Comics tend to relaunch and start with new #1s a lot. Under your leadership, if a book needs to change writers for a reason, will you keep the series going or restart with a brand new #1?
What are your thoughts on the characters Cloak and Dagger? Also where do you think things stand in regard to their mutant status? Writers have gone back and forth for years now, and I for one really like them both as street heroes and X-Men, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
This may fall into the wait and see category, but will Gerry Duggan be staying on Iron Man? I’m not a big Tony Stark fan but I’ve really enjoyed what he’s done with the book and how he has tied it to the Fall of X storyline and would love to see where he might take it next.
My thanks to you as always, Tom. My latest question for you: Dan Buckley recently gave an interview to ICv2 where he mentioned Marvel's recent pivot toward greenlighting some new series for 10 issue runs, rather than the 4 or 5 that had increasingly become the industry standard. Now, the X-Men office is no doubt more stable (and less prone to early cancellations) than other groups, but even so: how does a move like that change your approach as an editor toward the types of books you move ahead with, and the way you ask writers to approach their story proposals for them?
I asked this in another place so maybe this is the right place. You've written about your fondness for the Elliott S! Maggin and Cary Bates era of Superman, but I couldn't find where you'd written about the Last Son of Kryoton or Miracle Monday novels that Elliott wrote. If you haven't, any quick thoughts?
I wonder if the particular structure of a serial makes it easier or harder to hit those "4 C's"-- not only if "writing for the trade" back in the 00s made it harder, but also if Marvel's ongoing-that-is-functionally-a-4-issue-miniseries model of comic makes it harder today. In television, we've seen far fewer shows that can manage satisfying individual episodes as the episode count in a season has gone down; Buffy or the X-Files could tell a big sweeping seasonal story while still consistently hitting those 4 C's every 44 minutes, but most streaming shows are structured a lot more like a movie stretched out over 8-12 hours. It feels telling, for example, that North's true ongoing is able to more consistently arrive at a satisfying individual issue than a lot of the series you see across the Big Two today.
Maybe the recently reported shift at marvel from ongoings-that-are-functionally-4-issue-miniseries to ongoings-that-are-functionally-10-issue-miniseries will bring greater consistency?
Some group artistic endeavors result in a wonderful experience but so-so art, while others are horrendous experiences that produce magnificent art. Have any stories about either of those sorts of projects?
I generally do not take complaints that "comics are so complicated" too seriously, but this Red Band thing is a real head-scratcher. Are Red Band issues meant to be in a separate universe? All of them in a single one, or a new universe each issue? What happens in the non-existent Red Band analogue of the latest Dr. Strange issue, does the body just reassemble itself, or does Stephen only use his upper half? Are we meant to just infer the answer to the previous question? Is "reading the Red Band version, then reading the tie-ins (but not reading the main version)" even considered a valid way to follow the event? Was there no simpler way to make gore fans happy?
A fun feature would be your thoughts on past events/crossovers that you helped oversee (Secret Invasion, Civil war, etc) - what worked, what did not, what is a perennial now with some hindsight.
I was rereading Fear Itself and some of the tie in minis - I know at the time it was not well received (even by me as I was loving everything Marvel put out at the time and found it lacked something special compared to comics of the last few years- but I find it enjoyable now. And I really liked the wolverine mini of all things (die hard on a helicarrier!!). Maybe it got drowned out in a sea of great comics (Winter soldier, Civil war, etc) - good problem to have I guess!
It's funny how some stories removed from the weight of expectations (especially compared to other popular stories like civil war or Siege) age better than we thought (happens to me on second or third viewings of some movies after my high expectations/excitement abates a bit).
Chronologically or jump around (maybe start with Fear Itself?) - would be fun if you are so inclined Tom.
Is the FCBD X-Men story indicative of the tone the book will be using when it debuts? I'll be buying pretty much everything announced (except Wolverine. Wolverine solo books have never connected with me) so I'm not asking because I see anything wrong with it. I'm just curious. I'm also wondering if Greg Land is still working for Marvel because I would love more Land X-men.
Oh, and Timeless having three number ones just means there were three volumes, right?
Comics tend to relaunch and start with new #1s a lot. Under your leadership, if a book needs to change writers for a reason, will you keep the series going or restart with a brand new #1?
I hate this practice so much.
Goodness- the FF are in trouble now!
