#127: Fortune and Harvey

This week, let us open with an observation about the recent first issue of UNCANNY X-MEN that was released a few weeks ago. In the course of the story, the X-Men meet a young boy, Harvey X, who is suffering from a terminal illness. From the moment that David Marquez’s pages came in, I was getting a distinct vibe from Harvey, but I couldn’t quite place it at first. And then it hit me.

Harvey X looks a lot like the self-caricature that Brian Michael Bendis used to do of himself in his assorted autobiographical comics, most notably the recounting of his odyssey in Hollywood, FORTUNE AND GLORY.

I don’t think this was at all intentional on the part of Marquez, but he worked with Brian for a lot of years, so it isn’t impossible that he was influenced to some degree. Or it could all be a complete coincidence. Either way, it made me laugh, and so I’m sharing the observation with the rest of you folks.

And on that note, let’s get to the weighty topics put forward by you the reading audience across this past week. So here’s what you were thinking about:

Alison Cabot

Tom, so far 'Exceptional X-Men' is the book where we have the least information about what will happen or which side he will take in the Cyclops vs. Rogue feud. Will it really interact with the other books, or will it float between them?

EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN will exist in its own point on the triangle, Alison, being aligned with neither of the other two X-Teams. There should be a trailer along any time now that’ll give you more of a sense to what to expect. It’s a very different book from the other two, and it’s turned out to be a real favorite among the group of X-Writers, so hopefully readers will find it appealing as well. I think that if you have any fondness for Kate Pryde, the first issue is going to deliver for you in a big way.

Rich Johnston

Tom, quite some time ago you expressed your disdain for the character of Illyana Rasputin, Magik, and your lack of desire to do anything with the character. Now she is front and centre, can you tell us of your reconciliation towards the character?

Rob Liefeld has, this week, announced that first Deadpool Team-Up would be his final Deadpool work and then that it would be his final Marvel work, as he does every now and then. A fair few years ago now, the pair of you had a few war of words that seemed hard to walk back from. Has that caused any issue when Rob has been working for Marvel, and did your appointment to the X-books office, including Deadpool, exacerbate his recent decision do you believe?

And finally, addressing your reader, Little Tiny Fish, asking about New Warriors, it might be worth noting that Marvel showed retailers at San Diego Comic-Con an image by Luciano Vecchio, who was lined up to draw the most recent planned New Warriors comic that got canned a) because of the pandemic or b) from being mocked by Joe Rogan. Using the New Warriors slogan from their very first issue, Change The World, we got Kid Juggernaut, Spider-Boy, Cadet Marvel, Hellrune, Moon Squire, Liberty, Coal Tiger, Moon Squire and Fantasma all together, with something for 2025. The image mirrored that of New Warriors #1... though that also mirrored Giant Size X-Men #1 as well. Either way it looks like a new New Warriors. But then again it might be The Defenders.

You know, I know better than to respond to you on stuff like this, Rich. But you’ve been giving money to the Hero Initiative, so that earns you a bit of goodwill in my book. So let’s see what I can tell you.

In the past, I haven’t liked Magik pretty much at all. But that doesn’t mean that the character doesn’t have fans, lots of them. And being in the position that I’m in now means that I can prevent her from being written in the manner that used to irritate me. So there’s no problem with using her.

I don’t really have anything I can tell you about Rob’s decision. I haven’t been in contact with him since taking over the X-line. He’s mainly been working with WOLVERINE editor Mark Basso. But perhaps my involvement was a factor in his decision, you’d really need to ask him.

And I’m not sure that there’s a question in your last bit. Yes, there was a NEW WARRIORS project that got cancelled due to the shutdown, and yes, there are other projects coming up featuring young characters. But those aren’t NEW WARRIORS.

Archer

Tom, I wonder why some villains in the Phoenix books so far are Thor villains? Because I don't remember Phoenix having anything to do with Thor... Can you tell us whose idea it was?

