Big Marvel Event of 2012: X-Men vs Avengers

[Danscomics]

"lets just put all our characters, written by all our writers, and drawn by all our artists. Everyone will LOVE it"

I don't think that was the thinking behind this. I think it was more like this.

"We already have Wolverine in the X titles, all we need for a gold mine is to get Spider-Man in there too."

[BobBretall]

While I have zero interest in reading this, I want to be clear that I don't have any problem with this.

This is the kind of thing I'd have eaten up with a spoon a few years ago, I've just moved WAY away from the core audience that Marvel's trying to appeal to nowadays.

I think this will have some cool stuff that Marvel's core target audience is going to absolutely love.

[Paul Nolan]

I suppose I'm just getting cynical.

To me Marvel just seem to churn out what has sold in the past, which is not what will necessarily sell in a few months time.

Marvel used to be known as the "House of Ideas" and I just can't see that holding at the moment.

Take Marvel away from the creatively bankrupt salesmen and it give it back to the creatives.

I think DC worked out what was taking a lot of people to shift to reading more independent work. People want freshness, elements of the new. Marvels work has in its majority, gone stale.

[jonah]

Back to the original question, I don't really have much interest in hearing a podcast episode dedicated to this 'event.'

Would be nice if John would chime in during the regular weekly episodes as the event unfolds over the next year as to whether it's worth reading. Worth may be measured differently by people.

Down side of this is that this story line will probably run throughout all the marvel books interrupting whatever other stories are being told.

Marvel lost me a couple of years ago and is continuing to ensure I don't come back.

[BobBretall]

Would be nice if John would chime in during the regular weekly episodes as the event unfolds over the next year as to whether it's worth reading. Worth may be measured differently by people.

In the context of the Weekly Spotlight is what I was talking about.

As the size of my Marvel pull list continues to dwindle, I'm thinking it would be good to let John just talk about a Marvel or 2 he thinks is really good when the mood catches him. Something like a big event, I'd like to cover on the Weekly Spotlight even though I have zero desire to read it.

What I've done in the past is buy issues just to talk about them on the show even though I'm pretty uninterested, and that will sometimes come across in a less than favorable review from me, but I was inclined to skip the book anyway. I'm getting to the point where I don't want to just buy stuff I have no interest in just to talk about it on the show, but I want to keep covering major things from the publishers on the show, and John reads pretty much everything.

[torchsong]

I'm not really interested in this story. I haven't really been interested in anything current from Marvel in some time, and perhaps this is indicative of why that's happening.

It's interesting to me that while we often laud Marvel for having "real" characters who grow and adapt over time, and poo-poo DC for having staid and storied characters that never change, I think in closer examination the reverse is true, and that's excluding the New 52 titles.

I recently picked up Messiah Complex to see what was up with my favorite X-people. It was like I'd stepped back about 15 years and was reading the same problems, the same angst, the same conflicts. Wolverine still hates Cyke. Cyke's still a jerk but a strong leader even though he can't get out from under Xavier's shadow. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The same can't really be said for Batman, the Justice League, etc. Right up to the "Big Reboot" they were considerably different from what I'd been reading some 15-20 years previous. Batman was dead, for one thing!

It's not that there's not an audience for Avengers vs. X-Men. I'm just not that audience. Apparently I'm not the only one...and while Marvel may not care about such things, they probably should over the long term.

[abysslord]

For me it's more that this story seems to have been told already. Heroes disagree, and being full of virtue and honor .... resort to fighting about it like teenagers.

I'd rather read a more creative story, even though it all basically boils down to the same thing.

[stardog]

I guess I was an idiot to even consider that the actual Avengers vs. X-Men story would run through the various ongoing books. It sounds like it will be its own series with the ongoing books as the tie-ins:

Brevoort wrapped the news portion of the conference by noting that the event would not crossover into every Marvel Universe title, but it would cross into all the Avengers and X-Men books with one exception. "The one book that's not going to be touched by this, and it's a very deliberate choice on our part, is the new 'Avengers Assembled' title," he said, noting how that series is being made specifically for fans from the movies to read without any other tie-ins. "If you're talking about 'Uncanny X-Men' or 'Secret Avengers' or 'New Avengers' or 'Wolverine & The X-Men'...it's going to be all 'AvX' all the time in the Avengers and X-Men books."

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=35802

Somebody will have to calculate how much it will cost to read this entire thing.

[abysslord]

It sounds like it will be its own series with the ongoing books as the tie-ins:

Awesome, I love being force fed an event!!!

[Danscomics]

Somebody will have to calculate how much it will cost to read this entire thing.

If we assume that only the team books are being included like they said (so not titles like Wolverine), here is the title list I came up with.

