|
Happy holidays! I hope whatever everyone celebrates is good, and that's all that matters on that front, right? Anyways, we're here to talk comics, so let's just dive right in.
Marvel has begun drifting towards a newish trend, for them anyways, of telling longer, but finite storylines. We've all been familiar with the miniseries of four issues, or six, or eight. Those are all very common, even the occasional 12 issue series isn't unheard of.
But starting with Avengers Arena, Marvel has decided to not even call them miniseries. The book is clearly a finite story though, it has to have an end, and it can't be far off. That much was clear from the very first page of the very first issue. And there certainly isn't anything wrong with finite stories. If anything, comics could use more of them, with clear beginnings, middles, and endings. Even if those endings go off to something new, there is certainly a realm for single storylines to be told over a length of time.
Now, a number of titles end up becoming this sort of book due to cancellation woes, but I'm not talking about that. Having a book that you know is going to end in 18 issues, or two years, or whatever, is really something we need more of. The industry has enough of the Uncanny X-Mens and Avengers and Supermans that go on and on and on towards infinity, renumberings not withstanding.
Another example of this is X-Men Legacy, which has been building up a very finite storyline, with an ending coming near. The brilliant thing of these sorts of stories is the planning that can go into them, when you know there's an ending, when you know there's an out, and then you get these wonderful issues where SO many things from those first few issues that seemed pointless or inconsequential at the time turn out to be big deals.
This is oddly more common in television, and its great to see happening more and more in comics. There'd always been things like this with writers doing finite runs inside a title, but I think I like this model just a little more.
Going back to Avengers Arena, the book is clearly ending, the story is done, done, done, but some of the characters will go on, with an all new status quo, into a completely different story later next year, entitled Avengers Undercover. You can't quite do that with an X-Men, or a Legion of Super-Heroes...well, except for that time the LSH *did* use all new identities, but there's always exceptions, isn't there?
I really look forward to having more and more finite stories, making the modern equivalent of maxiseries, with a new look for the 2010s, and breathing new life into the concept. Not every title can go on forever, and realising that, and not relying on huge sales, is a great way to give these titles the space they need, and not just cancel every story before it can get going.
Jason M. Bourgeois
|
