Few things in comics are more evident than the love hate relationship that comic fans have with comic books and publishing companies. For those of us that love Superman, Supergirl and the rest of DC's roster, you may have spent the last few months feeling slightly distraught and apprehensive about the impending changes to the DCU.

And as much as DC's publicity has tried to quell your fears, the fact that there has been no mention of what will happen to characters like Stephanie Brown (Batgirl) and Wally West (the former Flash) can be a bit disheartening when these are some of your favorite characters. I know how you feel. Recently I wrote an article on Cassandra Cain and why I felt she deserved better treatment in the new DC Universe, instead of being stuck in limbo for the foreseeable future (which, as far as I can tell based on solicits for upcoming comics, is exactly what will happen to our poor Cass). But DC isn't the only company getting flack from it's fans about the state of mainstream comics. Marvel has been getting an earful as well -- and while the argument is different, Marvel fans have been equally as vocal.

Year after year, month after month, Marvel has released big events that encompass their entire gallery of characters into some sort of life-altering, crazy event. Within the last few weeks, the publisher revealed they were once again gearing up for big Marvel events this fall -- however it would not be just one. Last week we saw the release of the teasers for Marvel's latest X-Men event -- first there was Schism, and after 'schism' was revealed to be caused by a split within the X-Men (Cyclops and Wolverine) and that Schism would break into an array of new books. Not to be outdone by DC's "new 52 number one's," Marvel will be launching an all new X-Men book, Wolverine and the X-Men #1' this October. The publisher will also be relaunching Uncanny X-Men as a #1 issue, and will make vast changes to the rosters of their X-Men books. We posted all the teaser images here which you can see for yourself. But the new X-Men era isn't the only big event Marvel has cooking.

Last week Marvel released teaser images for their all new upcoming event Shattered Heroes which implied that many of the Avengers would be 'broken' following the Fear Itself event, which is due to conclude this fall. When we put the preview images for those teasers up on Comic Vine, I, like many of you, let out a little groan. Yet another event from Marvel comics.We shouldn't be surprised since big events are just the way the Marvel Universe works, but have we had enough already?

The truth is, Marvel has been revolving many of their biggest and most impactful stories around major story arcs since the 1960's. So we should probably be used to reading them by now, right? Not exactly. Since the beginning of 2001, Marvel started publishing at least twice the number of events per year. Prior to that, Marvel was only doing an event per year. Now, events are intertwined and cross over into a plethora of books and tie-ins -- the repercussions of previous events stumble into new events. For example, Fear Itself will result in Shattered Heroes, and if I have to guess, whatever happens in Shattered Heroes will cause Marvel's next big event which will be introduced probably sometime in January.

The game changer was probably Marvel's release of House of M and Decimation in 2005, which not only changed everything in the X-Men Universe, but the repercussions of that event can still be seen today (and are still referenced) in books like Avengers Children's Crusade. In 2005, Marvel released three events, House of M, Decimation, and Spider-Man: The Other. Secret War which had begun in 2004 flooded into 2005. In 2007 we saw six events, two of which (Civil War and Annihilation) started at the end of 2006 and went into 2007. In 2010 fans witnessed fifteen major Marvel events, five of which started in 2009 and ended in 2010. Its no wonder fans are complaining about the number of events and event crossovers that we are seeing today -- and personally, I think they have a reason to be complaining. Everything feels like a massive comic book event. No longer do Marvel books read like character driven stories that aren't prompted by some massive life-altering catastrophe. We are seeing more and more of "Is this the end of ______?" and less of the stories that focused on the development and nourishment of individual characters. Sure, sometimes the events that take place can change a character and force them to reflect. Take for example the death of Johnny Storm (Fantastic Four #588) which could be considered a crossover (it crossed into Amazing Spider-Man). In Amazing Spider-Man #657 Peter got to reflect on the life and death of Johnny, one of his closest friends. And as beautiful and poignant as it was, does someone always have to die for characters to appreciate them?

