...that would have been more effective if these blog posts stacked the other way.
The last real post I made here was skepticism about Marvel's 2015 summer event SECRET WARS. With the benefit of hindsight, was that skepticism well-founded? I would answer "YUP."
Here's the thing: I actually rather liked SECRET WARS. The architect of the entire event was Jonathan Hickman, a writer I've come to really love. On top of writing Marvel standouts like FANTASTIC FOUR, SECRET WARRIORS, AVENGERS, and NEW AVENGERS, Hickman has also written a number of outstanding creator-owned books, like THE DYING AND THE DEAD, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, and, my personal favorite (like, maybe ever), EAST OF WEST. Hickman had previously helmed the Marvel crossover event INFINITY, back from the days when I was still writing on this thing. I quite liked INFINITY, actually; it was a very bold crossover, one that felt like it really did require a crossover to complete, and it was appropriately massive. I reiterate all that now because SECRET WARS was very much in this camp.
Hickman's run on AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS set things up for INFINITY just fine, but NEW AVENGERS in particular had been building to SECRET WARS since the first issue back in 2013 (which was also an excellent comic). It was a Claremontian set-up on an even larger scale, and one that promised to have repercussions well beyond the event.
And it was good! Again, I liked SECRET WARS. The main story was compelling and many of the tie-ins (the entire Marvel line shut down for SECRET WARS, opting to end every ongoing book in favor of limited series tie-ins that took place in various locations throughout the SECRET WARS Battleworld map) were equally interesting. The biggest issue with the whole thing is that it pressed on way longer than it should have or, indeed, was scheduled to (seemingly from a delay on the creative team's end). If your whole line is reliant on a very specific schedule, you better make sure you keep to that schedule. Marvel couldn't here (as they probably should have predicted), and therefore ended up needing to start their brand new line of comics before we'd learned the fate of the old one. In some cases, this was kind of interesting; the Fantastic Four were entirely off the map and only mentioned in oddly cryptic tones. In others, it was a little deflating; Miles Morales was suddenly in the Marvel Universe proper, and Doctor Strange was starring in his own book, decidedly not dead (okay, it was obviously exciting he wasn't dead, but still, he died in SECRET WARS and was back in his own book before SECRET WARS had ended). There were, sadly, far more cases of the latter than the former (including the very simple fact that there was a Marvel Universe and that many of the characters had survived, a spoiler in itself, albeit one we probably could have predicted).
It all comes back to the same problem events seem to always have: a good idea was presented in an imperfect fashion, which made everything tied to it weaker. There's also the increasing event fatigue that is tied to every event now, which is compounded by the far more dangerous problem Marvel keeps walking right into: if every book has to go on hold (or be cancelled) for every event, and you're going to have a new massive event every half-year or year, you'll never be able to establish a really strong character/team/story. We're mid-way through 2016 now and some books are still just barely starting up (notable entries include BLACK PANTHER, MOON KNIGHT, and BLACK WIDOW, which are all still on their third or so issue) and this summer's massive event CIVIL WAR II has just started up as of this week. Even if CIVIL WAR II is a massive success (I have my doubts), it will have slowed other books' growth. It's very possible that by the time those books find their grooves, they'll be absorbed into the next event, or the creative team that got them that far will be moving on. How can we embrace new characters or give another chance to some old ones if writers and artists are given a proper chance to establish them?
So SECRET WARS was a good event, but it was an event all the same. A lot of worthwhile stories and issues and characters made their respective ways out of it, but I think the line is weaker as a whole for it. Stay tuned for CIVIL WAR II, I guess?
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