Those villains were selected by PHOENIX writer Stephanie Phillips, working in conjunction with editor Annalise Bissa, Archer. And it’s really just a coincidence that there are a few Thor foes in there, though that also makes some sense given the scale on which the Thunder God operates. At least, it makes more sense than putting Jean up against Spider-Man villains.

STILES

was Kwannon being part of X-Men an editorial decision or a preference of Jed's? I'm so happy that she can finally be in the spotlight, and I'm loving how Mackay writes her.

Psylocke being in X-MEN came out of conversations between Jed and Ryan Stegman, Stiles. I didn’t advocate for her and certainly didn’t insist on her, but I didn’t have anything against using her either. It was all a question of pulling together a line-up that Jed and Ryan could be excited about.

Jeff Ryan

Who do you think is Marvel's biggest example of comic book methadone, the fill-in character because the Real McCoy isn't available?

I don’t know that there really is one, Jeff, not in the way that you mean. There have certainly been plenty of substitute characters over the years, but that isn’t really what you’re talking about. Maybe DC’s THE TERRIFICS, which was positioned as trying to be a Fantastic Four for the DC Universe at a time when Marvel wasn’t publishing FANTASTIC FOUR. Though it wound up as being a pretty different book as well.

Iioo

If you decide to do, say, a flashback story showing what The Living Tribunal was up to during War of the Realms, which design for The Living Tribunal would be used?

We’d use the design that made the most sense in context, Iioo, most likely the current one.

Alvaro

Has Marvel ever considered making a new digital storefront for comics? I know that there was a Marvel app, but it was shut down last year and you could view your purchases through Marvel Unlimited IIRC, but I wonder if the idea to make a new storefront has been floated around. Or is Marvel Unlimited the main focus for now?

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/veve-comics-digital-comics-collecting-platform

Stefan

What kind of fallout was there internally at Marvel from Bendis leaving?

None, really. It wasn’t a surprise to us when it was announced—Brian had informed everybody of his intentions. And having been at Marvel for so long, it did seem as though he’d touched every major character and franchise, so him wanting to do something different was sensible.

Steve McSheffrey

Any chance of Bendis work from Marvel in the future?

Given enough time, it isn’t unlikely, Steve. But I don’t know exactly what Brian is up to at the moment, and he typically has his hands full with whatever he’s working on, so it’s not something I would expect any time super-soon.

Zack J

The Comics Journal #310 came out this week with a story on Bill Jemas. In it you claimed you had to stop yourself from murdering him over an X-Men 2099 related incident. Were there any other times you nearly came to blows over the beloved X-Men 2099?

I don’t know that there have been many times that I’ve even thought about X-MEN 2099 since that time, Zack.

Evan “Cool Guy”

did anything about your job change when Disney bought Marvel?

Not really, Evan. Nobody ever quite believes that when I tell them this, but it’s true. I edited comics before that, I edit comics now. Same gig, same responsibilities. The things that eventually did change was that Joe Quseada was replaced by Axel Alonso as editor in chief, and later Axel was succeeded by C.B. Cebulski. But that would have happened either way.

Arnie

I am excited about Storm joining the Avengers, but the latest trailer has me worried about her position. Storm has been a leader of many teams before but in the Avengers she's a new recruit. Will Ororo prove herself to be a capable leader again in this team, because she looked very passive in the recent trailer and she has never been a passive character.

You’d probably need to speak to the AVENGERS editorial team more than me about this, Arnie. What I can tell you, though, is that Storm didn’t go over there to be the leader of the Avengers. And just about everybody else on that Avengers squad has leadership qualifications that are just as impressive as Ororo’s. I don’t think she’ll be passive—I don’t think that any Avenger is. But I don’t think she’s going to be providing that group with leadership especially.

Craig Byrne

One of your answers confused me - I think you said "not really" to championing another New Warriors revival but then it sounded like this was on your mind for a while as something you did want. Can you clarify? And was the one you were "prevented" from possibly spun out from the excellent Avengers #13 by Busiek and Perez, by any chance?

