Event Battle 2015: MARVEL’s SECRET WARS vs DC’s CONVERGENCE

When I started this, I had hoped I would somehow turn this into an (almost) annual sort of thing. And now posting the third edition to this, I think I’ve done that, haven’t I?

Welcome to EVENT BATTLE 2015.

Both DC and Marvel had earth universe shattering blockbuster events this year, and frankly, on different levels, I enjoyed them both. Agreed, both events seemed similar, some would even say “recycled” (more on this later), however, they were fun comics, and you know what? Comics should fun.

Let’s take a look at Marvel’s SECRET WARS… 

Written by Jonathan Hickman, Secret Wars is the culmination of his two year run on Avengers and New Avengers. The Avengers, or more appropriately, the Illuminati, are faced with the threat of world destruction by planetary collision. I didn’t really follow Hickman’s run (I know, I know. I’m an idiot.), but from what I recall, the only way for the Illuminati to save their world seems to be the destruction of the other, and this obviously, causes friction among the group members.

To its credit, Secret Wars does not make Hickman’s New Avengers stuff a required reading. The story opens directly with the heroes of Earth 616 (regular Marvel universe) making a life raft to save a handful of people, because, well, saving seven billion turns out to be impossible. On the other hand, the Cabal (Thanos and his group) have already travelled to Earth 1060 (Ultimate Marvel universe)to influence the smartest man there: Reed Richards, aka the Master.

The Master convinces the Nick Fury of the Ultimate Marvel universe that the only way to save Earth 1060 is by the destruction of Earth 616. But the only thing war has ever led to is the ruination of both sides.

Miraculously, Earth is saved by our lord and saviour, Doctor Doom. Wielding the powers of the Beyonders, he almost single-handedly recreates our planet with patchworks from different universes, each territory a domain onto itself under the iron rule of Doom. This, however, is not Earth. This is Battleworld.

The story really kicks off when Doom’s forces discover the two life rafts that had escaped from Earth 1060 and Earth 616, respectively. Learning what Doom has done, how wrong, how broken it really is, the survivors of both earths form a temporary alliance to take down Doom and fix everything. This, however, won’t be easy. You see, if Doom has the power to create a world, doesn’t that make him a god?

I have already spoken about my admiration for Hickman’s ability to write great dialogues. In a book like this, where the antagonist is basically a god king, and territories of his realm are ruled over by royal families, Hickman really takes it to the next level. Maybe it’s the Game of Thrones-esque subplot that forms. Also, Hickman is a clever writer that respects the reader’s intelligence. He does not waste pages on flashback sequences or action scenes. Sure, there are action scenes, but anything that is not so important to main plot, which is of course, Reed Richards (the Earth 1060 one) vs Doctor Doom, is left to the reader’s imagination. Example: he does not explicitly specify exactly what does the Thor of Earth 1060 say to influence the other Thors against Doom. (Yes, you read that right. Thors.)

The story is filled with jaw-dropping, epic moments. I will not spoil them for you, but, um… Thors! Groot! Hulks! Thanos! Black Panther!

Coming to the art on the book, well, it’s gorgeous. Ive Svorcina’s colours over Esad Ribic’s pencils make a fantastic combination.They illustrate the complete nine issues saga without missing a beat.I’ve been a fan of Ribic since the God-Butcher saga he did with Jason Aaron on Thor: God of Thunder, and was saddened to learn he would leaving the book after just one more arc. I guess I didn’t knew he was gearing up to illustrate one of Marvel’s best events in years.

Now let’s take look at what DC had to offer in 2015… 

DC also did a nine issue company wide crossover event. They called it CONVERGENCE.

Brainiac, who over the last few years has been turned into DC Comics’ Galactus, creates a planet to keep his bottled cities, (Brainiac travels the multiverse to capture and collect cultures so that he can study them in their natural environment.), and for some reason, thinks it would be a good idea to make the planet sentinel. The sentinel planet calls itself Telos.

Telos decides that the best way to serve its master would be to do a survival of the fittest type tournament to determine the best of the lot. And thus, everybody… FIGHT!

If you are unfamiliar with the current happenings of Earth-2 in the DC Universe, it got destroyed. Yeah. Anyways, the heroes of that earth did manage to send a couple of spaceships filled with survivors off into the wild before the planet went kaboom. In a twist of fate, the heroes are pulled from certain death to not-so-certain-but-pretty-probable death when they are pulled in to this battle royal by Telos.

