So a week later, Final Crisis has settled into my head as not as bad as I originally saw it. Sure, the last issue was something…..well, I couldn’t have explained it to you until I spent an hour and a half wikipediaing old Jack Kirby stuff. And to be honest, I still can’t explain it for the life of me, but I know I liked it. Sure, it was everywhere and didn’t seem to conclude the main plot, well, yeah, that was the point. The main story of Final Crisis ended in number six when Batman dies killing Darkseid. That was the issue planned to give the casual fans something to enjoy, while seven was Grant saying “Hey, I wrote this big event, now I want to end it my kind of way.” And he did, he ended it in a way that only Grant Morrison could have. He blew the minds out of the reader base in a way that some loved it, some hated it, and most had no idea what was going on.
But in a few years, looking back, people will remember it as something that transcended the genre in ways that few super hero titles can.
But this isn’t a talk about Final Crisis, per se, I mean, it is, but it isn’t. No, this is a talk about events where I have a small list that I’m going to focus on.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Zero Hour
Onslaught
Infinite Crisis
House of M
Civil War
Secret Invasion
Final Crisis
Why that list? Well, it’s quite simple; those are the ones I’m the most familiar with. I mean, do you want me to write a rant about Armageddon 2001 or Invasion or Maximum Security? I could, but I haven’t actually read any of them so they’d be more pulled from my ass then most everything else I write, which is saying a lot since I’m famous for doing so (fun trivia, back in high school I had a final exam where I had to pick a book, read it, and do an entire essay test about it. I had cliff notes, and that was it. Never read the book. Got an A). But hey, pulling stuff out of my ass and ranting about it is fun! It’s easy to do! No wonder its number one! But after a few dry weeks of Grey, it’s time for a change. It’s time for you all to remember why the Gold Standard is one of the must read blogs about comics online. It’s time to remind you all why you need to tell your friends, and get it all running like a well oiled machine.
It’s time to rock the frak on like only I can do it!
It’s weird to open up with a talk about Crisis on Infinite Earths, despite it being the oldest book on the list. See, the book started when I was two months old, and was over before I could form a full sentence. I didn’t even get to read it until 2004. Think about that, I read the book for the first time 19 years after it was published. I read it after two other books on this list. But you know what? This is the measuring stick on which all other events and crossovers get judged, this was the first, and for all intents and purposes, easily still one of the best. But why is that?
Crisis had the job of rebooting the near fifty year continuity of the DC universe, not just for the main heroes, but for the entirety of the DC multiverse. Not an easy task. Marv Wolfman had to take every last tidbit of DC continuity and wrap it up with a nice big bow so that, post-Crisis, DC could start from scratch with a streamlined, easy to jump on continuity.
Worlds died, billions died, and familiar faces drew their last breaths. It was the end of an era and it went out with a bang. Featuring a villain, the Anti-Monitor, conceived just for the purpose of providing a major antagonist who could be removed from play at the conclusion, Crisis was easily the most epic event that comics have had to date.
I should also note that I have never read a single tie in for Crisis on Infinite Earths, only the trade paperback containing the maxi-series. And that was enough. The event stands on its own legs, not relying on tie-ins and auxiliary titles to tell the story while it focuses on the big moments. In that regard alone it was perfect, every big moment in the Crisis happened in the main series. Every event worth mentioning happens in the easy to read volume without having to send readers out to hunt down an obscure tie-in issue just to see a pivotal moment.
That’s how an event should be. Effect every title in the line, change the status quo of the entire universe, but do it all in one self contained story, let the readers enjoy it without being stretched overly thin.
Zero Hour was actually my first event in comics, as I’d started reading Superman not too long before. It served a purpose as a new crisis, one that would help fix the continuity hiccups created by the original crisis. It….well, it didn’t exactly live up to its initial promises, and many fans spent years after trying to figure out just what the point to it was exactly.
