Countdown to Event Fatigue
Is anyone experiencing deja vu these days? Think back to the mid-'90s when fans became sick of all the "event" comics, threw up their hands and left the comic shops in droves. It seemed as if everything was a "special issue" with a variant chromium cover. The publishers had pushed the readers too far with all their "mega events," and empty promises that began with "an event that will change the comics world forever ... ."
It seems that the people over at Newsarama have caught onto the parallels between now, and the '90s, and are making it the center of discussion with this month's Talking Shop called "Event Fatigue."
"Bill Mitchel, vice president of purchasing for Atomic Comics in Phoenix, Ariz., said his customers are still giving event-type comics a try, but they've become impatient if the story doesn't deliver. 'Customers are really being selective about what events they follow, and if the story fails to deliver rather quickly, the sales begin to decline in a short amount of time,' he said. 'It's got to be more then hype, more then the same old 'this will change everything' slogan. And you see the quality events are pulling in the numbers while those that fail to excite are falling down the charts.'" What is even more worrying now than 10 years ago was that back then, the events only happened about once a year with Onslaught and "Age of Apocalypse," but now the events are running into one another with Infinite Crisis, 52, and now Countdown. It seems that every comic these days is a crossover, and you have to buy this month's "New Avengers" to understand next week's "Captain America," which is a great move if you're trying to sell more issues of every title, but it is doubtful that fans will buy it for long.
"'Overall, based on the weekly comic-book buyers at our store, they might say they're sick of events, but still they will come in every week and look for that event comic and all of its tie-in comics. While they might complain, they still continue to buy — for now,' said Lisa Lopacinski, co-owner of Neptune Comics in Waukesha, Wis."
"For now" are two words that worry me, hoping that another comic depression isn't just around the corner. Let's just pray that the words "chromium cover" are never again uttered in a comic shop.
You remember who had one of the first chromium covers dont you? Yeah, Joe Quesada. I wouldnt be surprised at all to see it happen again. Marvel has variant covers every month on a whole variety of books. I loved the Wolverine EC variant, but I would rather they just use these really cool covers on their normal books and drop the variant nonsense.
I don't think the industry would be that dumb to go back to the foil stamped glow in the dark mistakes so soon. At least I hope not.
I lost interest in countdown very quickly. 52 really made you care about the 2nd tier characters, the same is possible w/ countdown except Im personally sick of the "SUPER MEGA UNIVERSE CHANGING EVENT" crap. Countdown feels like DC is trying to cash in.