#113: A Monster Went And Ate My Red 2

It’s a week of many questions, far more than usual. I expect that as we get to the assorted X-Titles coming out that this situation is going to increase steadily. So once again, a comment before we start: if questions came down to either what’s going to happen or to something that I can’t speak about for one reason or another, I simply skipped past them. Doesn’t mean I didn’t see them, doesn’t mean that I have any particular feeling towards anybody who might be asking them. But if the answer is “wait and see” or there’s some ongoing situation that prevents me from getting into some point or other, I find that it’s best to just say that up here at the start rather than repeat it again and again. Thanks for your understanding.

So here we go!

Jeff Ryan

I've been revisiting the Superman Triangle era of the 1990s, where for a decade the DC Superman editing office offered up essentially weekly Superman comics with ongoing narratives and multipart stories. DC then famously had three full-on weekly comics in 52, Countdown, and Trinity, the last of which had the same creative team! For your money what's the most impressive of editorial feat that the Distinguished Competition did?

Oh, I don’t know, Jeff. But certainly, the projects that you mention would have all been hard to pull off and should be admired simply for their difficulty. But I suspect that I would look in a different direction: for my money SUPERMAN #400 is both the greatest single issue of that title ever assembled and also an unmatchable collection of creators working on one single comic book. It’s a high bar set by Julie Schwartz, one that I compete against constantly in all of the specials and anniversaries that I put together, but which I have never cleared.

Martin

Would really love stronger writers on these books. The writers for Storm and Wolverine aren't writers who should be writing your top 2 characters.

Readers like myself would rather read books by good writers

You’re entitled to your opinion, Martin, but I can’t say that I agree with you. Which ought to be obvious, as I hired the writers in question. But as in all cases, if what we’re putting out doesn’t appeal to you, you’re under no obligation to read it. and fortunately, there are a million other comics being released every month that may be more in line with what you’re looking for.

Zack J

Tom, not to be rude but that's just simply not true.

Jean was married to Scott (Hickman & Duggan's X-Men) and at minimum in a sexual relationship with Wolverine (X-Force, X Lives of Wolverine). Additionally Scott was romantically entangled with Emma (Cable, Duggan's X-Men) at the same time.

I get that the line moved away from this and focused on more "normal" pairings and relationships but I would hope you would trust your audience to understand what is happening on that page.

If anything wound up X-Fandom last week, Zack, it was my comments about this situation. And I had a couple people come back and show me assorted pages and moments from the X-Books to support their position that such a “thruple” relationship was in force between Cyclops, Jean Grey and Wolverine. And you’re entitled to read anything the way you want to, of course. But speaking of just the letter of what is on the page, rather than the spirit, I’m still unconvinced that there’s enough evidence to support this position within the stories themselves. And most of those examples came from very early in the Krakoa era, and haven’t been reflected in more recent times, not that I was shown, anyway. So I’m not saying that it didn’t happen—everybody gets to have their own head canon about whatever they like. But I do still hold to my original thesis, which is that while Jonathan may have cheekily made a reference or two to such a situation in interviews, there isn’t a whole lot to support it as a thing within the stories themselves. Your mileage may vary.

Zach Rabiroff

Sean Howe, in his history of Marvel, related that one of Bob Harras's dissatisfactions with Chris Claremont was the writer's proclivity for filling X-Men comics with "stories about aliens and magic." The particular players here notwithstanding, this is a question that X-Men fans tend to debate to this day: how much should a "proper" X-Men story concern itself with mutant-themed, largely earthbound issues? And, conversely, how far can a story stray into the realms of Shi'ar, Limbo, or, indeed, Krakoa before it goes too far afield for the franchise?

The line you're editing, as we've seen, contains a wide array of different X-Men flavors. But is there a line for you where a story goes *too* far to be plausible or acceptable as X-Men material? Is there a core theme that, in some way or another, you like to see an X-Men book contain?

Like with almost anything, Zach, I think you can range far and wide in your story material assuming that what you’re doing actually works. But I also think that you need to “tag up” on your core themes and central identity with a certain amount of regularity as well. To put this in terms of an easier example, Thor: you can spend a whole bunch of time with Thor in Asgard fighting the Trolls or other mythologically-based menaces, and you can send him into space for extended periods, hanging around with the Recorder and exploring the Black Galaxy of Ego. But every so often, you need to bring him back to Earth and have him face down the Absorbing Man or the Wrecking Crew, or you lose the viability of the strip. For X-Men, it’s all about the central mutant metaphor to me. And that metaphor works best when it’s contrasted with regular people in the real world. So, sure, you can have an adventure in the Shi’ar Empire or head off to Limbo for an extended fight. But eventually, you need to come back home to a world that hates and fears you, or else you aren’t really delivering on the premise of the series.

Manqueman

I might be about to lick the third rail, but where’s Jordan White going?

