Augie De Blieck notices a recurring theme in Marvel’s storytelling:
Axel Alonso to Newsarama: “We have a great idea for something next summer that will be the culmination of a lot of things that will be building in the books.”I’m sure if I dug up enough interviews in CBR’s archives from the last ten years, we’d find that this is about the tenth time a Marvel Editor In Chief made that claim about the next major crossover event.
“Civil War” was the culmination of what started in “Avengers Disassembled.”
“Secret Invasion” was the culmination of Brian Bendis’ eight year Avengers plan.
That, of course, was after “Dark Reign” culminated in “The List.” That series “heralded the next major chapter of the Marvel Universe,” which implies that it’s also the culmination of the last chapter.
“The Siege” was touted as the “culmination of five years of event comics.”
And, heck, the Marvel NOW! Initiative is the culmination of Marvel ReEvolution, which just started a couple of months ago.
That’s not forgetting that Avengers vs. X-Men was also described, at one point, as the culmination of everything that’s happened in the Marvel Universe since Avengers Disassembled. Marvel: Where things keep ending, over and over and over again, apparently.
July 18th, 2012 at 8:35 am
Don’t you just hate Marvel!
July 18th, 2012 at 8:41 am
So this is different than the all the CRISIS books…. how? This is what the majors do… they culminate. They’ve been doing it for what.. decades now? Kind of a NO NEWS segment here.
July 18th, 2012 at 8:58 am
Then again , what are the complaints even about ? So yeah they start stuff based on stories , plots and crumbs they dropped over years . Isnt that precisely what they should be doing ?
July 18th, 2012 at 9:31 am
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
July 18th, 2012 at 9:47 am
In Graeme’s defense, this mostly comes from Augie.
But it is a case of the boy who called wolf. The problem is that we keep falling for it. The Big Two have their hands tied, anyway, when it comes to culminations. They can’t drastically change their IPs for any real length of time and they have to keep copyrights alive, so ultimately it’s the same types of stories over and over again.
Not that great creators can’t work within that framework and produce excellent stories, but there are constraints, even if they’re just broad ones.
July 18th, 2012 at 11:40 am
I dont even see what’s there to defend . Those that quasi immortal serialized series , not mangas with a beginning a middle and an end .
If you dont expect such series to go on constantly dropping storyline leading to lumination then rinse repeat … change your medium of entertainement .
Even more so when you at least got a way to see some of those heroes in more contained stories and permanent effects , with the movie adaptations .
July 18th, 2012 at 11:43 am
Marvel DID end for lots of people. We stopped buying their comics. See: resolution achieved.
July 18th, 2012 at 11:51 am
This is comics, where the second act never ends. Is that what we love about this stuff?
Much like soap operas (their years-long stories really are the closest thing), we follow these characters for a while, then the spotlight goes to someone else, only to have it go back sometime later. Or we stop watching/reading for a while, but we can always pick it up again when we want to see these characters we’ve invested so much in.
Are Luke and Laura still on General Hospital?
July 18th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
“In Graeme’s defense, this mostly comes from Augie.”
Ah, of course. Augie MADE him reblog this!!!
Certainly the several different creators/editors mentioned here could have used different verbiage, but really, this is serialized storytelling. It’s kind of like complaining that television shows have season finales and season premieres.
July 18th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Axel you just made my point for me. One endless cycle of thing leading to another thing. You wonder why fans have extreme event/crossover fatigue.
July 18th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
The real question is, does this depress you ?
July 18th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Supermutant: “One endless cycle of thing leading to another thing.”
I don’t get it. Are you expecting to say “well, that’s it! story’s over!” and just cancel X-Men?
July 18th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I’m shocked, shocked to find out Marvel keeps trying to tell stories that seem to from one into the next, and keeps telling us they’ll be exciting! Ridiculous! As if that’s what we want in our comics! I wish they’d just admit they’re making it all up and trying to keep us buying!
July 18th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I’m shocked, shocked to find out Marvel keeps trying to tell stories that seem to flow from one into the next, and keeps telling us they’ll be exciting! Ridiculous! As if that’s what we want in our comics! I wish they’d just admit they’re making it all up and trying to keep us buying!
July 18th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
I just wanted to say: I’M BUYING A PSYLOCKE COSTUME FOR MY GIRLFRIEND :d
July 18th, 2012 at 8:37 pm
So, you’ve finished building the girlfriend, then?
July 19th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Bells –
Luke is on General Hospital last I checked. Laura hasn’t been on in years.
July 20th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
I wouldn’t mind all these events if they would take a break every once in a while or follow up on some of the stuff they do(all the stuff from World War Hulk felt like it was swept under a rug after it was done, so they could shuffle on to the next big event).
Even tv shows don’t always end the season on a big cliffhanger.