There are few things as exciting to comics fans as seeing their favorite heroes come together to deal with immense threats whom no one hero or team can handle alone. These stories, the ones that companies spend months or even years ramping up to, are filled with classic moments, amazing battles, and even some tears.
And while the industry loves a good event series, these stories that promise to change everything sometimes end up leaving readers feeling less than fulfilled. Sometimes these tales of unimaginable scope end up being so much less than what the fans had hoped for. But when an event series really works, it makes everyone excited for what comes next.
10 GOOD: An Event Can Help Clean House
Possibly the most well-known comic book event story is DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths. Released from April 1985 to March 1986, this 12-issue series saw 50 years of DC continuity ripped apart and put back together, resetting the oldest comics universe in the world and letting writers and artists recreate some of the best-known superheroes ever made.
Along with returning Superman to his place as the only Kryptonian, Crisis on Infinite Earths cleaned up decades of confusing continuity and collapsed DC's multiverse into a single Earth, making the stories easier for readers to follow.
9 BAD: They Can Get Expensive
There was a time when the event series was essentially a self-contained story with all the major events happening in a single series. Crisis on Infinite Earths and Marvel's Secret Wars II had crossover issues, but readers didn't need to pick them up to understand what was happening in the main event title. These days, it isn't that simple.
Over the last few years, event series have had a tenancy to take place across a number of mini-series or books, spreading out the main events across a variety of titles. All of this can end up costing readers a pretty penny.
8 GOOD: They Bring Attention To The Universe
A good event can bring new eyes to a comic universe. DC's launch of the New 52, which spawned out of Flashpoint, introduced new readers to the company's books without having to worry about too much backstory. Marvel's original Civil War created headlines around the world when Spider-Man revealed his identity to the world. A well-planned and effective event not only excites the usual reader-base but also brings in new readers and helps lapsed readers return to the fold. Of course, that goodwill can go away real fast if the company isn't careful.
7 BAD: Everything Changes, But Not Really
Take Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world in Civil War as a great example of throwing away the goodwill an event series can create. Less than a year after the famous Wallcrawler revealed his true self on TV, Marvel had the hero make a deal with Mephisto that, along with a few other major changes to the character, made everyone forget that Peter Parker was Spider-Man.
This is an ongoing issue with event series. Companies make big promises that the story will forever change everything, but pretty often, the event has little to no effect on the universe, or the changes are reverted after a brief time.
6 GOOD: They Introduce Readers To Other Characters
A good event series can help introduce readers to characters they may not know very well. By bringing all the heroes together, readers who pick up the event series may get a chance to see characters they don't normally follow in a new light, helping to increase that character's fanbase.
Event series are often used as a chance to help show off the skills of C and D list characters or introduce totally new characters. DC's Dark Nights: Death Metal reintroduced readers to Sgt. Rock, while Marvel's original Secret Wars introduced the Beyonder and his race to the universe.
5 BAD: They Can Interrupt Stories
Usually, an event series spreads out to the monthly titles a company is putting out, which means that the story in Inhumans vs X-Men suddenly pops into Deadpool & the Mercs for Money for two issues. Sometimes these crossover issues can seamlessly flow with the story that is already happening in the books, but in other cases, they can feel like an odd intrusion, stopping a plotline in its tracks for months. In fact, Batman Incorporated, which was interrupted by Flashpoint and New 52, ended mid-story and left fans waiting for a year before a special one-shot was released to tie things up.
4 GOOD: They Help Connect Everything
Even though the heroes may live in the same universe, sometimes it can feel like Captain America and Cyclops are on separate Earths as the events of their own books are so different. But a good event series can bring all the heroes together and help remind readers that they do in fact share one place. It also allows characters to make new friends with characters they may not otherwise interact with, leading to fun team-ups that end up becoming fan favorites, like Punisher and Doctor Strange working together in Original Sin. Seeing the characters come together is a much-loved piece of a good event series.
3 BAD: Things Can Get Confusing
An event series can end up making quite a few changes to characters in the blink of an eye. If, in 1984, a fan happened to pick up Fantastic Four #265, they would be greeted with a story that saw Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and the Thing vanishing in a bright light, only for Reed and Johnny to return a few pages later with She-Hulk alongside them wearing her own Fantastic Four uniform. If that fan had no knowledge of the events of the company's Secret Wars event, which hadn't even started yet, they would have no idea what had happened to Ben Grimm. Events can lead to a lot of confusion for readers who don't buy into the series.
2 GOOD: There Are Epic Tales For Epic Characters
An event series is always meant to be an epic tale, something that can't be contained within the pages of a company's usual titles. Stories like Dark Nights: Death Metal and Secret Empire are, in theory, so powerful and important that they need to stand out from everything else, showing off why these characters have lasted for so long.
A good event story is an epic tale that reminds readers why they love the characters and comic book universes so much. They do things that no TV show or movie can ever pull off, bringing together hundreds of characters and altering the landscape of comics for years to come.
1 BAD: They Can Create Reader Fatigue
But of course, too many epic tales can take away the shine. As more and more events seem to just lead into the next big event, readers start to get tired with trying to keep up with all the changes and deaths and rebirths. Soon enough, some readers begin to wonder if they would be better off saving the hundreds of dollars it can cost to read every part of Dark Nights: Death Metal or King in Black. If companies like DC and Marvel aren't careful, they can burn their readers out with too many events and crossovers.