Welcome back to Multiversity 101, my new favorite column to write! Last week I decided it was time, in depth, to discuss the event. I looked at the two big events on the market, what works and what doesn’t, and alluded to the fact that I knew a possible solution to the “problem” with events. That solution is not what we’re going to discuss today though.
What we are going to discuss today is one of the biggest things people are often split upon when it comes to an event, even more than the event itself: the tie-ins.
Again, be sure to come back next week for the epic finale to all of this, when I tell you my thoughts on how to really do an event right (and yes, I DO have an example).
So just as I made a humorous definition at the beginning of how we are going to look at events, I also need to define tie-ins. Sometimes we get tie-ins with events (almost never with crossovers, but there are exceptions (like the upcoming Second Coming crossover)) that would just be along the lines of: if the event is “Brandon and David Go To The Movies”, there’s a tie-in that’s just a one-shot issue called “Brandon and David Go To The Movies: The Popcorn” which fleshes out where the popcorn came from, or “Brandon and David Go To The Movies: Why Gil Talks During Movies.” Cute analogy, right? So when we then look at something like Blackest Night, there’s a ton of tie-ins. For example, Wonder Woman and the JSA are involved with Blackest Night, but rather than take away from the current Wonder Woman and JSA titles (both of which are going their own paths right now), we have three-issue minis to fill in some mild gaps that someone somewhere may want to know (because you know that, as bad as it may have been, if they didn’t have that JSA mini, SOMEONE would have been pissed the JSA played no real part in Blackest Night!).
That’s not all, though! While Brandon and David may be going to the movies in an event of the ages that clearly is the result of years of build-up, some other titles may want to participate (or perhaps be required to). So in addition to “BADGTTM”, other comics such as “Brandon Likes Horror” and “David Likes Drama,” which were the books that led up to the event, will have tie-in issues that flesh out certain elements of the event that we may not see directly. Perhaps in “David Likes Drama,” we see David preparing for the movie that he is going to see with Brandon by ironing his shirt, which could prove an important detail later if this date is to go well. And on top of that, you’ll have a book like “Matt Likes Throwing Candy At People From The Back Row Of The Theater Because He Is Immature” where the title character watches Brandon and David’s date from a different perspective (and perhaps throws candy at them).
What I’ve found is, generally, unless the mini or the tie-in is written by the writer of the event, you don’t need to read them, and I’d go so far as to say that is a universal truth amongst comic fans. (And for the record, I can’t confirm or deny that Gil talks during movies.)
So right off the bat, let’s discuss the legitimacy of tie-ins. Tie-ins are sort of a double edged sword to an event, so to speak. As I said before, unless the head writer is someway involved in the book, it’s usually best to stay way. Look at Secret Invasion for example: You have the main Secret Invasion storyline, which reads pretty well on it’s own, but obviously leaves a stone or two unturned. Then when you look at the books Mighty Avengers and New Avengers, you find that for the entire duration of SI, the books almost basically served as a series of one-shots that elaborated on one element or another from the story that we won’t see in the main title. Things like evil Skrull Pym were elaborated on a lot during the tie-ins, as well as explanations of how Secret Invasion had been festering in the background of New Avengers since the book began (or so we’re told, anyway). We also see this in Siege currently, as New Avengers takes place before the event and Dark Avengers fleshes out elements of the Sentry, who is Siege’s second Big Bad after Norman Osborn himself. Ultimately, though, you could just read Siege and be satisfied with the story contained within without any additional story knowledge.
The opposite to this would obviously be for us to look at DC and Blackest Night. With Blackest Night, unless you’re reading Green Lantern (and I would argue Green Lantern Corps as well), you’re not going to get the whole story. That’s just a fact, as the two books definitely play in and out of each other. In fact, some of the defining moments of the title actually happen within the pages of Green Lantern, such as ALL the stuff with the New Guardians. In this sense, the event of Blackest Night is merely the streamlined version of the entire scope of the story, with some of the major developments being held outside. This is something that I generally frown upon because it hurts the new readers, and it definitely hurts the “wait for trade”-ers. Now, it’s highly possible that within the Blackest Night trade, they’ll collect the important issues of Green Lantern as well. I’ve seen things like this happen, such as with the Final Crisis trade. I can’t help but feel bad for the people who read Blackest Night without reading the Green Lantern titles, though, because obviously I can’t expect everyone to read everything. In this case, the tie-ins make for an odd statement of “Yay for the fanboys who buy the issues, boo to the newcomers and ‘wait for trade’-ers.”
The odd thing about Blackest Night that I’d like to touch upon is that, as much as I enjoy it, a lot of people say that Blackest Night should have been contained to the Green Lantern books like Sinestro Corps War was. As I evaluate events more and more, I see the absolute impracticality of that, which is only really visible in hindsight. What I mean is: with Sinestro Corps War, we had a crossover with appearances from the entire DCU, but nothing in Sinestro Corps War went so far as to effect anyone outside the Green Lantern titles. Sinestro “winning” at the end didn’t upset any balance in the Superman books, or in Batman’s title. However, the fate of the universe IS at stake during Blackest Night. We know for a fact now that, pending the final issue, people will come back to life (such as Aquaman). You can’t have a story that big contained within one title. Yes, Blackest Night really is for people that have been following Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but it is a UNIVERSAL event versus a TITLE event like Sinestro Corps War, and thus certain concessions must be made. I don’t want to discuss Blackest Night in general in relation to what I like and/or dislike about the title, but I feel that the huge difference between this and Sinestro Corps War need to be touched upon.
