Hello and welcome! As of this week, this Newsletter has been a thing for a solid two years. So thanks to everyone who’s been reading, for however long you have. We’ve well and truly shattered the number of subscribers that I was hoping to be able to build up, and just this past week, two more newcomers each pledged $80.00 a year to follow this feature. Which is gratifying to hear, though as the very first release stated, we’re Always Free around these parts (and Occasionally Interesting.) Still, those imaginary dollars make for a powerful motivational tool. So let’s see what we’ve got on tap this week.
Question: Who oversees cancellations? In the current age of Marvel where series' other than flagship titles like Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man are lucky to get more than 10 issues, how are those types of decisions made? Is it the editor who decides? Is it the editor's job to say "this series might get more sales if we cancel it, then bring it back with the same creative team at issue 1," or is there someone else who makes that call? And how do you personally feel about this current state? Do you think that runs that last for a long time, or at least keep legacy numbering as their main number are worse because it's harder for new people to jump on? I hear a lot of fans arguing that those types of easy jumping on points are also easy jumping off points for people who have read for a while and have no interest in supporting a book that feels like it's doing its writers and readers so dirty.
For instance - I've been reading Percy's X-Force since about issue 25, and even as I felt myself getting a bit less interested in it, I've stuck with it because of the sunk cost fallacy, and also because I want to support a series that actually makes it past all the issue numbers that series are usually canceled on (5, 10, 16-18, 25-30). I probably will stick with it past 50 if it just gets an issue 51 with a new creative team, if only because taking it off my pull list is a bit of a hassle, but if the new series starts us over with #1 again, I'm probably not gonna ask my LCS to add it to my pulls.
We see DC on all parts of this spectrum, with Nightwing and Batman being in the middle as they're not on full legacy numbering but they let the numbering stay between creative teams for a few years, some series' numbering got restarted like superman and flash, and some are still going with issue 1000+ like detective comics and action comics. But I can't think of any marvel series' that fit anything except the numbering reset, with X-Force and Wolverine being basically the highest numbers out there right now. Do you think marvel will ever return to more legacy numbering? I have a feeling a lot of older fans would be more inclined to jump on X-Men 800 over X-Men #1, even if it alienates some new readers (though, considering we're pretty much entirely in the direct market, you're not really getting new readers who haven't at least somewhat committed to jumping into an 80 year old history of comics)
Question: As a long time X-men fan, I'm excited to see what's in store for the mutants' future under your leadership. I noticed that there were 6 other books announced, but I can't seem to find the creative teams to decided whether or not I'll be buying. Is that not announced yet? If so, when can we expect more information on these titles?
Looking at those Avengers Retreat Notes from '09, I can gleam that JMS was not present at the gathering, and that one Kieron Gillen--who would take over Thor before the year was over--isn't even mentioned. Could you describe what the JMS-Gillen handover of Thor entailed, and how Siege factored into it? One imagines a haphazard, tumultuous affair.
As someone who cares and thinks about covers, are there any classic Marvel covers where your eye sees things that could be better? Switch out inker A for inker B, move a starburst, go easier/heavier on the yellow, etc?
I am looking forward to the new era of x-men and was going to ask why choose Idie Okonkwo as a team member but instead I was wondering about all the characters featured on the new champions variant covers, some of whom will soon be appearing in Spider-woman. Using these as an example, what is it about a new character that piques your interest and would either make you want to read about them or feature them in a comic ?
Someone with the initials DD was Stan’s secretary in 1975? Now I’m imagining a comic where Stan is enthusiastically dictating his big ideas to an annoyed secretary, one Doctor Doom. As drawn by Fred Hembeck. I’d buy that.
"I am very happy with the fact that, while all of the X-MEN books carry the same style of telescoping logo, they each use their own distinctive version: X-MEN from the Jim Lee launch, UNCANNY X-MEN from the 1980s, and EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN going back to the Neal Adams-era one."
I LOVE this and I love that the choices were intentional. All of the logos in the promo art have been just right (yeah finally Wolverine's is back!), except perhaps Phoenix which if I'm not mistaken was from an Ultraverse miniseries?
Just one question this week: X-MEN Legacy # will be 302? When did 301 come out?
