10 Harsh Truths You Don't Want To Admit About Comic Books‏

6. Crossover Events Are Total Rip-Offs

We'll admit that there have been some genuinely alright stories to come out of those big summer crossovers, but they are few and far between, and certainly not the aim of those events. When the Big Two of DC and Marvel announce their blockbuster-aping crossover events for the year, the hype machine slowly groans into life, and just as happens when the same machine is employed by Hollywood studios, we eat it up. Every morsel of information about the creative team, the characters involved, little teases of the plot; we devour each as eagerly as casting news and directors attached to the next big Hollywood remake. Just like those remakes, too, there's always that annoying little voice at the back of our heads trying to harsh our buzz (or at least manage our expectations so we stop expecting every tentpole summer release is gonna be THE BEST THING EVER). What's worse is that, whilst we're getting all excited about Forever Evil or Original Sin, we ultimately do end up being disappointed. And broke. The voice is right! Crossover events aren't meant to tell good stories. They're supposed to empty your wallets. The reason they crossover into every major book the company in question publishes it is because, that way, you'll feel obliged to read every other book so that you can get the full story. Otherwise, that single issue doesn't make any sense! Which means that you're being ripped off three-fold: Your regular comics get their ongoing plots interrupted, you're being fleeced and buying twice as many (or more!) comics than you normally do in a month, and you're not even getting a particularly good story out of it. But Future's End looks so good...