Every city on the planet is busy fighting off their opponent city that Telos has picked for them, the heroes of these cities are engaged in a battle for the survival of their city. Earth-2 heroes, as cruel as this sounds, have nothing to fight for. Their world is already dead.

So they decide to bring down Telos and end this madness.

Interestingly, for this event, DC Comics decided to hand over the control of their universe to someone who didn’t have much experience in writing comics. Now, that is not questioning Jeff King’s abilities as a writer. I’m sure he’s a good writer, and like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed Convergence at its own level. All I’m saying is, if you want to bring in someone who’s not familiar with comic book writing but is pretty famous and all,you bring them in by letting them co-write or take full control of a modestly selling comic book, let them get the hang of the ropes, and then gradually move them up. That is, I suppose, the traditional way. Bold move by DC letting King write their next big crossover event. And guess what? It paid off. Convergence might not be The Omega Men in terms of writing or anything else, but it was much better than Futures End so all’s well that ends well.

Speaking of Futures End, Convergence also does not follow the monthly comic book schedule. That means a lot of artists, a lot of colourists, working round the clock to keep the book on schedule. However, unlike Futures End, the art on Convergence, as disparate as it may be, gels together to form a cohesive unit. And I really loved the colours on this book, man.

THE VERDICT

I’ve mentioned here earlier how the Big Two hype these events as something that is really going to change the course of their respective universe, but once the story is done, they kind of undo the work towards the end, and the event has little to no impact on the shared universe. For a change, both DC’s and Marvel’s event had major repercussions throughout their books. So much in fact, that the implications were solicited weeks before the actual story responsible for those implications had wrapped up.

Now coming back to what I said we’ll discuss later. Both Secret Wars andConvergence have been criticized for “recycling” plots of previously published comic books. Secret Wars, in fact, reuses the title of the very first Marvel event, and all the tie-ins reuse title and/or plotlines of past events, albeit with a twist. In Convergence, Brainiac forms a patchwork planet. These patches from different universes, although separated from each other, are under “the iron rule” of Telos. Sounds familiar? Hold on, there’s more. Telos starts a battle royal tournament on this planet to determine the strongest city, effectively forming a… Battleworld. Dun dun duhh.

This is not the first time the Big Two have been accused of borrowing from each other. Hawkeye and Green Arrow, Swamp Thing and Man-Thing. See a pattern?

And this is not accusing the creators involved of plagiarism. I have immense respect for comic book creators – they make my favourite books! These sort of things just happen. Because if it worked for them and it sells, surely it will work for us too, right?

(Did you know Batman was created because DC wanted to recreate the success of Superman by introducing a new superhero, but since they already had a superhero for the day, they went with a superhero for the night?)

If I had to pick one of the two, I would, with a doubt, go with Secret Wars. Yes, this year DC did a much better job than their past events, but Secret Wars was on a different level, man.

Contrary to what this blog might suggest, I do not read only superhero comic books. Confession: I do not enjoy superhero comic books anymore. I read these events because they give a general idea of what’s going on with both publisher’s line. But boy oh boy did I enjoy Secret Wars. It had not purpose being that good!

PS: The patchwork planet subplot in both events allowed creators to do a lot of interesting stories free from the confinement of continuity and such. So I broke my rule of never reading tie-ins for big crossover events and tried a few. If you also want to try some,here are some recommendations… 

For Convergence: Shazam! by Jeff Parker, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Jordie Bellaire;Swamp Thing by Len Wein, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen; Superman by Dan Jurgens, Lee Weeks, Brad Anderson; The Question by Greg Rucka, Cully Hammer, Dave McCaig

For Secret Wars: Thors by Jason Aaron, Chris Spouse, Goran Sudžuka, Karl Story, Dexter Vines, Marte Gracia; Civil War by Charles Soule, Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho; Weirdworld by Jason Aaron, Mike del Mundo, Marco D'Alfonso; A-Force by G. Willow Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Jorge Molina, Craig Yeung, Laura Martin, Matt Milla

Event Battle 2014: DC’s FUTURES END vs MARVEL’s ORIGINAL SIN

Welcome to second edition of EVENT BATTLE, ladies and gentlemen. Miss me?

(In case you do not know what this is, follow this link.)