Hi Tom, hope you're having a great day. You're misremembering that part about Deadpool not appearing in those last issues, it was actually Cable that stopped appearing due to his apparent death in X-Men #200 (which also resulted in him getting written out of the comic in Issue #42 at the same time). The title would continue on as a Deadpool team-up book till its end.
Now that's out of the way, here is my question: Who are in charge of managing the legacy numberings? Because the legacy numbering of Adjectiveless X-Men you're guys are going with does not look right at all. I also wrote about it under Julian's comment in the last newsletter but to recap: you can't use X-Men Vol 2's numbering since the title would become X-Men Legacy and go on until Issue #275 before being relaunched and go on for another 24 issues before then ending on X-Men Legacy #300. Adjectiveless X-Men would also get relaunched twice during the time Legacy was being published as its own seperate title. This new legacy numbering you guys are going with not only just disregards that (and is also wrong, since the next legacy issue would be #301 and not #302), but also opens up another problem: What happens to the 67 issues that were published at the same time X-Men Legacy was going? Which legacy numbering do they account for?
Question: I know the main goal of From the Ashes must be to attract new readers, but does your Office have something in mind to avoid alieniating those who fell in love with the Krakoan era?
Hi, long time reader and fan of the newsletter, first time asker. A quick follow-up on adjectiveless X-Men’s LGY. After I read that answer on it being LGY#302, I checked with a friend. We’d been joking and discussing how Uncanny LGY is… complicated to say the least. You very well could have hit #750 if you wanted to. So I decided to check with them and the thing is: The only route to #30X is actually one short, from Legacy #300. What’s the one issue pulling it to #302?
Actually a related question is how come X-Men LGY doesn't have the recently concluded volume? Or the 141 issues before Uncanny? Just to prevent two books having the same issues in LGY?
As much as I love the cover...I am always bothered by covers that don't have anything to do with the story. Deathlok and Punisher are teamed up here (which of course seems insane) so the cover making it seem like Deathlok would be doing harm to the Punisher with the torn costume and...well it's a very cool image. I was very surprised she Mindy arrived in your office and without you getting to choose her. I always liked her and her writing. And I understand what you mean about having to shoulder a load and not realizing it until you have someone in your office who CAN do the work.
Question: I’m not sure how far ahead these things are talked about, but are there any big plans for Quicksilver beyond Blood Hunt? It is of course his 60th anniversary this year along with his sister’s, but while Wanda has a new ongoing set to kick off in June, Quicksilver will only have the three Avengers Blood Hunt tie-ins he will guest-star in (as far as we know). I know the Avengers will no longer be your responsibility, but are you privy to anything exciting coming his way (I don’t expect details of course).
P.S. thank you for this amazing and insightful (and free!) weekly newsletter!
I have to say, I love that ADVENTURE 200 cover. The two in the pith helmets are clearly there to spout off pointless dialogue reinforcing what we can already see -- "Look, Miscolored Lana! Superboy is swinging on those vines like the other apes!" "It's almost as if he's become...a Superboy of the apes, Professor Dad! But why??" -- but either someone forgot or thought better of it, so they're just standing there, silently gobsmacked by the tableau before them. It's more arresting than word balloons would be, really.
I'm happy I got your first-edited X-book correctly! *collects his No-Prize*
You mentioned before you might ship more than 12 issues a month of some of the new X-books - is that still in the cards? And if so, are you looking to do it regularly or more on an ad-hoc basis?
WINGDINGS: First, I didn't know symbols like $#!+ used in place of swearing were called "Wingdings!" That was worth the price of admission all by itself this week. Second, I've never liked Wingdings. They pull me right out of any story, every time. At the same time, I understand the desire/need to make mainstream comics like Marvel and DC's as accessible as possible, and how that conflicts with some modern storytelling sensibilities. Like swearing.
In my own case, when writing my creator-owned comic IMPOSSIBLE JONES, I knew she would swear from time to time. Because that's who she is. But my personal sensibilities and preferences meant I didn't want her (or anyone else) to REALLY swear in the stories, yet did NOT want to use those damn (pardon my French) Wingdings!
My answer: I REDACT the swear words. Other's milage may vary, but I find that a LOT less distracting than Wingdings. Also, since you still see bits of the letters above and below the black band, it's a bit of a wink at the audience— "we both know what she's saying, right?"— which fits the tone of the IMP series perfectly.
