I like events. Always have. However, I've never been the type of person to read every tie-in so that may be why I've always liked them. I'll only buy tie-ins that are actually relevant to the event + tie-ins for ongoings I was already reading anyway.
I also don't really care whether an event has an "impact" on the continuity or not. I honestly couldn't care less. IMO an event is good if it brings big and interesting ideas to the table and delivers some memorable pages. If the event ends up having real repercussions for the continuity going forward then that's neat! but that's just the cherry on top and not something I am ever actively considering.
Final Crisis is my favorite event of all time and that event is its own world.
What is the best way to read that event and actually understand what is going on? I’ve sincerely tried and am still confused about what’s happening. Really asking and not trying to be rude.
There are exactly four tie-ins that matter, and I think only two are actually crucial. I forget what it's called but it's two issues and Doug Mahnke is on art duties for it. The foe from it becomes a pivotal player later on in FINAL CRISIS and Mahnke also takes over the art as well, so it really works out.
The recent paperbacks that collect Final Crisis with the Grant Morrison written tie-ins such as Superman Beyond:
https://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-New-Grant-Morrison/dp/140124517X
That's all the story in one chunk.
> I also don't really care whether an event has an "impact" on the continuity or not. I honestly couldn't care less. IMO an event is good if it brings big and interesting ideas to the table and delivers some memorable pages. If the event ends up having real repercussions for the continuity going forward then that's neat! but that's just the cherry on top and not something I am ever actively considering.
This is a perfect way of looking at it. This is why I’m never nearly as bothered by events as some other readers - I don’t go into them expecting giant status quo shifts or anything like that, just a cool, fun story with lots of characters.
Older fella here. Although I knew how it would end, I loved every tie-in (well, almost every one) for Infinity Gauntlet. A large, expansive cast with characterization that made sense, several side arcs that were worth reading, and a sense of high adventure. The stuff like Acts of Vengeance, Secret Wars, and Atlantis Attacks were similar.
But then: Infinity War was okayish, Infinity Crusade pretty awful.
That’s really when I stopped caring so much about crossovers.
You named probably my two favorite ones acts of vengeance was great to me. So was atlantis attacks.
I miss the days of them going in the annual during the summer. I think that was a nice happy medium. Not wrapping into the main story but going into a side book. Evolutionary war and armeggeon 2001 is another example(or however you spell it).
I didn't mind the x books 3 issue runs. Inferno, fall of the mutants etc...actually as I am typing this I really enjoyed Inferno. It was the x books and 1 tie in issue of other comic books which was interesting.
Hickman's Secret Wars, and the build up to it via the Avengers books, which I was lucky to be able to read from the beginning.
(I cared about his House/Powers of X book and the start of the Krakoa era, but not as much.)
I enjoyed the X of Swords event, but that was just X-books. Company wide I enjoyed King in Black. But for the most part I don’t pay attention to events. 9 times out of 10 it seems the event will happen and will “Change the Marvel/DC Universe FOREVER!” and then the event is never referenced again.
I never read the Knight Terrors event and I read a good number of DC books and literally nothing has changed
I think Metal was the last one I went into interested, and then as it played out I found it and basically everything after it impossible to care about.
Snyder’s stuff really started to slip after Endgame for me. Metal, Justice League and Death Metal and are silly nonsense to me, like it’s so over the top that it feels like there are no stakes, that nothing matters. Just a lot of cosmic throw up action like a kid playing with his action figure collection.
At least there is a lot of good artwork in there.
I agree mostly, I think I’m just most nostalgic for Metal because it was around the time I got into comics and was the first event I really experienced
I hear this a lot so you’re in the majority opinion but I loved death metal and found it understandable. But to be fair I’ve read every major DC crisis and I read all the tie ins so I’m kind of a continuity dork
I will admit it was kinda just nutty fun, but I didn’t really care about the story much nor the Wonder Woman stuff, and the Batman who laughs felt overused by then imo, was tired of seeing him. I remember enjoying many of the spinoff one shots
I didn't much care for Metal, but I read it. Death metal was okay, but I find myself caring less. I disliked Dark Crisis to the point where I stopped reading halfway through and just stopped buying DC comics altogether. I have not, nor do I plan to, but an event from DC or Marvel (only *possibly* exception would be Hickman doing something for the new Ultimate Universe).
I just finished re-reading all of Death Metal. I love the idea of an ongoing narrative having to fight against being ruined by bad ideas & getting rebooted. It's a superbly executed bad idea.
Pretty much the same honestly, Dissassembled was when I started regularly buying comics and I fell off right after Secret Invasion around when Dark Reign was starting.
I don’t think it’s that linear for me, every few years there’s an event that looks really cool so I pick it up, but overall there are just too many every year and it gets tiring. I’m intrigued by Blood Hunt currently but the last event I picked up before that was probably King in Black.
Also I’m not sure how Civil War “shit the bed” considering it was the most commercially successful event of the 21st century. I guess I have a lot more tolerance for events lol, because Infinite Crisis and Civil War were literally two of the earliest ones when it comes to the modern structure of events. I don’t mind an event every year, the problem is we have 3-5 every year.
As for tie ins, yeah the last event that I actually picked up tie ins for was Secret Wars (2015). Tie ins are usually pointless. A lot of events are based around a specific character, so those are probably the only important ones. I’ve technically bought tie ins but that’s because they’re for books I’m already picking up every month so not really.
Oh I agree that the story itself was badly written but the premise was good, all the tie ins was good, as was everything surrounding it. It also had actual ramifications for the next 4 years or so with an always changing status quo.
Yeah both Civil War and Secret Invasion actually shaped the Marvel universe and moved it forward in really interesting ways, but both actual main event series were written poorly.
1.) I would consider myself somebody who not only does not mind events, but actively enjoys events and sees the potential in them
2.) That being said, in all of my years of reading comics, there has NEVER been an event where I bought every single tie-in or adjacent comic. Even if I’m really into an ongoing event, I’m not going to buy an issue of a comic I have zero interest in just because there’s a 2-page reference to the event in the issue
The last event that had me immersed and engaged was Infinite Crisis, and I couldn’t wait to get the next issue. It turned me into a full on Wednesday Warrior. I was there for every mini series and tie in issue leading up to it, I grabbed every tie in issue during it, and I bought almost everything stamped One Year Later… and I had the same dedication throughout 52.
House of M was during this same time, too. I didn’t get as much as I did with Infinite Crisis, but it was fun and compelling. I feel the same way as House of M with Civil War.
I have enjoyed other events since that time, like Final Crisis, Blackest Night, and Secret Invasion. But the last event that was excited of the build toward and action during was Infinite Crisis.
I very much enjoyed AXE Judgment Day. It’s the only event I got every issue for, and is likely the last, but I enjoyed it immensely so I’m glad I chose that one.
I’m usually not a big fan of events but I feel like there was just a glut of them in the 2010s that killed them for me. That being said, I’ve been enjoying House or Brainiac
I’m 43.
First event I cared about was Infinity Gauntlet.
Last one was probably the 2015 Secret Wars, although I was largely out of event comics way before then.
I had been worn down by the endless procession of Avengers Disassembled into House Of M into Civil War into Secret Invasion into Siege into Fear Itself (this one, in particular, broke me, which I’ll get into in a second) into AvX into Infinity into Axis and on and on and on.
“Things will NEVER be the same” every time.
“The biggest even in comic history” every time.
Yawn. Rinse. Repeat.
As mentioned above, Fear Itself was the one that truly broke me. I went all-in on that one, as I had with many previous events. I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me right now, but iirc, if you bought *every* issue of the main event book, the tie-in books, the tie-in minis, the one-shots and the spin offs…it was around 150 issues.
A HUNDRED AND FIFTY ISSUES!!!
Yes, I know what some of you will say “well, you don’t have to buy ALL of them”
And, of course, you’re right.
But, at the time, my collector brain was fully engaged and I felt like I *did* have to have them all. I was afraid that the one title/issue I skipped would be the big/important one.