I don't blame the publishers for their decision to make these big events the center of their stories given the proof in numbers which books have the most sales. Books that featured the death of Johnny Storm and Spider-Man in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #153 revolved around big events. People want to read the issues where the heroes die this crazy death, but not enough people want to read the stories that are told in-between and focus on the development, evolution and growth of these characters.

Even though the events and event cross-overs draw the biggest numbers, Marvel hasn't yet given up on character driven stories. In fact, I would venture to say that most of my favorite Marvel books out right now are disconnected from big crossover events -- and should probably stay that way. Daredevil, for example, which has been relaunched by Mark Waid is turning out to be an absolutely fantastic title. The book, so far, seems to be self contained, focusing on the return of Matt Murdock to New York City and to his former role as Daredevil. Not only is the story accessible because (so far) the focus has remained solely on Matt's character, but it's fun to read. It's interesting to explore the facets of Matt's character that make him so appealing in the first place.

Writer Marjorie Liu has been continuing to deliver a highly entertaining series with the release of X-23. X-23 focuses solely on the character development of X-23 -- even with all of the crazy shake-ups happening in the X-Men universe right now (Schism) X-23 has remained unscathed and has (so far) survived the wrath of the cross-over. It continues to be a book that revolves almost entirely on the different aspects of Laura's character, and how she deals with coming to terms with who and what she is.

As far as team books go, Uncanny X-Force has been almost entirely disconnected from any other cross-over event at Marvel, save for a Fear Itself mini-series which had absolutely nothing to do with the Uncanny X-Force ongoing title by Rick Remender. The story there, while confusing at times for new readers, continues to be totally enthralling. This X-Men team book is god because it has nothing to do with the big events in the Marvel Universe. Only time will tell if the title will remain under the radar and continue to remain separate from the rest of the goings on of the Marvel Universe.

If you have felt like there have been more events and cross-over events at Marvel in the last few years, it's because there have been. But as of right now, it's still good to know that there are still mainstream Marvel books that have not been influenced by these big events, and continue to be books you can go to in order to read a solid character driven story. What do you think of the number of Marvel's big events? Are you more inclined to purchase big event books, or character driven stories?

EH sometimes it can feel that way. Dc is kinda up there sometimes to

Marvel has been over doing it with so many events. Personally I'm burned out right now with stuff that change the whole universe. However, I wouldn't mind those self containing events in their own respective book if I was picking it up. Marvel has been overdoing for some time now. But it is true, the sales don't lie and that's how they make the money.

I like the events.

Marvel's bigger problem is grimdark , and the editors who listen to the sales dept. telling them that's what sells.  Thank Christ Fantastic Four (FF) and Uncanny X-Force are self-contained, otherwise I'd probably not bother reading anything marvel puts out.  I cancelled my Avengers/New Avengers subs because I could care less about Fear Itself and didn't want the tie-in books.  

Hell YEAH

too many company wide events? sure. but would i mind if these events were contained in select titles affecting a smaller pool of characters? nope, i would quite enjoy that i think. i wonder tho if ppl are really having event-fatigue at marvel or if there just sick of seeing the same main characters everywhere; playing intricate parts in other books that a fan might like and not want touched. also, there are a ton of tie-in books w/ every marvel event and i know thats hard on ppl's pocketbooks/wallets so theres that as well.

Yes. 

Why sound precede the title of the article. 
 
Marvel's real problem is it refuses to allow it's characters to grow.  They have all basically been 12 months from the status quo of 1992 since 92. 

I don't think it's so much with events as there are titles. I way I see it, making different team books that contain characters that come from a bigger team not only allows some characters to shine, but to bring in new characters that the bigger books don't have the time for. Then with big events like House of M or Infinite Crisis, it's a way to either alter the character or kill a character to either have some kind of impact or basically 'clean out the moth-eaten clothes from the closet to make room for new clothes'. Not everyone can be the Batman, Wolverine, Spider-Man, or Superman of the comic verse.
 