The point is simple, help simplify some continuity issues (i.e. reboot the Legion and remove Batman: Year Two from continuity), create some new villains (Parallax and Extant), and completely fuck up Hawkman (you can’t have a DC event without some sort of mangling of his character). Zero Hour actually did a good job at exposing the issue with so much time travel used for story and plot devices as throughout the series, as centuries were getting wiped out, people just kept vanishing. With so many hiccups in continuity over the years it was all coming to a head here.
After all, the JSA was now on the only Earth and didn’t exactly look like they were World War 2 super heroes. So they had to be taken off the plate, unfortunately, for several years until they could be brought back to the forefront with their own series (a different story for a different day). An end result of Zero Hour left Kyle Rayner and Wally West as the only Green Lantern and Flash, just as it merged Katar Hol and Carter Hall into one horrible Hawk-monstrosity that was more convoluted then trying to sift out their post-Crisis origins.
A new Justice League was also formed out of it, as the International era gave way to a new team on the Satellite (which only lasted a few years until Morrison picked up his big seven roster and these guys were jettisoned out of space down to Earth), Extreme Justice (Battlesuit Booster for the win!), and Task Force (because….nah, I’ll leave this one be).
And hey, we got Parallax and the second Legion. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Now I remember getting back into comics in 1996 and seeing this thing called Onslaught, an event bookended by two one shots and filled in along the way by countless tie-ins across the line. I think to this day I have about eight issues of the entire thing, and honestly couldn’t tell you the majority of the events that transpired. I just know it was fun at the time. Marvel went against the mold of having a main series with issues tying directly into it, and instead left the event to their writers to fill in the blanks for as they opened and closed with their two specials Onslaught: X-Men and Onslaught: Marvel Universe.
Onslaught was fundamentally flawed in its execution, given how much of the story was passed around to be told, not to mention that it was further rebooting several VERY recently rebooted books (lest we forget Avengers: The Crossing and Teen Tony….not for the win). And then look at the ending, canceling and rebooting Marvel’s core franchises in Captain America, the Avengers, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four; but not just rebooting them, rebooting them in ANOTHER UNIVERSE!
I’ll admit it, I own all the Heroes Reborn stuff and still love it as a guilty pleasure, but back then I didn’t know much better, so I found myself reading some of the worst books (Avengers and Cap until Liefeld left) I’ve possibly ever seen. But you know what? I liked it. I liked the overall story of Onslaught, of how Xavier was tainted by the hatred of Magneto, how visions of the Age of Apocalypse further warped him, and of how his powers more or less took a mind of their own.
Then again, Professor Xavier IS a jerk. He caused Zero Tolerance.
Now let me tell you about something called Infinite Crisis. In 2005 DC released a book called Countdown, later revealed to be Countdown to Infinite Crisis. They also released a few miniseries; The Rann/Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance, The Return of Donna Troy, Villains United, and the OMAC Project. When these minis wrapped, out came the first issue of Infinite Crisis. This was the first official Crisis since the original twenty years before, and it had quite a lot to live up to.
For the most part though, it had to find a purpose. Why did the universe need a Crisis? What was so fundamentally in need of change that they had to bust out the old C word for their crossover? That was what Geoff Johns needed to answer, and he did. Why was Superman important, what did his presence in the universe accomplish? How could anyone trust a Batman who didn’t trust anyone else? And what of Wonder Woman, killer of men, how could she find a place?
Infinite Crisis was about the need to have better good guys, and how the heroes of the DC universe had lost their way. It was about rediscovering the true evil and focusing on it rather than internal strife. About coming together on all fronts to save everything. It was about good triumphing over evil by finally coming together.
It was also a series that you can pick up the trade, read it, and have enough of the story to fully enjoy it without having to read the tie-ins. A major problem with modern crossovers, as while yes, tie-ins can be nice, tying in EVERYTHING is just over the top and pointless and does nothing but annoy. Not to mention that more often than not you’re going to see tie-in issues that either A) have nothing really to do with the event at hand (like the red sky crossovers of the original Crisis), and B) actually manage to go against the canon being set in the main series.
