Posted: 15 September 2019 at 8:45am | IP Logged | 7
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Matthew, there was a time when annuals and 80 page giants were special treats, done as important stories and in-continuity stories. (Of course, waaay back, they became reprints... and before THAT, they were originals again.)
But it seemed after that that they became part of giant company crossover stories. And then, the annuals had a theme, and they became the practice ground for new writers and authors, as a soft of showcase for this new talent. And exactly as Mr. Byrne points out, they were dumping ground.
This is when I gave up on them, and on most comics; it was a contributing factor. DC had annual crossovers including: new international heroes (I imagined editors saying, "Hey, somebody has to hit like Superman or Spider-Man did, right?" - also known as the crap on the wall method of new characters, who just became superfluous characters to later be eliminated); "ghosts"; the JLA becoming gorillas,etc. Marvel made company-wide crossovers which had to be huge, overblown affairs that every book HAD to participate in, thus interrupting up storylines in the regular books. And how easy is it to create an earth shaking problem requiring the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Silver Surfer before they become rather commonplace?
And in fact, I recall that Alpha Flight DID get into an Annual for Marvel Team-Up. I can't remember the story, but I recall that it wasn't very memorable.
Not concentrating on particularly good stories - but keep flinging that crap against that wall, guys. Better to be lucky than talented.
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