Jordan’s going to be editing the symbiote books such as VENOM and also INCREDIBLE HULK, among other things. If anything, he’s going to be busier than ever.

Callie

Well, Tom, I'm just here to eat crow. You've assembled a very diverse x-office, good job. Still feel like the teams could use a bit more diversity but my previous statement was definitely extremely premature and shortsighted

Appreciate you saying so, Callie, but that really wasn’t necessary. And hopefully you’ll be even more enthusiastic once you read the books themselves. Happy to have you on board.

Levi

Tom, as the editor of a book and a line of books, is your responsibility solely to those books? Or does the good of the Marvel Universe overall also need to factored in? Or would you say that’s more for CB Cebulski and Dan Buckley (or whoever else I may not be aware of) to determine over you?

As an example, you and Dan Slott made the determination that it would be best for the Fantastic Four book if Franklin Richards was no longer a mutant. Any arguments to the contrary aside, let’s just say that you were right and it was for the best for Fantastic Four.

But that choice arguably benefiting one book forever severs a tie between that book and an entire line of books. It wipes away a key connective tissue between two franchises that the shared Marvel Universe concept is built on. It works to make the MU a smaller place rather than a larger place.

Do you view that as not your issue as the then-Fantastic Four editor? Your only responsibility being to what you believe is best for that one book?

Given my position, Levi, I take everything into consideration when making a choice like this. But ultimately, a Fantastic Four character needs to be in the best position to do the business of Fantastic Four, rather than the business of some other franchise. I don’t intend to litigate this decision, but let me just point out the fact that, for the first decade-plus of his existence, Franklin wasn’t a mutant at all. It was very clear that his powers were the outgrowth of his parents’ exposure to cosmic rays and the energies pulled from Annihilus’ Cosmic Control Rod that were used to stabilize his mother’s pregnancy and allow for him to be born. It wasn’t until Chris and John did Days of Future Past that anybody started thinking about Franklin as a mutant (and that story itself doesn’t even overtly come out and say that he is one.) But also, due to its popularity, X-MEN as a franchise has had a habit of eating other properties whole cloth. A lot of that came down to Chris wanting to play with whatever cool new stuff caught his fancy, as well as never truly abandoning any character that he had written before. So consequently, series such as LONGSHOT or CAPTAIN BRITAIN were completely subsumed into X-MEN. I don’t really think that’s healthy for the line either in the long run.

X of Alex

The talk of Fear Itself brought about a memory about a different crossover--Bendis/Marquez's CIVIL WAR II.

I've long wondered what the 'Chicken and Egg' was behind that effort. Was the title decided on first, and then a story conceived to justify it? Or was a story pitting Iron Man vs Captain Marvel thought up first, and the title attached to it because it thematically fit?

Also, has a CIVIL WAR III (current Wolverine/Deadpool effort notwithstanding) been pitched at Marvel anytime after 2016?

I believe that, realizing that the CIVIL WAR movie was going to be getting a whole lot of promotion at around that time, we started with the idea of doing a CIVIL WAR II, and put that question to Brian to come up with a response to, Alex. But I also don’t think that all of the parties involved were aligned on the story or the goals as we typically are, and as a result that story came apart a little bit at the end. It certainly dinged INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, where Brian and David had set up shop. David switching over to CIVIL WAR II was a reasonable move, but it created a visual inconsistency in IRON MAN that I don’t think the book ever truly recovered from. But I may just like those early Bendis/Marquez issues too much.

Shaun

The aspects of the Krakoa Era that appealed to me the most was the focus on Mutant politics, Mutant philosophy and the goal of trying to build something new. Are there any books in the new line that will have these as a focus?

A related question: Will the Krakoan language, that was created by Cypher and implanted in every mutant's mind, still be a part of mutant culture going forward?

I think you’ll find those themes coming up in a lot of different titles in different ways, Shaun. But possibly the most overtly in NYX, in which Prodigy is teaching a college course on that subject. And while we likely won’t use it as often as was done during the Krakoa era, the Krakoa alphabet still remains a thing, and it will be used whenever relevant.

Nacho Teso

I have a question about this. Storm was not a part of New X-Men. Storm was not a part of Astonishing X-Men. When Schism happened, Wolverine & Cyclops were the two leaders. Storm was not an important part of the Marvel Now series, even if she was headmaster. She took a step back during the X-Men: Gold series, Kate was the leader back then. And, yes, she's been important in Krakoa, but I would argue she hasn't exactly been at the forefront.

What I mean by all this is that I feel that she just hasn't been there when it might have actually helped to elevate her character. And now, when we are about to have a new era, new spotlights... I get the solo series, I get her being in the Avengers. Those make sense. What I don't get is how she being out of the three core titles of the line help her. Imagine if in 20 years we are talking about From The Ashes era in the same vein as we do the New X-men era or the Krakoa era. And, once again, she is not are the forefront. She is not in The Moments, in The Stories. Isn't that a missed opportunity? If the plan is the give her more strength as a character, shouldn't one of the books be build so she can have that spotlight in her home book and franchise.

