What was the last great "event"?

[racemccloud]

If you start from today, this moment, and look back chronologically, what was the most recent really great comic book "event"? Was it "Civil War"? "Infinite Crisis"? Or you have to all the way back to "Secret Wars" (the original, not the Bendis/painted/"Armor Wars" rehash thing) or "Crisis on Infinite Earths"?

The last event that I totally enjoyed the hell out of wasn't even a major, company-wide, every-character "event", it was the more second-tier mid-level event, "Green Lantern: Rebirth", which was so beautifully done (and drawn) that I felt like I was watching the greatest possible "Green Lantern" movie. Other than that, I don't know if any event really has struck me as "great" in recent years. I just re-read "House of M"... which I thought started great, ended weak, and was full of wasted potential in both its plot and its conclusions.

Other opinions?

[esophagus]

Infinite Crisis, was definitely my favorite fullscale event in the last while. Great stuff.

[conorkilpatrick]

If you count 52 as an event then defintiely that. If not, then Infinite Crisis.

[labor_days]

If 52 is considered an event, make that my choice. Otherwise, Identity Crisis and a little further back, Infinity Gauntlet are my favorites.

[esophagus]

Yeah, I would definitely have to add Identity Crisis to my list. That was amazing.

[mikegraham6]

i really really really like the first half of civil war and the last issue of house of m. but in terms of fullscale events, i'll probably have to go with 52 (or if we aren't counting it, then it's also identity crisis)

[cormano]

I'm saying Civil War. There were problems in the second half, but I've never been more excited about an event than I was last summer for Civil War. I think if McNiven could have stayed on schedule, it would not have negative view a lot of people have of it. Frontline got bad in the last quarter of it's run but otherwise, I really enjoyed the whole thing.

[luthor]

Planet Hulk, Identity Crisis and Batman: Hush rank for me.

[six-gun]

Infinite/Identity Crisis are my two favorite recent events.

[labor_days]

Was Hush really an event? It went on for a long while but I really didn't think it was an event, per se.

[jimski]

Was Hush really an event? It went on for a long while but I really didn't think it was an event, per se.

I was thinking the same thing about Identity Crisis, though I certainly liked it. I guess if you're reading a universe-spanning miniseries featuring characters who already have their own books, that's as good a definition as any.

For me? It'd have to be X-Men: Endangered Species.

Seriously though, probably Civil War. The highs were high, the lows were low; it thrilled me, it frustrated me, it wore me out; it was just like most of my best relationships.

[labor_days]

Yes, but the lead up and fallout of Identity Crisis had a larger effect on the DCU. The JLA broke up because of Zatanna's mindwiping which led to the state of mistrust that gave us Brother Eye, Omacs and all that Infinite Crisis errata. I'd say that's an event.

Hush? Don't know about that one.

[luthor]

Was Hush really an event? It went on for a long while but I really didn't think it was an event, per se.

I consider it a creator central event. Jeph Loeb was at the top of his game and it was Jim Lee's big return to monthly comics. It sold a gazillion issues and had lasting ramifications on the DCU...

[diabhol]

"great" in recent years. I just re-read "House of M"... which I thought started great, ended weak, and was full of wasted potential in both its plot and its conclusions.

Other opinions?

See, I thought House of M was pretty awesome.

What would've made it better?



[M]

[labor_days]

I consider it a creator central event. Jeph Loeb was at the top of his game and it was Jim Lee's big return to monthly comics. It sold a gazillion issues and had lasting ramifications on the DCU...That's a fair assessment. I dig Hush a lot but it doesn't seem as "big" to me as your various Crisis of Infinite proportions.

[paper]

I just had a birthday.

Another vote for Identity Crisis (I feel like I say this weekly).

[racemccloud]

See, I thought House of M was pretty awesome.

What would've made it better?



[M]

Here, see, this is interesting. I, too, when I started House of M, and when I started re-reading it, thought it was really freakin' awesome. In fact, when I got three chapters in or so, I thought "why didn't I enjoy this more when it first came out?" Fact is, I DID enjoy it more on the re-read. IN FACT, my biggest gripe may have been... I wanted more of it.

I freakin' love Bendis. Love, love, love his work. I'll buy any character, any book, any company, if he's writing it. Yes, his stuff is dialogue heavy, but it's characteristically brilliantly written dialogue. In fact, his character work/dialogue is so good that, when he's dealing with twenty plus characters as he was in House of M, there are dozens of little moments you just want expanded on. That never happened in the maind book. Also, it was a really complicated plot that was rushed through only seven issues. I guess this is why I look at it and think, "wasted potential!" I think it had the POTENTIAL to be one of the best... events... ever, but it felt rushed. I wanted to spend more time in this world, more time in this alternate reality, more time with the mystery. I wanted 12 double-sized issues. I wanted this to have a trade the size of the first "Secret Wars" or "Crisis". I felt like we barely had time to play in this new world, and we're already rushing to the conclusion (which suffered from confusing page layouts, in my untrained opinion.)

I enjoyed it more than I did "Civil War", but I thought both series of "The Ultimates" (for example) felt like more thorough big time events than House of M. Marvel's policy with these events, it seems, is to have six or seven regular sized issue that try to deal with every character in the universe, and then they give you the tie-ins all over the place. Problem is, the tie-ins are usually ass (although they're better now than they were in the days of "Infinity Crusade" and "Infinity War".) In fact, I thought "Civil War" had the same type of problem; the events in the main series felt rushed. It just seems like DC events get the plus sized royal treatment, where everything crucial happens in the main book (even when there are forty other books LEADING UP to the event); I'm just not a DC guy so I don't anticipate or connect to those as much as I do the Marvel stuff.

