I won't say that DC didn't have similar problems. During the New 52 there were times when I was all Marvel and was only picking up Batman and maybe 1 or 2 other books. Both companies are trying to and are making money. However, as a customer, I know that I am getting number one fatigue as well as variant and crossover fatigue. I hear it all the time at my local comic book store, but then I see them buying up the variant/crossover/new number one, heck I am guilty of this sometimes. Let's see how much it would have cost to collect them all. Gotta catch them all.
CROSSOVERS
I think I have dropped 3 of the last 4 crossover events from both Marvel and DC. Monster Men will be the first crossover that I have completed in a while. However, five of the six issues have come out on time and does not span a whole summer. I think more people would buy them and less customers would be pissed that they bought a book that has one page related to a crossover. Side note that if you are not getting at least a 15% discount with a pull list, you might want to find a new store. Some stores do better than that, some want you to buy discount card. Bottom line is that you should be getting some kind of discount on your book.
So the hardest part about crossovers is that it continues to have an effect after the crossover is done. If you miss it, you are a little lost in you favorite book when you do jump back on.
MARVEL
Civil War II
Civil War II has a 155 books related to the Civil War II Event. Yes you read that right, 155, if I counted correctly on Marvels website. I am not going to price all 155, but lets say some are $3,99, $4.99 and $5.99. So let's average the cost of the book to $4.99 at 155 books is $773.45 and let's say your store gives you a 15% discount. You will still pay $657.43 for the complete Civil War II event. I don't know about you, but that seems ridiculous. The fact that people try and defend both Marvel and DC saying that these crossovers aren't cash grabs, have not looked at these numbers. You are telling me that you couldn't tell this story in a more manageable 25 books?
The Secret Wars
Depending on where I looked, there was a mind boggling 241 titles, assuming I counted correctly, associated with this crossover according to http://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/secret-wars-reading-order/battleworld-warzone-last-days-checklists/. However, According to Marvel's website they have a 138 titles. Let's run both numbers for fun. Assuming that the 241 titles are correct and we average the price to $4.99 that is $1,202.59 or if you get the 15% discount $1,022.20. And that is why this is a secret habit. If anyone knew that I have spend over $1,000 on comics, which I have many times over, they would call me an idiot wasting money. Assuming that Marvel's 138 titles is accurate you would have spent $688.62 for one crossover or $585.32 if you get a 15% discount. That is still a lot of money. This one gets a little bit of a pass because it was easier to skip portions of this crossover without being completely lost and relaunched one of my favorite books in Old Man Logan and revisited a lot of good story lines.
Original Sin
This crossover had a more manageable 58 titles. I did not finish this one and thought that they could have condensed this into less than 20 titles pretty easily. I think you can find most of these issues in the dollar bin now except maybe the first appearance of Silk and the Del Otto Variant. This one we will average to $4.49 because most issues were $3.99-$4.99. $260.42 to buy this crossover or 221.36 if you got a 15% discount. That is a lot of money for a good idea that lacked execution.
Axis
Axis was the smallest major crossover that I included coming in at 49 books. This is another that I did not finish. I thought the premise was a good idea, but I lost interest pretty fast. At an average of $4.99 price fans would have to plop down $244.51 to buy this crossover or $207.83 if you got a discount. When you have other books that you are trying to get from Image, DC, IDW and the rest of the Independents getting all of these is nearly impossible unless you are independently wealthy.
DC
When I think of major crossovers and DC my mind goes straight to Convergence and Forever Evil. It was a little hard to find recent major crossovers. They keep the crossover to particular properties. Doomed just stayed with all Superman books, Death in the Family stayed within the Bat books, even though they could have cut a lot of those tie ins out. That was a cash grab.
Monster Men
Since this is the first crossover from Rebirth I am including this even though it is just a Bat family crossover and not a full crossover. The Monster Men crossover will have taken a month to come out and would have been easy to skip if that was your inclination. The whole crossover would have cost $17.94 full price or $15.25 depending on whether your store gives you a discount. This is a crossover that I can get behind.
Convergence
Convergence was an interesting crossover, similar to Secret Wars (yes I know Convergence came first) it brought a lot of old properties back into the spotlight. This was another crossover where if you missed some of the tie ins you wouldn't be completely lost. I dropped most of the tie ins after the first issue. Also, this didn't have an effect on most of the books that I was reading. Convergence had 89 books and some of them were $4.99 and some $3.99, so I am going to use $4.49 as the average price. It would have cost $399.61 to collect the whole crossover or $339.66 if you got a discount.
Forever Evil
I really enjoyed the premise Forever Evil, the execution itself was meh. I had high hopes for this one sine Geoff Johns was running it. This one was 48 issues and most were $3.99. So to get this whole event you would of had to spend $191.52 or with a discount $162.79. However if you include villains month, which was the relaunch of the awesome 3D covers and included 53 additional titles totaling 101 issues at $3.99 $402.99 or $342.54 if you get a discount. This is on the bigger side for DC. However, the 3d covers related to villain month were awesome and totally worth it.
Futures End
Futures end is a little odd to include because it was its own series. However, once they did the second batch of 3D covers that took over every book for October it entered crossover territory. I loved the premise of this one, but the execution was poor. The tie-ins were hit and miss as are most, but the again this is one as long as you know they are 10 years in the future you don't have to read anything else. The 3D covers were hit and miss as well. Some were awesome, Batgirl as Bane, some were not. This one had the original 53 plus the 43 3D covers. The event was $2.99 and the 3D covers were $3.99, so lets average it out to $3.49. 96 books at $3.49 would be $335.04 to get this whole event and with discount 284.78. The key to this one though is that you could have skipped the whole thing and it would have no effect on your reading, except Batman Beyond.
This just furthers my point that crossovers are expensive and usually not worth the money. Bottom line is that Marvel and DC do anger fans with these types of crossovers. I think this is partly what ruined the X-Men franchise is crossover after crossover. The Godhead crossover was the first time since I started collecting that I dropped the Green Lantern book. The point of a crossover should be a great story to tell succinctly as possible.
What do you guys think? Do you love the crossovers and think I am crazy? Hit me up in the comments.
Futures end is a little odd to include because it was its own series. However, once they did the second batch of 3D covers that took over every book for October it entered crossover territory. I loved the premise of this one, but the execution was poor. The tie-ins were hit and miss as are most, but the again this is one as long as you know they are 10 years in the future you don't have to read anything else. The 3D covers were hit and miss as well. Some were awesome, Batgirl as Bane, some were not. This one had the original 53 plus the 43 3D covers. The event was $2.99 and the 3D covers were $3.99, so lets average it out to $3.49. 96 books at $3.49 would be $335.04 to get this whole event and with discount 284.78. The key to this one though is that you could have skipped the whole thing and it would have no effect on your reading, except Batman Beyond.
This just furthers my point that crossovers are expensive and usually not worth the money. Bottom line is that Marvel and DC do anger fans with these types of crossovers. I think this is partly what ruined the X-Men franchise is crossover after crossover. The Godhead crossover was the first time since I started collecting that I dropped the Green Lantern book. The point of a crossover should be a great story to tell succinctly as possible.
What do you guys think? Do you love the crossovers and think I am crazy? Hit me up in the comments.
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