What is a story arc? How is it different than an event?

Let's start with the simplest of the three to try and define, a story arc. A story arc is a collection of multiple issues from the same comic title that tell one coherent story. Theoretically, you will be able to pick up a certain story arc, with limited knowledge of the character, and still be able to enjoy the story as it tells the entirety of the story it is trying to tell. These are often what are collected in trade paperbacks (a later topic) and are generally more accessible for the casual fan that is only interested to read a quicker story involving their favorite characters. These story arcs on average include anywhere between 8 and 20 issues to tell their story. These can be a small part of a legacy series that runs for 100s of issues, think The Amazing Spider-Man, or part of a one time event.

Which brings us to the next part, what is an event? Essentially an event is the same as a story arc. It can be enjoyed on its own with very minimal prior knowledge of the characters. These are also often collected into trade paperbacks or omnibuses (another later topic). The main difference between an event and just a regular story arc comes down to two main things. The first of which being that events often involve issues from multiple comic titles rather than a single one. The second thing is how it affects the characters and the universe the stories are told in. For example, a story arc would really only affect the titular character and not much outside of that while an event will affect not only the character but the world around them. Great examples of this are The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) Beyond arc (which I plan to review after it finishes publishing on Marvel Unlimited) where only Spider-Man is affected by the ramifications of the arc, while X-Men: Inferno (1989) affects characters from multiple X-Men comic titles (check the review linked) and several other characters not included in the main story.  Ultimately though if you interchange these words most people will be able to tell what story you are talking about, but I wanted to include this post so you all can know what I mean when I use these terms. 

Examples of a story arc: The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) Beyond arc, Moon Knight (2022) TV Show

Examples of an event: X-Men: Inferno (1989), Avengers Endgame (2019) Movie