characters—but I’ll enjoy seeing the What and the How. This is how we see the fate of an Aries or a Sentry, and in the meantime we get to see the emotional havoc wreaked by many a Black Lantern.
Yes, the tie-ins, boo hoo, the tie-ins. Sure. We’ve all been through this many times over the last few years. Many of us bought eighty-five House of M tie-ins only to discover they were sort-of-interesting alternate histories that ultimately had nothing to do with anything and didn’t get included in the trades. Half the reason I try to get to my shop within minutes of it opening each week can be traced back to that time it was sold out of the Civil War tie-in to Heroes for Hire; today, with a gun to my head, I could not tell you what that comic had in it. As much as we like to tut-tut about it, ninety-nine percent of the time those tie-ins have nothing to do with anything. People complain about having to buy books they’d otherwise ignore, but in my experience that is not only unnecessary but often actively detracts from enjoyment of the story. This year, I’ll only be buying the series themselves, and whatever “tie-in” books I already purchase regularly anyway.
And I’ll enjoy them! Unless they’re actively inept, I will have the good time I set out to have. These are talented people entrusted with beloved characters that their caretakers are excited to depict in this way. They will all be giving 110%, and I will be on the sidelines in my jersey. Go team!
Jim Mroczkowski has a signed Polaroid of himself and Ozzie Smith. He is in a Return of the Jedi shirt. (Not Ozzie.) His Twitter account also has more to do with Jedis than Ozzie Smith.
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I like them too!
I also love big, epic movies, so maybe it is a theme.
I like events but I wish that most of them wouldn’t include the whole comic line. I like when the crossovers are confined to a certain line of books like X-Men, Avengers, Superman, Batman, etc. This has kind of been the formula that has been used after Seige and Blackest Night. I guess with sales so horribly down in the shitter that they are going back to the big events again, which is OK. The event fatigue so many have had has probably worn off. I’m more psyched for the Flashpoint instead of the Fear Itself myself.
I love events. I hate when they A.) don’t live up to their potential, and B.) interrupt good stories in books that could (should) remain unrelated, just so that book can carry the banner and sell more copies.
I am not, however, naive, and I realize that the precise reason that book ties into the event is so the publisher can sell more copies of it and hopefully keep it afloat. That is also why Spider-Man has teamed up with Power Pack and Darkhawk.
I like focused events. Exceptional creators writing exceptional characters sounds exceptional, but I find that some events overreach. The best events are those in which the creators know where they’re going and know how they’re going to get there. I felt that Final Crisis (while still being enjoyable) meandered a bit. Sinestro Corp War (while not a traditional event) was much more focused.
Give me an event written and drawn by the best of the best that is a tight six-to-eight issues and I’ll give you my money. (I don’t care how many tie-ins there are, because I’ll only buy the ones I’m interested in.)
P.S. @Jimski – Hang in there, I’m confident you can achieve pretentious perfection.
Agreed. What I dont like is how stories can’t be single-issue or two-issue tales any more like in the ol’ Bill Mantlo Hulk run. Those are often the best comics.
I’m interested in Flashpoint and I do not own a TV. Really, I don’t.
I’ve never been to burning man.
I love big DC events (don’t care for the Marvel ones very much) and the main reason is that I get to spend time with a number of characters that I normally don’t read or I’m introduced to cool characters I’ve never seen or heard of. One of the reasons I love superhero comics so much is because characters exist within in a shared universe and there’s nothing like a crossover or event to make that fact more explicit.
Agree. Events give comics a common thread and can maximize excitement.
I can’t help wondering if my lack of knowledge about the DCU will help or hinder my enjoyment of the story. On the one hand, I have no baggage; on the other hand, this kind of story seems particularly inside reference-heavy.
@Jimski There’s an article idea in there.
I also love Events! Fatigue is for the weak!
(I totally skimmed past all the football jargon at the beginning of this artile, by the way.)
I want a big foam hand with the word “FLASHPOINT” written on it. It’ll make things a bit tricky when I go to read the actual comic with one regular hand and one foam hand, but I’m ready to be excited.
“It’s trendy right now to act like none of us enjoy the comics that somehow mysteriously go on to sell more copies than anything else being published.”
Yes yes. Go team event! Well, maybe I don’t mean that so whole-heartedly, but I’ve gotten more pleasure than pain out of event comics over time, and if I decide I don’t like it, it becomes easier to ignore and I save money. Win win.
@Jimski Just spend the next few months on Wikipedia. That should get you ready for all the Flashpoint tidbits.
I like events to a point. I think something like Brightest Day (yes yes i know its not a true event but still) is running a tad long, but i like how its around a central group of characters, and has universal ramifications, but is still managing to stay mostly self contained.
