It's the same, except longer

Someone else has probably had this realization, but it just dawned on me the other day when I was pondering all of the many, many things I hate about the yearlong, universe-spanning, company-wide crossovers Marvel and DC insist in inflicting upon would-be causal comics readers like me.

Remember how during the Silver Age and Bronze Age, it was really popular to have some superheroes meet, get into a fight because of some sort of misunderstanding/mind control/etc., and then eventually resolve their differences so that they could team up against the real villain? It happened all the time. (Especially if you were the Hulk. So many misunderstandings....)

That's basically the exact same story arc you get when you combine Marvel's Civil War and Secret Invasion. The heroes choose sides, face off against each other, and later join forces to battle the real enemy, the Skrulls, who had been manipulating events behind the scenes the whole time.

Only in the old days, it took one issue (maybe two) to tell that story. Now, it takes Marvel something like three years to tell the same damn tale.

Decompressed storytelling has definitely gone too far.