Outside of tie-ins written by the main author, you of course have all the additional ones that go along with it, including the ones that I mentioned. Let’s look at Blackest Night: Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman’s main title is coming out of it’s own event arc (Rise of the Olympians) written by Gail Simone, and unlike many titles in the DCU, Simone preferred to keep Wonder Woman streamlined to her wishes and designs. All power to her! So in this case, Greg Rucka, who had previously written the character, came back on to the title for a 3-issue mini to help flesh out elements of her within the story. The issue touched upon Wonder Woman against Maxwell Lord, Wonder Woman’s brief time as a Black Lantern, and Wonder Woman as a Star Sapphire within her relationship to Mera. While it was a pretty well written mini, did we need it? Did you, as a fan of Blackest Night, need to read it to “get” the story like you have to read Green Lantern? No, not at all. Same with all the resurrected titles and the books that have general tie-in issues, like REBELS and Secret Six. You might want to read REBELS and Secret Six because they’re well written titles, but you don’t have to to get the story. No great secrets are revealed during either that will have an effect on how Blackest Night ends so much as Blackest Night will have an effect on THOSE titles when it ends.
When we look at Siege in the same context, I feel I’m a tad bit more forgiving. Siege is a generally quick event (four issues), and the difference between the tie-ins for this and the tie-ins for Blackest Night is that, while both are status quo changers, Siege and it’s tie-ins all take place in one place (outside of the two additional books Bendis is writing). Look at Dark Wolverine, Avengers: The Initiative, Thunderbolts, Thor, etc. All of these books actually take place AT the Siege of Asgard, which is where the central story takes place. What you end up buying if you get every tie-in is a large visual scope of a gigantic war, with Siege focusing on what you need to know in relation to where the universe continues outside of Siege, and the tie-ins just show you little snippets of this war that you can choose to buy if you enjoy the title. This is also greatly different than Secret Invasion, which was closer to Blackest Night in it’s tie-in status, the one big difference I think between Secret Invasion and Blackest Night is that Blackest Night book tie-ins (like REBELS or Secret Six) merely show how the characters deal with the arrival of the Black Lantern Rings, where as Secret Invasion tie-ins (like Hercules or X-Factor) showed all sorts of different elements of the invasion, such as people dealing with Skrull heavy hitters, things about the Skrull religion, etc. A discussion about Secret Invasion/Siege and Blackest Night at it’s story elements outside of just looking at basic tie-in elements is for another day, though.
So as a wrap-up, we have tie-ins written by the author (usually in the title that the event came out of), we have mini-series tie-ins that elaborate on the story with elements not neccesarily covered by the main plot, and then we can also have other books connect with the event for an issue or two (or more).
So are tie-ins worth it? Yes and no, with a heavier emphasis on no. You’re reading an article right now by a guy who currently has every Blackest Night tie-in (including issues where Black Lantern pops up for a page at the end (and upon thinking about this, I actually don’t have the REBELS issue after their two tie-ins which I believe featured Black Lanterns for a panel or two)) and every Siege tie-in currently on the market. This sort of factors into me buying everything anyway, but even with titles that I wouldn’t normally purchase, I grabbed them in relation to the event. While this is not neccesarily healthy monetarily, that’s on me and me alone. As I look over all of the tie-ins (which I file under Blackest Night tie-in rather than their own series, unless I was buying the title regardless), I find that I didn’t really NEED to buy any of them. Sure, I wanted them because I’m a nerd and a target market for this kind of stuff, but do I need Wild Western Tales? No, not when I’m looking at it’s effect on the main Blackest Night storyline. In fact, out of all the tie-ins, the only one I think that was worth buying was the Atom and Hawkman issue if only because it placed the Atom and Hawkman (as well as Hawkgirl) to where they need to be for Blackest Night #7. I probably didn’t need to read it though, and unless you’re a fan of the characters/the writer/the artist, why would you grab it? Same with Siege. As I mentioned, I have every issue, but is it central to the story (outside of what Bendis is writing)? Not even remotely. They add nice touches to the themes and overall world/scope, but they’re not neccesary.
What you end up with is a lot of extra issues in your collection, which you either enjoy or you don’t. If you go to the store today and look at some event books in trade, you’ll see Final Crisis and a bunch of tie-in books, Civil War and a bunch of tie-in books, etcetera, etcetera. If you want to enjoy the story, you only need to pick up the main book and you’re set. Everything else is just based on personal enjoyment or attachment to the characters, but we’d all be fine if we never saw another tie-in again. Look at Doomwar. It’s one event that came out of another title, and it’ll stand alone as is until it’s done. Nothing more, nothing less. As fun as they can be, we don’t need tie-ins, and I’d prefer the event to be contained within the even without having to read anything in addition to it.
Then again… there is one more article in this series. So perhaps next week, you should tune in to see what my last remarks are on the event, the tie-in, and success for a book. Remember when I discussed how the last issue of an event usually has a twist? Well, I can assure you I’m going to make a comment that no one will see coming!
