Brian, I’d hate to be an asshole (can’t be helped really) but I believe that, even though the noun is crossover, the verb is cross over.

Nah, it's cool - I wasn't sure either way, as the spell checker obviously couldn't pick it up (as crossover IS a word, it just might not be, as you say, the appropriate word in this usage). I'm certainly not committed to the idea that the correct usage is "crossover" rather than "cross over."

Anyway, all this crossing over is one part of why I stopped buying Justice League. (Ditto why I stopped buying Morrison's Batman and Dini's 'Tec during the Ghul silliness. Ditto Brubaker's X title. (Um, I think he's on Uncanny?)) Of course, regarding JLA, my inability to even tolerate the "artwork" of Ed Benes and McDuffie's suprisingly dreadful initial arc were also huge factors. If DC ever gets its act together on their flagship title and gives me a quality creative team and a book that doesn't demand that I buy several others — well, wow, then they'd have a bestseller worthy of a lot more love and attention from some of us.

That said, I will be buying Final Crisis (c'mon, it's Morrison and J.G. Jones!) and I am hoping that I can take DC's claims at face value that it won't be a ginormous crossover like Infinite Crisis was. (Please note: I am well aware that hope is often irrational.)

Also team books like Avengers and JLA are sort of crossover titles by their very nature. JLA is just a crossover of Batman, Superman, and Wonderman. Avengers is just a crossover of Cap, Iron Man, and Thor. (in broad general terms).

This partly explains the frequency of the small crossovers among a small family of titles, but doesn't address the bigger events, although I like Teebore's thoughts on that.

A couple thoughts. Recently I've been on a big Silver Age Marvel kick. And it's fascinating how often Stan tossed in references to other titles.
"Why is Daredevil unable to help the Avengers? Check out this month's issue" etc. etc. etc.
The idea of a "shared universe" is a cool concept and there's nothing wrong with the aforementioned "shilling" of other titles. I think the problem becomes when books are intentionally written so the readers have to seek out titles they would not normally buy for the full story.
I recall some complaints about Morrison's World War 3 saga in JLA and how it was not reflected in other books. That just astounded me because the LAST THING I wanted was for Morrison's story to be diluted by spreading it out amongst other creators who may not be as good a writer as he is.
(But then, of course, DC One Million was a line-wide crossover).
I don't know - I think this speaks to just how diverse comics' readership is and how difficult it must be to be a Joe Quesada or a Dan Didio trying to please everybody.
I read a handful of DC/Marvel books and really want them to be self-contained. But I"m sure there are readers out there who pick up a dozen titles from each company and it ticks them off when the "continuity" is not matched in all the titles.
So who do the companies try to please? Do they limit the Final Crisis or Secret Invasion tie-ins because they don't want to tick readers like me off, or do they liberally plaster "FINAL CRISIS TIE-IN" on every book because the die hard fans can't reconcile how Spider-man is imprisoned in Secret Invasion but fighting Electro in his own book?

I don't care as much now as I once did about reading stories "THAT COUNT! YOU MUST READ THIS!" but I do want to read stories that have an impact on the greater decades-long narrative of which each issue is another chapter.

This doesn't mean that every issue/story has to be "in continuity"; DKR is set in a future, but it still has an impact on the ongoing Batman narrative.

But random fill in-esque stories that take place in the past of the Justice League don't do much for me, unless they are incredibly well done (which some are but most aren't, at least in JLA: Classified for example).

So it isn't that I need the stories to "matter" to "continuity" in order to enjoy them so much as I want them to bring something to the ongoing narrative (another chapter in the lives of these characters, a new perspective on past events or themes, etc). Or just be really, really well done.

Unfortunately, most JLA: Classified anthology or rotating creative team books manage to avoid both those criteria.

Also, could everybody please remember that "compare to" draws attention to similarities while "compare with" draws attention to differences (i.e. the latter should be more common though we tend to incorrectly use the former all the time).