What you’re really talking about here is making different choices, Nacho. And that’s fair. But those aren’t the choices that I made. Because the ultimate goal for me is to make X-Men the predominant line in comics once again. So it’s not just about Storm, it’s about everything. Which is why no one particular piece is more important than the whole. I think we’ve got a really good plan for Storm, and I think that having a core, mainstay mutant on the Avengers and interacting with the rest of the Marvel Universe on that level, shoulder to shoulder with the icons of the line, sends a very strong message. We didn’t get to do this right a decade-plus ago when we momentarily brought Storm onto the team just before AvX happened. It was a missed opportunity. But this time, we aren’t going to miss. And like you say, this is far from teh first time that Storm hasn’t been in a central X-Book. The difference in this instance is that she’ll have her own book and be appearing regularly somewhere else.

Iioo

I get that not using a #1 for a new run is self-defeating. Do you have any idea what could be the reason that Distinguished Competition decided to start their latest Batman run at #125 - with numbering from 2016, while casually relaunching Superman and Wonder Woman? I get that you can't know the reason, and might not want to share your opinions of the competitors. Just asking if you *have any* ideas, as I do not get it at all.

Who truly understand the working of the criminal mind, Iioo? I couldn’t really begin to speculate on why DC does a lot of the things that it does. I do know that there are always vocal fans and retailers who campaign maintaining the legacy numbering, usually from a nostalgia standpoint. That’s affected us occasionally, but in those instances, the truth of the situation became readily apparent very quickly. You can’t run your business based on what people say, you need to follow what they do.

Cian McDarby

We’ve seen a lot of skepticism and what can best be called defeatism, even in those excited, for this upcoming relaunch. We’ve seen it a lot in this week’s newsletter. Why do you think that is? Recent early cancellations? A history of short lived X-Solos? People just getting themselves excited? Some other thing I haven’t even thought of?

I think some of it is just the world, Cian. It’s easy to be cynical. I can also see people not wanting to get their hopes up in case those hopes wind up dashed to the curb. But especially if you go online, in almost any situation that defeatist point of view will be in evidence in force. Best thing to do is just pay it no mind and keep working on making excellent books.

Mark Coale

Anything classic from the Marvel Vault you'd still love to see reprinted after all this time?

It’s getting harder and harder to find stuff like that, Mark. Especially now that even things like the back half of the 1950s run of VENUS are getting collected. But I suppose the big answer here is likely those properties that Marvel no longer has the rights to. Stuff like Jack Kirby’s 2001; A SPACE ODYSSEY. But even there, we’ve just released Omnibuses dedicated to ROM and MICRONAUTS, with a GODZILLA volume on the way. So even that material doesn’t seem quite so unreachable at this point.

Michael Perlman

I am about to start a new job with a long commute - 90 minute drive each way. I recall that you mentioned that you have a bit of a commute from your home to the Marvel offices, mostly by train. I am not sure of the length, but I assume it not short. What do you do on your commute - work, read, listen to podcasts or audiobooks, watch shows, some combination of the above, something else? Are there any specific recommendations you can make for me to occupy this time?

I was also a fan of the 2017 Bendis/Marquez “street-level” run that I would guess was launched in parallel/response to the Netflix series. Do you have the same feeling on this run - that its formula was flawed? Can you elaborate on its flaw?

I spend a good portion of my commute every day hypersleeping, Michael. It’s just about the only way that I can get enough rest during the week to function. But I’ll also tend to check in on social media during parts of that commute, especially on the trip home. And I thought that the idea of transitioning the name DEFENDERS over to the Daredevil-led street heroes made a lot of sense and wasn’t as fundamentally flawed as a concept. But in this instance, nostalgia and memory for what had been proved to have an inescapable gravitic pull. I suspect that if the NETFLIX show had gone over better, it would have been easier to make that switch stick, especially over time. But that isn’t the way it went.

Han

Tom, fans don't want the marriage of Scott and Jean. The vast majority of fans want her away of Scott. I hate the way that Scott was out of character in krakoa sharin his wife with his rival. And the way that she was with Scot and Logan and the same time. this writing is embarrassing for any woman.

I tell you, Han, I’m always skeptical when anybody tells me that the “vast majority of fans” wants. Because I don’t know that anybody is in a better vantage point to be able to determine that than we are. I will absolutely concede that some fans feel as you say, and they may be all of the fans in your immediate circle, certainly. But that isn’t all fans, not even close. So I appreciate your point of view, but I’m still going to have my guys tell the stories that they want to tell.

