Marvel has gone all in on event storytelling. There have been some great event comics over the years from the publisher, but there's a reason that the event cycle Marvel uses has been criticized. The comics publisher is known for hyping its events, something that has backfired multiple times over the years. Plenty of Marvel event books have fallen short of the hype.
There are a lot of disappointing Marvel events out there, usually ones that got built up for months in advance at times and altered a character in a way fans disapproved of. Fans either never really connected with these books or, at worst, completely hate them.
10 Infinity Crusade Underwhelmed Compared To Its Predecessors
Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War are two of Marvel's best event books. These early '90s Marvel crossover events revolved around Adam Warlock's return to the Marvel Universe and Thanos's character development. By returning writer Jim Starlin and artist Ron Lim, Infinity Crusade pit the heroes of Marvel against Goddess, the good side of Adam Warlock that expelled when he gained the Infinity Gauntlet.
Infinity Crusade just doesn't stand up to its predecessors. It had some huge shoes to fill, but didn't have as good a hook as the prior two entries. Crusade is the black sheep of the Infinity Trilogy and let mid-'90s Marvel fans down.
9 Civil War II Is Widely Regarded As One Of The Worst Marvel Events Ever
Civil War was rather important to Marvel history, but its reception has been mixed. Its sequel, Civil War II, isn't lucky enough to have a mixed reception. Civil War II, by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Marquez, was seemingly released to take advantage of Captain America: Civil War's release. The sequel pits Captain Marvel and Iron Man against eachother.
Civil War II was so obviously a cash grab that it's remained a poorly-received comic event. The plot is simplistic and actually mischaracterizes Captain Marvel and Iron Man worse than Civil War mischaracterized its main characters.
8 X Of Swords Killed The Momentum Of The X-Men Books
The X-Men comics became Marvel's hottest books after their relaunch by writer Jonathan Hickman. After the first year, Marvel threw all the books into one giant twenty-two part crossover, X Of Swords. Besides the three one-shots, one in the beginning, middle, and end, fans were forced to read the story if they were buying the X-Men books, even if they weren't interested in it.
X Of Swords pit the mutants of Krakoa against the mutants of Arakko and the demons of Amenth in contests in the other dimensional domain of Otherworld. There were some good individual issues, but overall, X Of Swords took too much time to build up and killed the momentum the books had.
7 House Of M Damaged Scarlet Witch's Character
It's hard to deny that House Of M had huge consequences, but it's often a chore to get through. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Olivier Coipel, the story was the event that kicked off Marvel's modern event cycle. House Of M transported the heroes of the Marvel Universe to an alternate universe created by Scarlet Witch, one where mutants were the ascendant species.
House Of M had the kind of impact an event should, but it still wasn't a winner. The art is frequently great but Bendis's long-winded writing style and world-building didn't help the book. The story also did damage to Scarlet Witch's character and the mutants that took years to fix.
6 Return Of Wolverine Has Been Ignored Since Its Release
There are plenty of Wolverine stories fans want to forget, and on the list is Return Of Wolverine by writer Charles Soule and artists Steve McNiven and Declan Shalvey. The art is pretty great throughout, even if the differing styles clash a bit, but the writing isn't as good. Return Of Wolverine introduces another evil secret organization bedeviling Wolverine and is responsible for Wolverine's hot claws power.
Marvel built the story for months in advance with four miniseries of varying quality, hyping Wolverine fans up. Return Of Wolverine delivered on its premise, at least, but in such a way that the whole thing has been ignored since the last issue came out.
5 The Clone Saga Went On For Way Too Long
Marvel is great for telling stories that change the game, but not all of them are good. That was the problem with the Clone Saga. The return of the Spider-Clone is a sound idea and there's some great story beats, but it just stretched on way too long. The creators who started the story had left by the time it got to the end, and the Clone Saga lasted years longer than it should have.
The biggest problem with the Clone Saga begins with the fact that there was no planned ending. Add to that the great initial sales and Marvel just stretched it out, trying to make as much money as possible. The story is disappointing because it was so long.
4 Ultimatum Destroyed The Ultimate Universe's Popularity
Ultimatum is one of the most disliked Marvel stories of all time. Written by Jeph Loeb with art by David Finch, it was supposed to bring the Ultimate Universe back in popularity, but it didn't quite work. Ultimatum killed off multitudes of characters and did lasting damage to the brand, which went on for six more years.
Building out of the almost equally-disliked Ultimates 3, fans rebelled against the story pretty much immediately. Ultimatum is the kind of comic that everyone knew wasn't great, but its reputation has only gotten worse.
3 Inhumans Vs. X-Men Made Everyone Look Bad
Despite their near undying popularity, there are plenty of X-Men stories that fans are happy to put behind them. Meant to blow off the already-disliked Inhumans push, Inhumans Vs X-Men, by writers Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire and artist Leinil Yu, managed to make both sides look bad. Inhumans fans disliked it because it spelled the end of their push.
X-Men fans disliked Inhumans Vs X-Men because it made the mutants look like the villains. No matter what, one group of fans was going to be unhappy, but angering both sets of fans wasn't expected.
2 Age Of Ultron Is An Unfortunate Failure
Age Of Ultron is a story that should have been better received than it was. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson, and Carlos Pacheco, Age Of Ultron opens with the Avengers having already lost to Ultron. The human world is already destroyed, so the Avengers try to fix things with time travel, making it worse in the process when Wolverine goes for the pragmatic solution.
AoU corrects all of Bendis's mistakes from House Of M, creating a truly frightening alternate universe. It's action packed and well paced, but it's also long and came about as event fatigue was starting to settle in. Add to that an ending that promised change but never really delivered, and AoU completely underwhelmed fans.
1 Secret Empire Released When Fans Were Losing Love For These Events
On the one hand, Secret Empire acts as good social commentary, using Captain America's Hydra membership and takeover of the US as a metaphor for the rise of fascism and the far-right in American politics. On the other hand, it's a long event at a time when fans were completely done with this type of event storytelling.
Written by Nick Spencer with art by Steve McNiven, Leinil Yu, and Andrea Sorrentino, Secret Empire was built up for almost two years but completely miffed the landing. Fans didn't really get the subtext or the character change for Cap, with the drawn-out nature of the story not doing helping Secret Empire's case.