Hate to tell you this, but Marvel is already setting up a big storyline with the Avengers and Ultron that will most likely be the Marvel event for 2012.... -___-
 
And what's funny is that when Siege was going on I could have sworn that Marvel said they weren't going to do any more big events for a while, so much for that lie....

Here here! 
The Big Events need to STOP! Let the characters deal with little things; give 'em a break!
How many Big Events did DC go through this year alone? Marvel?
ENOUGH!!!

I couldn't agree more. And it's crazy that the Big Two have to release them both at the same time! Are they really THAT desperate to try and beat each other on sales of a story that'll be long forgotten in 12 months time?

@Lvenger: Yeah, I know they're in competition. I mean, can't they time it so that they don't clash at the same time. Thereby giving us (the comic buying public) a chance to financially recuperation before investing in the next big cross-over.

I hate these big cross-overs anyway. Marvel decided that it's only been 4 years since Inferno. The Inferno took place in 1988. That's 23 years ago! There's been a major cross-over event pretty much once a year... and with increasing numbers each year in recent years. The amount of world saving adventure would be too much for the same few individuals to cope with. At some point they'd just it back, throw their hands in the air and let the world blow up... just so they can get some rest.

I couldn't disagree more, and while there is a vocal minority (see above) alive and well on the internets, the sales of these big events speak for themselves, much louder than any fanboy whining too.

Man, I couldn't agree with you more! I'm almost out of breath trying to keep up with all of what's going in comics today! Wasn't Marvel just going into the "Fear Itself" thing when they were already on "The Heroic Age"? And now they're on this thing called "Schism"? Oish!

What I find amusing is that supposedly the big two want to reach out to the casual reader and get them into reading comics. Then they make it so expensive, and complicated that it's impossible.  
 
I quit reading for a few years(and still only pick things up in trade.) and I honestly feel like I am in bizarro world most of the time.  
 
So if somebody like me with some prior investment can't really get behind the majority of these dumb arcs, how do they expect John Q. Average to do so?  It's backwards, greedy logic.

COMPLETELY AGREE...  How about instead of these 'big story events' that don't really change a thing, Marvel focus on some unfinished story lines and settle those...
 
- Find Nate Grey
- Let Havoc and company make it back home
- Have Spider-Man learn to fight, realize he's a genius and develop web shooters that don't run out (or remember that he can shoot webs from his wrists)
- Let Bruce Banner realize Better wants nothing to do with him.
- Give Hercules his powers back
- Put Asgard back where it belongs, dang it!!!
- Remove from existence anything resembling a Spider-Man clone
- Revive Ink. (The kid in New X-Men that wasn't really a mutant"
- QUIT SMURFING WITH DARE-DEVIL! and let him be the great guy he used to be... (yes that's right!  I said "smurfing."  That's my explicative.)
- Build a prison without a revolving door for inmates...  REALLY getting sick and tired of seeing the Sinister-Six and The Wrecking Crew in every other Marvel title.
- Put Peter Parker and M.J. back together you flaming Smurf-hats!
 
and the list goes on...

@Lvenger said:

@xerox-kitty: And the tie ins they produce are pretty costly as well.

Ah yes, the hundred and one spin-offs and tie-ins. It makes it impossible to read those little one-offs without buying the main series to know WTF is going on.

What's so silly is that Fear Itself has taken over Marvel at a time when they hould be making the entry into Thor as smooth & simple as can be.

COMPLETELY AGREE...  How about instead of these 'big story events' that don't really change a thing, Marvel focus on some unfinished story lines and settle those...  - Find Nate Grey - Let Havoc and company make it back home - Have Spider-Man learn to fight, realize he's a genius and develop web shooters that don't run out (or remember that he can shoot webs from his wrists) - Let Bruce Banner realize Better wants nothing to do with him. - Give Hercules his powers back - Put Asgard back where it belongs, dang it!!! - Remove from existence anything resembling a Spider-Man clone - Revive Ink. (The kid in New X-Men that wasn't really a mutant" - QUIT SMURFING WITH DARE-DEVIL! and let him be the great guy he used to be... (yes that's right!  I said "smurfing."  That's my explicative.) - Build a prison without a revolving door for inmates...  REALLY getting sick and tired of seeing the Sinister-Six and The Wrecking Crew in every other Marvel title. - Put Peter Parker and M.J. back together you flaming Smurf-hats!  and the list goes on...

  Big comic events aren't that bad and they do hold their own purpose.  Personally I'm all for any event as long as the story takes precedence, and ye, when there's a big event you can see a companies sales Sky rocket, but that doesn't mean anything like "The story was great and it was a joy to read", more often than not a big event means "I'm really reading to see if they decide to screw over my favorite character like they did the past 5 events".  Big name events are okay and all, I like the idea of having all my favorite heroes interact with their associates in the business, but in all truthfulness there's no need to have them every single year. 
 
  Sometimes you have the great events like "Blackest Night" and "Crisis on Infinite Earths", but then you have the events like "Countdown to Final Crisis" and you just can't hold back the urge to /facepalm cause half of it is utterly unnecessary.

Green Lantern: So far, a 66 issue story arc.

Agreed.
 
I missed the times in the 90's when I would read the X-Books especially X-Men #1 all the way through for a whole year without any cross-overs.
 
In fact, the cross-over didn't happen until issue #14 with X-Cutioner Song, and that was after more than a year.
 
In today's industry, we get cross-overs basically every 4 months or so... sigh.

This thread is filled with words of truth and wisdom! 
 
Events are killing mainstream comics! Nothing wrong with an "event" with one tight storyline, but to forcefully tie-in every character and series into it, is pure madness! It just means incoherent story and missed opportunities to develope interesting minor characters!