|
One of the first articles I wrote for Collector Times was about limited/mini-series and how they were used by Marvel and DC. After the low point of such series (the late 80s and early 90s) things have gotten better . . . for the most part.
The impacts of the stories and the radiating effects seemed to have gotten better. We even saw a bit of a callback to the "better" times through the events leading up to Infinite Crisis for DC and Civil War for Marvel. DC worked more heavily with miniseries in order to lead up to Infinite Crisis and Marvel laid the groundwork of Civil War in regular titles. Yet, each tried to create some level solid foundation upon which their respective major event would rest. Now, while I do agree that a solid foundation really helps a story it is becoming clear that for Marvel and DC a solid foundation does not guarantee a high level of interest will necessarily be a part of what rests on that foundation.
This became clear as DC's Infinite Crisis ended and Marvel's Civil War began. The consistent statement that I was hearing from readers, comparing the two series, was that Infinite Crisis' end seemed lacking, and that lacking became even more prominent after reading Civil War's first issue.
Originally I was not going to read Civil War. I just didn't want to get "sucked" into it. However, after recommendations from friends I purchased the first issue and found myself honestly impressed, especially when I looked at how Infinite Crisis ended. I was looking at Civil War thinking, "YES! This is a limited series that will deliver!" Oh, how wrong I was.
As the months went along readers were informed that Civil War was having problems and that there would be delays in further issues of the series as well as all issues of other series that connected to those delayed issues of Civil War. There was anger, there was outcry, and finally there was acceptance. Perhaps not everyone was accepting but the consensus (including myself) was that the readers were OK with some delay if the purpose was to preserve the quality of the actual Civil War series (where the bulk of the story was). Then issue 4 was released.
Within my circle of friends, and many reviews I read, issue 4 of Civil War was largely panned. It played out the death of a character as expected, and in turn deflated expectations of "serious" impacts coming from the series. To be more simple (and geeky) Goliath should have been wearing a red shirt (perhaps even referred to as "Ensign Ricky"?) because that is how impacting it was to readers. The characters were shocked, readers were not. Some readers even went as far as to rewrite the dialogue of the issue to stress how ridiculous the events of it were. The saddest part? The rewrite was more original and entertaining. I think Kevin Rubio would be proud.
OK, so a bad issue happens at times. That's just reality. You acknowledge it and move on. You expect the next issue to be better. Impacts will play out and there will be some major occurrence that would actually rock our world. Well, if you take out the idea that all of that stuff would happen within the page of Civil War issue 5, then you would be right.
Looking back at Infinite Crisis now I don't see a series that fell flat, I just see a series that didn't stir things up a lot. It wasn't awe inspiring, but it was mostly consistent, and while the end wasn't jaw dropping it did stay consistent with the rest of the series. I am afraid that I don't think the same can be said of Civil War.
It's almost like the two series have played on us like relationships. Civil War is the person who came on the scene playing for our affection (or money to be realistic), and after being with Infinite Crisis for a few months, oh were we bored with 'IC'. 'CW' was all new and good looking and that got our attention. Then CW made the mistake made so many other times in relationships, CW set the bar too high on our first outing. Still, that excitement of the first outing carried us through our next couple of times together. Then, the next thing we knew we found ourselves being brushed off with the excuse of CW working on keeping things exciting, but that it would take time. Then finally we got to spend time together again, but not only was our next interaction of "quality time" uninspired it was unoriginal and not all that exciting. We held on to our hopes though! Things would get better! Things would be like they used to be when we started out! Then our most recent time together came (Civil War issue 5 if I'm confusing you).
Reading Civil War issue 5 was like realizing your date is the least interesting person that you're hanging out with at a gathering. All the people (other series) connected to your date (Civil War) have so much more to them (story content), and in the span of the whole evening you only really enjoy a few minutes (pages with The Punisher) with your date. What is left at this point? You lower your expectations and decide you'll stick it out with CW because you need them to get to know the others you've met (get the whole story).
In the end you'll bail out of this new relationship while fondly remembering that even though IC wasn't exciting, they were stable. Sometime later after word gets around about your overall disappointment with CW you'll receive an email from them claiming that they were consistent in how they treated you and that you had unreal expectations. I'm guessing that CW will have someone named Joe Quesada write this email and it will be posted on a website rather than be sent directly to you.
Is this a silly parallel? Perhaps, but I think it works. Sometimes you just need to ask yourself why you, as a reader, are committed to companies that continue to make excuses for poor planning and over-hyped (sometimes the fans help on this one) events. We know why we're here. We care about the characters and are interested in seeing how the events of their "lives" unfold. Why are the companies doing what they're doing? I hope it's about something more than the money, because if it's not then someone has serious commitment issues when it comes to the characters, and it's not the readers.
|