Alison Cabot

is there a chance that Emma could get a new solo series in this new phase of the X-Men?

There’s always a chance, Alison.

JV

With the T-bolts movie coming out next year - will we see the return of the Thunderbolts at Marvel?

I think that’s likely, at least in some respect, JV.

Clive Reston

Jean's relationship with both Scott and Logan was very much on the page in Krakoan-era comics as published: the diagram of the Summer House in X-Men #1, Logan and Jean's scene in X-Force #10 (there's also a flashback to it in the recent Wolverine #48), Jean's "I loved you" farewells to both of them in the 2023 Hellfire Gala, etc. (Now, Scott and Logan's relationship was much more subtext... but X-Men also has a long and lovely history of not explicitly contradicting or waving away the subtexts that its readers find in it!)

As I was saying to Zach above, Clive, I don’t know that a house diagram really gives you much of anything here, nor Jean saying heartfelt farewells to both men upon her impending demise. So, sure, there’s still that “hot tub” scene in X-FORCE #10, but that’s one scene in five years. Again, I don’t want to litigate matters here, but that’s hardly a definitive and unassailable batch of evidence—especially when you consider how many years we’re talking about here.

Rob Secundus

when the primary sales pitch of Content/ Product is nostalgia, what are some other things you consider when putting together a book/ line? Logos and Branding, you've already noted, are very important, and I imagine creative teams as well (making sure to pull at least one old head in to signify some connection with a previous era of comics). What else?

(Also, given that the most successful thing in any medium marvel has produced in a long time is the nostalgia sequel cartoon-- do you think superhero comics in general need to focus more on nostalgia? And if so, whose nostalgia is most important/ lucrative at this point in time-- middle-aged men who fondly remember the 90s? 80s? 70s?)

I think that the primary sales pitch of our product is relatively seldom just nostalgia, Rob, though we will do the occasional project with that notion in mind. And to get to your second question first, I don’t think that a focus on more nostalgia is the key to anything. If X-MEN ‘97 worked, it worked because it was an effective version of the X-Men for a contemporary audience, and not only an audience who had grown up watching the old show. So nostalgia is a part of the pull, but execution is always going to be a greater element.

Mark

'90's comics' were a punchline for a while but there seems to be something of a renaissance going on lately with a handful of indie books that harken back to the era as well as the continuing line of 'retro pick' minis from Marvel. I'm sure that a lot of this is driven by the nature of the customer base, but the huge commercial success of the late 80s/early 90s also means that those books had something going on. I know that a lot of the later big numbers were juiced by pumping on the 'collectable' peddle but I remember there being a lot of organic growth in the likes of Lee's Uncanny X Men, McFarlane's Amazing and even Liefeld's New Mutants first.

So, what do you think the creative factors were that drove the sales boom back in those days and what lessons do you think could be applied to boost the sales of today's Marvel books?

Nostalgia seems to be something of a theme this week, Mark. And I think some of what’s driving interest in all of these projects is the age of a good portion of the fan base, though that alone isn’t enough to make a throwback project a hit, it’s still about the execution. But certainly there was a lot of excitement in the 1990s, especially in the early part of the decade. And it mostly centered around big and explosive artwork—not just that of the creators who would go off to form Image, but also the ones that replaced them on their assorted assignments. We haven’t really seen a flight of new and super-popular artists enter the field in that way since that time. One of the questions we’re constantly asking ourselves is who the new hot artists are and which upcoming artists might be able to break out in a similar fashion. But there was just a nice zeitgeist of elements in that period that brought forth McFarlane, Lee, Liefeld and so forth at the exact same time. Comics are visual and exciting graphics matter.

Sean Stoltey

Simply want to retract my comment about post-Siege Bendis Avengers from a couple weeks ago. Having just read through the portion between Siege and Fear Itself, I'm struck at how strong the books are. They are standing on their own and I'm enjoying the fact that they are not hurtling toward the next event but simply telling good stories. A reminder of why Brian's run brought me back to Avengers and kept me there.

Glad to hear that you’ve been enjoying them on a reread, Sean!

Caleb Wong

May I know how long it takes a create an X-Men book run? For example, Jed's X-Men, Gail's Uncanny X-Men and Eve's Exceptional X-Men were all announced at the same time but each of them was released in different months. From pitching the script to the artist drawing the interior arts, they won't work in the same amount of time and months.

Well, they all kind of will, Caleb. After all, I didn’t hire them all on the same day, nor did they all start working in unison. We did have the fortune of an exceptionally long lead time to get our ducks in a row and to line up our creators and our storylines, so that was advantageous. But we don’t make the individual issues any faster or slower, really, than any other books in our line.

Sosa

I have two Krakoa related questions assuming you're not sick of those yet.

