Showing posts with label crossovers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crossovers. Show all posts

Thursday, 23 August 2018

Crossover time

Yes this blog is back... for now.

I've decided to take a look at some of Marvel's classic big event crossovers, picking them somewhat at random.

Given the scale of these, I won't be aiming to look at the whole thing in a single post. Instead I'll be going through them one issue at a time, including obvious issues that weren't (formally) included in the crossover and also various contemporary parodies and later reworkings of the concept in What If...? Along the way I'll aim to provide Amazon links to collected editions containing the individual issues.

I've decided to start with a biggie. As I've looked at much of the core of things like "Secret Wars II", the "Mutant Massacre", "Fall of the Mutants" and "Inferno" when covering the Essentials and other collected editions, I've opted to begin with a look at "Acts of Vengeance" from 1989.
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Thursday, 29 January 2015

Inferno - the crossovers

Time for a quick guide to a significant crossover event that isn't fully collected in the Essentials. It has, however, appeared in two collected hardcover editions that are Omnibuses in all but name.

Inferno was published in the autumn of 1988 and was focused on the X-family of titles, including the limited series X-Terminators, but spread out into almost every other Marvel title based in and around New York as demons ran rampant in the city which was steadily magically transformed into a nightmare.

The collected editions are structured around the core and extended parts of the storyline so I've once again turned to The (Almost) Complete Marvel Crossover Guide for an order. Note that not every issue carries the "Inferno" banner and I've included some of the build-up as well:
X-Factor Annual #4 includes a back-up strip where two government agents investigate what happened; it is reprinted in Essential X-Factor volume 4.

As you'll see this is a lot of issues. After three years of ever larger crossovers growing out of the X-Men titles someone realised this couldn't go on indefinitely.

So the following year instead saw an even larger crossover growing out of the Avengers titles.
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Monday, 27 May 2013

Acts of Vengeance - the crossovers

Another quick guide to a significant crossover event that isn't (yet) fully collected in the Essentials.

Acts of Vengeance appeared in late 1989 (coinciding with a period when Marvel took steps to bring their cover dates closer to actual publication) and was one of the biggest ever Marvel crossovers with the two Marvel Omnibus editions devoted to it reprinting material from no less than sixty-eight different comics.

Although the core focus was on the various Avengers books, the story reached out into almost every single Marvel title. The basic premise is of super-villains working together, under the guidance of six leading villains and their mysterious lackey, and switching heroes in the hope of defeating them. In practice this led to many heroes fighting villains for the first time, such as the Punisher facing off against Doctor Doom.

An exact order for the story is hard to come by, not least because the main collected editions are structured around the "core" and "extended" parts of the crossover. However the (Almost) Complete Marvel Crossover Guide has had a go, noting problems due to long-running storylines in both New Mutants and X-Factor, and offers the following order, including some issues that didn't actually carry the "Acts of Vengeance" banner:
Avengers Annual #19 carries a back-up strip where the Avengers review and summarise the key events of the crossover. Another follow-up appeared in Web of Spider-Man #64-65 and that was also included in the Omnibus edition. And although it's not in any collected edition, Silver Surfer #33 parodied the concept with "Acts of Idiocy", featuring the Surfer's first encounter with the Impossible Man (one of the more enduring relationships to come out of the whole thing).
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Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Secret Wars II - the crossovers

Given the success of the original Secret Wars series, it's not surprising that a sequel quickly followed. Having previously taken the heroes to a far off place to encounter a fantastical being, it was only natural that this time the reverse would happen and the fantastical being would come from that far off place to encounte the heroes on their home territory. And as a way to boost sales right across the line, the series would have tie-in issues in just about all the line. (Once again this is something that both Marvel and DC did at about the same time. Since DC only started adding tie-ins to Crisis on Infinite Earths midway through the run I'm guessing Marvel decided on this first.) Fortunately, unlike some later crossovers, Secret Wars II only dipped in and out of individual series, rather than the later practice of hooking an individual book into a bigger event for months on end.

Once again the series has yet to be collected in its own right in the Essentials, though issue #4 can be found in Essential Dazzler volume 2 and a handful of the crossover tie-ins can be found in various other Essential volumes. However it's had other reprintings, the two main ones at the moment being a tradepaperback carrying just the main series and a huge Marvel Omnibus edition carrying virtually the entire crossover. The full list of the crossover, in the order of the Omnibus edition, is as follows:
Omitted are:
  • Rom #72
  • Micronauts #16
This is due to Marvel having lost the rights for these two toy tie-in series.

In later years a few additional comics would serve as additional tie-ins, including:
  • Fantastic Four #316
  • Fantastic Four #317
  • Fantastic Four #318
  • Fantastic Four #319
  • Quasar #8
The Marvel Omnibus edition collects all of these as well. The inclusion of the Quasar issue is a surprise because it's actually a follow-up to the original Secret Wars series, in which the temporary enhancements to Iron Man's armour take on a life of their own. For that matter the Fantastic Four issues are part of a storyline actually called "Secret Wars III".

However the Omnibus only includes reduced versions of the first few pages of:
  • Deadpool Team Up #1
Well this issue was mocking the tendency for inconsequential tie-ins to big crossover events. Only the first few pages are set at the time and see Deadpool encountering the Beyonder; the rest is set years later.
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