I’ll admit, I became a lot less excited about DC’s Flashpoint when the sixteen spin-off series (and four additional one-shot spin-offs) were announced. That’s a new record for spin-off titles, as far as I can tell (This year’s Marvel event, Fear Itself, isn’t even close with “just” thirteen spin-offs to date, although there’s still time for it to catch up) and, hopefully, the culmination of what’s become a ridiculous trend for events in recent years.
As far as I can tell, DC’s 1986 Legends was the first event to spin-off its own mini-series, although Cosmic Boy (Also, of course, a spin-off from Legion of Super-Heroes) had more to do that just vamp between Legends plot threads and, perhaps more importantly, didn’t include the word “Legends” in the title. The spin-off book as brand extension came, I think, with Marvel’s House of M in 2005, which managed 5 sub-minis (Fantastic Four: House of M,The Incredible Hulk: House of M, Iron-Man: House of M, Mutopia X: House of M,and Spider-Man: House of M). Marvel’s 2006 Civil War, which sprawled wildly across something like 90 individual issues all told, only managed 7 spin-offs that had “Civil War” in the title, the same number as both Siege and DC’s Blackest Night (Oddly enough, Marvel’s mini-event Shadowland had 8 spin-offs bearing its title), so it’s no wonder that the jump to Flashpoint‘s 20 – all announced at the same time, and launching in the same month! – feels like a whole new level of overkill.
That said, it’s not, not really; presuming that DC doesn’t change its mind and add additional tie-ins once the initial sales figures are in (See Blackest Night, Sinestro Corps War, etc.), Flashpoint is going to be limited to the core series, the branded spin-offs, and issues of Booster Gold… which means that the whole story will run 62 issues (66, if you count the Flash “Road To” issues), far lower than, say, the 77 issues of Blackest Night (excluding “prelude” issues) or the nearly 100 of Secret Invasion. So is it just that there are so many titles called Flashpoint: [Insert Title Here], and that they’re all launching at the same time? Why does Flashpoint already feel bloated, before most people have had a chance to even read the first issue?
May 11th, 2011 at 10:17 am
It’s funny, I could have sworn Civil War had a ton more branded spin-offs. Hell, I thought they had more than 7 in one-shots alone with all those quick ones Marvel put out during the various delays bringing that number up.
May 11th, 2011 at 10:56 am
It’ll be “too much” the minute people stop buying them. DC and Marvel are businesses. People may be tired of them, but if they keep buying them, why should DC and Marvel stop?
May 11th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Gotta say, after going back and reading almost every Blackest Night tie-in, I don’t think that was at all bloated. Not every tie-in was necessary, but on the whole it worked a lot better than I expected.
Also, Graeme, I want to respond to your op-ed about why we read superhero comics, but I don’t use Twitter. Any other way to contact you? (I miss the old message board style here.)
May 11th, 2011 at 11:38 am
At $3 a book x 66 books, Flashpoint just doesn’t seem like a $200 series. Not hopping on board for it.
May 11th, 2011 at 11:50 am
I think it’s because they’re a) rolling them all out at once and b) are all brand new titles. I think the whole TITLE: CROSSOVER system makes it less obvious.
I do wonder when we’ll reach our saturation point with this stuff. I’m not reading either of them, which actually makes me a little sad, as I’d love read an exciting, big event — but both of them leave me cold.
Honestly, until the vast majority of comic book buyers stop buying out of habit, we’ll continue to get event books.
May 11th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
I miss the days when the crossovers were weekly. Zero Hour, Genesis, even DC One Million, one issue each week. That way the crossover would last a month (maybe 5 or 6 weeks depending) and it’d be done with. Now Flashpoint will last at least 5 months, and Blackest Night lasted the better part of a year.
And I know people hated when a crossover would hijack the monthly title, but without involvement from the regular series, the “event” just become even more ignorable and less important.
I will be picking up the Flashpoint series itself, but will be skipping the majority of the minis.
May 11th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
I just had to make a correction. The Incredible Hulk House of M story was told in the actual Incredible Hulk title. There was no separate House of M book for it.
May 11th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
“It’ll be ‘too much’ the minute people stop buying them. DC and Marvel are businesses. People may be tired of them, but if they keep buying them, why should DC and Marvel stop?”
Line-wide sales at DC and Marvel are approaching RECORD lows, as this site and countless others have already reported. People HAVE stopped buying them, but the problem is that they’ve stopped buying EVERYTHING, so it’s only the REMAINING customers who keep buying these things.
This is what happens when you cater so long and so exclusively to a niche audience that’s so very much out of touch with the rest of the public.
May 11th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
You see April 2011 sales down from March after a sizable jump and this after Fear Itself’s first issue was the number one book for the month. People are getting turned off alright.
May 12th, 2011 at 8:21 am
Blackest Night was super bloated. Most of the tie-ins amounted to: DECEASED LOVED ONE RETURNS. HERO IS INITIALLY PLEASED BUT SOON DISCOVERS THE TRUTH. HERO MUST SUMMON ALL HIS COURAGE TO DEFEAT AN ENEMY THAT LOOKS LIKE A FRIEND.
May 12th, 2011 at 8:47 am
@Jasons,
March was a five week month, April was a four week month. Sales figures are going to be down a bit.
TY vs. LY figures were basically identical, and that’s compared to a month with the beginning of Brightest Day (which was another event comic).
May 12th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
I actually prefer the way DC is going about things now, where they are doing events, but trying to minimize the impact on the monthly titles by doing mini-spinoffs. This allows for creators to do what they are going to do in the regular titles, and makes it easier to ignore the tie-ins I don’t want. However, I won’t buy many of the minis because I have my regular books to purchase. Sooooooo….end result, good for me, bad for DC business, I guess.
I will be buying the main series, though. I like the fact that it is briefer (5 issues over four months) than other events.
May 12th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Look, if Fear Itself is the number one book of the month (even if sales are down across the board), doesn’t that say people ARE NOT tired of events? It’s NUMBER ONE! The fact that sales are down across the board isn’t an indication that people are tired of events, it’s that there are less comic buyers period. A true indication that events are turning people off would be if Fear Itself came in at Number TEN.