Geoff Johns 3 Legion story has been something that he’s been talking about vaguely for quite a while. Since the current Action Comics Legion story was first being talked about. I had always just assumed that it would be an Action Comics story, but that assumption was destroyed yesterday when Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds was announced.
I can hear the groans from here. Why is DC having one mini-series tie-in to another? Honestly, that is just the way things are. A company has an event, there are going to be extra books that tie-in to it. This is not something unique to DC. If it was, then you would not have had Civil War: Frontline, World War Hulk: X-Men, etc. Tie-ins are not necessarily a bad thing, so long as they remain only tie-ins. It is when a tie-in becomes an essential part of the story that there is trouble.
A tie-in should be supplemental to the main st experience, Marvel has done a decent job with this. DC, not so much. In the lead up to Infinite Crisis, DC had 4 mini-series going on. ory. From myOnce Infinite Crisis started, each of the minis had one special. These specials turned out to be necessary parts to fully understand Infinite Crisis, especially the Villains United special. DC appeared to have learned their lesson with the 52 tie-in, World War 3. While this event was a tie-in, and represented in 52, you did not need to read one in order to read the other. Unfortunately, DC showed they h
ad not learned anything with the Countdown family of titles. But that is for another entry.
Too make a long story short, (too late) there is a way to write a successful tie-in, even if it is going to be a big event on its own. From interviews that I have read with Grant Morrison about Final Crisis, and Geoff Johns about Legion of 3 Worlds, it seems that they understand how to be successful. Grant has said that you do not need to read anything else, to understand Final Crisis. Geoff has said that while there is a launching point within Final Crisis, you do not need to read it to read his Legion story, and vice versa. So long as they stick to this plan, then things should go well.
Comicdom Wrecks! 
Dan DiDio can put out as many Final Crisis: (whatever) as Joe Q had Civil War: (whatever). It’s not like Marvel is any more innocent about trying to get people to buy extra books during a mega-event. What makes Marvel better is that you don’t have to read everything. So, DiDio can have all of his extra books, so long as Morrison and Johns can stick to their plan. I have my fingers crossed, but I’m not holding my breath.
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I’d wager that Marvel is much more innocent when it comes to trying to make people buy extra books for a mega event. They didn’t put out a 52 issue lead in series for Civil War or Secret Invasion.
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Maybe, but on Newsarama, someone has calculated that if you were to buy everything that is advertised as being a part of Secret Invasion, you’d spend about $103 on the first half. Granted, that does include on-going comics, but don’t think that they don’t think that they only have the label because they are a vital part, and it’s not an attempt to sell more comics. DC and Marvel are both businesses, and will do whatever it takes to sell more comics. Marvel is more innocent in that the story does not force you to buy more, but they still put the tie-in label on, hoping that you will.
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Civil War was easily Marvel’s biggest event in the last five years. Looking at the checklist provided in Civil War #1, the total number of books for tie-ins, special mini series, and the main series itself was 81 books. I’m no expert on DC’s numbers, but thanks to my good friend Wikipedia I can tell you that there have been at least 112 books so far leading into Final Crisis. And that’s not counting tie-ins that Wiki doesn’t show and estimating conservatively on things they don’t provide exact numbers for. And most importantly, that doesn’t count Final Crisis itself and all of the mini series, one shots, and tie-ins that’ll go along with that. DC is much, much worse when it comes to churning out extra issues in an attempt to make more money off of a mega event.
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