What Comic Event Shouldn't Have Occurred?

[Jesse321]

Originally Posted by Primal

LOL The good kind.

Obviously.

[Meteor Man]

The Onslaught storyline killed it for me. I stopped collection comics at that point. I only buy a TPB once in a while now...

[The_Scratch]

As much as I loved the original Phoenix saga, in retrospect I would have to say I wish it never happened. The ongoing (and mostly nauseating) storylines, alternate realities, character deaths, resurrections and the overall convoluted mess that marvel has become is directly linked to that one event.
It's a quagmire.
Once that genie was out of the bottle only Jim Shooter could put it back in... alas, when his control over Marvel disappeared the focus became "anything that sells books" and storytelling became a cycle of re-hashing the past, upping the ante... and repeating the same narrative.
Year after year after year we had another storyline somehow connected to that damn Phoenix nonsense... and what never made any sense to me was "How can such an enormously powerful concept, not draw the attention of the most powerful beings on Earth (in Marvel) or the rest of the Universe"?
Seriously?
Thanos threatens half of all life and every sentient power in the Universe is brought into play... yet a primordial force that has the power to consume the Universe draws only the attention of a handful of pimple-faced teenagers with relatively minor powers?
Needless to say that absurdity (because I always felt continuity in the Marvel Universe was one of the strongest aspects of their stories) drove a wedge between myself and all those X-Men fans.
My loathing for everything X-Men really began around the time the Madelyn Pryor & Rachel Summers storylines began. That's when I sensed pandora's box had been opened and it was just a downward spiral. Stroylines that had anything to do with alternate realities or time-jumping became the McGuffin. A storyline that should not happen, makes no rational sense, has no logical place withing the overall continuity yet exists as a weak plot point to simply drive a narrative. It's terrible writing... literally myopic in it's application. The worst part about it is that every Marvel book seemed to function in the Marvel Universe except the X-Men titles who had their own rules and just existed outside of everything else with no consequence.
Damn mutie scum!!!
Quite honestly the whole concept of mutant phobia and hatred made total sense to me. I longed for a storyline that truly addressed the mutant problem. They really are an absolute menace.
The Phoenix saga is not to blame (and I will reiterate I truly love the story) that's just the high-water mark that every writer aspired to... but that storyline eventually overwhelmed EVERYTHING and it won't go away.
To this day one of my favorite moments in any comic is in What-If #32... "What If The Avengers Became Pawns Of Korvac".
There is a single panel where Korvac acknowledges that Dr. Strange, The Silver Surfer and Phoenix are legitimate threats to his plans to re-shape the universe. So with a single bolt of cosmic energy he banishes all three from this reality unable to ever return.
I wish I could do that with the Phoenix saga.

[abubakarhimself]

Originally Posted by Primal

I see senility is kicking in for the hobbit.

AOA is my favorite X-event of the past 20+ years.
Generation Next & Astonishing Xmen just kicked all sorts of ass in that event and featured an amazing new rendition of a character as seen in my sig. No, not the Macho Man & ms. Elizabeth.

Worst event? HoM was pretty much useless and couldve been told in half the number of issues. I never felt so ripped off reading an event title.

Amen.

[ParisDean]

Another old thread resurrected, but I agree with the votes for Spider-Man: One More Day. I had bought Amazing Spider-Man semi-regularly for years prior to that event and afterward I bought only one issue and have continued to stay away because that story ruined Spider-Man for me that much.

Other events I wish could be retconned are:

Nightcrawler's parents revealed (Uncanny X-Men #428-434). Awful--the original idea for Nightcrawler's parents was much better and would be acceptable now.

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch becoming non-mutants. I would love if they were exposed as being actual mutants in the films after the WandaVision TV series ends to preview the introduction of the X-Men into the MCU and then the comics would be pressured to redo what they undid (re-retcon?) years ago when Marvel and Fox Studios were not getting along.

[mmk123]

Originally Posted by ParisDean

Another old thread resurrected, but I agree with the votes for Spider-Man: One More Day. I had bought Amazing Spider-Man semi-regularly for years prior to that event and afterward I bought only one issue and have continued to stay away because that story ruined Spider-Man for me that much.

