Do crossovers ruin your enjoyment.....

[X-Men Forever]

.....of a series you buy on a regular monthly basis? I can't stand crossovers myself, because I never get the entire story when a book I regularly collect crosses over with a book I never buy. And I will not buy a book I normally do not buy just because it crosses over with a book I always buy. Anybody else despise crossovers?

[Beast]

Depends on the crossovers. I picked up the X-Men/Black Panther crossover and was fairly entertained, even though I hate Hudlin's Black Panther. House of M was a line-wide crossover and was fairly good. The Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, Age of Apocalypse, all great crossovers. :)

As for the upcoming 'Storm's Wedding to Black Panther', no thank you. :p

[Mark Spiridakis]

I can't stand crossovers myself, because I never get the entire story when a book I regularly collect crosses over with a book I never buy. And I will not buy a book I normally do not buy just because it crosses over with a book I always buy.

There may be some copies Secret Wars II over in those local Back Issue Bins or on eBay. What a classic Marvel crossover that was.

[thik_3rd]

nope, i like 'em. wish there were more. not necessarilly big line wide ones (but those can be good too), but smaller one just between a couple titles. especially if they're two titles that don't interact much. like that recent x-men/black panther one. boy let me tell you, if either of those two series were readable right now, i woulda been in heaven seeing two separate parts of the mu i really like that hardly have intereacted before get together like that. even if i were reading one of those title right now i would've been happy. unfortunately, they're two of the worst books out right now so i wasn't checking for them, but i digress. if say, the x-men crossedover with a book i was already reading and enjoying, like, oh, mk4 or new thunderbolts, i would've gladly picked up the x-men issues of the story.

[Chiasm]

I hate em. Nothing worse than being forced to pick up a book you don't normally buy. I missed out on the Black Panther part of the recent X-men crossover because I refuse to support crossovers for the sake of boosting sales on a flagging book.

I don't mind crossovers that are crossovers only in the sense that different teams are dealing with the same thing but from different aspects. Fall of the Mutants was a good example of this. House of M was another more recent. Galactic Storm or War or whatever it was that was like a 19 part crossover in ten different books was an example of when its at its worst.

[TonyJaymz03]

I like them when they're small, like this past years Wonder Woman/Flash crossover. Is was one issue from each series. Not too bad, I don't normally read Wonder Woman, but I can do with getting it once. The recent X-Men/BP was good too, wasn't big. It's when you start getting itno the 19-Part, ten title crossovers, or the 4 part annual crossovers, which I hate.

Line-wide crossovers are different. If you can tell a complete story in your book while still being connected to the crossover(Firestorm and Ic/Incredible Hulk and HOM) then it sgood. When it becomes nohing more than a shill for the Crossover(slapping VU on a Nightwing title that has nothing to do with it) i hate

[XPac]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Secret Wars 2 Cross overs left me with a terrible distaste for cross overs for a long time. But there actually are plenty of good cross over events out there which do work. When the TBolts and Avengers had their teams cross over in the Nefaria protocals, it worked for me. The writers were obviously on the same page, so neither book ended up disrupted by it.

Cross overs can sometimes seem forced, or to big and confusing. But when it's done well, they're actually a lot of fun.

[StoneGold]

Like others said, it's not an all or nothing proposition. Sometimes there are good crossovers. Sometimes there are bad.

[Alan2099]

I hate those huge EVENT crossovers that change everything!!! and interupt the normal stories for months at a time, even when they're over with.

[The Wayner]

Doesn't bother me.

[Hombre]

In all fairness, they really have eased up on the Crossovers, which can work and be fun occasionally if they are tightly contained and of consistent quality (Bloodties, Cat Trap) and might even make you discover something new.

Yet, these events, where you don't need to buy the tie-ins have their downside too, as they may derail a series that was on to something good (a good example could be Claremont's Uncanny and House of M).

