Anybody else getting tired of normal arcs becoming EVENTS?

[Phoenix8008]

It's been bothering me more and more of late. Bloodshot USA, 4001 AD, even The Valiant.

Bloodshot USA #1-4 should just be Bloodshot Reborn #19-22. The Valiant could have just been a continuation of Bloodshot leading into Bloodshot Reborn. 4001 AD was LITERALLY, just the next Rai story arc pulled out and made into a mini. I understand it's easier to do the extra issues like the one shot 4001 AD stories if you can hang them on an event like this instead of just along with the regular Rai series, but it seems a bit much sometimes. Due to those one shot issues, I can at least understand it somewhat for 4001, but Bloodshot USA has NO reason that I can see to turn it into a mini series 'event'.

Is it so wrong to want the story arcs that are really just a part of the regular series to JUST BE A PART OF THE REGULAR SERIES?!

Of course, it doesn't help that more and more of the 'ongoing' series are less, well, ongoing, and more of a maxi-series of a dozen or so issues.

Yes, I'm an old fart that can't stop complaining about how it 'used to all be better than this'. Wishing for 50+ issues to be the norm instead of the once in 35 titles out of 4 years of publishing. Go ahead. Let the mocking commence about how the comics world just doesn't work like that any more and whatever. I'll just be over here grumbling in my corner and wishing for the old days some.

[slack]

I'm in my forties, and I can see the Valiant being separate, but the rest of your points sound pretty much like what I've been thinking.

I like the stories, characters and universe... but the current style of rotating books in and out constantly to produce a ton, but keep monthly investment low for the fans... It's hitting a tipping point. They've produced so much content, that they really need to up their monthly output to 12-15 books/month. That would give them room to have solid ongoing books, AND a rotating bunch of minis and one-shots.
The rotation books drive new sales and new fans, the ongoing books provide stability, and a meaningfulness to the universe.

Characters in ongoing books become the recognizable faces of the brand.

[nonplayer]

Literally I don't know what's going to happen when Valiant cancels three of my favorite titles. Wrath of the eternal warrior xo ManOwar and bloodshot. Wtf are they thinking. So just two mini's for me Divinity and savage. I can't express my disappointment in Valiant and Dinesh if your reading this perhaps you can make a statement or something and re assure us.
It almost feels like they are getting ready to sell the business.
I hate mini's they don't go well in any of my boxes so if this is the new norm your pretty much losing a customer.

[jeremycoe]

As long as I enjoy the stories on the inside, I couldn't care less what title or number are on the outside. Just my opinion.

[Keith]

I'm of mixed mind on it. I want my events to be big deals that can't be contained within a single title.

I'd say, so far, Valiant's events have been 50/50 in applying that standard. Harbinger Wars and Armor Hunters checked both boxes for me. There was no way that those stories could be contained in one title. Book of Death, though, aside from the one shots, could have been just a really incredible Unity arc. 4001, aside from the one shots, could have been a really incredible Rai arc, and yeah, it was originally was going to be but they decided to make an event out of it.

I'm really not sure why Bloodshot USA is being separated out of Bloodshot Reborn in this fashion. I trust that it is a big enough deal type story, and I can appreciate them trying to get a little more attention to the title by making it event-ish like The Valiant, but it does seem a stretch in this case. Unless something INSANE happens in the story that we aren't privy to yet.

Divinity III I'm more ok with. I'm just aconcerned that these one shots are going to be the comic equivalent of coitus interuptus - start of something potentially awesome that goes no where over the course of one issue.

Literally I don't know what's going to happen when Valiant cancels three of my favorite titles. Wrath of the eternal warrior xo ManOwar and bloodshot. Wtf are they thinking. So just two mini's for me Divinity and savage. I can't express my disappointment in Valiant and Dinesh if your reading this perhaps you can make a statement or something and re assure us.
It almost feels like they are getting ready to sell the business.
I hate mini's they don't go well in any of my boxes so if this is the new norm your pretty much losing a customer.