That’s what happens when you have a dozen or two writers trying to tell a story that fits into the story being told by a single writer though. Then again, one of the other flaws of Infinite Crisis was the fact that, for all their build up, the teams hanging around in space didn’t really seem to do a whole hell of a lot of anything. There was a miniseries setting up Donna and her importance and then she…..did nothing. But I can forgive that, I mean, when you try to tell a story on five or six fronts, sometimes you’ll see some pushed into the background in favor of more pressing events. And space just happened to get shuffled a bit. Sure, there were still some overly awesome moments when it was shown, but the importance just wasn’t the same as, say, the Battle of Metropolis.
Geoff Johns plucked out the survivors of the original Crisis as point of view characters, as Kal L of Earth 2 Krypton echoed the statements made by many fans. About how things had gotten too dark, how this wasn’t how heroes acted. About corruption, and darkness, and the need for heroes to be heroes, and villains to be villains. And a clear line was drawn as well, with the Society setting up a clear and deliberate front of super villains marching towards Metropolis as the heroes were spread thin facing off against all threats.
And who can forget the villain that we’ve had hanging around ever since? Superboy Prime. He who moved planets to change the center of the universe, he who maimed Titans, the scourge of the Green Lantern Corps. A scared and disturbed child with the powers of a God and a view of life that was plucked directly from the Silver Age of comics. All he wanted was to go home to his world, to see his parents, to be with his girlfriend, and the knowledge that he would never have that option (compounded with Alex Luthor’s manipulations) set him on the path he’s on today. As potentially one of the greatest villains to ever live in the DCU.
Crisis led into, of course, 52, a year without the big three. A year for them to rebuild and discover what matters most, to come back stronger than ever, as better heroes then before. For Batman to find his heart, for Diana to find her humanity, and for Clark….well, Clark really just had to learn to be more pro-active.
That was the other cool thing about Infinite Crisis, Superman saving the day while acknowledging that being Superman is about action, and providing an example, and being the best of all of them. He is the world’s greatest hero, and it was time to remember why again.
Civil War had one hundred and three tie-ins, of which only about thirty-five to forty were really on the “You might want to read this” list, and yet, not a single one was mandatory. Mark Millar told the entire story in his seven issue series. Yes, there were some issues that were definitely must read material told in tie-in form, but even if you missed them you didn’t miss out.
Easily the best event Marvel has managed on a big scale in a long, long time, it was all because of the strength of Millar’s scripts in the core series that it managed what it did. Stories were told about the Civil War, but only one book actually contained it. There weren’t editor’s notes all over reminding readers to go and check out Amazing Spider-Man #whatever, or saying that you had to read New Avengers before reading this issue, and it wasn’t even hinted at. Civil War ignored the auxiliary titles in favor of its own method of storytelling.
Much like all events should do.
It was titled “A Marvel Comics Event in Seven Parts” and that’s what it was, and it’s something Marvel can learn from. Sure, the Captain America issues were better than most of the event itself, but did you have to read them? No, you just should have. And if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be confused. That was the cool thing. And to be honest, I can’t remember the last time Marvel managed to do that aside from Civil War.
Well, Annihilation, but that was assisted by Marvel not having a cosmic line at the time.
Now I’ll admit, a few things didn’t make sense without the tie-ins, despite it going against my claim. More or less just Spider-Man though, as his journey through the war was among the most important aspects, but to properly tell the story Millar just had to hit a bullet point of two, rather than cover it all. This was fine though, JMS was still writing, MJ was still in the book, and it was readable.
The War also gave us some awesome stuff like Matt Fraction writing Punisher, two teams of Avengers, the Initiative, and the Death of Captain America. So I’d call it pretty successful in what it did. Even if Tony Stark did become the internet’s favorite bad guy for a year or two.