[matewan1990]

House of M was terrible, because it interrupted Captain America, New Thunderbolts and everything else I was reading. It completely put me off of those titles and I had a hard time coming back. I don't want my storylines interrupted by stupid crossovers. A little better planning would help. Also, War Crimes interrupted what was some decent Batman stories. Thankfully, I don't read the Batman books anymore... saves me money. I'll buy Captain America in trade paperback format and I've gone back to reading New Thunderbolts, but, if it happens again, I won't be so forgiving.

[Schmakt]

I really liked things like Acts of Vengence and Inferno and stuff like that. Those were done well. I also enjoyed the Infinity Gauntlet x-over issues. Not so much the House of M, and I definitely wish I would have just stuck with the main series.

The "The Other" x-over is fine too, since it's confined to one group of books (and I prefer the Amazing spidey to know what's happening to himself in MK Spidey etc, etc...). I think the story itself blows, but the format of the x-over is cool with me.

Galactic Storm was tough to follow b/c of the amount of stuff in one book that was dependent upon knowledge of another book. I think that one got just a little bit too big... too many books & too many chapters.

And x-overs like the Black Panther thing aren't that bad either. I also didn't actually like the BP/XMen story at all, but I wasn't pissed that I had to buy BP really... I don't mind giving new comics a shot, and that's a pretty decent way to get me to do so. Plus, that means more comics for me to read. :)

[DDM]

It depends on how the story is co-ordinated. House of M is an example how not to do a crossover since the story is basically a decompressed mess. House of M convinced me not to buy any other Marvel crossover from now on. I'm still staying true to my word.

I'm skipping Annihilation, Civil War, Planet Hulk...

[Jolly Mon]

I've discovered a newer problem with crossovers: when you get the entire run of a comic on cd/DVD (like Amazing Spider-Man or Fantastic Four). You start reading from the beginning and run into a crossover into Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider or another spider title. I just ran into the "Maximum Carnage" crossover that I'll be able to read about a third of. So I gave up on that for awhile and started on the FF DVD. :D

[X-Men Forever]

It depends on how the story is co-ordinated. House of M is an example how not to do a crossover since the story is basically a decompressed mess. House of M convinced me not to buy any other Marvel crossover from now on. I'm still staying true to my word.

I'm skipping Annihilation, Civil War, Planet Hulk...

I agree DDM. And the crossover stuff DC is doing right now has me very tempted to drop all my DC stuff from my pull file. The Infinite Crisis stuff sucks hard core :mad: .

[Lord S]

Crossovers that are well balanced and feature goodies for everybody to enjoy are the best...unlike 'Onslaught', which billed itself an entire Marvel Universe crossover, but targeted primarily the hardest of the H4RDC0R3!!1 X-fans.

This is why I loved 'Infinity War'.

[dazzler_slave]

I LOVE CROSSOVERS!!!!

I love the sense of a shared universe. I love seeing everyone come together to stop a big threat. I love picking up books I don't normally collect to see what the art and writing is like. I buy every part of every major crossover that comes out. I also buy a whackload of comics anyway so usually I don't have to pick up too many titles I don't normally collect anyway.

Sure sometimes I am supremely disappointed when I get a crossover that sucks hardcore like House of M, Disassembled, Secret Wars II, The Crossing or Millennuim.

Sometimes I get mediocre crossovers that don't impress but I don't despise like War of the Gods, Bloodlines, Operation Zero Tolerance, Onslaught, Maximum Security or Operation Galactic Storm.

Usually I get crossovers that I think are great like Fall of the Mutants, Mutant Massacre, Fatal Attractions, Secret Wars, Legends, Invasion, Underworld Unleashed and Identity Crisis.

And sometimes, I get incredible crossovers that I love to read over and over and completely show why a big company wide story can be great like Age of Apocalypse, Inferno, Infinity Gauntlet, Crisis On Infinite Earths, DC One Million and the current Infinite Crisis (yes, I think it is awesome, even tho it is currently trendy to hate it)

As for smaller crossovers between titles, why not? It is fun seeing a couple people or teams interact on a smaller level. I like when it is two titles that don't normally interact like Ghost Rider/X-Men, X-Force/Spider Man, New Mutants/New Warriors or even the recent X-Men/Black Panther.