I'll assume you already know what comic book events are, considering you came back (thank you!). I'll also assume you have tremendous patience, considering you waited this long for this post. It's partly my fault. I'll admit I am a bit lazy (okay, a lot but still) but DC Comics' 2014 event was fourty-nine weekly issues that started in 2014 and ended only a couple of months back.

Let's begin with DC Comics' FUTURES END...

DC's 2014 event takes us thirty-five years into the future where the satellite AI Brother Eye has virtually eradicated humanity by converting everybody, or rather everything, into hive mind cyborgs. Brother Eye was created by Mr. Terrific with the help of Batman years ago, but with much better intentions. Batman (Bruce Wayne) realises his folly and sends his protégé Batman Beyond (Terry McGuiness) back in time to stop the AI's creation. However, things do not go exactly as planned as Batman Beyond misses his time-jump landing point off by five years where Brother Eye's creation has already started, which is why the event is set five years in to the future of the current DC Universe.

Even five years in the future, the DC Universe is a grim place. The world is recovering from a war between the superpowered factions of Earth-Prime and Earth 2. Both sides have suffered heavy losses, and apparently, Superman had to make the biggest sacrifice or he suffered the most or... something happened.

If that sounds a bit vague, it's because it is. The war and its details are revealed almost midway through the series with little to no buildup or gradual reveals in the previous issues, except inexplicable mentions thrown here and there.

Written by Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens and Jeff Lemire, the series follows multiple plotlines that converge into and around one another. A large cast is used to tell the story and it's clear which writer brought in which character. Structurally, this series is reminiscent of 52, a year long weekly series that DC did in 2006, however Futures End does not have the same level of cohesiveness that made 52 work. There are inconsistencies in the storytelling and in the writing itself. Example: Constantine's dialogues are written sometimes in neutral accent and sometimes in a way to highlight his British accent.

The weekly comic book format is unusual for the North American comic book industry. Sure, you have new comics releasing every week but almost every individual comic book follows the monthly schedule. Doing a weekly comic book is no easy thing. A large art team is brought in to keep Futures End on schedule. Take a look: Aaron Lopresti, Alberto Ponticelli, Allan Goldman, Andy MacDonald, Art Thibert, Cam Smith, Cully Hamner, Dan Green, Dan Jurgens, Dexter Vines, Drew Geraci, Ethan Van Sciver, Freddie Williams II, Georges Jeanty, Jack Herbert, Jesus Merino, Karl Story, Mark Irwin, Patrick Zircher, Scot Eaton, Scott Hanna, Scott Kolins, Stephen Thompson, Tom Raney, Vincente Cifuentes, Wayne Faucher, with Hi-Fi colouring every issue.

That's a lot of people.

There are obvious artwork inconsistencies because every artist has his own style, however all the artists involved follow the "DC House Style" so the event does looks like one big cohesive beast. Ryan Sook did the cover for every issue of the series and they are absolutely stunning.

Oh and yes, the stabbing and maiming that has become the staple of The New 52 is very much alive in the series.

Now, let's take a look at what Marvel had to offer in 2014...

Written by Jason Aaron with Mike Deodato doing the art, ORIGINAL SIN is basically a superhero murder mystery.

Somebody has murdered The Watcher, an immensely powerful cosmic being whose job is to witness everything that occurs in the Marvel Universe. Witness everything, mind you, and not interfere. The Watcher is one of the many crazy ideas introduced way back in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four. (Like Galactus. A cosmic being that eats planets! Take a moment and think about it. That is absolutely bonkers.)

A panicked Thor brings the Watcher's murder to the Avengers' notice and considering that there aren't many who know of the Watcher's existence (the Watcher appears to only those whose actions affect the fate of humanity) and that there aren't many who can pull something like that off, Nick Fury warns Captain America that the investigation into the murder could lead to some "dark places."

While the Avengers continue their own investigation, a mystery man recruits Black Panther to take a different path. Three teams are formed and are sent to different locations in the Marvel Universe. Black Panther, Emma Frost and Ant-Man (Scott Lang) journey to the center of Earth, as Moon Knight, Winter Soldier and Gamora head to deep space, while Doctor Strange and the Punisher travel to "somewhere far beyond the realm of man."

