Events From The Modern Age Of Comic Books
One of the key aspects of the Modern Age of Comic Books was that it was the beginning of big events. In 1984, Marvel Comics debuted the first large crossover Secret Wars, a storyline featuring the company's most prolific superheroes, which overlapped into a 12-issue limited series and many monthly comic books. A year later, DC Comics introduced its first large scale crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, which had long term effects on the "DC Universe" continuity (see below).
In the early and mid-1990s, big events were regularly published by Marvel and DC, often leading to extra publicity and sales. These events helped fend-off competition from Image Comics and such events were more likely to become "collector's items." Some events, such as DC's "Zero Hour" and Marvel's "Onslaught saga" spanned a publisher's entire line while others only affected a "family" of interrelated titles. The X-Men and Batman franchises featured crossovers almost annually.
Some of the most significant mid-1990s events, such as Spider-Man's "Clone Saga," Batman's "KnightSaga" and particularly "The Death of Superman" caused dramatic changes to long-running characters and received coverage in the mainstream media.
These events led to significant sales boosts and publicity but many fans began to criticize them as excessive and lacking in compelling storytelling. They also complained that monthly series had become inaccessible because one had to follow a number of comics to understand the full storyline. By the end of the 1990s, the number of large crossovers decreased but were still launched sporadically.
Read more about Events From The Modern Age Of Comic Books: Crisis On Infinite Earths To Countdown, Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Marvel Vs DC, Civil War, Crossovers of The Modern Age
Famous quotes containing the words events, modern, age, comic and/or books:
“The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Not even old age knows how to love death.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate,—and meantime it is only puss and her tail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)