The only thing I don't like is multiple crossovers from one company during the same year. It is overkill. In 1991 DC had Breakdowns, Armageddon 2001 and War of the Gods. It was a bit much, especially since the last 2 I mentioned were pretty mediocre. This year, I am a little irritated that we are getting House of M, The Other, Planet Hulk, Annihilation and Civil War all within 12-14 months of each other. It's a bit much.

[hmnut73]

Crossovers that are well balanced and feature goodies for everybody to enjoy are the best...unlike 'Onslaught', which billed itself an entire Marvel Universe crossover, but targeted primarily the hardest of the H4RDC0R3!!1 X-fans.

This is why I loved 'Infinity War'.

I disargee, even if you don't like the Onslaught crossover I think it was done in a good way. In that it wasn't done as a hot potato story, passed from one creative team to the next. It was done as a Marvel wide event and each book just told how the event effected them. If you liked the Avengers but hate the X-men you could just read the Avengers storyline and you would pretty much know what was going on. But most cross overs force you to buy crappy books just know what is going on in your regulars, I have dropped many books because of that.

[Shellhead]

I've discovered a newer problem with crossovers: when you get the entire run of a comic on cd/DVD (like Amazing Spider-Man or Fantastic Four). You start reading from the beginning and run into a crossover into Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider or another spider title. I just ran into the "Maximum Carnage" crossover that I'll be able to read about a third of. So I gave up on that for awhile and started on the FF DVD. :D

The FF crosses over with a single issue of Avengers. I think that it's FF #150 and Avengers #127.

[Shellhead]

The best crossovers can show comics at their greatest potential: creative teams finding synergy working with other creative teams in an exciting shared setting. Even better seem to be the crossovers where one writer is doing the whole story, like the Avengers/Defenders War by Steve Englehart, or Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison.

The worst crossovers are blatantly soulless, stupid marketing efforts that alienate loyal readers, like Secret Wars II or War of the Gods. I particularly hate the crossovers that involve lots of different monthly titles, where some of those "crossover" issues merely give a slight nod in the direction of the main crossover storyline.

[Cowlander]

No problem with them....

[DDM]

I agree DDM. And the crossover stuff DC is doing right now has me very tempted to drop all my DC stuff from my pull file. The Infinite Crisis stuff sucks hard core :mad: .

See, I have the opposite view with Infinite Crisis. DC's Infinite Crisis is an example of how to to a crossover correctly. I'm buying Infinite Crisis, but I'm not buying all the little crossover connections such as the Superman books because Superman is not on my pull list.

[superman1984]

I used to like cross-overs but with all the stuff DC and Marvel have been pumping out...I got to say once Infinite Crisis and The Other are done I will be doing my best to avoid Cross-overs.....

[DDM]

I used to like cross-overs but with all the stuff DC and Marvel have been pumping out...I got to say once Infinite Crisis and The Other are done I will be doing my best to avoid Cross-overs.....

I was going to buy Peter David's Spider-Man until I discovered it crosses over with other Spider-Man titles. In this case, the crossover backfired.

[Cephus]

I can't stand 'em and I refuse to buy 'em. In fact, if a book I normally read is part of a crossover, I just don't buy the book that month. I boycotted the whole House of M nonsense and never bought a single comic that crossed over with it. I refuse to be pushed into buying something a pile of comics that I don't want to read in the first place.

[Uncensored]

I only like crossovers if the books crossing over make sense. I mean, a crossover between, say, Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four doesn't seem like a good pairing to me. But, maybe something Daredevil and Wolverine (because of their martial arts histories) would be fine by me.