This I'm less concerned about. The titles may be ending, but they'll be back (they've all but said X-O will be back next year) and that means there will be new titles replacing them in the meantime. Renumbering/minis don't bother me, just give me my characters in good stories.

[BugsySig]

Yes. I said early on that many of the "Events" could have been arcs of Unity (the original XO v Harada arc, Divinity, The Valiant, Book of Death), which would have made that THE event book of VALIANT. You could have run your events through that title and still had your one-shots to expand on it, maybe taking a month off in between like Rai. It could have worked for 4001 AD, Bloodshot USA, Stalinverse, etc.

Instead, the "event" dwarfs the regular series, whose stories and sales suffer because more energy and effort are put into the "event."

[IMJ]

This thread title = YESSSSSSSSssss.....
Not only this, but remember back in the day when a book had a 4 or 6 issue arc that was subtitled and advertised well? It was just an arc in the book, but it stayed in the normal publication run yet was pushed like it was a big thing. Here, normal arcs are fakeouts for events (the Planet Death marketing confused the hell out of me and was a big push towards dropping the monthlies), otherwise they are just veiled reboots.

[TheFerg714]

No. I honestly couldn't give two about it. If the story's good, it doesn't matter in the slightest to me. In fact, I kind of like it when "normal" story arcs get elevated to event status. It gives it more exposure and makes it feel more important.

Now, if we're talking about balancing ongoings and mini-series, I can agree with some of you. I loved this quote, and totally agree. If Valiant can hold 4-5 ongoings at any given time, I'm happy.

The rotation books drive new sales and new fans, the ongoing books provide stability, and a meaningfulness to the universe.

[TheeBaldMoose]

If the story is a good one, and it can stand on it's own, then I am all for it.

With the process of 4001 being part of the RAI story, it did seem to add a great deal when you read both titles, which is ok, but the end did bother me a good deal.

I am newer to Valiant, but I really liked how they mixed Bloodshot, The Valiant, Bloodshot Reborn, thought that was fantastic storytelling!

I am hoping Bloodshot USA will be more like The Valiant and less like RAI, especially considering the possibility of it being the end. Of course, I am not a fan of starting over either. I don't want to see a new #1 Bloodshot, although I wouldn't mind a new Gold #1 to add to the collection. I would much rather see (like I hope XO will be) a Gold # 5(1), where it's a continuation of a fantastic story and not a rebirth.

[grendeljd]

I thought the transition from Bloodshot v.1 #25 through The Valiant to Bloodshot:Reborn #1 was well done. The Valiant was not just a book about Bloodshot, it stood on its own as a story about several characters in the VU (even if the guest splash pages in #3 were kind of a low point in that tale).

This Bloodshot U.S.A mini-series definitely seems like it could have just been the next arc of BS:RB. However, we don't know yet, it could once again become a game changer for Ray. Honestly, at this point I feel like the book could drop the Reborn moniker - they did it previously with the addition of the HARD Corps to the first VEI Bloodshot book... unless that was considered a marketing flop, I don't see why they can't do something like that again.

I also thought the 4001AD mini could have just been RAI #13-16 & still been great as such, but I really did enjoy the stories of the past in New Japan that we got in those issues. Not sure what would have become of that if we didn't have a separate event to coincide with.

[grendeljd]

And I did say all the above as a fan who still prefers at least a longer run on "ongoing" titles, even if it only reaches into the 25~50 issue range per 'volume'. I'll just quote my long-winded self below from a different thread I just posted in about the same subject;

It would be great if there was enough sales support to allow more Valiant books to at least reach 50 like XO did before they get stopped. I'm not against re-numbering quite as much as I used to be, but when it gets really frequent it does irritate me a lot.

I totally understand that ultimately it's the sales that steer the marketing to re-number & that the modern era is just that much different than days gone by, with overall readership a pale shadow of decades past, but still - I think this current era is doing harm to the hobby in the long run. As I said before, I think some companies are far worse than others, and Valiant is one of the best - but take this small experience as an example;

I've recently decided to get back into IDW's transformers line (I'm a huge fan going back to the original cartoon, and with this being the 30th anniversary of the animated movie, I'm craving some new good transformers material to read). I haven't touched one of their TF comics in several years, because at one point they had a continuous overall storyline that was hopping around between too many one-shots & mini-series. I totally lost track of what to pick up & gave up on it.