Avengers Academy - $2.99
Avengers - $3.99
New Avengers - $3.99
Secret Avengers - $3.99
Wolverine & The X-Men - $3.99
Uncanny X-Men - $3.99
Uncanny X-Force - $3.99
X-Factor - $2.99
X-Men Legacy - $2.99
Generation Hope - $2.99
X-Men - $3.99
New Mutants - $2.99

Now assuming a price point of $3.99 for the main event books, no further tie-ins and not taking into account double-shipping (except for the main book) since it is hard to say what will double ship during the 6 months we are looking at about $50.86 a month and $305.16 total.

I'm still on the fence. If there really are no other tie-ins I might get this since I already read all of these titles right now so I only have to pick up an extra 2 books a month.

[BobBretall]

Looks like I'll be dropping Avengers Academy when it gets sucked into this crossover.......

[stardog]

Now assuming a price point of $3.99 for the main event books, no further tie-ins and not taking into account double-shipping (except for the main book) since it is hard to say what will double ship during the 6 months we are looking at about $50.86 a month and $305.16 total.

I'm still on the fence. If there really are no other tie-ins I might get this since I already read all of these titles right now so I only have to pick up an extra 2 books a month.

Thanks for doing the math! I'm still thinking about this, too. I'm talking tough right now, but we'll see what happens when they start soliciting these. I don't buy all of those books, but I would likely skip the ongoing books I don't already get. That will save some money. Just get the main series and the books I was already reading (my approach on the last few Marvel Events).

Part of my frustration is just being tired of events (I know, not original) and all of the ongoing books being 'held hostage' by the event. I hate the way Marvel brands all of their books with the ugly trade dress (Civil War, Siege, Fear Itself... who designs these??) and I actually enjoy Bendis Avengers, as long as he isn't writing a tie-in. Those interviews in the Fear Itself Avengers books were painful... especially at 3.99.

[Paul Nolan]

Now assuming a price point of $3.99 for the main event books, no further tie-ins and not taking into account double-shipping (except for the main book) since it is hard to say what will double ship during the 6 months we are looking at about $50.86 a month and $305.16 total.

I'm still on the fence. If there really are no other tie-ins I might get this since I already read all of these titles right now so I only have to pick up an extra 2 books a month.

X-Sanction is the "prelude" to this event you need to add in those issues
and possibly add Avenging Spider-man to the list.

[Paul Nolan]

Somebody will have to calculate how much it will cost to read this entire thing.

If we assume that only the team books are being included like they said (so not titles like Wolverine), here is the title list I came up with.

Avengers Academy - $2.99
Avengers - $3.99
New Avengers - $3.99
Secret Avengers - $3.99
Wolverine & The X-Men - $3.99
Uncanny X-Men - $3.99
Uncanny X-Force - $3.99
X-Factor - $2.99
X-Men Legacy - $2.99
Generation Hope - $2.99
X-Men - $3.99
New Mutants - $2.99

many other possibles

Captain America - (Ed Brubaker - very likely tie in)
Winter Soldier - (Ed Brubaker - Very likely tie in)
Invincible Iron Man (Matt Fraction - Very Likely Tie in)
Mighty Thor (Matt Fraction - Very likely tie-in)
Defenders (Matt Fraction and chock full of ex Avengers)
Incredible Hulk (Jason Aaron)
Avenging Spider-Man (he is 'Avenging' after all)
Thunderbolts - Luke Cage is still in charge.

[Danscomics]

Somebody will have to calculate how much it will cost to read this entire thing.

If we assume that only the team books are being included like they said (so not titles like Wolverine), here is the title list I came up with.

Avengers Academy - $2.99
Avengers - $3.99
New Avengers - $3.99
Secret Avengers - $3.99
Wolverine & The X-Men - $3.99
Uncanny X-Men - $3.99
Uncanny X-Force - $3.99
X-Factor - $2.99
X-Men Legacy - $2.99
Generation Hope - $2.99
X-Men - $3.99
New Mutants - $2.99

many other possibles

Captain America - (Ed Brubaker - very likely tie in)
Winter Soldier - (Ed Brubaker - Very likely tie in)
Invincible Iron Man (Matt Fraction - Very Likely Tie in)
Mighty Thor (Matt Fraction - Very likely tie-in)
Defenders (Matt Fraction and chock full of ex Avengers)
Incredible Hulk (Jason Aaron)
Avenging Spider-Man (he is 'Avenging' after all)
Thunderbolts - Luke Cage is still in charge.

This is what I get for trying to help. As I said I only included what was obvious from the interview. You can actually cross Winter Soldier off the list. From the news conference:

Brubaker explained that for now, Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Soldier will be functioning more outside the confines of the event as his own solo series gets rolling.

I couldn't decide on the solo books but the ones that I read don't usually cross over into Avengers or X-Men storylines or even big universe sized events. On the X-Men side I'm pretty sure the only books that are involved will be the ones that are part of the Regenesis, based on the artwork that revealed the players on each side.

Anyway it is impossible to know for sure until we see the January previews later this month. Maybe I will redo the list and the math then if I have time.