As I’ve spoken about in a past Newsletter, Craig, I had a plan to spin off a new NEW WARRIORS series after AVENGERS #25 when Justice and Firestar left the group. But before I could get there, EIC Bob Harras greenlit a different NEW WARRIORS revival in a different editorial office, and so that was the end of that.

Jackie Laura Dragotta

I’d like to know if we can expect any of those giant-sized one-shots for any of the X-Men that are now under your wing in the coming year

There will be some giant-size X-Men goodness coming your way in 2025 as a part of this anniversary celebration, Jackie, but not exactly in the way that you’re imagining. Stay tuned.

Kevin F

Tom, the Marvel Anniversary 'Excalibur' story was a blast. Alan Davis has still got it! Any chance we'll see Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) show up this year?

Didn’t you just see him in that MARVEL 85th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL story, Kevin?

X of Alex

Around SDCC, you mentioned that going to the West Coast meant missing out on the yearly marvel philosophy talk with the staff at HQ.

My question is, could you give us a hint as to what the talk is like, generally? What sort of values is it looking to impart onto the new hires for Marvel?

I can do better than just give you a recap, Alex, I can show you a bit of it kinds. I recorded a series of videos drawing from that same talk a few years ago, and they’re still up on YouTube The first one can be watched here.

How to Collect Comics

Have you played any Marvel Snap? I keep thinking a Marvel Snap comic that uses the specific location gimmicks/card powers from the game would be a fun read.

Afraid that I’ve never played Marvel SNAP, How. But I seem to remember that Al Ewing was a fiend for it at one point.

Mark Mosedale

In an interview on 5AM Story Talk a while ago, Matt Fraction said "Back in the day when Marvel Comics became Marvel Comics, they were all — for any number of reasons that are totally fascinating, but would only take us deeper into the weeds so I’ll skip it for now — written by Stan Lee." I know I should find a way to ask Fraction this, but as far as I know he doesn't take questions on his newsletter. So: do you have any insights on why Stan kept such a firm hand on the tiller? For some reason I've just never thought about why he was producing at such volume - a need for control? Belief that only he had the special sauce the books needed? Pure excitement and love of what he was doing? All of the above? I'd love to read any insights you have.

Well, first off, Mark, while I think it’s perfectly fair to say that Stan was scripting a lot of comics back in the day, and he was editing them, he often wasn’t really plotting them, not in the way we’d consider to fulfill that function today. Mostly, that would be the job of the artists after some sort of an initial conversation with Lee. But putting that aside, as the Marvel line of new super heroes began to pick up steam, stan tried out a bunch of different alternative writers in an attempt to take some of this work off his back. This group included folks such as Robert Bernstein, Larry Lieber, Don Rico, Jerry Siegel, Larry Ivie and a number of others. But Stan wasn’t really happy with the results, and so those guys all were left behind and Lee continued to script most of the super hero strips himself. It wasn’t until he crossed paths with Roy Thomas that he found somebody who could emulate and maintain the style he had laid out for the Marvel books, who truly understood it. And from there, Roy tended to bring in other young guys that he knew from his fan days, including Denny O’Neil, Gary Friedrich and Steve Gerber.

Andrew Albrecht

I have a question about Phoenix Issue 2, it seems like Scott and his Dad Corsair have a very tense relationship again, when last we saw they were enjoying each others company at family dinner. Is this a new shift to their dynamic after the young cyclops time displaced adventures with his dad/Krakoan age? Or is it simply the resurfacing of past grievances?

When it comes to ending a relationship like David/Tommy (Prodigy and Speed) is that up to writers or editorial? It did feel a bit out of nowhere for me, because last we saw them together they were happy, and then we see Tommy grieving his boyfriend with his Uncle Pietro. Next thing I know David is eating Chinese takeout with his new boyfriend. Is this something we’ll understand better in Issue 4 which is supposed to focus on Prodigy?

