Zachary Boyd of Sci-Fi Genre Comics & Games in Durham, North Carolina read John Riley's recent column regarding publisher’s over reliance of crossovers and "Big Events" (see "Sharpening the Sword--Crystal Meth") and had this to say.

I'm the manager of a comic book store in Durham, NC and I completely agree: the Big Two have gotten too addicted to huge crossover storylines.  It's time to scale back and focus on consistently good story as opposed to the "big booms" that they have every year.  Slow and steady wins the race, no?

And while I totally agree with all of the comments about Marvel, we can't forget about DC Comics.  52 was a wonderful invention that featured no tie-in titles (except for the huge WWIII flop), but they got addicted to the fantastic moneymaker they created and decided to try again with Countdown.  And because that wasn't enough, they tried Trinity following it.  Throw in the huge "events" they keep having (Sinestro Corps War, Return of Bruce Wayne, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Flashpoint, let's not forget Final Crisis which needs to die in a fire) and they've got the same line of reasoning as Marvel.  What point did most of those huge crossover "events" accomplish other than trying to sell more books?  Why is Maxwell Lord alive again?  Why did you bring back the wizard Shazzam?  Why did Bruce Wayne have a wacky time travel adventure!?!?  I'm just sayin'.

To DC's credit, at least they're trying something new:  A complete reset of the universe.  Marvel did this wonderfully with the Ultimate Universe, but continued to have their huge events in the mainstream (until Ultimatum, when the Ultimate Universe also had a huge "event").  Hopefully DC has been taking notes and this bold move is in fact that-a bold move.  I would be highly displeased and lose my faith in comics forever if DC's "New 52" turns out to be nothing more than another marketing ploy and a year from now it's explained away as "just another alternate universe."

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.