So, yeah, sorry, bit of a tangent, but for the most part…fuck event comics.
That said, the original Infinity Gauntlet, Age Of Apocalypse, Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, Secret Wars (2015), Crisis On Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Blackest Night and Flashpoint are all pretty great, imo. But they are definitely the exception rather than the rule.
*EDITED TO ADD - went and looked online to see if I could find exactly how many issues FI ran through.
154 according to this list
https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/guide-part-15-fear-itself/amp/
But that doesn’t include the Shame Itself parody one-shot (which, funnily enough, is one of the few FI issues I actually kept), so that makes it at least 155 issues all-in.
Just in case anyone cared.
I haven't reread it but I remember Fear Itself being pretty bad as it came out (Iron Man putting up his sobriety as a sacrifice aside). But it was *so* disappointing they built up the idea of all the heroes getting their own unique version of Mjolnir and the power up to go with it, only for the whole thing to last 2 pages and they don't even showcase any of them.
Different take, but book's power rangers series is exactly what I wanted from power rangers. The reality of skipping out of school, family tensions and the Drakkon (evil tommy) arc and the coinless was just fantastic
Best recent event for me was AXE, which was at least ambitious and had some great character moments. The conceit of judgment for major characters was good, and the execution on it was solid to great. It certainly wasn't necessary, but it was one of the more interesting big events and gave Thanos's grandpappy some stuff to do, as well as a legitimately great hero moment for Magneto.
This is a great one. I loved the eternals series leading up to it as well. I was mad about the stealth cancelation. There were so many other ideas barely touched on. He also managed to reconcile the Kirby, Gillis,Gaiman & Aaron stories with the movie. No small feat.
Terror Knights. I think somewhere along the way I stopped caring about events changing the status quo and started to care about how cool they are in isolation. I rarely even check tie-ins, since 90% of them don't matter to the bigger picture, so comic events, to me, are just 4 to 6 issues.
Dark Knights Metal was so bad ass and to me that was one of 2 events I have enjoyed. The other being 2015 Secret Wars. What destroyed my interest completly was War of the Realms taking what was a great Thor run and forcing Daredevil and Wolverine into a run they had zero business being in. Then Donny Cates Venom getting an event in the middle of his run made me decided to drop every single book that is a tie in to an event. So unfortunately for me I'm dropping Fantastic Four because it has a tie in issue with this new bloodhunt thing. But I have set hard rules for me self so I'm not disappointed anymore and there are plenty of image, boom and dark horse books to take my time and money.
I think you're going too far with dropping an entire series because it has tie-in issues to events. After the Fantastic Four tie-ins, the series will go back to normal
It might seem extreme but I am voting with my wallet as everyone says to do. I do not support tie ins so I won't give them money when they do it. There are sooooo many good books that don't do tie ins and and are just as good reads so I'll be perfectly happy picking up a book that does not.
They say we need to vote with our wallets. And that is how I am telling then to stop doing tie ins to established series. It mgith seem extreme but its the only way I can tell them that I don't like that. Plus there have been plenty of series derailed by tie ins and we have not read the following issue so we don't actually know it won't.
Line-wide events specifically? Devil's Reign and King in Black. I tend to care much more about Marvel events than DC events. I think the last DC event I cared for was Dark Nights: Metal.
But experienced readers know at this point, you do not have to read 90% of tie-ins. Caring about an event and reading every tie-in do not go together.
I think events rely a lot on the perception that they matter because things will never be the same after them, and that you _must_ be there to witness the Next Big Thing. Once you realize nothing really changes in comics, they tend to appear as bloated storylines with too many characters and ultimately meaningless side plots.
When, as a child, I began reading comics, I felt like I simply _couldn't_ miss an event. It was around the time Marvel went from Civil War to World War Hulk to Secret Invasion to Siege, and they all seemed so crucial and world-shattering.
Then came Fear Itself and AvX and, although I didn't care much for any of them, I still felt obliged to read them as they seemed important.
Then I read Age of Ultron, which amounted to a fat bag of nothing and mostly retconned itself out of existence.
By that point, I had already become quite jaded with the illusion of change. I have not read any other event since with the exception of Secret Wars 2015, as that seemed to be - literally - the definitive Marvel Universe story. Although I did enjoy some of it, I was annoyed with the forced tie-ins and ultimately felt that it would have been a much stronger story if it was more focused on Doom and Reed rather than the whole Marvel universe.
BLOOD HUNT kinda seems/feels like a "we have to do a big story" deal... except the creative team is really good and the plot seems so... "if you want to", that I think Marvel have somehow built up good will around it. Like it's not positioned as a "huge, game-changing, must-read, linewide event". It's just, "yeah, super vampires that are organized and have a plan that is very acheiveable but it's gonna destroy all of us if they win". Buddy, that's just a special miniseries with some hype around it. That's all, lol. But because it feels so optional, it almost brings me back around to, "maybe I'll check it out".
I think the last event I enjoyed reading was maybe Secret Invasion, since for me it kind of made Civil War less bad (oh, Tony had a secret reason to want to catalogue and control every superhero in the world, I guess he's only 90% a douche?) and also led directly up to the insanity of Norman Osborne running everything and Warren Ellis writing Thunderbolts for a little while.
Final Crisis was pretty great, if confusing as hell. I really, really wanted to like Blackest Night and Annihilation but for me they were amazing concepts with problems in execution.
I tend to read stuff long, long after it came out and has been judged by the community so I'm not really sure what the "last" one I cared about was. Although this thread is giving me leads on cool things I should go check out, so I like that :)
None. (Before I get downvoted to hell, I would like to point out that this sub is comics. Not superhero Marvel/DC comics.)
But an event that ruined a comic series that I was enjoying despite myself (not particularly a superhero fan anymore, I prefer writing free of all the corporate guidelines.) I picked up the Magneto compendium... Which was working pretty well. Just him, as a low powered mutant terrorist junkie, hiding out and working on the down low... The story was progressing quite nicely, then boom. It was totally and utterly derailed, no warning just cut to the aftermath of a massive crossover event by the - let me get this right - red skull is onslaught because of reasons best known to a writers room. And instantly the fairly balanced and well flowing story was utterly ruined, and suddenly overstuffed with established marvel characters and their associated power fantasies rather than the fairly decent and sort of well paced story I was enjoying.
I'm not against folks enjoying what they like, but to my mind that's just horrendous writing. Pitiful in fact, that they couldn't insulate a single story from this nonsense.
Not even an event, but the rebirth relaunch was the last thing that truly excited me in comics.
Before that? Probably Blackest Night. I kind of liked Forever Evil just because I hated Trinity War and the lead up so much that I was just happy they aborted that shit and spun it into a different story entirely.
From Marvel? Last time I thought an event could be good was Fear Itself. Secret Invasion’s main event was crap, some of the tie ins were good, and Siege was pretty bad. Dark Reign was probably the last thing I thought was a fun direction marvel took. I was curious about the Ultimate relaunch recently and have enjoyed the books, but I wasn’t “excited” and it’s not an event.
I'm really surprised how much I'm liking House of Brainiac. Probably the best Joshua Williamson event I've read. The Brainiac Queen is also more interesting than I thought she'd be.
Blood Hunt has been a lot of fun so far. So I guess that counts. AXE: Judgment Day and Sins of Sinister were a hoot as well.
I don’t really mind events tbh, especially ones by writers I like.
The last big one I read was either Devil’s Reign or King in Black. Don’t remember the order in which I read them as I read them both after the actual event passed. But now, I’m reading Blood Hunt. So far, so good on this one.
"Back in the day" the big events didn't really have tie in books, did they? Did Crisis on Infinite Earths have any? Did the original Secret Wars do that?
The only big event that had a long lasting impact on the company it came from was Crisis on Infinite Earths, and even it has been almost completely retconned away.
Crisis absolutely did, more of the storytelling got done in the crossovers than the actual book. DC collected all the tie-in issues a few years ago in three volumes.