But now, I go to look into a spot to dive into them again, and I see they have two current series that are both numbered into the 50+ range. That's a really appealing point to begin with for me - I got volume 1 of each title to check them out. If I like it, I'm kind of excited to know that there is a really big chunk of new continuos books to dive into after.

Granted, Transformers is probably a much more wide-spread popular IP than the Valiant stuff in general & it can probably maintain pretty solid numbers (said with no idea of the print runs), but still. Wish we could see more of that here.

[grendeljd]

I also think that Divinity has worked well just as a set of separate mini-series, as they've always only ever been single stories about the progression of the character peppered over a longer period of time. The real-time breaks between mini's actually serve the character in that they re-enforce the sense that time passes between whatever comes along that he chooses to become involved with.

[doodlebird]

Since it all one universe, let's just have one book titled say 'valiant 'verse' and have under 'featuring :' like a music song featuring so and so, and publish the nine books a month with all the same numbering. Will hit milestone issue numbers like a 100 in no time.

[ShadowTuga]

Like someone said above, I think the whole mess goes back to Planet Death; that was marketed as VEI's 1st EVENT. It was just another X-O arc. Good stuff, but EVENT? No way. This was self contained as self contained can be.
Both Harbinger Wars and Armor Hunters were almost flawless. I still hold Harbinger Wars as the best crossover, so far. It felt organic like none of the others did.

The Valiant was the biggest EVENT so far, imho. I can't see this book being part of Bloodshot, but that's just me: really important stuff happened there. And a couple of hot talents to boot? EVENT!!!

Book of Death was an EVENT, and even if I really didn't get into the main series in the end, the tie-in issues were spectacular, to the point I gave it a pass on the whole thing. And LotG is a great read, that EVERYONE should read.

4001 AD was just another Rai story, did not feel like an event if it weren't for the tie-ins (which weren't that great, save WM, imho)

[Shadowman99]

I'm more or less with Phoenix on this one I think.

For me an event should punctuate the 'regular' plotline somewhat, so that there's a feeling of distinction between an event and what would have otherwise have simply been part of the ongoing storyline. So far I think this has been done best when VEI have used events to add something new to the VU: H.A.R.D. Corps during Harbinger Wars, or the Armour Hunters in the self-titled event for example.

To me it seems as though The Valiant and 4001AD didn't really add anything new or punctuate the ongoing plot events sufficiently, and therefore failed to stand out as a true events. I have a feeling BS:USA will be much the same in this respect, but we'll see. Stalinverse on the otherhand, if launched as a miniseries (I don't know what the run for this book is scheduled to be) with accompanying one-shot issues, by my way of seeing things, will probably be percieved as a standalone event easily enough based simply on the fact that it won't be put on the shelves consecutive to an already ongoing title.


I also agree with Slack: the VU now has easily enough characters to allow for 12/15 monthly titles, enabling the current rotational schedule for miniseries whilst maintaining a handful of longrunning 'pillar' books in the VU, such as XO, Bloodshot, Harbinger and possibly even Ninjak and/or Shadowman. VEI seems to prefer it's renumbering+subtitling mechanic at the moment, but with this new system in place the need for renumbering+retitling may no longer be necessary as the revolving miniseries keep the line fresh. The 'pillar' titles will really build the most recognisable faces of the brand, which is important I feel.

Having said that, as long as the stories are good then personally I'm not really too stressed by this topic. As long as the stories are enjoyable then I don't really care what they're sold to me as, how many titles they occupy or for how long, or what their numbering is.

[Paul Nolan]

Theyre only classed as events to penetrate the click based comic websites with a decent headline. I just see them as good stories.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Shadowman99]

Theyre only classed as events to penetrate the click based comic websites with a decent headline. I just see them as good stories.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Yep, it's 100%marketing, no doubt about it.