I think that anybody can have a cordial dinner with relatives, Andrew, but that doesn’t make any underlying emotional issues disappear. And on a more basic storytelling level, it’s always more interesting when every character doesn’t get along perfectly with every other character. Corsair is a lot of aspirational things, but a good father he has not been. I wouldn’t expect any one dinner to remedy that.

In terms of the relationship between Prodigy and Speed, we weren’t the ones that broke them up, but I had no problem with that being done. People, especially young people, tend to get together and separate with a certain amount of frequency. And without a series that was carrying thier relationship forward, there wasn’t really a whole lot of good reason why Speed should be saddled with Prodigy’s baggage and vice versa. And none of this will be addressed in NYX #4, sorry. Speed isn’t so much as mentioned in that issue.

Mark

i've fallen down a rabbit hole of your past content thanks to this newsletter and have been enjoying your series of 'philosophy of editing comics' series of videos. In the first episode you talk about the responsibility an editor has to the title and to being the voice of the reader, but does this extend to them being responsible for the profitability of each book and delivering on the corporate aims of the publisher/parent company?

Yes, Mark, it does. It’s the job of the editor to deliver the results required by the organization, regardless of whether those results are sales-related or story-related or what-have-you.

Martin

Hello tom, I plan on picking up the wolverine book next week, even though I am not familiar with the creative team.

I see that wolverine is in the woods naked, fighting villains.(something that has been done before)... Will it be like that for the entire run or just a story arc or two?

That WOLVERINE #1 is a good-looking book, Martin. Hope you enjoy it. But you know what I’m going to say about wanting to know what happens in a particular book, right? There’s only one way to find out!

Gwen

Marco Renna recently hinted that he's working on a comic that has Jean in it. May i ask if he will be the artist of the next PHOENIX arc or it will be a different comic?

I have no idea who Marco Renna is, Gwen, so if he’s doing a comic with Jean Grey in it, that’s news to me.

Craig Byrne

in 2001's Captain America #50 Cap "died," but was there a comic where he came back? Or was that an imaginary story?

There was meant to be a follow-up to that CAPTAIN AMERICA #50 story that would bring Cap back, Craig. But like so many things during that Bill Jemas era, there wasn’t any great interest in following up on it—people were more excited about getting to the John Cassaday-illustrated MARVEL KNIGHTS Cap series. So it simply never happened.

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Behind the Curtain

What we’ve got here is an unpublished page drawn (and presumably largely plotted by, given the extensive border notes) by a young Barry Windsor-Smith around 1969. It was part of a pitch that he and Roy Thomas had for a new group that would have included Rick Jones as Bucky, Red Raven and Quicksilver—a pretty odd lot assortment of characters.

.The series never happened, and so this page and the others produced for either a sample or an aborted first issue were never completed. It gives a pretty good sense of what Smith’s pencils looked like in the earliest part of his career, when he was still taking major influence from the work of Jack Kirby.

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Pimp My Wednesday

We have only one title on sale this week, but as mentioned above in the Q & A section, it’s a good one.

It’s finally time for the third point on our X-Men triangle to be revealed with the publication of EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #1. This book is written by Eve L. Ewing, illustrated by Carmen Carnero and colored by Nolan Woodard. and it’s a bit of a departure from X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN in terms of its tone and approach. The book I’d maybe most liken it to is the original ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, in that it’s very character-focused first and super hero adventure-oriented second. Which means that you’re only going to meet one of our new young X-Men in this first issue, and nobody is going to wear a costume until issue #3. But that said, if you love Kate Pryde or Emma Frost, I think this is a series that’s going to hit your sweet spot. And I expect that our new mutants Bronze, Axo and Melee will soon become popular favorites as well. In the end, though, you’ll be the judge of it.