Jason Aaron is a fantastic writer but writing a big comic book event is different. You may be able to do any character justice with your writing, you may be able to do justice to every supporting character of his/hers, but handling multiple characters at the same time, handling multiple teams, multiple villains at the same time is tough. There aren't many writers who can do that. Jim Shooter is the absolute master around those parts, and it's great to see Aaron leave a mark. The fact that he is able to build intrigue and suspense is an added bonus.

I could write paragraphs and paragraphs of appreciation for the art on this book but it still won't do it any justice. Mike Deodato draws every issue of the eight-part event and still manages to keep the book on schedule which, quite frankly, is unheard of these days. But that's not all. Never is the artwork rushed. Every page is utterly gorgeous. If you were to buy a superhero comic book based on the artwork alone, Original Sin is a pretty strong contender.

THE VERDICT

Fortunately, Original Sin does not have the same flaw as Marvel's last year's event Infinity had. Things are shaken up, characters are killed, but when the dust settles and all's set and done, we are not back to square one. Sure, new characters take place of the old and to some, the entire event may look like an excuse to do away with the version of Nick Fury moviegoers are not accustomed to, but the three main characters – Nick Fury, Winter Soldier, Thor – who are most affected by the events of the story actually have their status quo changed. Infact, Thor has been one of my favourite books since (like it wasn't already) and Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier has been a trip.

On the other hand, Futures End was set thirty-five years in to the future of DC Universe. Anything that happens in that book is not going to stay because judging by what the Big 2 are doing these days, we can get a reboot/relaunch anytime. This makes Futures End an Elseworlds story essentially. Unfortunately, it's not a good one. And I love Elseworlds stories!

I really want to write a bit about the ending of Futures End and how awful it is but I would have to spoil it for you so I'll leave you with this:

Event Battle 2013: MARVEL’s INFINITY vs DC’s FOREVER EVIL

This was done way back in June when I started my Tumblr. I'm reproducing it here because, well, at least let's put something here, right?

***

Hello and welcome to the first annual (probably) edition of EVENT BATTLE! What is Event Battle, you ask? Well, this is where I compare the big summer crossover events of the Big 2 and decide which was better. And because this is the first edition of Event Battle, I’ll be extra nice to you and explain what comic book events are. Yes, I know you don’t need an explanation but first time formalities, you see.

In simple terms, comic book events are equivalent to big summer blockbusters. Every year, Marvel and DC have this earth shattering storyline that runs throughout their various publications. Generally, these are used to set up the status quo for the year, giving the various books of the publisher a structure so that they appear as a part of a single shared universe. Over the years, these events have become very important from the business point of view because they sell like hotcakes. Some recent examples of events include Civil War, Avengers vs. X-Men for Marvel and Identity Crisis, Final Crisis for DC.

Okay, you got all that? Good. Let’s start with what we came here for. See, Marvel ran an event called Infinity last year while DC ran Forever Evil. Let’s compare each of these one by one on a variety of parameters and then determine which was better. But first, you may be wondering why am I running this article now given that both events happened last year. It’s because Forever Evil took almost forever to finish and only wrapped up just a few weeks ago. Also, this is the first post of this blog.

First up, Marvel’s INFINITY…

Marvel’s 2013 event follows the Avengers as they try to stop an alien invasion that will destroy all life on Earth. But that’s not all there is to it. Written by Jonathan Hickman, Infinity follows the same ideas that Hickman has been building throughout his run on the Avengers. Extraterritorial beings known as Builders — Creators and Engineers — are coming towards Earth razing worlds in their path because they have deemed Earth unfit to continue. Builders are supposed to be these highly advanced creatures that have created the universe itself so it’s a pretty big challenge for the Avengers. They are pretty much taking on God here.

Captain America decides that rather than waiting for them to come to Earth, the Avengers will take the fight to them by joining the Galactic War Council, a council of leaders of prominent empires of the universe brought together against a common enemy. This way, they will at least have a fighting chance against these advanced creatures.

But that is just one part of the event. The main villain of this event are not Builders, it’s Thanos.

Earlier in the book, the mad tyrant sends one of his slaves to Earth to find something (which is revealed later. To tell you what would spoil the fun for you.). The slave, an Outrider, goes to the floating Inhuman city of Attilan to look into the mind of the king of the Inhumans, Black Bolt and uncover what his master wants. Even though Black Bolt fights back, he is unable to catch the Outrider before he makes his way back to Titan. Thanos not only finds what he was looking for but also discovers that currently most, if not all, of the Avengers are not on Earth. It is literally the perfect time to attack Earth!

