Nothing Will Be the Same Ever Again
Zero Will EVER BE THE Same AGAIN. AGAIN.
Since 1985'due south Crisis On Infinite Earths,, the "Summermegacrossover" has go a tradition at the Big Two, an activeness-packed, highly-lucrative "event" in which some unprecedented calamity calls for all of DC's or Marvel's biggest guns to band together to avert the devastation of the Universe/the Globe/Due east Grinstead in a serial of increasingly-contrived battle extravaganzas.
The Death of the Wink - almost permanent, by comic-book standards...
Since 1985'due south Crisis On Infinite Earths, the "Summermegacrossover" has become a tradition at the Large Two, an action-packed, highly-lucrative "event" in which some unprecedented calamity calls for all of DC'due south or Marvel'due south biggest guns to ring together to avert the destruction of the Universe/the Earth/East Grinstead in a series of increasingly-contrived battle extravaganzas involving at to the lowest degree one "main" series, commonly several split up coincident mini-series, and a bunch of crossover issues into the ongoing titles, where the regular storylines grind to a halt so we can encounter the whole morass all once again from the titular hero's PoV.
The seminal version (affectionately abbreviated to COIE, because frankly who can exist arsed to type all that out repeatedly?) was the virtually groundbreaking and effective of the type, because information technology did precipitate a major reshuffling of the DC Universe. Flawed and fumbling, yeah, with "retcons" taking place upwardly to a couple of years later on, when we were suddenly told of the comics we had been reading, "Er, no, that grapheme in that story never existed, it was this i instead" – but at least it did take consequences, not least of which were the deaths of a major hero – Barry Allen, the Flash, who remained dead for 20-odd years – and of a solid B-lead, the Kara Zor-El Supergirl, who has remained pretty much expressionless until the nowadays. (A couple of reboots notwithstanding, she's not been revised as the same grapheme. Work with me here…)
The many, many successors accept increasingly diluted the consequence, giving us much sound and fury, the deaths of a slew of minor characters, some costume changes and ability alterations, the introduction of new heroes and villains (who are apparently destined to wear the ruddy shirts in the landing party of adjacent year's Summermegacrossover), and other narrative botox to give the illusion of drama while non obstructing an easily-reached "Fanboy Reset" button (© Dan DeDidio) at the event's end.
Eventually, fandom en masse defenseless on that the "consequences" of these events were increasingly trivial and inconsequential. In that location came the onset of Summermegacrossover Fatigue, and the sales figures for each year's Infinity Bunfight, Hole-and-corner Probing, Gusset Crisis or Sloth Itself spiralled ever downwards.
So DC, terminal year, took it one step further. 2011's DC Summermegacrossover, Flashpoint, starred the recently-undead (but not undead in a fun, vampire/zombie way, only … alive again) Flash, Barry Allen, who decided to tinker with the timeline to avert tragedies to his loved ones. As anyone who'd read Stan Lee/Steve Ditko twist-ending mysteries could guess, his meddling resulted in a strangely changed, grimmer world, and in the end Bazza had to practise a City On The Border Of Forever to set things correct.
Except he didn't quite manage it, and we, the readers, were presented with the new new revised DC Universe; everything launched again from #i, in a world where the DCU has been operating for around five years as of "now", Batman perhaps a petty longer than that.
Curiosity, with very much an air of throwing its toys out of the pram, countered by cancelling its longest-running uninterrupted title, Uncanny X-Men, and relaunching with not one but two new #1'due south.
Merely nobody paid much attention, considering Curiosity had played that card as well many times already.
Over the last 15 years or so, Marvel had gotten into the habit of relaunching its popular series. A new Avengers ane, Thor 1, Iron Human being 1, Hulk ane, Captain America 1 … they'd get regular occurrences every few years, and the novelty of that tactic was worn thin and played out, having no "clout" upwards confronting the sheer ballsy hubris of DC cancelling its entire line (some of which were on the run-up to their thousandth effect), and rebooting all.
Then, Marvel needed to up their game.
Enter this year's Summermegacrossover, Avengers vs. 10-Men, in which myriad heroes claiming affiliation with either team (and in many cases both, making for the kind of soul-searching conflicted angst Marvel readers honey as long as it doesn't arrive the way of the hitty stuff for too long) are forced to take sides and kick the asses of their close allies, all over the return of the galaxy-chomping Phoenix Force to Earth, and its intended host, a young girl called Hope, currently residing with the X-Men.
Skottie Young'south variant cover for Avengers Vs. X-Men - more than fun than anything the regular series has to offering!
In the pages of this otherwise run-of-the-factory Summermegacrossover, Cyclops and the other Ten-Men many times make references to the Phoenix Force every bit a powerful transformative amanuensis, able to create also as destroy (a complete retcon of every other advent of the Phoenix, but we'll set that bated for now.)
Furthermore, it'south evident that a lot of the regular Curiosity titles – Avengers vs. X-Men crossover bug excepted – are kind of in the creative doldrums, appearing to be mark time. Creative lethargy – or a deliberate 'belongings blueprint'?
And a lot of new Marvel titles have appeared over the final twelvemonth which, frankly, seem doomed to failure. A kinder, gentler Venom beingness hosted past plucky amputee Flash Thompson? A second Helm America championship which is, in all simply proper noun, Helm America Team-Upward? A return to that whole gut-wrenching Spider-Clone nonsense with a Scarlet Spider serial? Or how most poor Carol Danvers; sidelined past Mar-Vell, subjected to multiple makeovers as Ms. Curiosity, kidnapped, brainwashed, raped and forced to give nativity to her own attacker in the Avengers, by turns powerless, alcoholic and at present, as the newest 'new' Captain Marvel, having evidently won some sort of competition for the butt-ugliest costume and hairstyle e'er? Sweet zombie Jesus, hasn't the woman suffered enough?
The new Helm Marvel; costume from the Helen Keller Fall Collection, hair by Drunken Monkey Salon.
No, these titles give every evidence of beingness "placemarkers", there to hold spots on the production schedule for other serial – beingness prepared, possibly, by the people who clearly aren't working on the A-List Marvels – to step up when their cue comes.
Joe Quesada, interviewed shortly after the DC relaunch, stated categorically that there were no plans to practise a similar affair at Marvel; withal, a) he'southward been known to tell porkies in the by, and b) given the huge commercial success of DC'due south New 52, does anyone seriously believe that the thought hasn't crossed his mind?
It may of course all exist coincidental; I could be entirely wrong. Merely it would be the soundest commercial motility Marvel could make to authoritatively, and maybe permanently, have the sales pb dorsum from DC…
Tags: Avengers, DC, Curiosity, The New 52, X-MenSource: http://comiczine-fa.com/features/nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-again-again
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