[Neolucifer]

I find myself loving most crossovers , i often at first goes like "meh another crossover forcing me to buy books i dont read"...then realize i'm buying almost everything Marvel :p ...
More seriously i prefer when they dont start right in the middle of the story of an ongoing titles , but still find myself enjoying them for their stories , the action , the interraction between foes and villains from different corners of the MU and their possible aftermath and consequences .

Some crossovers manage to piss me off enough to stop comics for quite a while , like Onslaught and the Clone saga , but even those had parts wich i liked , even loved . I loved the idea of xavier creating an evil version of himself and messing with everyone , but then felt a bit dissapointed by the idea of Magneto being Onslaught's other father , hated the whole deal with Joseph , felt it was lasting too long then had a not so great ending .

The clone Saga started well then got in a huge mess ... Still i loved Ben Reilly as the Scarlet Spider , and loved the new Spiderman costume . The bitterness on my side also comes from the fact that they already did in the series all the crappy things i didnt want to see (the other clones , spider-cide , kain :s) , yet killed/remove all those other things i liked from the event and wich could have worked so well in the future ...
A Ben reilly ongoing as the scarlet spider , alongside spidey , or in a completely different city , or even a few appearances once every while , would have been a possible good solution to the people disliking the idea of a married and not single Spiderman .

Anyway most of the time , even with most crossover i didnt like that much , their consequences were imo positive to the MU .
From Onslaught was born Thunderbolts , from Disassembled came New avengers (i bet some are already smiling :p) , from HoM came imo a quite salutary cleaning etc etc...

[TheBronzeMarvel]

Of course it has all been said, but why not re-hash it?

"Marketing" crossovers suck. Almost without exception. Crossovers that are well-conceived, fit into the characters' titles, and contribute something to the ongoing "universe" can be very cool. I am reading some back issues of Iron Man right now and found that I need to have Force Works and War Machine in order to read the whole story line. Well, since I am overseas and my comics are mostly in the states, that sucks for me. But the fight between WM and IM (I think this was the first time they really went at it) deserves a crossover. I mean, both characters have their own titles, so they both deserve a piece of the pie. That doesn't bother me.

Titles like Marvel Team-Up or Two-in-One were a way of mixing up characters who normally did not see each other, but without making a big fuss out of it. Most were one-shot adventures. Your favorite character is appearing in 2in1 this month? Just buy it!

One more good note for crossovers: They can let us see a "big" story in a short amount of time. If a crossover spans three titles, for example, and those titles are staggered in their release, we might get a new piece of the story every week for three weeks (and a week or two off until the release cycle comes around again). That can be much better than waiting a whole month between each piece of the story.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

I love crossovers, also!

Okay, not all crossovers......

I like the ones that are enjoyable, effective, and big!

ala Galactic Storm, Inferno, HoM (sort of), COIE, WWIII (if it counts), and IC



As someone said, these days its trendy to hate on cross-overs just because the "veterans" don't like them, but I'm willing to enjoy and defend these crossovers from DC and Marvel (especially IC) for what they are: Great Stories!

(Hopefully this "crossover hate" will stop by the time IC #4 or #5 comes out)

[Hombre]

As someone said, these days its trendy to hate on cross-overs just because the "veterans" don't like them, but I'm willing to enjoy and defend these crossovers from DC and Marvel (especially IC) for what they are: Great Stories!



Well, see, a few years back Marvel was a lot bigger on crossovers. You practically couldn't read any given Spider title without following all the others, a lot of stories were to be continued in... somewhere else that wasn't that series. To a degree, that's always happened, but Onslaught really took it too far, a lot of series from the Avengers to Hulk got stuck with meaningless crossover issues in its wake.

Like I said, an occasional story-driven crossover is fun. I remember Hands of the Mandarin as being a good one, for example, because it showed how closely related characters would eventually find themselves involved in the same situation.

In short, close continuity and shared universe? Yes. Continual crossovers? No, thanks.

[superman1984]

I was going to buy Peter David's Spider-Man until I discovered it crosses over with other Spider-Man titles. In this case, the crossover backfired.