From what I've been reading, there were a lot of "The sky is an odd shade of red. Oh well" tie ins. I just read DC Comics Presents #87, and that's a wild tie in. Superboy Prime and Superman, right after Supergirl dies in Crisis.
I was really excited for the New 52. It was like a new Silver Age where a few heroes got a fresh start, but a lot of favorite continuity was maintained. I really loved the new OMAC book, but it was cut short too soon.
Before that, it had been a while. Maybe X-tinction Agenda before that?
The last one I cared about was Secret Wars 2015. I was really into Jonathon Hickman and a lot of the story lines in his Marvel work were coming to a head in that event. The same reasons why I was into Final Crisis and Blackest Night: Morrison and Johns had been working up to them.
Most comic book events only exist to provide diagetic reasons for status quo changes (those changes don't stick, but I digress). They don't exist because the people on the by lines think they have an interesting story tell, they exist as a means to an end. That's why so many of them are awful.
Most excited for before and during release? Final Crisis.
Enjoyed the most overall? Inferno (the old one) by a lot. Daredevil had to fight a vacuum cleaner, it's incredible.
Siege probably. Unless Civil War came after.
But yeah Marvel/DC events are just ridiculous and expensive now.
Used to be an exciting summer "blockbuster" treat. Now there's almost 1 every other month.
For Marvel, I think maybe Secret Wars? Very little has lived up to it since then, save for smaller-scale ones like HoX/PoX + Inferno.
I’ve enjoyed some recent ones on Marvel Unlimited, like Devil’s Reign, but events just don’t have the same impact for me these days.
I try to keep up with the DC ones because I’m a sucker for a crisis, so I’ve got what I think are the most recent ones (Dark Crisis, Doomsday Clock, Death Metal) in trade. I find DC a bit harder to follow than Marvel these days, but I try.
> [...] after I bought an issue of Firestorm with the tie-in banner at the top, and it had nothing to do with the actual event [...]
Ah, the Red Skies Crossover, where the only thing they have in common is one tiny detail that doesn't affect anything but *technically* places them in the same world at the same time! (*Infinite Crisis* is even name-dropped on [the tropes page for this concept](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedSkiesCrossover) as being one major example of the idea. So, go figure!)
Anyway, I don't care about events as they're happening. I'm a grown person with a busy timeline and not a lot of attention span, plus they don't always publish checklists, at least not in every accessible place you could find it.
Maybe *Court Of Owls* or *H'El On Earth*? But that was only because I was already reading *Batgirl* and *Supergirl* at the time and, being an interfamily crossover rather than a company-wide one, it seemed easier to keep track of. But I didn't go out of my way to do it, except I did get a couple of the related books, including the new *Talon* book that spun off from *Court Of Owls*.
I stopped caring permanently when the *Dark Knights Metal* stuff came around and it was just endless "Rebirth! Universe resetting! Multiverse! Dark multiverse! Buttons! Not one Batman, but *seven Batmen*! Imagine!", which turned into the Tempus Fuginaut stories and somehow Wally West's return and *Heroes In Crisis* were connected, and blah, blah, blah...
Like, I'm a writer, I know what it's like to plan out a complex story across many different sources, but damn! Calm down! Why am I supposed to read *Flash Forward* when I haven't even read the *Dark Multiverse Tales* yet? When is there going to be a *good* event that explores the effects of superheroing on a person's mental health, and isn't just the first sign that this specific writer needs extra counseling on-top of his paid, DC-sponsored art therapy lessons?!
I’m not an event guy. I learned pretty early on(World War Hulk) that not every issue with the banner has to deal with the larger story.
But the last event I even had a slight interest in was Secret Wars (2015). I only collected the main series but it felt like a good enough jumping off point for events from Marvel.
For DC it was Metal. Now those tie ins worked solidly with the story as a whole and was pretty linear. Death Metal was too convoluted and the issues were mediocre at best (read that on the DC app)
Hickman's Secret Wars for me. To be honest though I think the answer to the question is probably always "the first big event that happened after you started following comics".
I was a teenager when Secret Wars happened and I'd been reading Hickman's Avengers run religiously at that point.
I thought Devil’s Reign was kind of a good time. I wasn’t a huge fan of Zdarksy’s Daredevil but the event was probably the highlight of it, to my taste.
I started trade-waiting many years ago, so I don't get too excited about events or "things will never be the same!" gimmicks anymore.
My original comics collecting heyday was the late 1980s through late 1990s, and my favorite events are Knightfall, Age of Apocalypse, and X-Cutioner's Song. I came back to collecting in the mid-2000s. I enjoyed Infinite Crisis, 52, the first Civil War, and DC Rebirth. But the event I've been most excited about has probably been Blackest Night. I wasn't a Green Lantern fan until I read Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, so when Blackest Night was announced, I was excited. But that event exceeded my expectations. Every issue of the main book, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps got me more excited for the next. Even the tie-ins, specifically the Batman and Titans series, were great. IMO Blackest Night is one of the best events any comics company has done.
Siege. Finally seeing Norman completely lose everything he built entirely because of his own hubris and insanity was a great catharsis after a year or two of him being top dog (for a completely BS reason, too).
Before now, AXE Judgement Day was excellent. Current Blood Hunt has been meticulously and cleverly planned and executed, im flabbergasted at how good it is because in general…
…events are….
You know.
Gang war? Cmon..
The first 3-5 dark knights metal books and the supporting dark Batman issue 0s were probably the hardest I ever went buying, reading and collecting. It's truly unfortunate they fucked up doomsday clock because that was also going on and could have been an amazing moment. Instead we got dr Manhattan batman who laughs.
I was going to say _Crisis on Infinite Earths_, but I did care about the Sinestro Corps War and the Wars of Light. I don't think I bought every Blackest Night tie-in though.
As much as I love superheroes I've never gotten that into comics, (lack of money + not really sure where to start), however I have followed along online, which was cheaper, but managed to kill any enthusiasm for events before I could really get into them.
Buuuuut long before any of that, when I was 10, or 11, or 12, I had an extremely meager comic book collection that had three issues of **Maximum Carnage** (8, 11 & 12), so I guess **Maximum Carnage** is my answer (and I finally managed to get the whole thing a few weeks ago!)
Rebirth. it was the first one I experienced while it was happening but it happened at a weird time in my life so I lost steam and since then I can only wish I could’ve gotten into comics before then so I could see the hype around things like the Secret Invasion or Blackest Night. seriously, Blackest Night sounds like it goes soooo hard. I gotta read it sometime.
Last event for me was probably World War Hulk. I'm a big Hulk guy and loved Planet Hulk, so I went out of the way to read the main series, the Frontline series, tie-ins, etc. I usually kept up with big events in Marvel/DC before that, but never really felt that drive to keep up with any after WWH. Nowadays it usually just annoys me when a book I like gets derailed to have to tell an event tie-ins (or worse, the book gets a permanent change due to something that happened in the event).
So Rebirth was really interesting to me. The whole set up with the Button was interesting, and Superman's return. The set up to the universal reset that occured and Multiversity. But then just fell flat with poor writing for Geoff Johns with the 3 jokers and Doomsday Clock. Weird story angles. And then Dark Metal just coming out of seemingly nowhere as this was all happening. After that, I just did not care for events.
I’m the on the other end of the spectrum. I’m excited for Absolute Power. It’s what we want events to be. It’s built up by the what going on in current books. Batman, Superman, a lil of Wonder Woman, Green Arrow. It using past events as dominoes all the way back for Lazarus Planet, up to Knight Terrors and Beast World. And it’s being done by the Waid and Mora which are an amazing team. Going until October is a bit much but I’ll take it.
And I’m enjoy Blood Hunt over in Marvel. I love every time either company does an event even if I don’t read. I think they are cool and exciting.
Not every event is great but but someone enjoys them even if you don’t.
Hmm I don't know.....maybe rebirth? Is that an event?
The first part with the whole Wally West returns thing got me feeling things and I enjoyed a lot of the first arcs that came out then after that.......
Annihilation: Conquest was the last one I cared about. Until I stopped reading Marvel entirely, Marvel's Earth based events were one disappointment after another. Civil War was terrible.