Are there too many events in the Marvel verse right now? It all depends on what's going to happen, so can't really say yet.

Marvel is about event books. Its there good then i don't mind. otherwise its very annoying. 

I think Marvel should space them out more because this one right after another crap makes them feel less important

Wow, I tried to talk about this just over a week ago in my blog post "On "Events" in Comics, and the State of Comics" which , admittedly, was kinda rambling (as posts made 2am fueled by insomnia and nyquil tend to be). I don't think Marvel is alone in it, but I've skewed more towards DC as I've gotten older, (the characters are more archetypal and less complex sometimes but that's what I look for in escapist fantasy). So for my opinion, I'm gonna try and parse out the clearest most relevant points from my post rather than try and rewrite it.
 

The big 2 have been doing "Event Comics" and massive crossover storylines about as long as I've been alive (to date myself slightly). In 1984 DC had its first major universe rewriting event comic, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Marvel had its first massive crossover team up story, Secret Wars. According to Wikipedia's rather lackluster list of Modern Age comic events, DC has only had a year without a major event 9 times, and Marvel only 6. And for the past 27ish years, they've only extended the length and scope of these events, (unnecessary) tie-ins, and frankly, filler.  
 
I think back to the first major multi-year "events" I read Death of Superman, World Without a Superman/Funeral for a Friend, Reign of the Supermen, and Return of Superman. It was a huge story compiled in multiple trade paperbacks but it only really focused on the Superman family and only took place within those books. I compare that to Sinestro Corps War, Rage of the Red Lanterns, Agent Orange, and Blackest Night. Those were primarily a Green Lantern story but by Blackest Night there were sooooo many tie-ins and most of them went nowhere. The next bad sign was that I found it hard to try and determine when the modern event ends. With the earlier Superman story, there is a clear beginning middle and end, not only to each separate arc, but to the whole story; it starts with the arrival of Doomsday, and it ends with the (apparent) destruction of Hank Henshaw. The destruction of Coast City led toEmerald Twilight which led to Zero Hour, but by limiting the tie-ins it seems more like real life events stemming other events, and less like a giant never ending epic. If I recall correctly there was one tie-in with the Justice League when they fought Doomsday, and one Green Lantern tie in when Mongul destroyed Coast City, but the rest took place in Superman, Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, and Superman: Man of Steel. Contrast that to the modern evet. GL's story doesn't really have an end; it keeps going into Brightest Day, and then War of the Green Lanterns, and only really ended a few weeks back when the Guardians kicked out Hal Jordan again. In all that time it primarily took place in Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, but there were a billion tie-ins in Blackest Night and Brightest Day (just about every major hero had one AND they made Blackest Night and Brightest Day their own event books!). And that is a major problem! 

So not only do we have pointless filler, and massive events that spill into dozens of books, but we have a constant stream of events. All of which claim to "totally change everything" and be a "game changer" and all that bullsh*t. And, how else does the industry try and drive up sales? Murder. From Cap's death in Civil War, to Johnny Storm's death in the non-event 3 (which was really just a vehicle to launch FF) the idea is that shocking the audience, or  promising  to shock the audience will drive up sales. But there's a problem, it doesn't work (I don't actually  know  if it affects the sales, but i do know it doesn't actually surprise anyone). The reason it doesn't work is because it happens  all the time . They oversaturated the market, and made that their audience jaded. Promising to change everything and threatening to kill off my favorite characters won't make me read your books because I don't believe either of those will actually matter in the long run. In that sense, comics are like sitcoms, eventually everything goes back to the way it was.

