According to Comic Book Resources, J. Michael Straczynski (nominated for an Eisner) is leaving Thor because he refused to allow Thor to be involved in an unnamed Marvel “Big Event” crossover.  I applaud him.  In fact, I’m standing and clapping right now.  Civil War changed the Marvel Universe for the worse, and it was difficult to follow the action without reading all the crossovers.  Skrull Invasion and Dark Reign have been even worse, mucking up even books whose continuity was otherwise pretty much self-contained (like Spider-Man Brand New Day).  The X-books are virtually unreadable for the same reason—you have to buy like three or four books a month (at $4 a pop) just to follow the characters.  For the fan of individual characters, or for the cost-conscious, these “Big Events” are huge turnoffs and make me less likely, as well, to experiment by buying a couple issues of a book I don’t normally read (such as New Avengers or Wolverine).  D.C. is no better (in fact, it’s worse).  I know adults read comics, but most of the fans are still relatively young and on fixed budgets.  Moreover, few if any of these crossovers are actually any good for the character, and many force the books to change to fit the universe so that creative authors with their own visions are crowded out of  the book.

So I applaud Mr. Straczynski’s stand.