Event comics! We love em! We hate em! And they're never going away. Ever! For every claim from Marvel Comics about taking a few months off there are three world-changing events waiting around the corner. How else are DC and Marvel supposed to keep the lights on? Through Warner Bros. and Disney's endless money vault? Nah! While event comics have taken many shapes and forms and vary in quality they're usually two ways these events are published. And it's up to you to decide which is best this week on What's The Difference!?
Event Title
The "Event Title" style of event publishing is when a comic book company releases a new miniseries chronicling the main story of an event. Some examples include DC's Forever Evil, Darkest Night, Flashpoint, and Final Crisis, while Marvel's examples are Civil War, Secret Invasion, Secret Wars, and Secret Empire. An Event Title is usually six to twelve issues long, with each issue containing equal or more amounts of pages than a standard issue. Due to companies trying to convince readers how important these events are these events typically change or effect character or characters, this is what the company believes to be a reason for Event Titles costing more than a standard comic book issue. A typical comic book issue costs anywhere from 2.99 to 4.99, but a single issue of an event could cost up to 6.99, it's Trade-which is one book containing all the issues that make up the event-could cost up to fifty or sixty dollars depending on the importance and age of the event, while the first five issues of a book as a Trade could cost around fifteen or twenty dollars. From a marketing salespoint this type of publishing has worked even when the fanbase tires of events. Between 2016 and 2017, Marvel Comics had eight events including Doctor Doom rebuilding and resetting the Marvel Universe, another Civil War happening, and Captain America and HYDRA taking over the world. Despite fan outcry to stop event books from Marvel the books still sold. Unlike a "Crossover Event", an Event Title can have Tie-Ins. Tie-Ins are single or multiple issues of a comic book run that have something to do with the main event. For example: During "Civil War 2" the title "Power Man & Iron Fist" had a four issue story arc wearing the "Civil War 2" banner on it's covers, but the story barely included any material from the event and the event made no mention of this story arc. Essentially, these tie-ins could either be writers giving their own two-cents on the topic of the event or be an excuse for a writer to get lazy and let the event lead the issue.
Crossover Event
A "Crossover Event" is when two or more comic book series share a story between their issues, usually written and drawn by both series' teams of writers and artists. Some DC examples include: The Death of Superman, Night of The Monster Men, and The Lazarus Contract, and some Marvel examples are: Avengers Standoff, Age of Apocalypse, and Worlds Collide. Usually these types of stories are done to highlight the relationships of characters within the books, but it also done as a business strategy to get new readers. People may be reading Titans, but those same people aren't reading Teen Titans or Deathstroke, so if a story arc where to begin in Titans, but continue through Teen Titans and Deathstroke, readers would have to buy those other issues to read the rest of the arc. By the end the readers may be so entertained they begin reading two more comic book series! As for the structure, we'll be using DC Comic's "The Button" as an example. "The Button" is an arc taking place in issues of Batman, The Flash, Batman, and The Flash, in that order. The more books involved in the story the more wide spread it becomes. In the case of "Super-Sons of Tomorrow" that book took place in Superman, Super-Sons, Teen Titans, Superman, and finally Super-Sons. And in the case of Marvel's "Avengers Standoff" includes two special event issues, Agents of SHIELD, Uncanny Avengers, All-New All-Different Avengers, New Avengers, Howling Commandos of SHIELD, Captain America, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, Illuminati, Agents of SHIELD, All-New All-Different Avengers, New Avengers, Captain America, and another special issue. These issues are regularly priced, but profit off of multiple books being bought. Even for completionists these events are marketable because skipping a crossover event means missing an issue of a collection. So whether the event is well-received or not and whether or not a reader picks up the rest of the event they are still buying a single issue. While these types of events lack tie-ins they can sometimes come with extra issues that begin the arc without excluding people who don't read the book in which Part 1 takes place in. "Avengers Standoff" and "Robin War" both had special issues described as prologues and epilogues for this purpose and, as often done, they are priced higher than the single issues.
Between the two types of events there is a lesser, more uncommon type of event we'll call "Single Issue Event" which primarily includes "The Clone Saga" a story arc from Spider-Man that claimed it was an event for the entire year that it ran.
If I personally had to choose one type of event over the other it would be the Event Title. I enjoy a good crossover, but for someone like me who is so picky with what he reads it only takes more money out of my wallet to read a really good story in a book I don't want to invest in. An Event Title is self-contained, and doesn't require me to read anything else. Even it's Tie-Ins are inconsequential and just slow down the books I am reading at the most. And if an event isn't amazing I at least know it's only six issues, or I know I can buy it all at once in the near future. The other perk is that whether is shakes things up or not, event books usually effect a character instead of spinning off new titles. Regardless, those are my reasons for choosing Event Titles over Crossover Events. If you have a different opinion make sure to comment down below!
Thanks for reading!
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