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A Comic Book On Sale 40 Years Ago Today, September 1, 1984

The MARVELMAN SPECIAL was the last gasp of original Marvelman material that was released by Quality Publications, a UK-based publisher. Marvelman had originated in the 1950s as a homegrown replacement for the Fawcett Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, whose adventures were popular in Britain but who had been put out of business due to a lawsuit from DC/National Comics. The British publisher simply hired local writers and artists, changed the characters just enough, then continued to publish new stories well into the early 1960s. By the top of the 1980s, though, Marvelman was only a half-remembered character from the past. But when Dez Skinn wanted to start up a new creator-friendly comic publication, WARRIOR, he figured that a revival of the classic series would give him a leg up in terms of recognition. To his good fortune, he hired a young Alan Moore and Garry Leach to helm the Marvelman revival. Moore’s genius take on the material was revolutionary, and led directly to him working for DC on SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING and eventually WATCHMEN. But as the character gained greater notice, Marvel eventually send a cease-and-desist demand to Quality, insisting that Marvelman was creating confusion in the marketplace and was trading on the Marvel name. Skinn attempted to soldier on and fight the lawsuit, but WARRIOR only lasted for a couple of issues once Marvelman stopped appearing in it. By that time, though, Skinn had made deals with American publishers to reprint some of the WARRIOR material stateside, and so Marvelman was renamed Miracleman and the series was taken up by the American publisher ECLIPSE. This MARVELMAN SPECIAL was released during the time that legal action was at its heaviest, and it represents either a defiant or foolhardy decision on Skinn’s part—he hadn’t used the name Marvelman as the title of any publication before this, but here he threw caution to the wind. The special featured reprints of classic Marvelman stories from the 1950s contextualized in a framing sequence produced by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. It also included a Big Ben story written by Edgar Henry and illustrated by Ian Gibson, featuring a character that Skinn had created who had been incorporated into the Marvelman mythology by Moore. This was, I believe, the last piece of Marvelman material published on the character’s home soil.

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A Comic Book On Sale 35 Years Ago Today, September 1, 1989

I picked this issue of ZOT! almost entirely to showcase this great cover by Scott McCloud. it tells you everything that you need to know about the story within: how Jenny Weaver feels trapped and isolated by here ordinary life in which her parents have gotten an acrimonious divorce and her days are filled with the tedium and stress of school life. It’s even better once you notice the tiny figure of Zot souring free from all of these worldly concerns near the top of the image. This was the first full issue of McCloud’s final movement of the series, the so-called “Earth Stories”—so named because rather than taking place in Zot’s fanciful retro-future world of 1965, the hero and Jenny are trapped within her world and are forced to make the best of things. Each issue in this run is a deep dive into one of the assortment of supporting players who surround Jenny, and while the stories still have their share of whimsey and fun, they’re also a lot more grounded and relatable as well. The entire series is great, and well worth seeking out. It was collected in two editions years ago, the first compiling the first 10 color issue, and the second encapsulating the entirety of the later black and white ones. All that said, though, man that’s a masterful cover.

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A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date

The PUNISHER BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL came out on September 1, 1993 and featured the one and only Punisher story that I ever wrote, along with my co-writer Mike Kanterovich. I probably could have done more if I’d really wanted to—PUNISHER editor Don Daley bought tons of inventory, much of which never got used. But I didn’t find the character to be a comfortable fit, and so the only way I was able to approach him was as a force of nature that would blow through the lives of others, changing them in his wake. In that way, the Punisher’s actions were neither condemned nor condoned, but were simply a fact that the other characters had to deal with. And, to be completely honest, I cheated a little bit in order to be able to do even this story. It was very strongly influenced by the MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM Original Video Animation series WAR IN THE POCKET—so much so that I used a bunch of similar names for all of the key characters. In that series, during the waning days of the One Year War, a young boy has an encounter with an enemy soldier and learns that warfare isn’t the game that his friends and the propaganda of the period make him think it is. The story we did here is very much along the same lines, but with no direct interaction between our lead character and the Punisher. It’s about a kid who idolizes the Punisher based on the notion that he’s cool who is forced to re-evaluate his understanding of the man when he’s a bystander to a running gun battle between the actual Punisher and a bunch of bad guys. It was ten pages, so there’s not a whole lot more than that to it, but the end product was relatively successful, I thought at the time. The artwork was delivered by Alex Morrissey whose style was maybe a bit to light and bouncy and open for a typical Punisher adventure but who could draw good kids. That all said, I don’t know that it’s a story that anybody remembers after all these years—just another back page-filler that wasn’t really designed to appeal to the people most likely to be picking up a PUNISHER BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL in the first place. (My memory is that Daley bought the story without any particular home, but as it was being worked on, he chose to slot it into this Special, probably because it would somewhat fit the theme rather than it being especially excellent.)

