There is a very specific trick the major comic publishers like to pull and no matter how hard I try I inevitably fall for it. I'm referring to trick where they take a comic title I very much enjoy and place a story arc in order to get people to purchase a new or less popular title.
I fell for this hard a few years ago when DC had a story arc called "Checkout" that crossed "Checkmate" (which I loved) and "Outsiders" (which I've never been on the boat for no matter how hard I try). Again later DC got me with an even worse attempt when they crossed not two but three titles ("Titans", "Teen Titans" and "Vigilante") in the story arc "Death Trap". Most recently Marvel even got me by cross the "Dark Avengers" with the "Uncanny X-Men" for the "Utopia" story.
Marvels attempt got to me a little more than DC primarily because they used this one on me and it worked. I've never really bought any X-Men books before but I thought I would give it a few issues since "Utopia" does leave many questions open after the end. The problem can a few issues later when I realized that they were leading right into another title crossover with "Second Coming" in almost all of the X titles. So after being sucked into one crossover story to know whats going on I was in the line for another on in books I've avoided before.
There really are two ways to take all of this. The first is that both companies are just telling stories to entertain the fans. I like to think these story ideas were proposed and done specifically because writers thought the fans would enjoy them. The second, and more likely, reason if that this is just done to get more fans onto new or unpopular titles by involving them with better known titles. I understand that at the end of the day these companies want us to buy books to make money, but making us watch every super team out there fight the "Agents of Atlas" isn't going to make up think we should be reading them to.
Comments
Kristo Sat, Apr 24th, 2010 at 3:01 PM Kyle, please keep writing about comics. I'm learning a lot reading your blog posts. That said, I think you're trying too hard. This particular post has a lot of spelling/grammar errors and frankly, it just doesn't sound like you. I think you could have made your points with half as many words. As they say, brevity really is the soul of wit. Keep working at it, and I know your writing will improve. I always look forward to a new Unshaven Comics blog entry.
Unshaven Kyle Thu, Apr 29th, 2010 at 7:28 PM
Appreciate the feedback Kristo. Self editing has always been a problem for me. Something about going back and rereading my own thoughts then correcting them. It's a chore, but if I'm going to share I need to work on it. Thanks for reading!
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