The Big (Non?) Event: Rise Of The Third Army

This is first of a number of posts I hope to write regarding comic book crossovers, and so-called 'events'. The posts will be titled 'The Big Event', but I played around with that a little for this first post. So here goes. Hope you enjoy!

 

I have a notepad file on my laptop that I call my 'weekly miss list'. It's basically a list of books on my pull list that I want to get, but that I consider non-essential buying for that week. These are the books I normally pick up a couple of weeks later, or end up dropping completely.

The recent 'big event' that has been finding itself on this list is the 'Rise of the Third Army' storyline that has been going on in Green Lantern and it's associated titles New Guardians, Green Lantern Corps, and Red Lanterns.

I started picking up Green Lantern in the summer, just as this event was kicking off, and I was happy to begin with. The main title was just introducing a new Lantern in the form of Simon Baz, and the crossover was giving me a chance to take a look at other titles that I hadn't read before.

But it all went downhill pretty quick.

To be fair, the main Green Lantern book is a damn good read. Geoff Johns is a writer at the top of his game and I'm rarely disappointed with his work. The other books aren't too bad at all (apart from Red Lanterns, which is woeful apart from the art), but overall this crossover is just too long winded and (so far) uneventful to warrant the cost. Okay, there has been some cool stuff along the way, especially Simon Baz's run-ins with the Justice League, but this 'event' spans issues #13-16 of all four 'Lantern' titles, plus a few annuals that also tie in to the story, and there's bound to be some 'aftermath' issues. So aside from Green Lantern, you basically have to buy 20 or more other comics to get the full story. That's roughly £50 on comics that for me, are doing little to build any excitement or interest in where 'Rise of the Third Army' is heading.

Of course, once this event finishes, I can drop a bunch of the titles and go back to my normal pull list, but DC is loving its big crossovers just now, especially in the Bat-family books, so who knows what else they have in store? Trinity War is on the way in 2013 which may hurt the pockets too, but I hope they ease up a little in the coming months. My wallet just can't handle it!