[I'd like to see] more one shot stories between events. Current events go from point A to point B in event 1 and from point B to point C in event 2. But the real world doesn't always have such a clear line between cause and effect. Sometimes the repercussions of an event won't be fully felt until years later. I think that this is an idea that some comics writers really know how to do, and can also be seen in anime of all places. The anime example I would use is Cowboy Bebop, there is an overarching story to the series, but it's only told in 5 out of the 26 episodes. The rest of the show develops characters, shows their relationships, has fun wacky adventures, but don't feel like filler. The comics example would be Sandman. There are stand alone stories that play with the characters and there a stories that advance the plot, but none of it feels like filler, and sometimes things that seemed like minor points to a single issue or short term storyline get tied back in later in the arc as a whole.

I don't think they have enough event books. I want Hulk to kill Spider-Man while Captain America gives up his shield to the Power Pack, meanwhile Reed Richards cures Doctor Doom of his metal armor because it's haunted by Howard the Duck for some reason. Also, Sentry and Void would be the shared personalities of Franklin Richards, who doesn't actually exist.

Venom has been pretty good and detached for the first 5 issues as well, but now it's crossing into Spider-Island, so we'll see how long Daredevil can keep his nose clean. 
 
I just hate how much they try to change my buying habits. I mean, I know that's the idea, but I don't feel like I'm buying more, I think I'm just buying different things that I don't want rather than focusing on the second-tier books that I enjoy. For example: the other week, I walk into my comic book store and pick up Herc #6, Venom #6 and a couple of my other regulars. I started to grab Hawkeye and Mockingbird, which I enjoy  independent of any event, but my friendly neighborhood comic clerk warned me that Herc and Venom aren't going to make much sense without reading Spider-Girl or Spider-Man 667.  I don't want those comics, I don't read those comics, but if I want to understand the comics I do read, I have to follow characters I don't particularly care about.  
I shelved Hawkeye, (because as much as I like Hawkeye, I like keeping up with Herc more) and picked up Spider-Girl. What can I say, I'm on a budget.

I totally like most of the Marvel events, but maybe we really need a break. When the writers all the time think about another epic change after which "nothing will ever be the same", they just run out of good ideas. Take Fear Itself, for example. They could make a perfect story of how the heroes meet their worst fears, but instead we get a bunch of guys with hammers. I mean, FI is not bad, but it could be better. That's what I feel most of the time when I read the recent events. Not bad, but could be way better. And if we talk about some ordinary arcs, they're just fine. So maybe Marvel should really concentrate of them for a couple of years before creating "the story even cooler, then Civil War".

As far as I'm concerned, my favourite books from both DC and Marvel are always the ones disconnected from Big Events. I care very little for Geoff Johns' bombastic, soulless writing or Marvel's latest "things will never be the same again" yawnfest. This is always when company-mandated imperatives ruin every chance of character development.
 
More and more often, I tend to skip tie-in issues altogether, so I can probably rejoice: I'll be saving a lot of money if Marvel continue their stupid trend of a new Event every other month. I've lost all interest in half of Marvel's books because that fugly Fear Itself is on so many covers these days, so if that's their new business model, yay, more money for other stuff!

DC handled Flashpoint perfectly, IMO: for company-wide events, mini-series should always be the way to go. The readers who are interested in the latest mega-crossover can just buy the minis, while those who are not interested aren't deprived of their regular, beloved series for two or three months in a row. This should really be the rule - but hey, the market has spoken, people love events, so I'm not holding my breath...

I  also think they are over doing and they need to stop. Marvel needs to think about maybe reducing to one comic event per year again because trying to keep up with all these events are in my opinion stupid and annoying. Plus in all honestly they are losing money people are tried of all these events and are not willing to keep paying for all those comics.

Are these things Events or just Banners to put characters into the whole timeline? 
 
Us Nerds are desperate to put things into Chronological order and make sense of events in a cohesive Universe. Why is Namor in Avengers when he should be in Hell? How come Strange has his Cloak of Levitation here, but in Fantastic Four hes in a Brown Coat? Why is Wiccans Cape Brown in this issue and Red in the other? 
 