Secret Invasion is the text book definition of everything horrible and wrong that an event can be. There was a core eight issue miniseries, and if my math serves, there were one hundred and three tie ins. Let me do that numerically. 103. So all together, that makes one hundred and eleven (111) issues of Secret Invasion.
Excuse me, what? That eight issue core mini did hardly anything to further its story, and the tie-ins did the majority of the work. WTF.
Past that, didn’t I just tell you that Civil War had just about as many tie-ins? Why does that get off so easily? What makes Civil War so special? Simple, it told a story in seven parts where the tie-ins, while some were important, were not at all needed to enjoy the story. Secret Invasion found the vast majority of its strength as a story in the fact that New and Mighty Avengers kept filling in every blank that the core series skimmed past in favor of big moments that didn’t go anywhere.
If you try and read Secret Invasion on its own, you’re going to get confused. You’re going to wonder how the Skrulls replaced people, and how everyone managed to come together. Did the Hood and his crew of bad guys just happen to show up? Why the hell did Captain Marvel rain down from the sky? How did the Skrulls manage to beat detection from psychics and enhanced senses? Want to know the answers? Read the tie-ins.
How about the Skrull in every state set up by Skrullowjacket leading the Initiative? Again, read the tie-ins. The main series did a horrible job of answering questions, and spent the majority of it’s time trying to jump from big moment to big moment with a combination of overly decompressed pacing and a blatantly unclear structure. Bendis owned that SI was supposed to be a crossover arc between his two Avengers titles, and it was very clear reading it that, well, it never got past that point.
And in the interest of not retreading ground covered in past comments, I’ll just direct you to my archives for further ranting on the Invasion.
Which brings us to Final Crisis, the third and, well, final Crisis. ‘The day evil won’ was the tag line, and most everyone could figure out it was a Darkseid story. Leading into it we had the infamous “Heroes die, Legends live forever” promo art, and the utterly pathetic Countdown to Final Crisis series, which it turns out, had virtually nothing to do with what was coming in Crisis, making it completely pointless.
Final Crisis, on the tie-in front, I’d call a winner. Again, Countdown doesn’t count, so we have stuff like Death of the New Gods (which was more of just setting things up for what Morrison wanted to do), DC Universe Zero, Submit, Resist, Requiem, Superman Beyond, Revelations, Rogues Revenge, Rage of the Red Lanterns, Legion of Three Worlds, Last Will and Testament, and two issues of Batman.
Look at that, I was able to name 95% of the tie-ins without going crazy. Hell, all I left out was a forgettable issue of Justice League and a Secret Files that was equally forgettable. Everything on that list is actually worth a read. And beyond that, the vast majority just use the setting or title to further stories in other books (Rage of the Red Lanterns, for instance, has nothing to do with the Crisis and is purely a setup issue for future issues of Green Lantern).
And, past that, of the truly important tie-ins (Submit, Resist, Requiem, Superman Beyond, and Batman), Morrison wrote the majority of it himself. Knowing that his story would need a few minor crutches (well, in the case of the final issue, a major crutch from Superman Beyond), he handled them on his own. Unfortunately, without Superman Beyond, you really are going to be lost going in to the final issue of the series, which is a bummer to say the very least (especially given that I figured the $5 an issue 3D two part story would be skippable). Still, not a huge downside.
Grant gave us the ultimate story about evil winning, about the heroes losing. The Earth was lost to Darkseid, anti-life was the answer, and one of the bravest heroes the multiverse will ever know fell stopping the evil God. And it was perfectly symbolic as well, as the Batman was created with the firing of a gun, a bullet piercing the hearts of his parents, and in his last action he fired the bullet to kill Darkseid. Born from a gun, dying with a gun, the circle completed.