It was Annihilation and Civil War until HOX/POX happened, I felt like a little kid again reading HOX/POX. Too bad the last couple of years couple of years couldn’t keep up the excitement.
Avengers disassembled
Edit: now that I think about it, sinestro corps war and blackest night, then everything became derivative to me.
Edit edit: I'm stupid
The x Messiah trilogy is the last one.
I know this is uncool, but I like biiiiiig events and miss them lately. I find smaller scale events like gang war kinda boring. Go big or go home! lol. Last one enjoyed was probably that Venom one . What was it called? My favourites were the ones that had lasting implications.
Metal. Snyder and Capullo accidentally leaked it on their panel at Boston Comic Con back in 2016 and I spent the next year looking forward to it. I felt like the storyline ended up an 8/10 and artwork 12/10, but DC had no idea what to do with it after. Death Metal was meh, and I think it was more on editorial than the creative teams. DC really dropped the ball with that and Doomsday Clock.
The first event that got me into modern books was Disassembled/House of M. I stuck with reading the main title books throughout those years.
Fear Itself and AvX were the first events that made me start to groan at the idea of events. But the nail in the coffin was Original Sin. I hated what they did with Fury. I stopped collecting the series halfway through. I hadn't read an event since then.
Funny enough, I just picked up Blood Hunt #1 and #2. It has been okay so far. I like that it's just five issues, and the whole red band thing hooked me. I don't think I'll get back into events soon, though.
Edit: I actually did read Absolute Carnage (borrowed from a friend) and Hickman's Secret Wars (got the tpb on sale).
I abhor events. I'd much prefer more contained stories that don't care about canon. That don't care about other books. I'd rather a book go on hiatus if it doesn't have an interesting story to tell. Too many comics are just uninteresting.
Might be a bit unpopular but Secret Empire was actually really exciting for me as I read both Spencer Captain America runs blindly without knowing it would lead into an event.
Identity Crisis and all the tie-ins too. Then followed up with Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis… yes all the tie-ins too. Still missing a few and still hunting them down. My completists mindset won’t let go all these years later… 😅🥲
Oh! And all the variants and print too. It’s a sickness 🫠
World War Hulk. Planet Hulk got me back into comics after a ~15 year hiatus and WWH made me collect again. Then I slowed waaaay down after realizing that it turned into one event after another.
I’ve read lots of events after the fact on Marvel Unlimited, but the last event I really went big on in physical media is the Onslaught event back in the 90s.
I like events (although it's a little bit obnoxious when an event hasn't finished and they announce another one). I like being up to date with big events in DC. In the case of Marvel, even if it looks interesting, I end up forgetting to pick it up.
I think the only complete event I have is Death Metal.
Normally, I get the main event and the most relevant tie-ins. Since Lazarus Planet I decided to skip events that don't seem very relevant or interesting to me (which made me skip Knight Terrors). About Absolute Power, I'm really looking forward it. It ties in with 3 series I'm getting (Batman, WW, GL), and I trust Mark Waid and Dan Mora. Also, it seems more relevant than the other events I mentioned before.
Nothing that happens in these events stick. No deaths matter, no character's drastically changed or had anything that does happen will be completely ignored or forgotten within a year.
What's the point?
Character's crossover ok, that's cool but does anything happen that matters?
I couldn't get past the first issue of DARK CRISIS, the JLA is dead (yeah right).
Superman's son needs to build a new team. (Why?)
There's no plan. (Bullshit Batman literally had a plan for if the JLA gets knocked out of commission, they had a whole story arc showing Batman recruiting a team with T-spheres!)
This is pointless!
DARK CRISIS was honestly such a clusterfuck. It has the biggest "we're doing this because we were told to" energy. Whatever stakes the story tries to establish are cut out immediately or the flaws of it are *immediately* highlighted.
They wanted to call metal Dark Crisis but Snyder & Capullo said no way. It was a power play. Somebody wanted their Dark Crisis & they got it. Even if it was a pile of garbage that basically undid everything they had just worked to build.
It's not exactly a massive event and more of an arc, but I think it was The Flash War. Highly disappointing, never cared for a DC or Marvel event since then and I don't plan to.
AXE was pretty good. Sins of Sinister too, but that was much smaller. Really though, even most "good" events are bloated monstrosities not worth reading 100% of.
I liked the Squadron Supreme event that was tied to Aaron's Avengers.
Other than that I have hated every event story both marvel and DC have published for years.
Annihilation. So very long ago.
That was probably mine either annihilation or infinit crisis whichever came later
Annihilation through War of Kings was the height of cosmic marvel. It hasn't really been the same since.
Annihilation was in 2006, which means it's now old enough to vote.
That's around when I first got into comics im 29 now you can do the math lol. I picked up a random Nova tie in and got hooked.
I like events. Always have. However, I've never been the type of person to read every tie-in so that may be why I've always liked them. I'll only buy tie-ins that are actually relevant to the event + tie-ins for ongoings I was already reading anyway. I also don't really care whether an event has an "impact" on the continuity or not. I honestly couldn't care less. IMO an event is good if it brings big and interesting ideas to the table and delivers some memorable pages. If the event ends up having real repercussions for the continuity going forward then that's neat! but that's just the cherry on top and not something I am ever actively considering. Final Crisis is my favorite event of all time and that event is its own world.
What is the best way to read that event and actually understand what is going on? I’ve sincerely tried and am still confused about what’s happening. Really asking and not trying to be rude.
There are exactly four tie-ins that matter, and I think only two are actually crucial. I forget what it's called but it's two issues and Doug Mahnke is on art duties for it. The foe from it becomes a pivotal player later on in FINAL CRISIS and Mahnke also takes over the art as well, so it really works out.
It was Final Crisis: Superman Beyond
The recent paperbacks that collect Final Crisis with the Grant Morrison written tie-ins such as Superman Beyond: https://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-New-Grant-Morrison/dp/140124517X That's all the story in one chunk.
> I also don't really care whether an event has an "impact" on the continuity or not. I honestly couldn't care less. IMO an event is good if it brings big and interesting ideas to the table and delivers some memorable pages. If the event ends up having real repercussions for the continuity going forward then that's neat! but that's just the cherry on top and not something I am ever actively considering. This is a perfect way of looking at it. This is why I’m never nearly as bothered by events as some other readers - I don’t go into them expecting giant status quo shifts or anything like that, just a cool, fun story with lots of characters.
Probably Blackest Night. Nothing since has really excited me in any way.
Blackest Night had some really good tie-ins, too. Even the bad ones are still fun.
Older fella here. Although I knew how it would end, I loved every tie-in (well, almost every one) for Infinity Gauntlet. A large, expansive cast with characterization that made sense, several side arcs that were worth reading, and a sense of high adventure. The stuff like Acts of Vengeance, Secret Wars, and Atlantis Attacks were similar. But then: Infinity War was okayish, Infinity Crusade pretty awful. That’s really when I stopped caring so much about crossovers.
You named probably my two favorite ones acts of vengeance was great to me. So was atlantis attacks. I miss the days of them going in the annual during the summer. I think that was a nice happy medium. Not wrapping into the main story but going into a side book. Evolutionary war and armeggeon 2001 is another example(or however you spell it). I didn't mind the x books 3 issue runs. Inferno, fall of the mutants etc...actually as I am typing this I really enjoyed Inferno. It was the x books and 1 tie in issue of other comic books which was interesting.
Hickman's Secret Wars, and the build up to it via the Avengers books, which I was lucky to be able to read from the beginning. (I cared about his House/Powers of X book and the start of the Krakoa era, but not as much.)
Hickmens avengers was the last run I really cared about. I stopped reading about 2 years ago. Too many limited runs, new characters, and tie in books.
