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By Jason Bourgeois
House of M.
Infinite Crisis.
Decimation.
Civil War.
The big comic companies have been flooding the stands the last few years with bigger and bigger events, some of them running at the same time, with even more, smaller events buried in other books. Those looking for complete stories are having their wallets stretched to the limits, and believe me, I know, and feel the pain.
Fortunately, after a fashion, is a break in the madness, as the bulk of Marvel's Civil War has slipped, and been pushed back for, in some cases, as much as three months. This is delaying a large chunk of Marvel's books, as many of the tie ins are coordinated to play off events that have yet to come, and they can't risk spoiling these things, such as the much talked-about unmasking of Spider-Man.
This affects Civil War itself, the actual cause of the changes to the shipping schedules, the sister book Civil War: Front Line, the tie ins that are in various books from Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, New Avengers and others, as well as new series starting, from Punisher War Journal and Mighty Avengers. Marvel plans to bring other books into the crossover, as well as several one shots to fill in the now gaping hole in their schedule.
There is a ton of blame being thrown around on the title, and that's been covered extensively elswhere online. Me, personally, I think this is just atrocious and unprofessional. This is a huge, tentpole event, and everything just came crashing down around Marvel's head. A week here, a week there, is one thing as far as delays go. This is a delay of upwards of three months on some books, including Civil War itself. This has completely blown the momentum of the book, and shot much interest completely in the foot. This event reached major media sources, and surely brought new people into the stores, who don't follow this stuff, or know about late books. They expect comics to come out roughly monthly, and now these new readers who were starting to come into, or back to the industry, are being turned away at the door, because the product they want, isn't available, and won't be for a very long time.
If it was just Civil War, or one random book, again that could be bearable, but this is dominoing through much of Marvel's inventory, and will probably continue to do so until the end of the year, if not longer. I would be very surprised if we see Civil War #7, the final issue, in the newly promised timeframe of January/February.
If you're fed up with this, and still looking for a big, world-shattering event, with big action, good writing, and lots of characters, then I reccommend checking out Marvel's Annihilation six issue series. This series kicked off in a fashion similar to DC's Infinite Crisis, with four miniseries of four issues each, starring certain characters, and building things up for the big show in the main series.
This is a cosmic book, with the Annihilation Wave, an invasion force lead by Marvel's classic Fantastic Four villain from the Negative Zone, Annihilus, fed up with his universe being destroyed as ours expanded, and has come in and started destroying worlds, reclaiming what he feels is his.
The setup is ripe for permanently altering the Marvel spacescape, and they've already killed off several characters in this intergalactic war, and I would be surprised if more don't die as the story nears a conclusion. With Galactus and the Silver Surfer being taken out of play early in the series, things look grim. This book is seperated from the core of the Marvel Universe, and while there are many characters, it's pretty accessible, if a reader is willing to take the time and figure out some of the unanswered questions.
If you're a fan of Marvel's cosmic universe, this is a must by, as many fan favourites are turning up for the action, from Nova, to Quasar, to Ronan the Accuser, Thanos, and many, many others. Besides the cosmic landscape, this is a story of war and survival against nearly insurmountable odds, and everyone is at risk, since these characters are mostly B- and C-Listers, so the cannon fodder quality is high here, making for a thrilling war-like setting. Also, if you're just looking for a break from the big crossovers, but would still like some big action, this is a great book to check out.
What if Marvel threw a Civil War, and no one showed up?
Jason M. Bourgeois
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