This is pretty long winded... bottom line with "House of M", I enjoyed it , really liked it, just enough to really want more of it in the main book, and that didn't happen, so I felt short-changed. That's the best way to describe it.


P.S. - The "No More Mutants" bit, so much promise, has been executed poorly; the "where did all that energy go" bit became some lame-ass supervillain in the worst "New Avengers" arc, some dude who ended up in Canada on Omega Flight; and although Bendis and Peter David are my favorite all-time writers, somebody'd better explain to me pretty soon just where the hell Layla Miller came from, even though she is pretty brolic, which is a good thing.

[racemccloud]

I just had a birthday.

Another vote for Identity Crisis (I feel like I say this weekly).

Happy Birthday!

[humphrey-lee]

I don't think I've found the words "great" and "event" to be ones that go hand in hand very often... actually, lemme just change that to "at all". I mean, IDENTITY CRISIS was great until a pretty dud final act, ANNIHILATION was really pretty good, but definitely not "great", COIE is "great" in the fact that it legitimately had ramifications and was truly widespread in execution, but as far as actual writing goes it's pretty bland and atypical of the time.

Yeah, there's been some good ones, but nothing great that I've ever encountered.

[jo11ypenguin]

I have picked up the last few events up in trades on the marvel side. I dont even know where to start as far as events for the DCU so let me know. I am reading 52 in trades and I am enjoying that, but I really like House of M. I am a total sucker for alternate reality kinda stuff.

[acomicbookgirl]

Sinestro Corps is the best event going on right now..

[labor_days]

ACBG, wins thread.

Mods, please close.

[humphrey-lee]

ACBG, wins thread.

Mods, please close.

She said "going on right now" which, sure, it is, but overall, it's still only just pretty above average.

[acomicbookgirl]

She said "going on right now" which, sure, it is, but overall, it's still only just pretty above average.

Have you read any of it?

Anywho, I have a question would JLA/Avengers be considered an event or was it just a crossover thing between two companies?

[sullivan85]

I really liked the mutant crossover "Inferno". Call me old school...

[davegraham]

For the recent past, I have found I keep going back to Avengers Disassembled to reread and enjoy. Not only did it reset the status quo for the Avengers, but it laid the ground work for House of M (messing with the status quo of all mutant books), and it echoed into Civil War. Also, what is up with the Skrull that appears in a single panel during the battle against the Kree? Hmmmmmm...

I always liked Age of Apocalypse as an X-Men event. I don't read a lot of internet chatter about it, but that event made me into an X-Fan during and for about two years afterwards. I bought every X-Comic that was a tie in and thought they were all bad ass. It also turned me on the Joe Mad, which the lateness of Battle Chasers, unfortunately, turned me off to.

Infinity Gauntlet made me into a Captain America fan. The scene when Cap stares down Thanos was very cool.

Did anyone read the Marvel UK series Mys-Tech Wars (early Bryan Hitch)? I don't remember much of the plot other than monsters coming to earth and killing a bunch of superheroes, including Spider-man and Nick Fury. I remember my friends and me going nuts over it. I am going to have to go into the vault and pull my copies out for rereading.

[labor_days]

...overall, it's still only just pretty above average.

I beg to differ. The only average books in the event have been the GL Corps series (one of which was really good). The Sinestro one shot and GL proper have been terrific space adventure comics.

[humphrey-lee]

I beg to differ. The only average books in the event have been the GL Corps series (one of which was really good). The Sinestro one shot and GL proper have been terrific space adventure comics.

Eh, opinions differ I guess. I've read everything for this off the shelf (except the last GL ish cause it sold out here) and it's been good on average (the GL issues being better than but the GLC issues being a little below to drag it down), but nothing I haven't seen before. It's too forced into trying to make me think it really matters since a bunch of villains that in all honesty are so powerful on their own right they should have annihilated the universe by now joined together are killing a bunch of characters that have maybe existed a whole handful of issues and have pretty much no emotional history to pull on so that when they die I actually give a damn besides the violence.

It's like Annihilation, except I actually did care about most of the deaths in that one.

I stick by with idea that you'll find a bunch of "really good" but no "great" events out there. Except Armageddon 2001. That was tits!

[labor_days]

Yeah, guess I disagree then. Loving the big action scenes, the GL mythos and breakneck pacing in the Sinestro War.


edit: FTR, I didn't care about any of the people in Annihilation. The lost Lanterns, Kyle and Hal- I give a shit about.

[venom62]

Infinity Gauntlet was a great event imo.
Everything after that was weak but it seems unfair to judge a awesome story poorly because they beat the concept to death after.

VVeisser

[esophagus]

Are all of these things really "events"? I guess so. But I was really just thinking of something that spans plenty of titles when I said that.

[davegraham]

Are all of these things really "events"? I guess so. But I was really just thinking of something that spans plenty of titles when I said that.

It depends on how many titles you consider a "plenty" to be. I would say all crossovers are "events" but do all events have to crossover? Hmmmm. I say, no. An event is any story that shakes or resets the status quo.

[kwok_talk]

As of recently, probably the House of M / Avengers Disassembled storylines. Conceptually I’ve always had a soft spot for the Acts of Vengeance, getting to see different heroes and villains spar. I never got to read all of it, but it sounds like it didn’t really work well in execution.

[luthor]

As of recently, probably the House of M / Avengers Disassembled storylines. Conceptually I’ve always had a soft spot for the Acts of Vengeance, getting to see different heroes and villains spar. I never got to read all of it, but it sounds like it didn’t really work well in execution.

Acts of Vengeance...that was SO good. I need to dig out that Wolverine Vs The Mandarin issue(Claremont at his finest, Jim Lee art and a really blatant shot at Batman..love it!)