that's why Siege sucks. i must buy a bunch of other titles to see what's what

In many ways tie ins are almost required when you have series taking place in the same universe, If all of these events are happening in this world. Does it make sense  to have a single hero fighting against some sort of massive alien invasion that looks to destroy the world. While at the very same time in another heroes book. They are sitting at a cafe drinking coffee as if nothing is happening.
 
That was one of my biggest complaints about Marvel. They had the vast majority of their heroes based in the greater New York area. It just felt odd that if in Spider-man New York is on fire, but the Fantastic Four or Ironman don't even try to help. Not to mention SHIELD must just be watching as they sit on their hands.
 
Events actually show that these dramas are happening within a cohesive universe. They may not always reflect the bigger picture, but they are happening.
 
I do agree that Blackest Night handled it well. They had a complete story on it's own, but if you were a fan of these other books. You could see how this event effected you favorite hero.
 
For myself, the first big event that I ever got really involved in was Age of Apocalypse. Though that was back when events were pretty rare and it only really involved X-Titles. Even then, I didn't get all of them.
 
When it comes to series like Second Coming, where so much of the story is spread throughout multiple titles, I  don't buy the comics and instead wait for the trade paper backs. That's pretty much what I did with X-Men Supernovas, Blinded by the Light, and Messiah Complex. That way I have all the stories together.

Line wide, personally, I prefered the way that DC did it back in the 90s with Zero Hour, Final Night, Genesis etc... You'd get a mini which was 4-5 issues and each title that month would have a red sky crossover, or something more pertinant depending on the main character.  Bang, one month later and it's all over, none of this waiting around like with Blackest Night. 
 
For series family crossovers, like Second Coming, or the bat books, it makes sense to do it how they do. Tho I never read any bat books for the same reason as the article, and I'll be picking Second Coming up in HC whenever that may be. If I was reading a "family" title (Bat, X, Supes, etc..) I'd accept the risks of the family crossover and probably even budget for it, if I wasn't reading all of that family. 

I'm a fan of events. I agree with some of your points. With the x-men it dosent bother me to much I collect most the x-books, but even if i didnt id still go get the other issues. But if i wasent a huge x-fan maybe i wouldnt do this.  But that's what trades are for!  Second coming will be put into a trade so it dosent matter.
I think arguing over issues is pretty useless these days. especially when companies make most their money based off trades and not issues.  Their main focus is making the trades now a days, so crossover events dont really matter in that sence, because you can just pick what trade to read, and with second coming it would all be put into one trade. 
from a marketing standpoint its smart to do it the x-men way so more people, who buy the issues, buy all their titles. But the way seige is cool also, you have your main story, then you have stories that focus on certain characters during the event, like thor new avengers ext.  Which i think is also cool, but again there is trades and you can just pick up what ever issue or trade you want to read.
Although I read issues, I love trades way better, just because you have the full story. No offence but I hate when a single issue gets reviewed. Its literally reviewing a chapter in a story, (unless its a one shot) i would much rather see reviews based on a full story arc and not just a chapter of it.  But now im off topic ha ha

I like the way that Blackest Night was it's OWN mini and if you wanted to learn more about a certain character you could get their own book or mini without it really affecting the main story to much. And where i can see marvels strategy in having their events span multiple books as a way to A. get more money and B. Possibly attract new readers to new title(s), i think people (after the pain in the ass it was trying to keep up with Messiah Complex and now Dark Reign/Siege) are really just going to wait for the trade to come out so it's easier to read and they don't end up buying titles that they have no interest in. But even the trades for some of the events are getting out of hand (im looking at YOU House of M!)

 I agree. I hate it when they do this.
 
This is why I stopped subscribing to comics (now I only buy paperbacks). I will not be forced to buy comics I don't want, just to follow a story. It's one thing to have a "theme" that involves several titles. But to have a single storyline jump between titles is just plain wrong.
 
In fact, I'm a little surprised no one has sued them over this. Think about it. If you subscribe to a title, should you not get the full story you've been paying for?

Some cross overs get excessive but others I think are really good.  Like the Green Lantern/ Green Lantern Corps 5 part story during Blackest Night may have been a bit excessive but the Secret Six crossover during Battle For the Cowl is what got me reading that book.  

I find this annoying. It makes it complicated to know what titles. If you can't manage to get those titles you don't normally get, you miss half the story and don't have a clue what is going on with these characters you have been reading about.

With the overlap that exists in these books already, I don't see it as a problem, really. I don't buy Uncanny, but that has not stopped me from keeping up with the X-Men, and it won't now. I just flip through the issues in the store. I can see how it might suck if you don't have an LCBS, but if that were the case for me, I would just wait for the trade anyway. If you're only reading X-Force or New Mutants, you are going to miss out on things that are happening with those characters, regardless of whether or not a crossover is taking place. The X-Titles interact constantly, and they have done for many years. For long stretches of time, it was pretty impossible to read just Uncanny, or just Adjectiveless, because they crossed over with every single issue, like one continuous series.

i feel like as long as all the titles are headed by the same writer, its fine. Its only when you have multiple writers writing the same overview story at the same time that things get lost and fudged.

I only buy the main books, like with Dark Raign I only bought Dark Avengers, sometimes New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, but usually only Dark Avengers and now Siege.
With Blackest Night I only bought Blackest Night and Green Lantern.  So I don't buy the tie ins.

All I can say is thank God for trades. I am just too lazy to get all these different titles.

An event like Second Coming needs to be in all the books I think. This storyline is going to change the marvel universe for mutants completely, either ruin or re-population.

 I concur, ironically the Secret War was not only my first crossover but the first comics I came into position of and read and you’re right about the simplicity of the setting. 
 
It seems that comics are starting to head down the same murky road as the film industry when it comes to these crossovers, and I mean in terms of the money angle. A story like Blackest Night could have been self contained within the main mini series but think of all the money the company would be loosening if they just played it simple with the one series. It seems to me that the main and possibly only purpose for these kinds of events is purely for the money and less and less about the actual stories themselves I mean would it be that hard just to have one issue of Second Coming for instance feature the New Mutants than have the crossover invade there title? 
 
I think these kind of ‘events’ are only going to become more and more common because they know that if they have a fans of certain series, fans that must stay in the loop they can more or less push them as much as they want into buying all these tie in books, the only way this is going to end is if enough people put there feet down and say no, and as grand as that sounds I don’t know and doubt if that is going to happen anytime soon on any mass scale, but I’ve been wrong before.

i dont mind cos i like seeing how other people are affected Like with civil war, the spiderman tie in was great but I dont like it if im guna miss out cos i need to get all the mini series just to understand whats happenin