And I will tell you, NOTHING makes my 11-year-old son feel smarter than when he "figures out" what the redacted swear is. He loves being "in" on the joke, being adult enough to "get it." And any time you can make your readers feel smart, that's a good thing!
"Nothing can stop him now." You sure about that, soldier?
Question: Who oversees cancellations? In the current age of Marvel where series' other than flagship titles like Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man are lucky to get more than 10 issues, how are those types of decisions made? Is it the editor who decides? Is it the editor's job to say "this series might get more sales if we cancel it, then bring it back with the same creative team at issue 1," or is there someone else who makes that call? And how do you personally feel about this current state? Do you think that runs that last for a long time, or at least keep legacy numbering as their main number are worse because it's harder for new people to jump on? I hear a lot of fans arguing that those types of easy jumping on points are also easy jumping off points for people who have read for a while and have no interest in supporting a book that feels like it's doing its writers and readers so dirty.
For instance - I've been reading Percy's X-Force since about issue 25, and even as I felt myself getting a bit less interested in it, I've stuck with it because of the sunk cost fallacy, and also because I want to support a series that actually makes it past all the issue numbers that series are usually canceled on (5, 10, 16-18, 25-30). I probably will stick with it past 50 if it just gets an issue 51 with a new creative team, if only because taking it off my pull list is a bit of a hassle, but if the new series starts us over with #1 again, I'm probably not gonna ask my LCS to add it to my pulls.
We see DC on all parts of this spectrum, with Nightwing and Batman being in the middle as they're not on full legacy numbering but they let the numbering stay between creative teams for a few years, some series' numbering got restarted like superman and flash, and some are still going with issue 1000+ like detective comics and action comics. But I can't think of any marvel series' that fit anything except the numbering reset, with X-Force and Wolverine being basically the highest numbers out there right now. Do you think marvel will ever return to more legacy numbering? I have a feeling a lot of older fans would be more inclined to jump on X-Men 800 over X-Men #1, even if it alienates some new readers (though, considering we're pretty much entirely in the direct market, you're not really getting new readers who haven't at least somewhat committed to jumping into an 80 year old history of comics)
Hi, tom.
Question: As a long time X-men fan, I'm excited to see what's in store for the mutants' future under your leadership. I noticed that there were 6 other books announced, but I can't seem to find the creative teams to decided whether or not I'll be buying. Is that not announced yet? If so, when can we expect more information on these titles?
Looking at those Avengers Retreat Notes from '09, I can gleam that JMS was not present at the gathering, and that one Kieron Gillen--who would take over Thor before the year was over--isn't even mentioned. Could you describe what the JMS-Gillen handover of Thor entailed, and how Siege factored into it? One imagines a haphazard, tumultuous affair.
As someone who cares and thinks about covers, are there any classic Marvel covers where your eye sees things that could be better? Switch out inker A for inker B, move a starburst, go easier/heavier on the yellow, etc?
I am looking forward to the new era of x-men and was going to ask why choose Idie Okonkwo as a team member but instead I was wondering about all the characters featured on the new champions variant covers, some of whom will soon be appearing in Spider-woman. Using these as an example, what is it about a new character that piques your interest and would either make you want to read about them or feature them in a comic ?
Someone with the initials DD was Stan’s secretary in 1975? Now I’m imagining a comic where Stan is enthusiastically dictating his big ideas to an annoyed secretary, one Doctor Doom. As drawn by Fred Hembeck. I’d buy that.
You said:
"I am very happy with the fact that, while all of the X-MEN books carry the same style of telescoping logo, they each use their own distinctive version: X-MEN from the Jim Lee launch, UNCANNY X-MEN from the 1980s, and EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN going back to the Neal Adams-era one."
I LOVE this and I love that the choices were intentional. All of the logos in the promo art have been just right (yeah finally Wolverine's is back!), except perhaps Phoenix which if I'm not mistaken was from an Ultraverse miniseries?
Just one question this week: X-MEN Legacy # will be 302? When did 301 come out?
Hi Tom, hope you're having a great day. You're misremembering that part about Deadpool not appearing in those last issues, it was actually Cable that stopped appearing due to his apparent death in X-Men #200 (which also resulted in him getting written out of the comic in Issue #42 at the same time). The title would continue on as a Deadpool team-up book till its end.