1. The aspect of Krakoa I connected with the most was the comeraderie and rehabilitation of several of the villains (Blob, Greycrow, etc) I'm a middle school teacher and the escapism of a group of people working together and getting along was very.... healing. Will any of those rehabilitations stick, do you think?

-Man, they worked so hard for Krakoa! To see it amount to nothing feels ...empty.

2. In Way of X, we get introduced to all of the orphans (of X) that Stacy X has decided to take care of (x?) They get quickly forgotten about after the Gala, have they been forgotten about by the X-Office as well? Speaking of babies: Jubilee's baby! What happened to Shogo!?

1. Some of them will, certainly, Sosa. And even if they don’t entirely, those experiences will inform the interactions of the characters involved. In all honesty, one of the more difficult things about transitioning away from the Krakoa era is just how many characters that previously would have been considered villains are now just neighbors. Makes it hard to find ways to create physical conflicts between characters in the manner they may have done pre-Krakoa. But as much as anything, that’s why you’ll see a bevy of new villains showing up as well.

2. This one’s all a Wait and See question, I’m afraid, so nothing much I can say here. it’s probably not a question that we’re going to get around to answering incredibly swiftly in our new era, I’m afraid. Too much other material to deal with first.

Julian Eme

I'm very interested in knowing what Jonathan Hickman's plan for Secret Wars originally looked like, before it became the culmination of his Avengers run. Did it change from what we ended up reading? Was there ever a comment on the similarity with Crisis on Infinite Earths, in terms of the destruction of the alternative earths and leaving only one? And from an editor's point of view, how does that idea translate into two Avengers series?

There wasn’t really much of a plan at that point, Julian, outside of what may have been in Jonathan’s head. He had an idea for a series that he pitched me called SECRET WARS, which would have looked a whole lot like what NEW AVENGERS was, dealing with the incursions of parallel worlds and culminating in some manner of finale way down the line that was similar to what he eventually did. But it would have grown out of FANTASTIC FOUR rather than AVENGERS, the book that Jonathan was writing at the time. So some of the characters and situations would have been different. But we didn’t get much beyond that before AVENGERS opened up and Jonathan decided to shift the material over to the new title(s). And I don’t really think that it shares all that much in common with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS apart from maybe its scale.

yoyo

I have a 4 part question

Firstly are all the intimate scenes of jean and logan in x-force #10 and more recently in wolverine #48 not considered canon now , meaning scott and jean were always a monogamous married couple and jean was never with logan or even dating him?

Secondly if they are retconned does this means all the jean/logan scenes in x-force are not reality but maybe sometype of illusion on logan while on krakoa to make him stay on the island longer?

Thirdly when jean said "I love you" to both scott and logan do they have different meaning one is romantic and the second just as a friend?

Fourth based on your comic book knowledge now that storm is an avenger who is better at lightning storm or thor?

You guys are really hung up on this, eh, Yoyo? Lots of questions about it this week. But I don’t know why you’d think that anything is being made non-canonical. If anything, I think what I was saying is that there’s precious little that’s there on the page and canonical in the first place. But any of this will be addressed in the pages of the stories—my answers here are no more canonical than Jonathan’s in his interviews or whatever. To your last question, what does “better at lightning “ even entail?

Kells

The Storm announcement was amazing! I love her new design, and was happy to see the turnaround for it from the designer. Would it be possible to have similar turnarounds for other books (assuming they exist)? I'm very interested in Rachel Summers new outfit in particular, I think it looks really great but would love to see a clearer angle of it. I would have asked for Betsy's too but the amazing cover for X-Force #2 shows it pretty well.

Is the second wave going to be as large as the first wave? I'd definitely understand it being a bit smaller, but my curiosity is piqued with the announcement of the Dazzler mini. Are there a lot more minis on the way for solo outings?

We didn’t do turn-arounds for absolutely every character, Kells. And we may have reasons for holding back on certain design sheets. But you’ll get to see all of the costumes in their full glory in a relatively short time. And the second wave of titles won’t be as large as the first wave. It was mainly developed to have bullets in the chamber for when different titles ran their course, so that we always have at least one new X-Line #1 coming out every month, some new hotness to promote. So we won’t be asking you to buy a million titles, it’s designed more like a carousel, with new projects replacing books as they hit their completion points. And yes, there’ll be limited series as well as ongoings. Not everything can or should be an ongoing.

Han

I have a question after seeing the cover of Phoenix 2: Why do Summer's family interact more with other character than with Scott. Scott's father has interacted with Rogue and Gambit and now with Phoenix. But there is a lack of interaction of Cyclops’ family with him. His family should enrich the background of , not to enrich other characters. Cyclops has lost his family: son, father, brothers, and even his best romantic relationship. I don't remember the last time when Scott has a great interaction with his son: Nathan, he is in the same era as his brothers and there is a shortage interactions between the, I feel that there is a lack of interest of developing Scott's family connections.