Other events I wish could be retconned are:

Nightcrawler's parents revealed (Uncanny X-Men #428-434). Awful--the original idea for Nightcrawler's parents was much better and would be acceptable now.

Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch becoming non-mutants. I would love if they were exposed as being actual mutants in the films after the WandaVision TV series ends to preview the introduction of the X-Men into the MCU and then the comics would be pressured to redo what they undid (re-retcon?) years ago when Marvel and Fox Studios were not getting along.

Nightcrawler's parental revealed was part of Chuck Austin's run which that whole run never should have happened but that is for a different thread.

I do not mind The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver not being mutants. I do not know why it did not matter to me. I still think they should have left them as Magneto's children but human children.

As for what even should not have happened

Operation Galactic Storm - way too long and what did it accomplish

Countdown-after the success of 52, you would think that Countdown should have surpassed it but it did not. Parts of it were good but it just did not deliver what it should have

Final Crisis-what was the point?

will have to think of more of them and will list them later. These are the ones that come to mind now

[mmk123]

Originally Posted by The_Scratch

As much as I loved the original Phoenix saga, in retrospect I would have to say I wish it never happened. The ongoing (and mostly nauseating) storylines, alternate realities, character deaths, resurrections and the overall convoluted mess that marvel has become is directly linked to that one event.
It's a quagmire.
Once that genie was out of the bottle only Jim Shooter could put it back in... alas, when his control over Marvel disappeared the focus became "anything that sells books" and storytelling became a cycle of re-hashing the past, upping the ante... and repeating the same narrative.
Year after year after year we had another storyline somehow connected to that damn Phoenix nonsense... and what never made any sense to me was "How can such an enormously powerful concept, not draw the attention of the most powerful beings on Earth (in Marvel) or the rest of the Universe"?
Seriously?
Thanos threatens half of all life and every sentient power in the Universe is brought into play... yet a primordial force that has the power to consume the Universe draws only the attention of a handful of pimple-faced teenagers with relatively minor powers?
Needless to say that absurdity (because I always felt continuity in the Marvel Universe was one of the strongest aspects of their stories) drove a wedge between myself and all those X-Men fans.
My loathing for everything X-Men really began around the time the Madelyn Pryor & Rachel Summers storylines began. That's when I sensed pandora's box had been opened and it was just a downward spiral. Stroylines that had anything to do with alternate realities or time-jumping became the McGuffin. A storyline that should not happen, makes no rational sense, has no logical place withing the overall continuity yet exists as a weak plot point to simply drive a narrative. It's terrible writing... literally myopic in it's application. The worst part about it is that every Marvel book seemed to function in the Marvel Universe except the X-Men titles who had their own rules and just existed outside of everything else with no consequence.
Damn mutie scum!!!
Quite honestly the whole concept of mutant phobia and hatred made total sense to me. I longed for a storyline that truly addressed the mutant problem. They really are an absolute menace.
The Phoenix saga is not to blame (and I will reiterate I truly love the story) that's just the high-water mark that every writer aspired to... but that storyline eventually overwhelmed EVERYTHING and it won't go away.
To this day one of my favorite moments in any comic is in What-If #32... "What If The Avengers Became Pawns Of Korvac".
There is a single panel where Korvac acknowledges that Dr. Strange, The Silver Surfer and Phoenix are legitimate threats to his plans to re-shape the universe. So with a single bolt of cosmic energy he banishes all three from this reality unable to ever return.
I wish I could do that with the Phoenix saga.

I think you have brought up many great points about the Dark Phoenix saga and the Madeline Pryor and Rachel Summers storylines. Madeline Pryor was fine and ended well with Inferno and that is where it should have ended.
Like Dark Phoenix storyline, Marvel just kept pimping that storyline and Madeline Pryor to the nth degree when they should have let them alone.

Rachel Summers was given the Wolverine treatment where it was like "yet another aspect of her past is being revealed in the most shocking story ever told that will shock everyone". Marvel did not know when to stop with her instead of developing the character and letting her grow.