Avengers Time Runs Out into Secret Wars is a great time. (Hickmans FF run is a great place to start but it's not an event)
I enjoyed the X of Swords event, but that was just X-books. Company wide I enjoyed King in Black. But for the most part I don’t pay attention to events. 9 times out of 10 it seems the event will happen and will “Change the Marvel/DC Universe FOREVER!” and then the event is never referenced again. I never read the Knight Terrors event and I read a good number of DC books and literally nothing has changed
I liked absolute carnage and king in black but only because i was so invested in the Venom run
AXE was pretty damn good and the art slapped. I enjoyed that one a lot and everything leading up to it.
Kieron Gillen knows how to create amazing stories. This was the first time any writer (including Kirby) made me care about the Eternals.
AXE was legitimately fun and moved the stories of the main series forward without derailing major plota.
Agreed. It was one of the best recent ones.
I think Metal was the last one I went into interested, and then as it played out I found it and basically everything after it impossible to care about.
Same, the Snyder JL run was ok but kinda boring, and death metal was just nonsensical
Snyder’s stuff really started to slip after Endgame for me. Metal, Justice League and Death Metal and are silly nonsense to me, like it’s so over the top that it feels like there are no stakes, that nothing matters. Just a lot of cosmic throw up action like a kid playing with his action figure collection. At least there is a lot of good artwork in there.
I agree mostly, I think I’m just most nostalgic for Metal because it was around the time I got into comics and was the first event I really experienced
I hear this a lot so you’re in the majority opinion but I loved death metal and found it understandable. But to be fair I’ve read every major DC crisis and I read all the tie ins so I’m kind of a continuity dork
I will admit it was kinda just nutty fun, but I didn’t really care about the story much nor the Wonder Woman stuff, and the Batman who laughs felt overused by then imo, was tired of seeing him. I remember enjoying many of the spinoff one shots
I didn't much care for Metal, but I read it. Death metal was okay, but I find myself caring less. I disliked Dark Crisis to the point where I stopped reading halfway through and just stopped buying DC comics altogether. I have not, nor do I plan to, but an event from DC or Marvel (only *possibly* exception would be Hickman doing something for the new Ultimate Universe).
I just finished re-reading all of Death Metal. I love the idea of an ongoing narrative having to fight against being ruined by bad ideas & getting rebooted. It's a superbly executed bad idea.
Seven Soldiers. The perfect event. It didn't interrupt anyone's plots and was self-contained.
It also fit just behind the scenes of Infinite Crisis.
I love this book. So much story potential that isn't utilized. Morrison manages to fit so much about each character in each issue.
I don’t mind events but just to clarify, are you saying you only cared about events from 2005-2007? 😂
Yes
I mean... that *was* a hell of a time for events, lol.
Pretty much the same honestly, Dissassembled was when I started regularly buying comics and I fell off right after Secret Invasion around when Dark Reign was starting.
*Blood Hunt* and *A.X.E. Judgement Day* before that.
HoX/PoX here, measured by if I wanted to go each Wednesday to get books.
That's not an event
Secret Wars was the last great one. The build up and hype around it was great.
I don’t think it’s that linear for me, every few years there’s an event that looks really cool so I pick it up, but overall there are just too many every year and it gets tiring. I’m intrigued by Blood Hunt currently but the last event I picked up before that was probably King in Black. Also I’m not sure how Civil War “shit the bed” considering it was the most commercially successful event of the 21st century. I guess I have a lot more tolerance for events lol, because Infinite Crisis and Civil War were literally two of the earliest ones when it comes to the modern structure of events. I don’t mind an event every year, the problem is we have 3-5 every year. As for tie ins, yeah the last event that I actually picked up tie ins for was Secret Wars (2015). Tie ins are usually pointless. A lot of events are based around a specific character, so those are probably the only important ones. I’ve technically bought tie ins but that’s because they’re for books I’m already picking up every month so not really.
Story wise, I don't care about sales. Iron Man not only "winning" but that being treated like the "good ending" was the worst way it could have ended.
Oh I agree that the story itself was badly written but the premise was good, all the tie ins was good, as was everything surrounding it. It also had actual ramifications for the next 4 years or so with an always changing status quo.
Yeah both Civil War and Secret Invasion actually shaped the Marvel universe and moved it forward in really interesting ways, but both actual main event series were written poorly.
Secret Invasion has some of the worst pacing for an event I’ve ever read
The game Ultimate Alliance 2, of all things, had a better written civil war than Civil War.
1.) I would consider myself somebody who not only does not mind events, but actively enjoys events and sees the potential in them 2.) That being said, in all of my years of reading comics, there has NEVER been an event where I bought every single tie-in or adjacent comic. Even if I’m really into an ongoing event, I’m not going to buy an issue of a comic I have zero interest in just because there’s a 2-page reference to the event in the issue
I really liked Empyre
The last event that had me immersed and engaged was Infinite Crisis, and I couldn’t wait to get the next issue. It turned me into a full on Wednesday Warrior. I was there for every mini series and tie in issue leading up to it, I grabbed every tie in issue during it, and I bought almost everything stamped One Year Later… and I had the same dedication throughout 52. House of M was during this same time, too. I didn’t get as much as I did with Infinite Crisis, but it was fun and compelling. I feel the same way as House of M with Civil War. I have enjoyed other events since that time, like Final Crisis, Blackest Night, and Secret Invasion. But the last event that was excited of the build toward and action during was Infinite Crisis.
I very much enjoyed AXE Judgment Day. It’s the only event I got every issue for, and is likely the last, but I enjoyed it immensely so I’m glad I chose that one.
The absolute carnage and king in black stuff was probably the last event I really enjoyed
I’m usually not a big fan of events but I feel like there was just a glut of them in the 2010s that killed them for me. That being said, I’ve been enjoying House or Brainiac
I think they need to do less of them. Build up to them for years. Then let the end up be there for a bit.
I’m 43. First event I cared about was Infinity Gauntlet. Last one was probably the 2015 Secret Wars, although I was largely out of event comics way before then. I had been worn down by the endless procession of Avengers Disassembled into House Of M into Civil War into Secret Invasion into Siege into Fear Itself (this one, in particular, broke me, which I’ll get into in a second) into AvX into Infinity into Axis and on and on and on. “Things will NEVER be the same” every time. “The biggest even in comic history” every time. Yawn. Rinse. Repeat. As mentioned above, Fear Itself was the one that truly broke me. I went all-in on that one, as I had with many previous events. I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me right now, but iirc, if you bought *every* issue of the main event book, the tie-in books, the tie-in minis, the one-shots and the spin offs…it was around 150 issues. A HUNDRED AND FIFTY ISSUES!!! Yes, I know what some of you will say “well, you don’t have to buy ALL of them” And, of course, you’re right. But, at the time, my collector brain was fully engaged and I felt like I *did* have to have them all. I was afraid that the one title/issue I skipped would be the big/important one. So, yeah, sorry, bit of a tangent, but for the most part…fuck event comics. That said, the original Infinity Gauntlet, Age Of Apocalypse, Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, Secret Wars (2015), Crisis On Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Blackest Night and Flashpoint are all pretty great, imo. But they are definitely the exception rather than the rule. *EDITED TO ADD - went and looked online to see if I could find exactly how many issues FI ran through. 154 according to this list https://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/guide-part-15-fear-itself/amp/ But that doesn’t include the Shame Itself parody one-shot (which, funnily enough, is one of the few FI issues I actually kept), so that makes it at least 155 issues all-in. Just in case anyone cared.
I haven't reread it but I remember Fear Itself being pretty bad as it came out (Iron Man putting up his sobriety as a sacrifice aside). But it was *so* disappointing they built up the idea of all the heroes getting their own unique version of Mjolnir and the power up to go with it, only for the whole thing to last 2 pages and they don't even showcase any of them.
Different take, but book's power rangers series is exactly what I wanted from power rangers. The reality of skipping out of school, family tensions and the Drakkon (evil tommy) arc and the coinless was just fantastic
Oh, the BOOM! Power Rangers series has been fantastic beginning to end. I've read every issue.
Best recent event for me was AXE, which was at least ambitious and had some great character moments. The conceit of judgment for major characters was good, and the execution on it was solid to great. It certainly wasn't necessary, but it was one of the more interesting big events and gave Thanos's grandpappy some stuff to do, as well as a legitimately great hero moment for Magneto.