I almost did that, but at the last minute I decided to pick up The Other.....not sure that was the right thing to do....

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Well, see, a few years back Marvel was a lot bigger on crossovers. You practically couldn't read any given Spider title without following all the others, a lot of stories were to be continued in... somewhere else that wasn't that series. To a degree, that's always happened, but Onslaught really took it too far, a lot of series from the Avengers to Hulk got stuck with meaningless crossover issues in its wake.

Like I said, an occasional story-driven crossover is fun. I remember Hands of the Mandarin as being a good one, for example, because it showed how closely related characters would eventually find themselves involved in the same situation.

In short, close continuity and shared universe? Yes. Continual crossovers? No, thanks.

I understand what you are saying. To tell you the truth, I was talking more about Infinite Crisis, but I did like HoM. In the 90s, Marvel did go too far on the crossovers, which almost led to the end of Marvel.

I hope Marvel doesn't repeat itself.

[Cephus]

I understand what you are saying. To tell you the truth, I was talking more about Infinite Crisis, but I did like HoM. In the 90s, Marvel did go too far on the crossovers, which almost led to the end of Marvel.

I hope Marvel doesn't repeat itself.

They already are. How many crossovers did they have in 2005? How many are they having in 2006? HoM wasn't just a "summer event", it's continuing on with more and more crossovers and mini-series in it's wake.

I guess Marvel never learned it's lesson.

[Expletive Deleted]

I guess Marvel never learned it's lesson.Since the current spate of crossovers from both companies have been almost universally successful . . . well, what do you expect.

[Young Avenger]

It depends on how the story is co-ordinated. House of M is an example how not to do a crossover since the story is basically a decompressed mess. House of M convinced me not to buy any other Marvel crossover from now on. I'm still staying true to my word.

I'm skipping Annihilation, Civil War, Planet Hulk...

Annihilation and Planet Hulk ain't crossevers. They are self-contained events. There will be no tie-ins to other titles.

[Lex]

The thing about crossovers is that I really enjoy the main story if it's in a seperate mini-series told by the same writer. But I hate it when it has to tie-in to the monthly books. It's annoying when you've been following a monthly for few year and it's really into a stride with the stories, but then a crossover tie-in comes in like a speed bump and disrupts the whole thing. I liked Marvel's thinking with House of M in having several mini-series seperate from the crossover tell character-specific stories, like Spider-Man: HoM, FF HoM and Iron Man HoM... but still there were crossover tie-ins with monthlies like Thunderbolts, Hulk and I think Captain America too. I prefer for the monthlies to tell their own, unique stories. When I want to read, say, She-Hulk, I'd like to think that the monthly series would be the best place to find a story focused on her and not on a story taking place in 20 different books.I was going to buy Peter David's Spider-Man until I discovered it crosses over with other Spider-Man titles. In this case, the crossover backfired.Same here. I was really excited about PAD on the new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man book. While I have no interest in reading the other two Spidey books, this one sounded right up my alley. I figured it would have a lot of fun from PAD's writing plus great art from Wieringo.

But for some dumb reason, Marvel wanted the first three issues of a new ongoing series to be bogged down in a lame crossover with the other two Spidey books. So I figured I'd just wait the crossover out because the book will probably become the classic, fun Spidey book I wanted when the crossover was over. But I just found out that this crossover is going to continue infecting FNSM for many months after its over. So there goes the good, fun Spidey book I was hoping for.Annihilation and Planet Hulk ain't crossevers. They are self-contained events. There will be no tie-ins to other titles.And that's exactly why I'm getting them and not getting Civil War. (Plus, Annihilation and Planet Hulk sound like really good, fun stories)

[IronTurtle]

But I just found out that this crossover is going to continue infecting FNSM for many months after its over.

Really? How? The descriptions for 5 and 6 don't sound like they're connected with "The Other" at all. Is it going to kick in later or something?

