To me, an event tie in should, ideally, reflect the event in question while still furthering the particular story, agenda, and focus of that particular book. Otherwise it will just seem like the ongoing is lost without crossovers; the fate of some of the X-Men titles in the late 90's, such as EXCALIBUR, X-FACTOR and pre-Milligan X-FORCE. By and large, the two ongoing titles that crossover into WAR OF KINGS haven't suffered from that. NOVA has a set story and is fulfilling it; no, it isn't essential to WAR OF KINGS, but it works for Richard Rider's story, so that matters more. Nothing is more artificial than watching the storyline of an ongoing series grind to a complete halt to do crossover event tie-in's. Despite writing SECRET INVASION, both NEW and MIGHTY AVENGERS suffered from this under Bendis. Many stories became of filler quality and usually didn't involve anyone from the cast of either book. WAR OF KINGS hasn't done that with NOVA or GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.
Plus, NOVA is at least headed into a showdown against Kallark's cousin, who was a villain in KINGBREAKER.
I do agree that KINGBREAKER could have been covered in 4 pages or 4 panels, much less 4 issues. However, the action set-pieces were exciting, and I think it was a mea culpa to X-Men/Starjammer fans for basically shoving the Starjammers to the fringes of their two year storyline to allow someone who isn't one of them to beat Vulcan in WAR OF KINGS.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY does seem a bit more intertwined with WAR OF KINGS, but I see that as due to their purpose; Peter Quill organized them to be pro-active against a threat like Annihilus or Ultron destroying galaxies again. Vulcan is such a threat, and so is the war between the Shi'ar and the Kree, so they would be very involved in stopping it. And, of course, have learned the hard way from various angles that good intentions and diplomatic overtures to zealots fall on deaf ears. Professionals in politics can fail to learn such points for decades. The subplots with Warlock and Phyla are in play, though.
DARKHAWK/ASCENSION seem a bit on the fringes, but I am enjoying them.
WAR OF KINGS itself, though, is working well as a story unto itself, and maybe that is what is shocking. Instead of a death every issue and nothing but explosions, it has lengthy chapters dedicated to character stuff, like Gladiator's changing of ideals or Crystal and Ronan slowly getting closer. That is almost unseen in events of the 21st century. Most are merely checklists of cool moments slapped together on top of an ad for the next event; HOUSE OF M, CIVIL WAR, SECRET INVASION come to mind. WORLD WAR HULK was less so, because Pak is a better writer, it simply came off as what we thought was some ultimate Hulk fan ******* (until Loeb's HULK showed us that, if motivated, Hulk really could punch out Eternity). The ANNIHILATION line of events have easily been the best "events" Marvel has put forth in terms of quality, at least for me. They work because they work as events as well as stories, and aren't as static with the same leads always saving the day in the exact same way (or, for Bendis events, the same leads always FAILING to save the day in the exact same way).