This is a great one. I loved the eternals series leading up to it as well. I was mad about the stealth cancelation. There were so many other ideas barely touched on. He also managed to reconcile the Kirby, Gillis,Gaiman & Aaron stories with the movie. No small feat.
Terror Knights. I think somewhere along the way I stopped caring about events changing the status quo and started to care about how cool they are in isolation. I rarely even check tie-ins, since 90% of them don't matter to the bigger picture, so comic events, to me, are just 4 to 6 issues.
I’m really enjoying blood hunt right now
Dark Knights Metal was so bad ass and to me that was one of 2 events I have enjoyed. The other being 2015 Secret Wars. What destroyed my interest completly was War of the Realms taking what was a great Thor run and forcing Daredevil and Wolverine into a run they had zero business being in. Then Donny Cates Venom getting an event in the middle of his run made me decided to drop every single book that is a tie in to an event. So unfortunately for me I'm dropping Fantastic Four because it has a tie in issue with this new bloodhunt thing. But I have set hard rules for me self so I'm not disappointed anymore and there are plenty of image, boom and dark horse books to take my time and money.
I think you're going too far with dropping an entire series because it has tie-in issues to events. After the Fantastic Four tie-ins, the series will go back to normal
It might seem extreme but I am voting with my wallet as everyone says to do. I do not support tie ins so I won't give them money when they do it. There are sooooo many good books that don't do tie ins and and are just as good reads so I'll be perfectly happy picking up a book that does not.
that seems kind of extreme, what if beyond the tie in issue nothing is derailed about the series and it continues just being the thing you liked
They say we need to vote with our wallets. And that is how I am telling then to stop doing tie ins to established series. It mgith seem extreme but its the only way I can tell them that I don't like that. Plus there have been plenty of series derailed by tie ins and we have not read the following issue so we don't actually know it won't.
Line-wide events specifically? Devil's Reign and King in Black. I tend to care much more about Marvel events than DC events. I think the last DC event I cared for was Dark Nights: Metal. But experienced readers know at this point, you do not have to read 90% of tie-ins. Caring about an event and reading every tie-in do not go together.
Fatal Attractions.
I think events rely a lot on the perception that they matter because things will never be the same after them, and that you _must_ be there to witness the Next Big Thing. Once you realize nothing really changes in comics, they tend to appear as bloated storylines with too many characters and ultimately meaningless side plots. When, as a child, I began reading comics, I felt like I simply _couldn't_ miss an event. It was around the time Marvel went from Civil War to World War Hulk to Secret Invasion to Siege, and they all seemed so crucial and world-shattering. Then came Fear Itself and AvX and, although I didn't care much for any of them, I still felt obliged to read them as they seemed important. Then I read Age of Ultron, which amounted to a fat bag of nothing and mostly retconned itself out of existence. By that point, I had already become quite jaded with the illusion of change. I have not read any other event since with the exception of Secret Wars 2015, as that seemed to be - literally - the definitive Marvel Universe story. Although I did enjoy some of it, I was annoyed with the forced tie-ins and ultimately felt that it would have been a much stronger story if it was more focused on Doom and Reed rather than the whole Marvel universe.
The most recent event I’ve read would have to be Devil’s reign and I really liked it
I generally avoid Event books when possible but I am loving Blood Hunt so far.
BLOOD HUNT kinda seems/feels like a "we have to do a big story" deal... except the creative team is really good and the plot seems so... "if you want to", that I think Marvel have somehow built up good will around it. Like it's not positioned as a "huge, game-changing, must-read, linewide event". It's just, "yeah, super vampires that are organized and have a plan that is very acheiveable but it's gonna destroy all of us if they win". Buddy, that's just a special miniseries with some hype around it. That's all, lol. But because it feels so optional, it almost brings me back around to, "maybe I'll check it out".
I think the last event I enjoyed reading was maybe Secret Invasion, since for me it kind of made Civil War less bad (oh, Tony had a secret reason to want to catalogue and control every superhero in the world, I guess he's only 90% a douche?) and also led directly up to the insanity of Norman Osborne running everything and Warren Ellis writing Thunderbolts for a little while. Final Crisis was pretty great, if confusing as hell. I really, really wanted to like Blackest Night and Annihilation but for me they were amazing concepts with problems in execution. I tend to read stuff long, long after it came out and has been judged by the community so I'm not really sure what the "last" one I cared about was. Although this thread is giving me leads on cool things I should go check out, so I like that :)
HOXPOX. Watching the X-Men undergoing such a radical rethinking was exciting.
I really liked Knight Terrors, it was more horror and that’s my jam.
None. (Before I get downvoted to hell, I would like to point out that this sub is comics. Not superhero Marvel/DC comics.) But an event that ruined a comic series that I was enjoying despite myself (not particularly a superhero fan anymore, I prefer writing free of all the corporate guidelines.) I picked up the Magneto compendium... Which was working pretty well. Just him, as a low powered mutant terrorist junkie, hiding out and working on the down low... The story was progressing quite nicely, then boom. It was totally and utterly derailed, no warning just cut to the aftermath of a massive crossover event by the - let me get this right - red skull is onslaught because of reasons best known to a writers room. And instantly the fairly balanced and well flowing story was utterly ruined, and suddenly overstuffed with established marvel characters and their associated power fantasies rather than the fairly decent and sort of well paced story I was enjoying. I'm not against folks enjoying what they like, but to my mind that's just horrendous writing. Pitiful in fact, that they couldn't insulate a single story from this nonsense.
Not even an event, but the rebirth relaunch was the last thing that truly excited me in comics. Before that? Probably Blackest Night. I kind of liked Forever Evil just because I hated Trinity War and the lead up so much that I was just happy they aborted that shit and spun it into a different story entirely. From Marvel? Last time I thought an event could be good was Fear Itself. Secret Invasion’s main event was crap, some of the tie ins were good, and Siege was pretty bad. Dark Reign was probably the last thing I thought was a fun direction marvel took. I was curious about the Ultimate relaunch recently and have enjoyed the books, but I wasn’t “excited” and it’s not an event.
TMNT x Power Rangers or maybe the Marvel Ultimate reboot going on right now.
I'm very much enjoying House of Brainiac and Marvel's Blood Hunt ! Both are ongoing and a lot of fun
I'm really surprised how much I'm liking House of Brainiac. Probably the best Joshua Williamson event I've read. The Brainiac Queen is also more interesting than I thought she'd be.
Blood Hunt has been a lot of fun so far. So I guess that counts. AXE: Judgment Day and Sins of Sinister were a hoot as well. I don’t really mind events tbh, especially ones by writers I like.
Zero Hour
House of M.
The first Secret Wars.
War of the Realms. Absolute Carnage, a little bit.
The last big one I read was either Devil’s Reign or King in Black. Don’t remember the order in which I read them as I read them both after the actual event passed. But now, I’m reading Blood Hunt. So far, so good on this one.
AXE Judgement Day. Sins of sinister. DC hasn't had a good event since Forever Evil.
It was probably doomed in retrospect, but the Clone Conspiracy in ASM interested me at the time. That was the last time I was intterested in ASM too
I guess The Multiversity? I've read others before and since, but that was the last one I was really "all-in" emotionally.
Devils reign was good. I also enjoyed judgment day
War of the realms and king in black
Upvote for Firestorm.
Upvote for upvote
Heroes in Crisis. I stopped buying DC comics soon after that.
I really enjoyed both Sins of Sinister and AXE Judgment Day
AvX for sure!
Blood Hunt is amazing!
Honestly events are the only thing I even care about anymore haha
Our Worlds at War was the last one I cared about
HOX/POX and the Dawn of X era if that counts.
"Back in the day" the big events didn't really have tie in books, did they? Did Crisis on Infinite Earths have any? Did the original Secret Wars do that? The only big event that had a long lasting impact on the company it came from was Crisis on Infinite Earths, and even it has been almost completely retconned away.