The series, on first read, is everywhere at once. Yet the more time you put into reading it, into understanding it, the more it makes sense. And while I will save a later column to talk more in detail about it, Morrison had a stroke of genius in his usage of an army of Supermen. He is the first super hero, he is the bar on which all are measured, and, well, he is the man.
What’s the end verdict?
Big events are the bread and butter of the industry these days, which means that they’re going to keep coming. This summer we’ve got Blackest Night and War of Kings, and both I’m going to be throwing on my pull list. But what about the tie-ins?
Well, I’m a sheep, and I’m already buying them. Is that to say you should too?
Here’s the secret message of the column. Read the ones you want to read about the characters you want to read about. If you want to know what’s going on with Darkhawk, read his mini-series. If you don’t care, skip it. Same goes for Grundy mini-series leading into Blackest Night.
With any luck, the events won’t need them to stand their ground, and if that’s the case, then success.
And you may find yourself living in a shutdown shack, and you may find yourself in another part of the world, and you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile, and you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, and you may ask yourself….well…..how did I get here?
First off, and most importantly, if you didn’t read the new issue of JSA, then you have something wrong with you. Teth Adam returned under the pencil of the man that made him out of awesome, Geoff Johns, as the final arc of Johns JSA kicks off. Adam is back, Isis is back, Faust is castrated, and Billy is a kid. It’s time for the shit to hit the fan, and it’s time to see Teth unleash his bad assness as only Geoff Johns (and Peter Tomasi) can make happen.
Color me surprised when I liked the last issue of Revelations more than anything else in the mini, which I still think was a waste of time. Sure, I love me some Vandal Savage, and yes, I do feel he needs more love as a villain, but can’t we do him one better than this? Hopefully he’ll continue killing as Cain, though I do have to wonder how long it will be until this is completely forgotten.
Legion ended with a bit of a whimper under the writing of Justin Thyme. The pseudonym makes me cringe, and means this book ended with a bullet in the head, but at least my precious Dream Girl is back!
Paul Dini needs to come back to Batman after the Battle for the Cowl and keep doing what he’s been doing. Or just give him a Catwoman solo series to go with his Zatanna one. Hell, give him a Hush one. Or a Scarface. Or a Riddler. I guess the point is that nobody writes the supporting cast quite like Paul Dini.
My eyes deceived me as I read and enjoyed two books in one week penciled by Humberto Ramos. Normally saying that about one of his books is hard, but two? Unquestionably hell has frozen over.
Who the hell is Eli Bard? He’s the making of a great story, and an intriguing origin story. Another win by Kyle and Yost, though I’m not surprised. And yay for that last page reveal! Sure he’s a bad guy now, but Proudstar is going to have a hell of a fight on his hands.
New Avengers kept up its usual level of quality and featured the picture perfect reaction to the Dark Avengers press conference, not to mention Luke Cage being his usual levels of awesome. I can NOT wait for 50! New Avengers vs Dark Avengers! Luke vs Norman! FIGHT!
Nova is still awesome and amazing and wicked and radical and uncanny and astonishing and yes, I can do this all day. Abnett and Lanning turned a C list New Warrior into an A list hero that’s done more good in two years then most Marvel characters have done in thirty. He saved the damn universe, TWICE. And now? Now he’s being stabbed in the back, but a future cover gives us a Quasar teaser, and we all know how much Rich loves to be the man.
Captain America gave us our first truly well written Namor since the last time Brubaker wrote him, and continued the new story about the original Torch. The last page alone is worth the price of admission though, as Buck has to do something he hoped and prayed to not have to ever do again to save his friend. He has to be the Winter Soldier.
What I read last week:
* Batman
* Final Crisis
* Final Crisis: Revelations
* JSA
* Legion of Super Heroes
* Superman
* Teen Titans
* Avengers: The Initiative
* Captain America
* Fantastic Four
* New Avengers
* Nova
* Runaways
* X-Force
Best of the week:
1. JSA
2. Final Crisis
3. Captain America
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