Honestly, the majority of responses should be "Who gives a toss?" but we do this because we care. Comics are unique in this element, and indeed, these level of fanaticism about bloody timelines. Anyway, Point has migrated. Shattered and Fearless and all these other "Events". Are they simply not banners for individual titles and characters to work under, the way Dark Reign was never an "Event" because it was never Civil War, or Fear Itself. 
 
Perhaps Shattered, and everything spinning out of Fear Itself is simply PART of Fear Itself, a continuation of that storyline and that arc? Perhaps it is simply a banner to cover the history and workings of these characters, or perhaps it is another Event. Does it matter too much? Isn't every Comic actually an event? We get issues of the New Avengers battling Agamotto, or we get the Hulk fighting Fin Fang Foom? Isn't that as much an event as Civil War or Fear Itself just on a smaller scale? 
 
Honestly, I don't mind. I don't care. I will buy my comics and I will enjoy them, regardless of what branding or banner or whatever they carry. because they're Comics. Long form story telling without an end. Why bother worrying about it, really?

I think they may be overdoing it a bit on the events and crossovers. But to be honest, I think they do a decent job keeping the stories on point and splitting the work between so many books and talents definitely allows for a wider scope of storytelling. Fear Itself went a little overboard with all of the extra tie-ins, one-shots and miniseries, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the first few issues of the main steries. I do wish the Iron Man title would get a break from all of the event madness soon because I was really loving the book while it was self-contained last year. Overall, though, I think Marvel does a good job making their event books quality reads. And for me, that's what comics are about. I want to read an exciting story that keeps me entertained. I'm not going to waste my time complaining because the bottom line is, crossovers don't make money. If you want crossovers to be fewer and further between, then buy more comics on a monthly basis.

I wouldn't mind if there was maybe ONE major event each year.....but it's just one after another after another and I can't freaking afford to keep up. I think the X-Universe should get chopped down to 4 titles instead of 8. Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor & X-Factor. It's silly to keep the New Mutants on a team still called the New Mutants. They've grown. Even some of the Gen X'ers have become full fledged X-Men for heaven's sake.
 
I think it makes sense to have a plan set out for all the titles like Marvel has done......but going so far into the future restricts creative freedom of some of the writers and gives very little room for self contained stories (which are my favorite).

goddamn it, thank you. marvel reeeeeally went off the rails in the 2000's (sounds ridiculous to say) with all of these events. some wouldn't even be considered events, just sagas or chronicles or something of that nature but they built them up to be such huge deals that never really amounted to anything. honestly, the lasting ramifications of spider-man: the other has barely been felt ever. events were cooler some time ago, because that's what they were. events that took place very sparingly. if something happens so much in one year, it isn't an event, just a really long monster-of-the-week formula where someone dies (never for long), someone betrays or defects from the team (never for good), a bad guy comes in and gets over-used afterward to the point of nausea, every little thing is meant for shock and awe but it never has that affect, and it just encompasses everything. so much so to the point that if the event is good, then you'll have some obvious clunkers for tie-ins, but it will really strengthen the meat of the tale. however, if the sucks and feels like it's going in circles (anyone else devastatingly bored by fear itself?) then it's just a really awful experience.

I don't mind events, just not CROSSOVER events.  I despise those.

I love Marvel, but it seems as though they just do event after event after event because recurring stories aren't dramatic enough. Is that really what comic readers want: Manufactured drama?

I hate all these events, I honestly don't see what the attraction is at all and that is why Marvel gets no more of my money.

Character driven stories all the way.  Marvel really just has been doing far too many events in the last ten years. Its ENOUGH ALREADY!  Not only do big events deplete our wallets but they become so intertwined in each other and continuous in the narrative that its almost impossible to find just where the jumping on points can be.  DC is guilty of it too unfortunately.  We need to start focusing on character driven storylines again on a month to month basis.  Maybe have a larger story arc come out every 3 months maybe.  And if they absolutely HAVE to have them, then have Marvel and DC put in big events once every year, but not every few months.  That way we can actually be EXCITED for them when such stories come around, instead of feeling the silly mediocrity every time a new big event comes every 3-4 months.  