You again?! I think the only answer I can give you to this one, Han, is that those are the stories that creators in the past wanted to tell and chose to focus on. And there are only so many pages every month to fit all of the stories into. But certainly, there have also been projects like the CYCLOPS series of several years ago that focused on Young Cyclops off in space with Corsair, right?

LE

Tom, whose idea was it to re-establish the idea that Jean is Phoenix?

This was something that the Krakoa-era team put forward, so I can’t say that I know for certain who or what combination might have come up with it. I could guess, but that’s all that it would be, a guess.

---

Behind the Curtain

I think it’s now been long enough where I can finally share this photograph of me back in the Marvel offices. I had to hold it back until everything that was up on the bulletin board had been announced, and I think that’s pretty much the case at this point. Anyway, that’s Assistant Editor Martin Biro’s desk in front of mine, and Associate Editor Annalise Bissa is positioned to the right of the picture-taker. This is where the X-MEN Rebuild is taking place.

---

Pimp My Wednesday

Hey, my very last AVENGERS issue comes out this week, at least for the moment. So let’s go and see!

As promised above, this week sees the completion of AVENGERS TWILIGHT by Chip Zdarsky and Daniel Acuna, with covers by Alex Ross. And I think the team really stuck the landing on this one. As a final statement on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, I’m quite happy with how it all came together. it’ll be a great collected edition as well, hopefully one that’ll have a long tail to it just as Chip’s previous SPIDER-MAN LIFE STORY did.

And Martin Biro has completed the NIGHT THRASHER limited series, written by J. Holtham and illustrated by Nelson Daniel. I don’t know that there’s a huge Night Thrasher fandom out there, but as a former NIGHT THRASHER and NEW WARRIORS editor, i was really pleased with how well this story honored the past while charting a new course for Dwayne Taylor into the future. It’s a fine job.

---

A Comic Book On Sale 25 Years Ago Today, May 26, 1999

A fondly remembered and often overlooked series, TELLOS by Todd Dezago and the late Mike Wieringo ran for ten issues back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. It was a bit ahead of its time as well, as it was a fantasy series done in a contemporary super hero style, the sort of thing that you see a lot of today but didn’t back then so much. Todd and Mike had established a creative partnership working together on SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN, where they found that the shared similar sensibilities as to the sorts of comics they enjoyed. Once their Spidey work had run its course for the moment, they set up TELLOS as a creator-owned series over at Image—though it became part of the ill-fated Gorilla Comics imprint that never entirely got off the ground part of the way through its run. Tellos wasn’t the name of a character, it was a name of the fantasy world in which the adventure takes place. It’s principle characters were Jarek, a young adventurer, and his tigerlike buddy Koj. A number of other characters spun through the narrative as it developed, principally the pirate Serra. It was a fun, heartfelt adventure series that included a hell of a big twist in its third act, one that recontextualized everything that came before it. And it allowed Wieringo to show off his love of animals in teh person of all of the assorted anthropomorphic creatures that Jarek and Roj encounter. The story came to a conclusion with its tenth issue, a satisfying conclusion, and with Mike’s death, follow-ups have been few and infrequent. This feels like a series that could find new life as a collected edition aimed at a middle school audience, a demographic that Wieringo and Dezago didn’t have easy access to at the time the work was done.

---

A Comic Book On Sale 20 Years Ago Today, May 26, 2004

it could only really be this one, couldn’t it? ASTONISHING X-MEN represented something of a cool hat trick on the part of Marvel EIC Joe Quesada. Joe was at a convention when he was approached by X-MEN writer Grant Morrison and informed that they were signing an exclusive agreement with DC, which meant that they would be leaving X-MEN. Grant’s run was popular and impactful, and Joe knew that replacing him was going to be a big job. And then, he happened to bump into Joss Whedon, who had been dabbing in comics a bit. Sensing an opportunity, Joe offered him X-MEN on the spot, and it didn’t take long to work out the particulars. Whedon’s biggest request was that John Cassady, who had been working on PLANETARY, be the artist. That was arranged, and the decision was cemented to launch the new team in a new title, ASTONISHING X-MEN. And it was a big deal all across its initial run. Whedon hadn’t yet fallen into disgrace for his actions behind the scenes on set, and he had been a huge X-Men fan growing up. He’d never been shy about admitting the impact that Kitty Pryde in particular had on his development of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Accordingly, where Grant’s run had been about blowing up the institutions of the X-Men and introducing new paradigms into their world, Joss and John’s was a callback to the team’s glory years of the past, with deliberate callbacks to old moments in the midst of entirely new adventures. Influenced by contemporary series such as THE AUTHORITY, the duo brought a cinematic approach to the series, allowing Cassaday’s visuals (as colored by Laura DePuy Martin) to take center stage. But Whedon’s characterization was rich and his dialogue crisp, and he had a bundle of good X-Men ideas: the lead-off one being one of the most memorable: a scientist claims that they have come up with a cure to mutantcy. It took a while for each issue to get done, though, and consequently, the other X-titles began to operate out of step with ASTONISHING by necessity. The entire HOUSE OF M crossover was conceived as a way of taking some of the pressure off of Whedon and Cassaday so that they could complete their run unbroken. And ultimately, they did so, and that investment was a sound one given how often the material has been reprinted in collected form since then. I do have to say, I’ve never been partial to this first issue cover, preferring the alternate image that showed the team racing forward that’s more often been used on the collected editions. This one’s always felt a bit sparse and lifeless to me, not giving me enough context so as to become interested in checking the book out. But it didn’t seem to hurt anything, so what do I know?