What are your thoughts on the characters Cloak and Dagger? Also where do you think things stand in regard to their mutant status? Writers have gone back and forth for years now, and I for one really like them both as street heroes and X-Men, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
This may fall into the wait and see category, but will Gerry Duggan be staying on Iron Man? I’m not a big Tony Stark fan but I’ve really enjoyed what he’s done with the book and how he has tied it to the Fall of X storyline and would love to see where he might take it next.
What’s your absolute favorite season of The Simpsons (if you could bring only one on a deserted Island) ?
Was the Unworthy Thor mini series always meant to be a limited series rather than an ongoing ?
My thanks to you as always, Tom. My latest question for you: Dan Buckley recently gave an interview to ICv2 where he mentioned Marvel's recent pivot toward greenlighting some new series for 10 issue runs, rather than the 4 or 5 that had increasingly become the industry standard. Now, the X-Men office is no doubt more stable (and less prone to early cancellations) than other groups, but even so: how does a move like that change your approach as an editor toward the types of books you move ahead with, and the way you ask writers to approach their story proposals for them?
There have been many many Marvel prose novels over the years. Any of them worth reading?
I asked this in another place so maybe this is the right place. You've written about your fondness for the Elliott S! Maggin and Cary Bates era of Superman, but I couldn't find where you'd written about the Last Son of Kryoton or Miracle Monday novels that Elliott wrote. If you haven't, any quick thoughts?
I wonder if the particular structure of a serial makes it easier or harder to hit those "4 C's"-- not only if "writing for the trade" back in the 00s made it harder, but also if Marvel's ongoing-that-is-functionally-a-4-issue-miniseries model of comic makes it harder today. In television, we've seen far fewer shows that can manage satisfying individual episodes as the episode count in a season has gone down; Buffy or the X-Files could tell a big sweeping seasonal story while still consistently hitting those 4 C's every 44 minutes, but most streaming shows are structured a lot more like a movie stretched out over 8-12 hours. It feels telling, for example, that North's true ongoing is able to more consistently arrive at a satisfying individual issue than a lot of the series you see across the Big Two today.
Maybe the recently reported shift at marvel from ongoings-that-are-functionally-4-issue-miniseries to ongoings-that-are-functionally-10-issue-miniseries will bring greater consistency?
Some group artistic endeavors result in a wonderful experience but so-so art, while others are horrendous experiences that produce magnificent art. Have any stories about either of those sorts of projects?
To Zach Rabiroff's: Shorter stories with fewer crossovers would be the greatest thing you could bring to the X-Books.
I generally do not take complaints that "comics are so complicated" too seriously, but this Red Band thing is a real head-scratcher. Are Red Band issues meant to be in a separate universe? All of them in a single one, or a new universe each issue? What happens in the non-existent Red Band analogue of the latest Dr. Strange issue, does the body just reassemble itself, or does Stephen only use his upper half? Are we meant to just infer the answer to the previous question? Is "reading the Red Band version, then reading the tie-ins (but not reading the main version)" even considered a valid way to follow the event? Was there no simpler way to make gore fans happy?
A fun feature would be your thoughts on past events/crossovers that you helped oversee (Secret Invasion, Civil war, etc) - what worked, what did not, what is a perennial now with some hindsight.
I was rereading Fear Itself and some of the tie in minis - I know at the time it was not well received (even by me as I was loving everything Marvel put out at the time and found it lacked something special compared to comics of the last few years- but I find it enjoyable now. And I really liked the wolverine mini of all things (die hard on a helicarrier!!). Maybe it got drowned out in a sea of great comics (Winter soldier, Civil war, etc) - good problem to have I guess!
It's funny how some stories removed from the weight of expectations (especially compared to other popular stories like civil war or Siege) age better than we thought (happens to me on second or third viewings of some movies after my high expectations/excitement abates a bit).
Chronologically or jump around (maybe start with Fear Itself?) - would be fun if you are so inclined Tom.
Glad to know that iceman & monet are gonna be in some book, looking forward to knowing which one it is
Is the FCBD X-Men story indicative of the tone the book will be using when it debuts? I'll be buying pretty much everything announced (except Wolverine. Wolverine solo books have never connected with me) so I'm not asking because I see anything wrong with it. I'm just curious. I'm also wondering if Greg Land is still working for Marvel because I would love more Land X-men.
Oh, and Timeless having three number ones just means there were three volumes, right?