This flashpoint thing is going to be interesting….i won’t be able to afford the whole thing with all the tie ins, but there are a few that i’m interested in. we shall see.
There really is something to this sports analogy, Jimski…
I mean, we wear shirts with our favorite “player’s” logo on them. We Thursday morning QB on this site all the time. We complain/cheer in equal measure when an all-star goes exclusive to another/our team. We have franchise loyalties. We each have a favorite character/creator that we’d follow anywhere.
@CaseyJustice –Yeah but really is a Batman / Captain America Rivalry ever gonna get has heated as a Red Sox / Yankees rivalry? No one is getting into an actual fight over superheroes. You ever gonna get 35 thousand people to chant “YANKEES SUCK” err i mean ” BATMAN SUCKS” in unison?
But yeah the Sports analogy DOES work in this context…its just smaller stakes.
i don’t really care all that much for Flashpoint. It really lacks the build up that came with Blackest Night, but Fraction’s Fear Itself description on Wordballoon sounded REALLY interesting. Im looking forward to that one
Jimski… you are a FANTASTIC writer. Part of the reason I singed up here was to say “thanks”. You never fail to make me smile while reading.
Thanks!
We need a wordbaloon with Geoff about Flashpoint. now THAT would be wicked cool!
Im torn about events right now. Loved Blackest Night. I started off loving Secret Invasion but once it was finished I hated it and the entire Dark Reign that followed. I hated siege too. Fear Itself might be good with Fraction writing it instead of BMB but I haven’t read any of the main marvel books since SI so i kinda don’t care what they do at this point. I don’t read Flash but the “age of apocalyspe” style spin-off books that go with Flashpoint sound interesting. Johns is a great writer.
I’ll probably get both first issues and go from there.
Fun, well-written article. I stick with my normal titles, for the most part, although I often get the event’s “eponymous mini-series” also. If I know about it, and/or the first issue sells me on it.
My way of outflanking event fatigue has been to walk away from being a big day-and-date reader, moving instead into the world of the trade-waiters. Human Torch died? Ho-hum. I’ll read about it when the trade comes out.
My other big moment of unclenching was to realize that my public library has all of the Marvel & DC books that are in print currently in stock (or on order). So I missed Swordsman’s death in Thunderbolts? Oh, I see, Norman killed him in New Avengers.
Lastly, when comics went to $3.99, I knew that I could only afford to follow one small corner of one universe, and that has been – in anticipation of several movies and a cartoon, and because it was always my favorite franchise as a kid – the Avengers corner of the 616-verse. (I haven’t pretended to keep up with the DCU since, well… ever. What I read of it I like. I just can’t afford to be an expert on all comics everywhere. I love the cartoons, though.)
I like to think that includes all of the Avengers books (including Thunderbolts, which had seniority, but not Avengers Academy, sorry), all titles which feature main characters who are “traditional” Avengers (Iron Man and Captain America, but not Thor, which takes place in mystical realms), and also any books which feature S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Daredevil, and, (if it’s really gorgeous, or one of my personal favorite artists is drawing it) possibly Hulk. This limits my event exposure, and has me buying the same titles I bought 38 years ago. The fact that they are well-written and beautifully drawn only adds to the enjoyment. (Mild sarcasm emoticon.)
In other words, I watch the Super Bowl, but I don’t think I’ve ever sat through an entire Stanley Cup. Cheers.
Since DC’s One Year Later, besides JMS leaving Thor, when is the last time an event totally killed the momentum of an excellent story arc? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
In regards to tie-in stories people just need to exhibit some self-control.
I like turtles.
Hear, hear!
Also, “Jedi” is both plural and singular.
I like events especially now that DC and Marvel both seem to know how to do them right (don’t interrupt books, only main book is needed).
wow. now I know how comics readers feel when they are out of the loop on events. I guess I’ll check it out next year if I start reading marvel comics again.
I like events, but I do feel like I have event fatigue. I swear it feels like we just got done with Civil Dark Invasion Siege. Maybe because Bendis connected all of them, or maybe because it feels like there’s an event just because it’s time for an event.
(I realize it’s a business, and as such, since event books sell, it’s a sound business decision. I’m merely commenting about my pov as a reader.)
I think Jim makes a good point, though, in this very well written article. I expect I will get Fear Itself, but not any tie-ins that I don’t already get. I wish I knew a little more going in though. I might be looking forward to it a bit more if I did.
I’m less of a DC fan, and don’t know much about Flash, so I dunno about Flashpoint. I felt in-over-my-head with Blackest Night.
This article is like a major iFanboy flip flop, even for Jimski too.
(Wow, what happened to my typeface above? Looks like “Honey, I Blew Up the Comment.” Oh well.)