Civil War: Crossovers and Tie-ins
Marvel Comics printing too many Civil War spin-offs and tie-ins
Marvel Comics exploiting fans by publishing numerous Civil War crossover spin-offs which complete the storyline. DC playing safely with one Infinite Crisis tie-in: 52
Last week as most will know, the final issue of Marvel Comic’s “Civil War” mini-series hit the shelves. The series was all about the battle over a registration act requiring superheroes to register their identities, it has caused major changes in character’s status and a new horizon is rising for the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, the series may not be remembered for reasons it would like to be.
The problem with the latest in crossover titles is that almost every other ongoing series is directly affected by the figurehead title comic. As a result; endless tie-ins continually appear and each one has that “must read” factor in order to get the complete story. For example; the always popular character Spider-Man, possibly the focal character of the whole “Civil War” crossover, had his story running through the main series and “The Amazing Spider-Man” series as well. This is acceptable to all comic book readers, but then due to the incredible popularity of the “Civil War” crossover, Marvel unleashed an army of endless tie-ins ensuring that fan’s pockets were being emptied everywhere.
Although Marvel has had financial success, they may lose their credibility if they continue to hit the fans with onslaughts of tie-ins, each one contributing a small part of a bigger story. “Civil War” is more likely to be remembered as a mistake on Marvel’s part, despite the new status in the so-called Marvel Universe.
As for the other major comic book company DC Comics, they have managed to successfully handle a crossover series, and then lead into another series but have not overstepped the mark of printing too many tie-in titles. The last major DC crossover was 2006’s “Infinite Crisis,” a sequel and companion series to 1985’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” Like “Civil War,” “Infinite Crisis” set up a new status quo for its characters, yet the mini-series itself did not require reading of the various tie-ins to get the complete picture. DC’s tie-ins were mainly concerned with tying up current storylines before the big change started, and as such were not too concerned with the main series.
Even after the “Infinite Crisis” series ended, it tied into a single ongoing weekly series called “52” because it is to run for 52 weeks, and it is due to end this May. DC was wise and did not fill the stands with various tie-ins and spin-offs; they had one major title that would be affordable on a weekly basis. As for Marvel; they have unloaded several “Civil War” spin-offs which will continue the storyline for the coming months.
It is plainly obvious that currently DC is proving to be the superior company just now, and Marvel really needs to play it smart from now on. The fans are paying a lot of money for their comic books spin-offs and tie-ins, and it remains to be seen if they will continue to do so.
