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Bigger doesn't always mean better when it comes to comic book villains. At a certain point, when there are already multiple characters who can rewrite reality running around the Marvel Universe, it gets harder and harder to set up legitimately threatening stakes. But where does that leave us as readers when we're inundated with so many apocalyptic comic book events at once? 

Listen, I don't have any doubt that the creators behind Ultimate Endgame, Queen in Black, and Avengers: Armageddon can't pull off an engaging blockbuster storyline. I am enjoying the ever-living hell out of Al Ewing and Carlos Gomez's Venom series right now, and I think exploring superheroes as weapons of mass destruction is a fascinating idea worthy of exploration. But I think part of my problem lies in how these events are being marketed to us. Oh no, another apocalyptic force is coming to the Marvel Universe. Everything is at stake. Lives will be changed. 

I won't pretend to know when the ad copy for these events is written, whether that's before or after the scripts for the issues have even been written. But at a certain point, hammering home the same apocalyptic narrative does a disservice to the specific story that each specific creative team is trying to tell. Surely they can't all be painted with the same broad brush?

There's also the matter of one-upping villains with each event. Knull invaded Earth in 2020's King in Black and promptly tore The Sentry in half, and the story that followed was genuinely very stressful and entertaining to read. We even got an American Kaiju story out of it. But now Hela has defeated Knull and taken his throne and is... launching another attack on Earth, and I'm feeling rather tired. I can't exactly say I feel as stressed this time around, and that makes me worry about the near future of Marvel Comics. If events have to be marketed as unquestionably cataclysmic every time in a genre that is built on readers aggregating their knowledge of comic book history, then how is this sustainable? 

All this said, I recognize that my tastes may not be sympatico with contemporary Marvel crossover events, but I am a diehard Malekith fan for a few simple reasons. Malekith may basically be the same every time you come across him, whether that's in Walt Simonson's run on Thor or Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman's War of the Realms. He wants the Casket of Ancient Winters, he wants to make everything cold, and he wants to look like he just came from Heidi Klum's Halloween party. But the key thing here is that superhero comics as an art form have developed around Malekith. The threat level may have remained the same because it's the same ol' Malekith, but by the time he drops down to Earth in War of the Realms, he's become more visceral because he's rendered in ways we've never seen before, thanks to the passage of time and creative hands.

This is all to say that I'd like to see more exciting creative teams take on a classic villain for a company-wide event than be given something that's principally justified as "the apocalypse." But I understand that Marvel is in the business of selling books each week, and that establishing a flashy new status quo for a villain may provide the funds to publish more niche books in the future. It's just a bummer that there are some symbiote shenanigans happening this summer, and I feel nothing, because I'm not being promised that I'll feel any differently than I did when King in Black came out six years ago.  

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time.