The Great Gap
Okay, the quick quick version: Yours Truly's been out of the comic loop for a few months.
And I swear, no matter how much I read, the more I have to wonder what I'm missing.
Sure, there's the problem of a large fire making the 25 long boxes I had nothing more than dust in the wind (and hoo boy, I'll get to that later) and the issue of having Marvel crescendo their Big Event while I was coming out of a medical coma, but there's this ... hole. This hole where I think there should be an ending, some sort of cookie or just an answer for a plotline that's been running since Avengers Disassembled.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the great finale to Secret Invasion was 'Skrulls are defeated' and that Norman Osborn is in charge of SHIELD? Oh and he has a League of Evil. Just like that?
Like it or not, Civil War spoiled me. The issue was straight-forward (Registration Act, y/n), resolution was clear (Registration Act wins) and the results far reaching (those who don't sign up are illegal). Easy? Yeah. Followed through to a 't'? Not really, but you can sell that story idea and explain it to new readers and old readers can complain but have some clear things to complain about.
Secret Invasion has a clear motive: alien invasion. This sells itself. Clear bad guy, clear good guy plus a little moral philosophy about why they're invading. This can end one of two ways: alien rule or aliens go home. But really, reading the last issue... it wasn't about that. It was a great big narrative leading to Norman Osborn shooting the Skrull Queen and that's where the story ends. That's the 'Cap Gives Up' moment and you can't even call it a victory, can you? Hey, not like I'm saying Cap Takes Ball, Goes Home was all that great a victory, but at least it had something to do with the story it was trying to tell.
It's the Initiative with an actual real Bad Guy in charge rather than Iron Man paraded as one depending on who's writing. It feels like we've done this before. The situation remains the same. It happened with World War Hulk, but I always get the feeling that Marvel's sort of 'over' the Incredible Hulk. The Green Goliath can come to New York City, threaten to throw it into the ocean and the ramifications are sort of swept under the rug. No one speaks of what the Illuminati did (well, at least the Pet Avengers seem to be on the case of the Infinity Gems), despite a five-issue miniseries highlighting it.
Here, people are still a little shaken up by the Invasion, but the battle in New York is something that tied up traffic. The big message of 'He Loves You' has its fifteen moments of fame and Norman Osborn is the new guy that's totally threatening . Maybe when they finally bring him down, we'll be distracted by another shiny object and maybe the Watchers will have been playing out our heroes like chess pieces for yet another story arc and banner title. Your guess is as good as mine.
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Cracking the Internet in Half
Okay, so it's one thing to overhype your stuff to the tried and true fans; by this point, we should expect every issue of every comic that rolls off the Marvel assembly lines to fundamentally change our lives and bring peace to the Middle East. No, let's not get into whether or not the issues actually deliver, let's stick with where our expectations should be. Marvel should make it sound like every character will be the axis of their universe because somewhere, out there, that character is to that loyal fan. All their books should crack the internet in half and cause a mad rush to the stores to but every copy and then some. We're fans. We already love your product. Marvel's job is to make us love them more.
The common media needs to be reminded that comics still exist and that they're pretty nifty and cheap entertainment. Honestly, that's it.
Anything more is either going to get confusing and be a waste of time, yours and theirs. I remember watching Joe Quesada on the Colbert Report when Secret Invasion was coming out and asking myself, "Why is he finishing a rather fantastic interview having to explain what Skrulls are?" Seriously, watch 'till about the 4min mark and then imagine the viewer's brain just start translating Quesada's voice into a Charlie Brown schoolteacher. Not even the easy visual gag of seeing Obama or McCain morph into Skrull heads doesn't save the obvious and uninteresting plug. It starts out great, don't get me wrong: using Colbert to tell people who the new Cap was going to be and when the issue came out made it easy to understand and relatable. Telling him that he was still in the Presidential running in the Marvel Universe had the right effect: I remember people coming into the shop to ask if that was true and to pick up at least a Spidey issue to check it out. None of those guys asked for Secret Invasion.
So when Marvel promised 'Civil War-like' promotion of Captain America #600, some of us were already sitting down. Mind you, it could have been mind-blowing: new Cap could have shook hands with President Obama and indeed, the internet might have cracked, just a little. No advance idea of what the book was going to be about or why we should start hyperventilating now, retailers were once again caught with the Lady or the Tiger. Order a bunch and be left with stacks of comics that don't move or order too few and miss that frensied fevor when it turns out to be something huge. We make the orders, hold our breath and...
... wait, that's it? Steve Rogers' return is 'Civil War like'? NO! It's the first thing we all thought and I mean all, fans and non-fans. Yeah, the rubes fell for Superman's death, but fool me once, shame on you. Everyone and their mom knew Rogers was coming back, it's a freakin' comic book trope! You've got to be kidding me that this is what all of that was for! Not only that, it's promotion for the start of a story. Not the result. Not the first appearance. The beginning of a comitment to read this sucker until you get the payoff you expected before the issue came out.
Don't get me wrong, Ed Brubaker has been writing the most consistantly amazing Captain America stories I have ever read. The sun will rise and set and Captain America will entertain and delight you, even if it's just Bucky having a birthday. When I got a chance to breathe the same air as Mr. Brubaker last February at WonderCon, he was as giddy as a schoolgirl when he mentioned that July was going to be huge for Cap. A schoolgirl, people. Don't try and get the image of Ed Brubaker in pigtails out of your head, just know that I'm deadly serious about trusting him with this very obvious story.
But that's me. I'm a fan. I'm already sold and this is just trying to be the cherry on top of my awesome Cap sundae. For the average man on the street, hearing that the start of a story will be coming out on a Monday ("You mean they still make comics?") bringing back a character from the dead becomes a joke on NPR.
Lemme show you how it's done: this Saturday, June 20th, at 10am, I am returning from the dead.
I'm serious. Go to Metro Entertainment this Saturday and see Yours Truly sell you a goddamned comic again because I've finally got the Doctor's OK to go back to work.
That, my friends, is a payoff.