The weekend cannot get here fast enough.

Had one heck of a day yesterday. Busy like you wouldn’t believe. Had multiple projects to upload, had to fix up the site’s front page multiple times. Even my lunch break was less break-like than I woulda hoped — basically, I couldn’t stand the idea of eating the microwaveable chicken-and-noodle glop I’d brought to work, so I went hungry. Not fun, but the chicken-and-noodle glop woulda been a lot less fun. Even now, I don’t feel fully recovered, and I still got another eight or nine hours before I hit the weekend.

Even my comics experience yesterday was less than joyful. There were three different comics due out that I was eagerly anticipating, and none of them made it into the store. The few I was able to pick up were actually very nice, but I was so looking forward to those others, too…

And so that leads to today’s reviews, right?

Not actually. I’m not reviewing anything today. But I will tell you about one comic that I’m definitely not going to review.

 

Secret Invasion #1

They had a metric butt-ton of these in the store, and I didn’t buy one. Why? Because I’m tired of event comics. I’m tired of pointless spectacle. I’m tired of comics that are driven entirely by marketing. I’m tired of getting hooked by Marvel and DC and then getting disappointed with what I read.

So I didn’t buy this one. The marketing hype for this series — concerning an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” plot by the shapeshifting Skrull Empire — has been unrelenting and seemingly ever-lasting. As always, they promise earthshattering and lasting changes, and of course, the earthshattering changes won’t be lasting, and the lasting changes won’t be earthshattering, and the whole series will end in a muddle that’ll lead, directly and immediately, to more marketing hype for the next mega-crossover event…

So I’m skipping it. I’m tired of being Marvel’s monkey. I’m not going to jump through their hoops for this one. I’m worn out from mega-crossovers, and my pocketbook is definitely showing signs of comic-book fatigue.

Would things be different if “Secret Invasion” had gotten better reviews? Sure. But the reviews, though generally positive, haven’t been very enthusiastic either. Folks are getting weary of spectacle and hype, I think.

Will things be different for DC’s upcoming “Final Crisis”? Honestly, I’m not sure. My inclination right now is not to pick it up — DC has been at least as bad as Marvel at bludgeoning loyal readers with half-assed crossover crap. But “Final Crisis” is written by Grant Morrison, a guy who I pretty much consider one of the Eldritch Pagan Deities of Comics. It’ll be hard for me to resist that. But if I don’t get some pretty solid guarantees that “Final Crisis” is worth all the hype, I will do everything I can to resist it.

I doubt I’m done with event comics forever. They’re awfully hard to avoid these days, and I really have enjoyed some of them a lot. But I really wish Marvel and DC could go a year or two without insulting my intelligence with more of these marketing-driven crossovers. How ’bout some good stories, guys? Why don’t we all focus on making more of those?