Now that's out of the way, here is my question: Who are in charge of managing the legacy numberings? Because the legacy numbering of Adjectiveless X-Men you're guys are going with does not look right at all. I also wrote about it under Julian's comment in the last newsletter but to recap: you can't use X-Men Vol 2's numbering since the title would become X-Men Legacy and go on until Issue #275 before being relaunched and go on for another 24 issues before then ending on X-Men Legacy #300. Adjectiveless X-Men would also get relaunched twice during the time Legacy was being published as its own seperate title. This new legacy numbering you guys are going with not only just disregards that (and is also wrong, since the next legacy issue would be #301 and not #302), but also opens up another problem: What happens to the 67 issues that were published at the same time X-Men Legacy was going? Which legacy numbering do they account for?
Question: I know the main goal of From the Ashes must be to attract new readers, but does your Office have something in mind to avoid alieniating those who fell in love with the Krakoan era?
Hi, long time reader and fan of the newsletter, first time asker. A quick follow-up on adjectiveless X-Men’s LGY. After I read that answer on it being LGY#302, I checked with a friend. We’d been joking and discussing how Uncanny LGY is… complicated to say the least. You very well could have hit #750 if you wanted to. So I decided to check with them and the thing is: The only route to #30X is actually one short, from Legacy #300. What’s the one issue pulling it to #302?
Actually a related question is how come X-Men LGY doesn't have the recently concluded volume? Or the 141 issues before Uncanny? Just to prevent two books having the same issues in LGY?
As much as I love the cover...I am always bothered by covers that don't have anything to do with the story. Deathlok and Punisher are teamed up here (which of course seems insane) so the cover making it seem like Deathlok would be doing harm to the Punisher with the torn costume and...well it's a very cool image. I was very surprised she Mindy arrived in your office and without you getting to choose her. I always liked her and her writing. And I understand what you mean about having to shoulder a load and not realizing it until you have someone in your office who CAN do the work.
Question: I’m not sure how far ahead these things are talked about, but are there any big plans for Quicksilver beyond Blood Hunt? It is of course his 60th anniversary this year along with his sister’s, but while Wanda has a new ongoing set to kick off in June, Quicksilver will only have the three Avengers Blood Hunt tie-ins he will guest-star in (as far as we know). I know the Avengers will no longer be your responsibility, but are you privy to anything exciting coming his way (I don’t expect details of course).
P.S. thank you for this amazing and insightful (and free!) weekly newsletter!
I have to say, I love that ADVENTURE 200 cover. The two in the pith helmets are clearly there to spout off pointless dialogue reinforcing what we can already see -- "Look, Miscolored Lana! Superboy is swinging on those vines like the other apes!" "It's almost as if he's become...a Superboy of the apes, Professor Dad! But why??" -- but either someone forgot or thought better of it, so they're just standing there, silently gobsmacked by the tableau before them. It's more arresting than word balloons would be, really.
Hi Tom,
I'm happy I got your first-edited X-book correctly! *collects his No-Prize*
You mentioned before you might ship more than 12 issues a month of some of the new X-books - is that still in the cards? And if so, are you looking to do it regularly or more on an ad-hoc basis?
WINGDINGS: First, I didn't know symbols like $#!+ used in place of swearing were called "Wingdings!" That was worth the price of admission all by itself this week. Second, I've never liked Wingdings. They pull me right out of any story, every time. At the same time, I understand the desire/need to make mainstream comics like Marvel and DC's as accessible as possible, and how that conflicts with some modern storytelling sensibilities. Like swearing.
In my own case, when writing my creator-owned comic IMPOSSIBLE JONES, I knew she would swear from time to time. Because that's who she is. But my personal sensibilities and preferences meant I didn't want her (or anyone else) to REALLY swear in the stories, yet did NOT want to use those damn (pardon my French) Wingdings!
My answer: I REDACT the swear words. Other's milage may vary, but I find that a LOT less distracting than Wingdings. Also, since you still see bits of the letters above and below the black band, it's a bit of a wink at the audience— "we both know what she's saying, right?"— which fits the tone of the IMP series perfectly.
And I will tell you, NOTHING makes my 11-year-old son feel smarter than when he "figures out" what the redacted swear is. He loves being "in" on the joke, being adult enough to "get it." And any time you can make your readers feel smart, that's a good thing!