[xgeek52]

hate crossovers...crossover have become events which in some instances become disasters (can we say the clone saga)...we had house of m (which i didn't bother with) and the upcoming civil war (which i suspect is another gimmick)...

i'm not saying that creatively they don't have potential...but any crossover for any publication is consumer oriented...if they don't get you on the regular run wait for the tpb... :cool:

[Lex]

Really? How? The descriptions for 5 and 6 don't sound like they're connected with "The Other" at all. Is it going to kick in later or something?Just that he'll be getting lame new powers and a crappy new costume and probably have to deal with fallout from The Other.

[milly3cat]

House of M took up 4 issues of New X-Men, it was very long time away from the normal world.

[The Mirrorball Man]

I don't like these "events" crossovers and I don't buy anything connected to them, which means that I haven't bought more than a handful superheroes comics for the last couple of months, and might never go back to them.

[Cephus]

Since the current spate of crossovers from both companies have been almost universally successful . . . well, what do you expect.

They were successful in the early 90s too, then look what happened.

[Expletive Deleted]

I'm not saying they're a good thing. I'm saying that expecting Marvel to turn down what appears to be easy money is somewhat unrealistic.

And I don't think you can blame the collapse of the '90s on any one factor. Crossovers weren't any more to blame than, say, chromium covers or gratuitous Ghost Rider cameos.

[Phrozen]

The only crossover I liked was The Avengers-Defenders War. Everything else can take a long walk.

[X-Men Forever]

I'm glad to see the crossover haters come alive in this post. I thought I might be the only poster around here who does not like crossovers. I do not know why anybody would like a crossover interrupting the middle of a storyline, with the storyline in the crossover you could give a crap less about, like the recent House Of M stuff for example.

[Cephus]

I'm not saying they're a good thing. I'm saying that expecting Marvel to turn down what appears to be easy money is somewhat unrealistic.

Then they need to get people with more business sense in charge before they go bankrupt again. Short-term profits that kill long-term profitability is insane. They should have learned that from the fiasco of the 90s.

And I don't think you can blame the collapse of the '90s on any one factor. Crossovers weren't any more to blame than, say, chromium covers or gratuitous Ghost Rider cameos.

No, it was an attitude that all they had do to was put out glitzy covers, reboot the title once a year so people could buy more #1s and cater completely to the speculators. Who needs to write decent stories when the speculators aren't even reading the comics?

They found out pretty quick that bad stories drive away your core audience and speculators don't stick around long. Pretty soon, you're left with no readers and nobody buying hoping to make a profit.

[Cephus]

I'm glad to see the crossover haters come alive in this post. I thought I might be the only poster around here who does not like crossovers. I do not know why anybody would like a crossover interrupting the middle of a storyline, with the storyline in the crossover you could give a crap less about, like the recent House Of M stuff for example.

I'll be honest, I don't think the occasional crossover is a horrible thing, if it's done right. The problem is, very few of them are done right. They don't do crossovers to tell good stories, they do them to sell more comics and I resent that. If a crossover forces me to read 10 titles I would not normally read in order to understand the story, then I want nothing to do with the crossover. There's a reason I'm not reading those titles in the first place.

If they had just taken House of M, made it a 12-issue maxi that didn't wander into every book in the Marvel universe, that's fine. I wouldn't have read it because I had no interest in it, I couldn't stand the Scarlet Witch before she got ruined by Bendis, but at least it wouldn't have affected my enjoyment of the books I do want to read. In the end, not only did Marvel not make a penny from me during the HoM, but they lost money because I refused to pick up any issue that crossed over with the stupid event.

[Dial Tone]

I don't mind if another hero guest stars as long as it's not often, but I HATE crossovers that go from one book to the next. I think I liked it the first two times it was done, for instance, the Secret Wars II crossovers and the Fantastic Four and Avengers crossover that brought Jean Grey back and led to the first X-Factor series.

That was enough for me.

