This caught my eye from Albert’s postgame Fear Itself chat with editor Tom Brevoort and writer Matt Fraction, who’s the one behind this quote:
[F]or me it really ends with the #7.1, #7.2 and #7.3. To explain it to you in Star Wars, this is sort of like we’ve stopped the movie after the first guy tried to build up the Death Star in the trench and blew it. Luke has just switched off the targeting computer, and credits. We’re not quite there yet. I expect when the Point One, Point Two and Point Three issues are all out, and we have a chance to bury Bucky, to burn Thor, and for Tony and Odin to have their final showdown, then I’ll feel like it’s truly done, but at this point there’s still a lot of stuff out there — the character stuff, the whole thing that brings people to these stories, that brought me to this story in the first place — kind of unanswered.
Now, I know that in something like the Marvel Universe, there’s never any real endings and that crossover event books always have epilogues and all of that, but… there’s something really… odd seeing the writer of an event book tell you that the final issue isn’t actually the ending, even though the issues that are the ending as the writer intended – issues that aren’t entirely written by said writer, nor drawn by series artist Stuart Immonen, off for a well-deserved rest after seven issues of carnage – aren’t contained in the collection of the series, right?
(I know that #7 does, in fact, close out the main action of the series, and I suspect that the #7.1-7.3 issues are much more epilogue than Fraction suggests above, before anyone points it out. But there’s something very, very strange and offputting about a writer outright saying “Hey, that last issue? I don’t think it’s the end, pick up these three comics instead” when the three comics aren’t apparently official enough to stick in the collection.)
October 27th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
It doesn’t end. Year-round-event is the new publishing paradigm.
(Fraction & Brevoort apparently think they still need to sell the idea.)
October 27th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Offputting indeed.
October 27th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
Yeah, sounds like he’s just pitching them just to milk it.
October 28th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Where does it all end?
For me, about 3 years ago when I saw the writing on the wall and dropped 99% of the Marvel books I bought for decades because I hate this stupid unending crossover crap.
October 28th, 2011 at 10:38 am
I’m not really all that pissed off and don’t understand those who are. The series is over and these are the follow-up or aftermath stories. If Marvel wants to market them as 7.1 and so on then that’s on them- you don’t need to buy them. And from this site’s own interview with Fraction/Breevoort it seems it wasn’t their idea either. I’m guessing the idea came from some corporate suit- hello David Gabriel.
And actually I’m looking forward to these more than I did the main series. These are the actual character pieces that I missed in Fear Itself- people reacting to Bucky and Thor’s death and Tony dealing with himself.
I’m guessing these will turn out to be good stories. The delivery of them does leave a lot to be desired.
October 28th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
It doesn’t really bother me. I would’ve prefered if they were dealt with in the characters’ own books. My first reaction, though, is that 3 epilogue issues, plus two epilogue minis seems a bit excessive. I’m simply voting with my dollars and not getting the ones that don’t interest me.
October 28th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
It ends when Marvel stops making movies and DC stops sucking. THATS THE TICKET
October 30th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
This is why I’m practically not buying any books from Marvel. Too many crossovers, too many comics, price is too high. They are trying to cheat me and get me buy a lot of comics seemingly putting out random crossovers, or .1 comics, or a few other stupid ideas, and these second stories to get the whole big picture are usually from crappy art teams. So Marvel is out from my buying list, all hail DC, IDW and Zenescope
October 31st, 2011 at 4:15 am
I wish the fans got a vote ahead of time on whether some of these “events” should proceed. Civil War and Invasion? Sure. Chaos War? No. Fear Itself? HELL no.
October 31st, 2011 at 11:26 am
I mean….I understand the need for closure, and its the same as the Fallen Son minis after Civil War that dealt with character reactions to Captain America’s death, but who really thinks Thor’s death is going to stick? Especially with the Avengers movie coming out next year?