Maybe I should be a sub instead of a journalist. Or maybe I should become an annoying English teacher.

Your memory must be awesome, by the way.

(Sometimes Anal) BDaly

Comics should be good... y'know, subjectively, to me.

So crossovers and comics where you need other knowledge are fine. It just gives you a bigger, grander world to experience.

Speaking of crossover pages removed from the trade - the end of JLA #23 introduces the One Million crossover and has Diana return as Wonder Woman to the JLA (rather than Hippolyta). These pages aren't reprinted in either of the initial printings of the "Strength in Numbers" TPB or "DC One Million" TPB. Does anyone know if they added the pages back in to one of them when they went to the standardized JLA trade dress for the newer printings of those books?

Still, great work on the article. I knew all the Avengers stuff, but have never followed the League...I was honestly surprised at the result, as I figured Marvel and Avengers had "most crossover issues" in the bag, lol.

Oh, shoot! I got so wrapped up into the history of things that I forgot to answer the question. Which is that readers want stories that are part of a bigger and richer tapestry.

Don't worry, the main point of this bit IS to be wrapped up in the history of things!

That's why the "Classified Books" die a slow a painful death. They are so self-contained that they are almost 100% inconsequential with regards to the Flagship Title. And the ones that look at a particular period or incarnation of a book "for nostalgia purposes", do it so poorly and fail to capture the essence of the original run so miserably that it's almost insulting to the fans.

There are exceptions, but for every "I can't Believe it's the Justice League" there is a "Detroit League: Game of Chance".

Once events like Crisis and Secret Wars took place, they largely started the cycle of "events" vs. "self contained stories".

Yes, there were crossovers and events long before "Crisis" and "Secret Wars", but they were not a big focus and were done seldomly or as special occasions. Once "Crisis" and "Secret Wars" came about, the focus started shifting more and more towards events and crossovers.

I'd like to see things shift back toward self-contained series with the occasional crossover and occasional event.

Justice League, for the most part, did not work their Annuals into the ongoing series, with only the Annual #2 directly tying into the ongoing.

As a result, I see the Justice League at a disadvantage because they basically instituted the Crossover and made it a tradition. In fact, they were the original crossover book. Almost all of the Justice Leaguers had their own books or were regular supporting characters on other series (or anthology books); the exception being Zatanna. The Avengers on the other hand, where more self contained with Cap' guest starring in Avengers, Iron-Man on the West-Coast and Thor bobbing and weaving in between books. But the other Avengers, and I could be wrong, just weren't solo stars.

But if you look at Batman for instance, you'll find a clean 50 year run that wasn't even touched by "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Even the Legends crossover wasn't much of a crossover; it was just a label stamped on the cover. If anything, it was more of a Man of Steel crossover than a Legends crossover.

In any case, it's just an observation.

A couple of notes...

In the early 80's it was fairly common for the DC Flagship titles to finish or continue story arcs into their respective annuals. The New Teen Titans did it with their "Return to Tamaran", "Judas Contract" and "Vigilante" storylines. The Legion of Superheroes did it with their "Great Darkness Saga"; and I think that Firestorm also did it.

And Finally...

I had the misfortune of reading the Justice League Wedding Special and I can attest to the fact that it was so poorly written that it's 100% impossible to insert it anywhere... before, after or in-between Justice League of America #13-15. I know one of the issues says "to be continued in the Wedding Special"; but that's just bull$#¡t. If I remember correctly, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl were laid down in the first issue, but then they are seen tipping strippers on the wedding special! ...and then they are back in the hospital?

Hell, the JLA Wedding Special doesn't even properly arc into the actual GA Wedding Comic!

The whole thing is like the Wookie Defense! IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

As for the trade thing you mention, I believe they did a similar thing back when they collected Byrne's Galactus storyline in the pages of the FF.

This was when few stories were ever collected, so issues definitely were NOT written with the trade in mind, but I recall Byrne noting how amazingly easy it was for them to take out his subplot pages without affecting the main story.