[jpk]

Cross-overs are fun reads, but I can see how they could kill yoou financially. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford most books I want to read, but if I was limited to buying 10-12 titles a month, I would hate the idea of not being able to catch up on all the stuff going on in other titles.

So in that sense cross-overs are unfair to the less fortunate and/or more frugal readers out there.

[Will.S]

I don't mind crossovers if done well and not done with too much frequency.

[Titan76]

If they had just taken House of M, made it a 12-issue maxi that didn't wander into every book in the Marvel universe, that's fine
Dear god NO. I thought HoM was long enough being 8 issues, if it went on for 12 I would have been writing threating letters to both Quesada and Bendis if they did that.

As for the topic crossovers don't bother me that much. I only bought one of the Serect War 2 books, it was number 4 I think. It was the one where the Beyonder killed Death and bought it back to life and after reading that one issue I didn't even have anymore thoughts about getting the others. If the crossovers make sense and done right then I love them, like how "Infero" was, but if they are done really bad like the "The Twelve" story for X-men then they really make me think about hurting the person who thought of this stuiped idea.

[X-Men Forever]

Cross-overs are fun reads, but I can see how they could kill yoou financially. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford most books I want to read, but if I was limited to buying 10-12 titles a month, I would hate the idea of not being able to catch up on all the stuff going on in other titles.

So in that sense cross-overs are unfair to the less fortunate and/or more frugal readers out there.

I do not hate them for financial reasons so much as them interrupting a story line in a book that I buy and care about reading. For example: say that a book I buy and read like Uncanny X-Men had a 3-part crossover with a book that I hate in Arana. If this were to take place, then it would ruin 3 months worth of Uncanny X-Men by postponing the ongoing Uncanny storyline for 3 issues and me having to figure what is going on in Uncanny for 3 months because I would not even think of buying the 3 Arana issues to get the entire story. I am not shelling out $2.99 each for 3 issues of a comic book that I feel should never be printed in the 1st place.

Sometimes I am fortunate enough to have a crossover happen between 2 or more books that I buy monthly anyway, but this is a rare occurance. So for the most part I think that crossovers usually ruin several months worth of comic book reading for me.

[Punisher]

I don't mind cross overs like House of M. The ones I really hate are the ones like Spiderman: The Other. (I haven't read it and I'm not saying that it's a bad story) or Atlantis Attacks (which from what I've read is pretty bad) where they split a storyline into pieces in many series.
I don't mind crossovers from the same company like Punisher/Wolverine but I hate cross company crossovers like Batman/Punisher or Spawn/Batman. In my mind DC is in it's own universe, Marvel's in it's own universe, and so on.

[dazzler_slave]

Wow, am I ever in a minority here with loving crossovers!

For me, it is like a previous poster said. Financially, I can afford to pretty much buy as many titles as I want. Each month, I regularily collect over 40 titles as well as pick up 10-20 back issues. Currently, I am collecting almost everything DC publishes because of Infinite Crisis!

I love crossovers because I love the shared universe concept and I like to try out new titles to see what's going on in another title. For example, I really enjoyed the Manhunter and Breach issues that tied into Identity Crisis because I got to read about a character I don't normally see. I love crossovers that gather all the heroes together into one shared continuity.

To be honest what I hate are the superstar writers who come onto a title to tell their story and completely ignore or contradict what has gone on before, and completely change the voice of an established character to fit in with the writer's personal bias. I would much rather read a crossover than these types of stories.

[Cephus]

Dear god NO. I thought HoM was long enough being 8 issues, if it went on for 12 I would have been writing threating letters to both Quesada and Bendis if they did that.

You could have... oh, I don't know... NOT READ IT, you know...

[stealthwise]

Yes, I hate mandatory crossovers, they usually encourage me to drop (and not always pick up again) a lot of titles when they occur.

With a good writer though, a crossover can be advantageous to the story, as long as they make good use of it and make it clear what the context is for any reader who's not in the loop.