One of things that I loved about this book was how nicely designed it was. It’s probably done by Hickman himself. The design makes the book really stand out because most superhero comics don’t have this good presentation. Each issue has a recap page and a cast page, so anyone not acquainted with these characters can easily refer to these pages. Every issue is broken into what look like short stories so the transitions between scenes, between worlds, is a lot smoother.

The art on this book is utterly gorgeous. Workload is precisely divided among the artists. Jim Cheung does the first and last issue of the main book with Jerome Opeña doing the rest of the six issues. Leinil Francis Yu draws the Avengers issues while Mike Deodato handles the New Avengers issues. This way there is no rushed art (well, almost) but we do get a horde of inkers and colourists working overtime in order to keep the books on schedule. But that’s almost expected on these event comics. At the end of the day, everybody works together to make one beautiful book.

Jonathan Hickman really deserves all the praises you can manage for pulling this off. Not only does he manage to use a large cast, he uses them properly. Example: for the first seven or eight issues of the story, Hickman does nothing with Thor. He’s there, fighting aliens and destroying huge spaceships but he doesn’t do much, doesn’t even say anything. But then Captain America and Thor pull off the swerve of the year. Probably my favourite moment from the story.

And by god, can he write dialogues.

Next up is DC’s FOREVER EVIL…

Technically, Forever Evil begins with Trinity War. One leads into the other. I’ll have to spoil Trinity War a bit for you.

Contrary to what the name may suggest, Trinity War does not feature Batman vs. Superman vs. Wonder Woman. This is the New 52 version of the DC universe. They are not called Trinity (yet?). Trinity War has all the Justice Leagues of DC universe taking on each other.

To keep it short and a little spoiler free, let’s just say what was promised happened. Justice League vs. Justice League of America vs. Justice League Dark, over Pandora’s Box because that’s what it has all about been about since the DC reboot.

The box is revealed to be a device that can open dimensional portals. This brings out the Crime Syndicate, the twisted mirror image of the Justice League first introduced in Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s JLA: Earth 2. In the New 52 version, they are, however, from Earth Three.

This is where Forever Evil begins. The Crime Syndicate quickly takes over the world, making short work of our heroes. They rally up the villains of this world and order them to take control. With the Justice League gone, communication severed and the world in a perpetual state of darkness, chaos reigns.

Seeing how the world has gone to hell, Lex Luthor decides to finally take up the cause and fight back. Some villains join him.

If you think you’ve read that before, you’re right. The entire event is basically a mixture of Civil War and a New 52 version of JLA: Earth 2 with a bit of Dark Reign. It feels unoriginal. It feels unnecessary. Sometime things happen just because. Like Steve Trevor appearing out of nowhere to give Cyborg Wonder Woman’s lasso and then getting knocked out unconscious.

Geoff Johns is known for using shock value in his stories and this event is no exception. I really don’t know why he chooses to do so. I don’t understand why he chooses to write “dark, gritty” superhero stories when he can write so good fun superhero comics.

However, there are moments when Johns proves how much he loves these characters and why he is the best person to write them. Like the following panel. He completely gets Luthor. It is moments like these that make the event readable really.

Every time Ivan Reis comes on the book, he knocks it out of the park. His art is gorgeous, fantastically supported by Rod Reis’ colours. I’m not a fan of David Finch’s art but I can understand why he was chosen for this event. His hyper detailed, ink-heavy art perfectly fits the mood of the book.

Also, am I the only one who is sick of seeing Superman lose his shit and then whine? It has happened way too many times in the New 52, man!

THE VERDICT

I guess this panel says it all.

However, I’ll give DC one thing. While Marvel wrapped up Infinity with little to no consequence, Forever Evil did change the status quo of DC’s books. Even after all the space fights and all those alien deaths, the biggest threat still remains what Hickman has been building in New Avengers. Obviously, some things did change and it will be interesting to see how that works out, but the ending of Forever Evil is what makes you buy the next month’s comic to see what will happen next. Here’s hoping I don’t see any more severed limbs though.

STATION IDENT

Honestly, I do not know what I am doing here. I mean, I have a Tumblr. I'm on Twitter. I run a gaming blog with a friend. You can even find me on Instagram and Facebook. So what more could I possibly have to say that needs another blog?

I don't know.

Let's find out.