Why are Marvel event trades printed out of reading order?

So that’s the question. I’m reading Absolute Carnage in Marvel Unlimited, but also in trades. I bounce back amd forth. And MU seemingly has things in order, but the trades are all out of order. It would be nice if each trade eluded to the proper reading order, but of course they don’t. I imagine it’s two different sets of people who produce the trades and who tell you the order in which to read something in MU. So maybe this isn’t a possibility, but why not? And this is probably easily answered with “Marvel doesn’t care enough and just want your money”, but come on, I buy a trade and realize it’s 2 out of 5 and I’m probably gonna want to get 1 of 5 first and then follow up. Maybe the omnibus fixes it? I remember the Clone Conspiracy omnibus-type paperback with everything in it and that was also not in the right order.
And then again, I know these are written by different writers and time lines intersect and crossover but still, sometimes the order these stories are placed in in collected editions is just ****.

So yeah... I dunno. More of a rant than anything else.


What say you?

I completely agree that it's frustrating. It's one of the reasons I don't buy collections of modern day events; they're almost never in a coherent reading order.

If it's an event I'm interested in, I'll buy the singles (and essential tie-ins) as they're released, so that I can read everything in order. If my interest level isn't high enough, I'll wait until the issues start popping up in bargain bins - because they always do eventually.

None of what I just said answers your question as to why Marvel does it, though. The only answer I have is what you already mentioned - money. They want to get the book on the shelves asap, and there's no one in the collected editions dept. that cares enough to map these things out the way they should be.

[QUOTE=Sparko;5332791]So that’s the question. I’m reading Absolute Carnage in Marvel Unlimited, but also in trades. I bounce back amd forth. And MU seemingly has things in order, but the trades are all out of order. It would be nice if each trade eluded to the proper reading order, but of course they don’t. I imagine it’s two different sets of people who produce the trades and who tell you the order in which to read something in MU. So maybe this isn’t a possibility, but why not? And this is probably easily answered with “Marvel doesn’t care enough and just want your money”, but come on, I buy a trade and realize it’s 2 out of 5 and I’m probably gonna want to get 1 of 5 first and then follow up. Maybe the omnibus fixes it? I remember the Clone Conspiracy omnibus-type paperback with everything in it and that was also not in the right order.
And then again, I know these are written by different writers and time lines intersect and crossover but still, sometimes the order these stories are placed in in collected editions is just ****.

So yeah... I dunno. More of a rant than anything else.


What say you?[/QUOTE]

Just to make sure I understand,are you meaning in "happening" order?
Absolute Carnage #1
Followed by Amazing Spider-man Some issue number which happens between
Then Absolute Carnage #2
Then Absolute Carnage Siryn (Scream. scourge, some S name) #1

Etc

Rather than what it is now:
Absolute Carnage 1-6
Followed by
Absolute Carnage Siryn 1-4
etc

Yeah something like that. The “happening” order. I do realize though that sometimes in the middle of a particular issue it breaks off into something that you have to read elsewhere so events technically happen at the same time. I imagine it must be a hell of a chore to just be the editor as issues are coming out for an event.

This all being said, me in particular, I am thoroughly enjoying Absolute Carnage so far. One of the better Spider-type events in recent times so far for me. And I’m a bit over 25% in, I think.

[QUOTE=Sparko;5333623]Yeah something like that. The “happening” order. I do realize though that sometimes in the middle of a particular issue it breaks off into something that you have to read elsewhere so events technically happen at the same time. I imagine it must be a hell of a chore to just be the editor as issues are coming out for an event.[/QUOTE]

Actually it isn't that difficult. Because many times they already have the checklists for the crossover which details the order.

Now honestly it shouldn't be difficult in Marvel Unlimited to sort the order differently. Think Excel where you are sorting by Column A versus Column B. Sort by reading order versus sort by series order. That I can say is simply laziness that they are not offering that.

My guess is they dont want to break up the reading experience of reading a bunch of first issues, then second issues, then third etc. They'd rather present complete arcs, even if it means chronological discrepancies.

[QUOTE=Dark-Flux;5334039]My guess is they dont want to break up the reading experience of reading a bunch of first issues, then second issues, then third etc. They'd rather present complete arcs, even if it means chronological discrepancies.[/QUOTE]

That's also possible. A potential problem with that would be when one issue spoils something in another that was meant to be read simultaneously. But I'm guessing such things don't really cross their minds when assembling these books...

I’ve been thinking about this like a Tarantino film in some ways. Maybe we just have to read **** out of order and figure it all out later. Although it would be cool if somehow an edition of an event where individual comics are broken down to make sure all is in a nice order. So if in page 12 of one book, one character breaks off to do something that gets told in another issue, maybe we could have that happen right away in the reading order. Tedious work? LordMikel already said it, it’s in some kind of order already before it all goes to print.

[QUOTE=Sparko;5334440]I’ve been thinking about this like a Tarantino film in some ways. Maybe we just have to read **** out of order and figure it all out later. Although it would be cool if somehow an edition of an event where individual comics are broken down to make sure all is in a nice order. So if in page 12 of one book, one character breaks off to do something that gets told in another issue, maybe we could have that happen right away in the reading order. Tedious work? LordMikel already said it, it’s in some kind of order already before it all goes to print.[/QUOTE]

Yes sometimes it would be even better to reorder a story page by page not only by issues.

I think they mostly do it pretty well.

Like in the War of the Realms omni, the main series has the Thor issues within it, as they tie more directly into the series/event than the tie-ins do. Then after that, all the other tie-ins are presented on their own, as they're more "side-stories" that show what happened on the periphery of the event.

[QUOTE=SJNeal;5334350]That's also possible. A potential problem with that would be when one issue spoils something in another that was meant to be read simultaneously. But I'm guessing such things don't really cross their minds when assembling these books...[/QUOTE]

Im sure it does, its just that its a massive undertaking. Marvels collected editions department really isnt that big an operation. Then you have hundreds of different series that span decades, with numerous crossovers at any one time. Alot of the time theres no clear cut reading order, theres just a throw-away line in one issue that spoils another. All that is hard to keep track of.