---

A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date

The GHOST RIDER POSTER MAGAZINE was released on May 26, 1992. It was one of a wide variety of almost random publications that I worked on in those early days when my primary responsibility was to the Special Projects Department and in particular the growing Marvel Trading Cards line. But I always wanted to get more experience in assembling print books, and there was a felling that every editor should be doing a bit of that, so I wound up doing a bunch of projects such as this one. THE GHOST RIDER POSTER MAGAZINE was what we called back then a “budget buster”, a cheap and easy-to-produce publication that would throw off some easy revenue and insure that we made our quarterly or yearly sales targets. At the end of each quarter and year, a bunch of these would typically be greenlit so as to make certain that we would achieve our financial goals. In this case, since the new Ghost Rider series had proven to be popular, by job was to source a bevy of images that could be printed as either full-page pin-ups or double spreads, then get them stripped of logos and copy and the art touched up as necessary before recoloring them and assembling them in this magazine package. There wasn’t any storytelling involved, it was all about strong, striking images. Usually, I’d get the money in the budget for one new piece as a bit of a sales draw, which was probably this cover, though I don’t remember that for certain. But the idea here was to deliver these books while spending as little money to do so. I did have fun sourcing the assorted images that we’d run in these books, attempting to pull them not just from the most current stories but also including some cool earlier images as well. So while most of this magazine featured art by Javier Saltares and Mark Texiera and at least one Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane piece each, I also included older cover images by Bob Budiansky and Jim Starlin to round out the package. But it was the contemporary artists that were selling the thing, of course. I’ve never heard from anybody who bought one of these in all the years since it was released, but as far as I can remember, it sold well enough to fulfill its mandate, and that’s what mattered.

---

The Deathlok Chronicles

A slight detour this time out. But first, some more words from DEATHLOK co-writer Gregory Wright, in which he gives away a bit of the plot:

Gregory Wright

You and I were of the exact same mindset. We hated to see Denys go, but the schedule and his unpredictable art styles and really difficult to decipher (at the time) breakdowns really pushed the limits. I not sure what could have been done differently other than a stern heart to hear with Denys about the expectations needed for his work and the schedule. But while that's easy to say...when you are talking about an artist as talented and respected as Denys...who had way more experience than any of us, and who was a genuinely great guy...that discussion is really hard to pull off. I'm not sure what I would have done differently either than not say anything until the last pages came in...but...and here's the kicker...the WORST thing that could have happened was that Denys would find out from someone ELSE. And that could have easily happened as well.

Though Mike was not in contention to take over, I really had no idea he felt he was next in line to take over and when we showed him the new artist pages...he was FURIOUS. And I got a real earful from him. And he was one of the reasons we needed to make a change because Mike had been doing finishes over some really hard to figure out layouts. The he saw the new pages he complained about how they were drawn and the storytelling and...he hated the art so much...combine with what he perceived to be a slight by not getting the book he vowed to quit the book. This was, for me, the signal that we had perhaps acted somewhat rashly. But...it was a decision that had to be made and at least at the time we were pretty excited about the new artist whose work you had found. Of course..now we had to find a new INKER as well...

It was a huge relief when Milestone was announced and we knew that Denys would be doing work he truly wanted to do and when those first issues came out I was absolutely astounded at just how fantastic those book were. And it looked to me that Denys was finally supremely happy with what he was drawing...same with Dwayne writing-wise.

Despite the anger I'm sure Denys felt, he did a wonderful job with the last issue he did, as did Mike. It was great to have Richard Starkings back to letter it as well!

At this point I was itching to get my next issues going...but I had to rethink the original story due to what occurred in the ;last four issues, plus I had to rethink it for a new artist...hoo boy...

DEATHLOK had been selling well enough in its first year that it was given an Annual that came out at around this time. And this one taught us a new lesson, although there was an earlier lesson that I just didn’t heed that was responsible for it. Because Dwayne was working on the main book, I handed the lead story in this Annual over to Greg to write, though I did get Dwayne to write the assorted back-ups and feature pages so that both authors would be represented in the issue.

