The news from this past weekend that Journey Into Mystery will be crossing over with The Mighty Thor for a story arc called “Everything Burns” got me wondering something: Is Journey Into Mystery the most crossed-over title we’ve seen from a publisher in awhile?
It’s definitely the best most crossed-over title we’ve seen; JiM is continually a great read, with writer Kieron Gillen bringing a specific (and deeply enjoyable) tone to the book despite the number of other stories it gets itself involved in. But “Everything Burns” will apparently run from #642-645 of the title, following on from “Exiled,” the book’s crossover with New Mutants in #637 and #638. Of course, the title launched with a number of Fear Itself tie-in issues from #622-630, meaning that in 24 issues of the title’s existence, only nine won’t have been labelled as some kind of crossover or tie-in to another series or event (I’m being kind and assuming that the “Shattered Heroes” banner that the book had for five of those issues is, essentially, sales-based and not story-centric).
Even in these event-centric times, that really does feel like a small number, doesn’t it? And yet, the realities of the business these days being what they are, that number of tie-ins and crossovers is possibly what’s managed to keep the book around all this time – Maybe I should be grateful that the book has been good despite the cross-continuity demands, and glad that it’s found itself in the center of all these storylines, because otherwise, it wouldn’t necessarily be around at all…
April 17th, 2012 at 8:10 am
“Maybe I should be grateful that the book has been good despite the cross-continuity demands…”
Yes, I think that is just what you should do.
April 17th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Maybe since Ms. Marvel and Civil War – which rendered the actual comic unreadable.
April 17th, 2012 at 11:27 am
RF for the win.
April 17th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
I didn’t mean that in a snide way. But JOURNEY has become one of my all time favorite comics ever. The fact that it got its start crossing over into a story everybody hated (while practically single-handedly redeeming that story) makes it all the more remarkable an achievement, I guess, but it’s not terrifically relevant.
I guess I’d just hate for people who AREN’T reading this incredible series to get turned off by the idea that it’s the crossoveriest comic in comicsdom.
April 17th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Read what you like. Graeme clearly likes the book, so who cares if it ties into other stories? If its good, what does it matter?
April 19th, 2012 at 1:21 am
maybe i am missing out, but i am not going to start a title that requires other, lesser books to buy to get the full story. Its bad enough that it launched as part of an event that most Marvel Zombies still won’t justify as worth reading. There are WAAAAAAAAAAY too many great comics out now to get pulled down the event rabbit hole
April 19th, 2012 at 6:36 am
See?!?