F*** it I'm just going to stick to Spider-Island it's the only one I'm interested in right now.

Yeah, this whole "event after event" thing has gone stall.

Both DC and Marvel are guilty of this, but yes, Marvel is drowning in it more than DC is. (However they were picking up the trend as there had been no interludes between Blackest Night, Brightest Day or Flashpoint. So atleast the reboot's broken the chain.) And Dan did mention one of the reasons were him getting cornered by a host of writers claiming event fatigue amongst other things.
 
That said...events still sell regardless how sick people say they are of them.

Very simple answer. Yes, yes they do.

Both DC and Marvel are guilty of this, but yes, Marvel is drowning in it more than DC is. (However they were picking up the trend as there had been no interludes between Blackest Night, Brightest Day or Flashpoint. So atleast the reboot's broken the chain.) And Dan did mention one of the reasons were him getting cornered by a host of writers claiming event fatigue amongst other things.   That said...events still sell regardless how sick people say they are of them.

I agree that Marvel publishes Big Events too frequently. Moving seamlessly from one breathtaking, world-shattering, nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-again event to another is bound to exhaust and bore even the most action-hungry reader.  
 
I'm mostly into X-Men, and I agree that the titles mentioned here - X-23 and Uncanny X-Force - are currently the best books in the franchise for various reasons, one of them being the fact that they include interesting, self-contained storylines and a strong focus on the main character(s). As a casual reader with very little interest in other Marvel characters besides the X-Men, I'd really just rather see more X-Men stories that aren't tied into big crossover events. I dislike crossovers.   

Way to many.  It feels like they only want out money (which they do because this is a business) and at times I feel that quality is sacrificed for quantity.  Honestly they if we are lucky give readers a hand full of issues of a series before dragging it back into an event.  It gets to the point where I would rather buy trades than single issues.  That way I get the story all at once.  I would love for them to make a pledge to do a year or more with out huge events.  Or even better if they want to do an event then stop having all the tie in stories.  Another idea would be going back to telling event stories in the Annuals instead of the main books.  You want to tell a giant X-Men event?? Then do it in the Annuals for those books and get it all out at once and then move on.  Same with Avengers and the like.  

 In the early 90's the same atmosphere of too many titles and too many crossovers led to the eventual bankruptcy of the company. You would think this would have taught them a lesson....

It's more the problem of them doing events so close together.

Every time I visit comicvine.com, it feels like an event. A happy event. 8 )

 In the early 90's the same atmosphere of too many titles and too many crossovers led to the eventual bankruptcy of the company. You would think this would have taught them a lesson....

A resounding YES!  This is ridiculous.  15 in one year?!?  We need a return to one or two per year so that we can really focus on them and have time for the characters to relax between events.  I have almost entirely skipped fear itself (except where it's intruded into my books) and the reason is that I'm also following Spider-Island and Schism.  And I don't have infinite money - nor do most others.  So even if FI ends up being like House of M where people are still talking about it in five years, I'll be completely lost because I only have the money for one or two events.  At the very LEAST there should not be more than one major Marvel-wide event per quarter.  
 
Oh well, until people start voting with their wallets we'll be stuck in this situation because everyone knows that people will say one thing on the internet and do another in real life so companies have learned not to pay any attention to articles like this and the comments within them.

Marvel's real problem is it refuses to allow it's characters to grow.  They have all basically been 12 months from the status quo of 1992 since 92. 

Usually I'll get one event a year. If I get tired, I stick the the character-driven stories. Moon Knight, Daredevil, Punisher, X Force, X-23, and Dark Wolverine to name a few of my favorites.

Nobody is forcing you to read everything.  If you are a fan of Hulk, why wuold you read Spider-Island or Schizm or Three and so on?
 
How many series have a tie in arc to ALL events? none? probably

Simple answer to this question is yes.  Seriously, how many times do we have to hear, "things will never be the same"