Crisis absolutely did, more of the storytelling got done in the crossovers than the actual book. DC collected all the tie-in issues a few years ago in three volumes.
Thank you very much! I'm looking at a list of tie ins now. There were a lot of them.
If the compendiums are still in print, there's some fun stories in them.
From what I've been reading, there were a lot of "The sky is an odd shade of red. Oh well" tie ins. I just read DC Comics Presents #87, and that's a wild tie in. Superboy Prime and Superman, right after Supergirl dies in Crisis.
The Swamp Thing ones are pretty integral.
Crisis did.
Original Sin probably
I was really excited for the New 52. It was like a new Silver Age where a few heroes got a fresh start, but a lot of favorite continuity was maintained. I really loved the new OMAC book, but it was cut short too soon. Before that, it had been a while. Maybe X-tinction Agenda before that?
There was an old one called siege from the 80s. It was the masters of evil beating the avengers in their mansion.
That’s one of my favorite Avengers stories ever, but it was completely contained in just the Avengers book.
So what? Do events have to take over multiple series to count?
That seems to be what the OP is referring to here, since they specifically mentioned tie in issues.
GenXer here…the last event I was *really* invested in was Inferno…and somewhat the Fall of the Mutants cos that led into it…
Metal/ Death Metal felt like it really mattered. I cared about Dark Crisis but haven’t been impressed with the follow up to the event.
Specifically line wide events it would be Flashpoint for DC and Secret Wars 2015 for Marvel.
The last one I cared about was Secret Wars 2015. I was really into Jonathon Hickman and a lot of the story lines in his Marvel work were coming to a head in that event. The same reasons why I was into Final Crisis and Blackest Night: Morrison and Johns had been working up to them. Most comic book events only exist to provide diagetic reasons for status quo changes (those changes don't stick, but I digress). They don't exist because the people on the by lines think they have an interesting story tell, they exist as a means to an end. That's why so many of them are awful.
Most excited for before and during release? Final Crisis. Enjoyed the most overall? Inferno (the old one) by a lot. Daredevil had to fight a vacuum cleaner, it's incredible.
Siege probably. Unless Civil War came after. But yeah Marvel/DC events are just ridiculous and expensive now. Used to be an exciting summer "blockbuster" treat. Now there's almost 1 every other month.
Fear Itself was the event that killed it for me. The last one I cared about will have been the one before that.
Decimation.
For Marvel, I think maybe Secret Wars? Very little has lived up to it since then, save for smaller-scale ones like HoX/PoX + Inferno. I’ve enjoyed some recent ones on Marvel Unlimited, like Devil’s Reign, but events just don’t have the same impact for me these days. I try to keep up with the DC ones because I’m a sucker for a crisis, so I’ve got what I think are the most recent ones (Dark Crisis, Doomsday Clock, Death Metal) in trade. I find DC a bit harder to follow than Marvel these days, but I try.
> [...] after I bought an issue of Firestorm with the tie-in banner at the top, and it had nothing to do with the actual event [...] Ah, the Red Skies Crossover, where the only thing they have in common is one tiny detail that doesn't affect anything but *technically* places them in the same world at the same time! (*Infinite Crisis* is even name-dropped on [the tropes page for this concept](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedSkiesCrossover) as being one major example of the idea. So, go figure!) Anyway, I don't care about events as they're happening. I'm a grown person with a busy timeline and not a lot of attention span, plus they don't always publish checklists, at least not in every accessible place you could find it. Maybe *Court Of Owls* or *H'El On Earth*? But that was only because I was already reading *Batgirl* and *Supergirl* at the time and, being an interfamily crossover rather than a company-wide one, it seemed easier to keep track of. But I didn't go out of my way to do it, except I did get a couple of the related books, including the new *Talon* book that spun off from *Court Of Owls*. I stopped caring permanently when the *Dark Knights Metal* stuff came around and it was just endless "Rebirth! Universe resetting! Multiverse! Dark multiverse! Buttons! Not one Batman, but *seven Batmen*! Imagine!", which turned into the Tempus Fuginaut stories and somehow Wally West's return and *Heroes In Crisis* were connected, and blah, blah, blah... Like, I'm a writer, I know what it's like to plan out a complex story across many different sources, but damn! Calm down! Why am I supposed to read *Flash Forward* when I haven't even read the *Dark Multiverse Tales* yet? When is there going to be a *good* event that explores the effects of superheroing on a person's mental health, and isn't just the first sign that this specific writer needs extra counseling on-top of his paid, DC-sponsored art therapy lessons?!
Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman for Marvel and Blackest Night by DC were the last events I really cared about.
Marvel - King in Black DC - Darkseid War I’ve read the other events since but those two had me HYPED everytime a new part dropped
Secret Wars 2015-16
Secret Wars (the 2000s one), because it honestly felt like a build up to something the previous months and the result was awesome
I’m not an event guy. I learned pretty early on(World War Hulk) that not every issue with the banner has to deal with the larger story. But the last event I even had a slight interest in was Secret Wars (2015). I only collected the main series but it felt like a good enough jumping off point for events from Marvel. For DC it was Metal. Now those tie ins worked solidly with the story as a whole and was pretty linear. Death Metal was too convoluted and the issues were mediocre at best (read that on the DC app)
Hickman's Secret Wars for me. To be honest though I think the answer to the question is probably always "the first big event that happened after you started following comics". I was a teenager when Secret Wars happened and I'd been reading Hickman's Avengers run religiously at that point.
Maybe the one shot where Image Comics launched their Massive-verse for me. It's not Marvel or DC though.
I thought Devil’s Reign was kind of a good time. I wasn’t a huge fan of Zdarksy’s Daredevil but the event was probably the highlight of it, to my taste.
I started trade-waiting many years ago, so I don't get too excited about events or "things will never be the same!" gimmicks anymore. My original comics collecting heyday was the late 1980s through late 1990s, and my favorite events are Knightfall, Age of Apocalypse, and X-Cutioner's Song. I came back to collecting in the mid-2000s. I enjoyed Infinite Crisis, 52, the first Civil War, and DC Rebirth. But the event I've been most excited about has probably been Blackest Night. I wasn't a Green Lantern fan until I read Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, so when Blackest Night was announced, I was excited. But that event exceeded my expectations. Every issue of the main book, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps got me more excited for the next. Even the tie-ins, specifically the Batman and Titans series, were great. IMO Blackest Night is one of the best events any comics company has done.
Secret War
Planet Hulk was great. I also loved the Sinestro events and Flashpoint.
Black September taught me to keep my event expectations low, so I never look forward to any massive comic event.
First Metal event I care about House of Brainiac tho. But it's more Superman-centric rahter than a univrse shaking one
Atlantis Attacks
Siege. Finally seeing Norman completely lose everything he built entirely because of his own hubris and insanity was a great catharsis after a year or two of him being top dog (for a completely BS reason, too).
Before now, AXE Judgement Day was excellent. Current Blood Hunt has been meticulously and cleverly planned and executed, im flabbergasted at how good it is because in general… …events are…. You know. Gang war? Cmon..
AvX initially. But once I started reading my excitement went down quick.
I'm excited for the new X-Men after bloodhound.
The first 3-5 dark knights metal books and the supporting dark Batman issue 0s were probably the hardest I ever went buying, reading and collecting. It's truly unfortunate they fucked up doomsday clock because that was also going on and could have been an amazing moment. Instead we got dr Manhattan batman who laughs.
I was going to say _Crisis on Infinite Earths_, but I did care about the Sinestro Corps War and the Wars of Light. I don't think I bought every Blackest Night tie-in though.
As much as I love superheroes I've never gotten that into comics, (lack of money + not really sure where to start), however I have followed along online, which was cheaper, but managed to kill any enthusiasm for events before I could really get into them. Buuuuut long before any of that, when I was 10, or 11, or 12, I had an extremely meager comic book collection that had three issues of **Maximum Carnage** (8, 11 & 12), so I guess **Maximum Carnage** is my answer (and I finally managed to get the whole thing a few weeks ago!)