The cover represents my first time working with Joe Quesada. Joe was just breaking into Marvel, he had been doing some work over in Don Daley’s PUNISHER office that I thought looked good. So I approached him to do this cover—and he turned me down flat. Fortunately for me, I was on good terms with Joe’s inker and partner Jimmy Palmiotti. He was inking the lead story, and having become aware of what had happened, Jim came to me and told me that he’d get Joe to do the cover—and he was as good as his word. I remember the sketch for this cover being tiny, like a postage stamp, but the graphic quality of it was really powerful. Joe told me decades later that he wasn’t happy with the way that it was colored. Which is his right, of course, but I to this day think it doesn’t look bad. Don’t know exactly what he had in mind, though. That little piece of the gun that overlaps the top banner bothers my eye today, though. Should’ve cropped that.

The lead story was a time travel adventure in which Greg introduced a new villain who would wind up becoming a regular player in the series, Timestream. But in choosing to make him distinctive, Greg gave him a Latin speech pattern where his verbs were in the wrong place. This seemed like a fun idea for a one-shot character, but it became irritating when he began to later turn up regularly. Oops.

But the big thing here was that, once again, like a dog with a bone, having a nice, long lead time, I reached out and hired Butch Guice to pencil this Annual . Clearly, I had learned nothing from my earlier experience with the cover to #8. Or maybe I figured that, since Denys was on his way out, it didn’t matter either way. In any case, still something of a dick move on my part. And we paid for it, in the end. You see, the story was written classic Marvel style, which is to say plot-art-script. So Butch sent in his first batch of pages, and they were something like Pages 1, 7, 9, 15 and 22. And they all looked great. As time went on, the intervening pages all started to get filled in—and Greg and I found that we had a problem. See, Butch had drawn all of the stuff that he was most enthused about first, without really pacing out the story. So by the time the final pages came in and we could see the whole job front to back, it was clear that something like 1/3 of the plot was missing, simply not drawn. And there wasn’t really enough time to get it all redone. So Greg had to make the best of a bad situation and try to cover the gaps in copy, which was awkward at best. And of course, the art looked great, but anybody who complained about the story would attribute its failings to Greg rather than Butch—the deadly other edge of the strengths of the Marvel approach to making comics.

On the other hand, Denys drew an 8-page story for this Annual that was maybe the best thing he ever did on DEATHLOK. He inked as well as penciled it, and it showed off his new Frank Miller-influenced style to great effect. It was a fun bit of fluff written by Dwayne in which Deathlok is taken to his son’s school as a show and tell subject. This allowed us to establish a bunch of stuff about how the character’s cyborg body worked that had been figured out for the pitch but which hadn’t made it into the series yet. And it was darkly funny. Mike Manley also wound up drawing a feature section in this issue, so it’s really the last time the entire original DEATHLOK crew was together on a single issue. From here, though, things fell apart quickly.

---

Monofocus

This week’s book of choice has been OPPOSABLE THUMBS: HOW SISKEL & EBERT CHANGED MOVIES by Matt Singer, an overview of the history of teh entwined careers of the two movie reviewers. I used to watch SNEAK PREVIEWS on PBS religiously back in the early 1980s, so I’m finding this a fascinating read—especially in just how deeply Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert really disliked one another during the entire production of their joint shows. You always got that sense, but it also tended to play a bit like an Abbott & Costello routine rather than anything genuine. growing up, my tastes were definitely more aligned with Ebert, enough so that his recommendation could make a difference as to whether I’d see a given film or not. It also led me down a rabbit hole to look at some of their earliest programs, from when the series debuted as OPENING SOON…AT A THEATER NEAR YOU. Here's the very first episode in case you’re interested in watching the car wreck. They really aren’t very good yet—which makes it all the more astonishing just how polished they eventually became.

In the world of comics, I greatly enjoyed Kyle Starks’ new book KARATE PROM, which is just what it says in the title. I’ve been liking Starks’ efforts everywhere, but I think he’s truly at his best when he’s illustrating his stories rather than simply writing them. At that point, their effect reaches some additional highs, and this book was no exception. It’s perfectly fine for its intended teen audience, but enjoyable no matter what age you might be.

---

Posted at TomBrevoort.com

Yesterday, I wrote about THE SPIRIT #17.

Five years ago, I wrote about the connection between FANTASTIC FOUR and AMAZING ADULT FANTASY.

And ten years ago, I reposted this 2003 column concerning the X-Men

---

I’m sticking this all the way down here as a bit of an experiment to see whether anybody actually reads this far along, or if it’s just me at this point. This issue’s title refers to an appearance Elvis Costello made on Sesame Street where he sang a riff on his famous hit with Elmo, retailored to the show. Outgoing X-Men editor Jordan D. White covered the tune on his ukulele here.

Hat’s All, Folks!

Tom B