Rebirth. it was the first one I experienced while it was happening but it happened at a weird time in my life so I lost steam and since then I can only wish I could’ve gotten into comics before then so I could see the hype around things like the Secret Invasion or Blackest Night. seriously, Blackest Night sounds like it goes soooo hard. I gotta read it sometime.
I read "Metal" and enjoyed it for the most part, I think my favorite part was the origin stories for all the evil Batmen.
2015 secret wars
blackest knight... I liked civil war too. just finished spider geddon and edge of the spiderverse...pretty good event among the spider world
Original Sin was the last one I remember being interested in and being sure I followed the whole event. Blood Hunt has me pretty excited so far.
DC- Doomsday Clock Marvel- Ultimate Invasion. Hickman popped off with this one so I continue to be interested in his new Ultimate Universe
Last event for me was probably World War Hulk. I'm a big Hulk guy and loved Planet Hulk, so I went out of the way to read the main series, the Frontline series, tie-ins, etc. I usually kept up with big events in Marvel/DC before that, but never really felt that drive to keep up with any after WWH. Nowadays it usually just annoys me when a book I like gets derailed to have to tell an event tie-ins (or worse, the book gets a permanent change due to something that happened in the event).
So Rebirth was really interesting to me. The whole set up with the Button was interesting, and Superman's return. The set up to the universal reset that occured and Multiversity. But then just fell flat with poor writing for Geoff Johns with the 3 jokers and Doomsday Clock. Weird story angles. And then Dark Metal just coming out of seemingly nowhere as this was all happening. After that, I just did not care for events.
secret wars 1985
Infinity War
I’m the on the other end of the spectrum. I’m excited for Absolute Power. It’s what we want events to be. It’s built up by the what going on in current books. Batman, Superman, a lil of Wonder Woman, Green Arrow. It using past events as dominoes all the way back for Lazarus Planet, up to Knight Terrors and Beast World. And it’s being done by the Waid and Mora which are an amazing team. Going until October is a bit much but I’ll take it. And I’m enjoy Blood Hunt over in Marvel. I love every time either company does an event even if I don’t read. I think they are cool and exciting. Not every event is great but but someone enjoys them even if you don’t.
Infinite Crisis
I was really loving that last Eternals run and I was ready a bunch of avengers during AXE so that was kind of a special treat just for me
Hmm I don't know.....maybe rebirth? Is that an event? The first part with the whole Wally West returns thing got me feeling things and I enjoyed a lot of the first arcs that came out then after that.......
Blood Night, before that, Dark Web. I'm easy for a horror themed event.
Blood Hunt?
Sinestro Corps War is the best crossover ever and it's not even close. Been downhill since.
Annihilation: Conquest was the last one I cared about. Until I stopped reading Marvel entirely, Marvel's Earth based events were one disappointment after another. Civil War was terrible.
It was Annihilation and Civil War until HOX/POX happened, I felt like a little kid again reading HOX/POX. Too bad the last couple of years couple of years couldn’t keep up the excitement.
Avengers disassembled Edit: now that I think about it, sinestro corps war and blackest night, then everything became derivative to me. Edit edit: I'm stupid The x Messiah trilogy is the last one.
I know this is uncool, but I like biiiiiig events and miss them lately. I find smaller scale events like gang war kinda boring. Go big or go home! lol. Last one enjoyed was probably that Venom one . What was it called? My favourites were the ones that had lasting implications.
I really enjoyed Flashpoint.
Metal. Snyder and Capullo accidentally leaked it on their panel at Boston Comic Con back in 2016 and I spent the next year looking forward to it. I felt like the storyline ended up an 8/10 and artwork 12/10, but DC had no idea what to do with it after. Death Metal was meh, and I think it was more on editorial than the creative teams. DC really dropped the ball with that and Doomsday Clock.
Gotham war
The first event that got me into modern books was Disassembled/House of M. I stuck with reading the main title books throughout those years. Fear Itself and AvX were the first events that made me start to groan at the idea of events. But the nail in the coffin was Original Sin. I hated what they did with Fury. I stopped collecting the series halfway through. I hadn't read an event since then. Funny enough, I just picked up Blood Hunt #1 and #2. It has been okay so far. I like that it's just five issues, and the whole red band thing hooked me. I don't think I'll get back into events soon, though. Edit: I actually did read Absolute Carnage (borrowed from a friend) and Hickman's Secret Wars (got the tpb on sale).
I'm poor so I could never afford to buy all tie-ins.
I abhor events. I'd much prefer more contained stories that don't care about canon. That don't care about other books. I'd rather a book go on hiatus if it doesn't have an interesting story to tell. Too many comics are just uninteresting.
Court of owls
Might be a bit unpopular but Secret Empire was actually really exciting for me as I read both Spencer Captain America runs blindly without knowing it would lead into an event.
Identity Crisis and all the tie-ins too. Then followed up with Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis… yes all the tie-ins too. Still missing a few and still hunting them down. My completists mindset won’t let go all these years later… 😅🥲 Oh! And all the variants and print too. It’s a sickness 🫠
Iirc it was Lazarus Planet. It was the one that made me sick of events entirely
World War Hulk. Planet Hulk got me back into comics after a ~15 year hiatus and WWH made me collect again. Then I slowed waaaay down after realizing that it turned into one event after another.
The phenomenal and singular Milk Wars.
DC's Bloodlines.
Secret Wars 2015 because I was so invested in Hickman's Avengers run.
I’ve read lots of events after the fact on Marvel Unlimited, but the last event I really went big on in physical media is the Onslaught event back in the 90s.
DC Final Night. There are likely a ton of others but I’m drawing a blank
Does the Flashpoint Beyond/Justice League Incarnate/Infinite Frontier trilogy count as an overall DC event? It lead to the JSA’s return.
I rather enjoyed Marvel's War of the Realms. I don't know that I was emotionally invested in it but I liked it enough to read through the whole event.
I like events (although it's a little bit obnoxious when an event hasn't finished and they announce another one). I like being up to date with big events in DC. In the case of Marvel, even if it looks interesting, I end up forgetting to pick it up. I think the only complete event I have is Death Metal. Normally, I get the main event and the most relevant tie-ins. Since Lazarus Planet I decided to skip events that don't seem very relevant or interesting to me (which made me skip Knight Terrors). About Absolute Power, I'm really looking forward it. It ties in with 3 series I'm getting (Batman, WW, GL), and I trust Mark Waid and Dan Mora. Also, it seems more relevant than the other events I mentioned before.
Secret Invasion
Night-Terrors
Nothing that happens in these events stick. No deaths matter, no character's drastically changed or had anything that does happen will be completely ignored or forgotten within a year. What's the point? Character's crossover ok, that's cool but does anything happen that matters? I couldn't get past the first issue of DARK CRISIS, the JLA is dead (yeah right). Superman's son needs to build a new team. (Why?) There's no plan. (Bullshit Batman literally had a plan for if the JLA gets knocked out of commission, they had a whole story arc showing Batman recruiting a team with T-spheres!) This is pointless!
DARK CRISIS was honestly such a clusterfuck. It has the biggest "we're doing this because we were told to" energy. Whatever stakes the story tries to establish are cut out immediately or the flaws of it are *immediately* highlighted.
They wanted to call metal Dark Crisis but Snyder & Capullo said no way. It was a power play. Somebody wanted their Dark Crisis & they got it. Even if it was a pile of garbage that basically undid everything they had just worked to build.
Ultimatum is the one marvel event that had massive consequences
I haven't cared for an event for a while, but all the new Energon stuff going on with G.I.Joe and Transformers is getting me hype.
It's not exactly a massive event and more of an arc, but I think it was The Flash War. Highly disappointing, never cared for a DC or Marvel event since then and I don't plan to.
AXE was pretty good. Sins of Sinister too, but that was much smaller. Really though, even most "good" events are bloated monstrosities not worth reading 100% of.
I liked the Squadron Supreme event that was tied to Aaron's Avengers. Other than that I have hated every event story both marvel and DC have published for years.