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Another Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE DOMINATION FACTOR #1 (or, really, #1.1) was released on September 1, 1999. Its origin is one of the more byzantine that I’ve experienced, and one of the most noteworthy things about it. At the time, I had been working on AVENGERS FOREVER by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, which had been a big hit. At some point towards the end of its run, creator Dan Jurgens spoke with Editor in Chief Bob Harras and expressed that he’d like to do something similar for the Fantastic Four—a FANTASTIC FOUR FOREVER, in effect. Bob thought this was a saleable idea, and so he approved the project on the spot. The first I head about it was when the approval paperwork came through, which led me to try to backtrack just what this project was and how it ended up in my hands. I can’t say that I was really enthusiastic about having been sidelined in this fashion, though that wasn’t at all Dan’s intention. Anyway, things got more interesting once I spoke to Jurgens on the phone about this series. You see, in the interim, he’d been speaking with his friend Jerry Ordway, who had just done a short span filling in for Kurt and George Perez on AVENGERS. Jerry was interested in doing more with the Avengers, and so he and Dan had worked out this idea where they’d tell a single story across two connected limited series, FANTASTIC FOUR: THE DOMINATION FACTOR and AVENGERS: THE DOMINATION FACTOR. In theory, you could read either one alone (up until the final chapters) and get an entire story, but the two would operate in tandem, both showcasing portions of a larger unified story between them. This was a pretty complicated build, and in a flawed attempt to be able to communicate how the two books intertwined with one another, I came up with the notion of giving each one a second decimal number. So this issue, FANTASTIC FOUR TDF was #1.1, whereas the first issue of AVENGERS: TDF was #1.2. Needless to say, all this wound up doing was confusing everybody further, so I was too clever for my own good on that one. Anyway, THE DOMINATON FACTOR was a perfectly fine series, but didn’t really distinguish itself as anything special. It wasn’t quite in the same league as AVENGERS FOREVER despite everyone’s good intentions. And it’s been largely forgotten since it came out—I don’t believe that it’s ever been collected, making it one of the more obscure projects that I worked on.

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The Deathlok Chronicles

We’re closing in on the end of the run at this point. So let’s start as always with a few thoughts from DEATHLOK writer Gregory Wright:

Gregory Wright

It was a strange feeling to suddenly be the ONLY writer on Deathlok at this point. I had been trying so hard to make sure what I did would fit in with what Dwayne did, and get frustrated that he didn't want to pick up my story threads. My recollection was that you and I had a long conversation about what story threads needed to be wrapped up, and which ones needed to continue. So my mission with this issue was to basically put the book on track and get new readers as well as try to get readers who were lost...to return. Thank goodness for Kevin, who immediately got what I was doing and really became a COLLABORATOR and not just someone drawing what I said to draw.

First thing I knew had to be done was to straighten put the family story. Tracy had now been pregnant for 25 issues...more than 2 years...and even with time not being "accurate". it was too much. Also, it really was logistically silly for this cyborg to be living at home...and never really addressing how dangerous it was for him to be publicly linked to them, regardless of whatever security SHIELD had in place. I also wanted explain why Deathlok was more in tune with his African American heritage now...compared to when he was a human. Dwayne had done a great job having him address this, but not WHY he didn't express it before. I'm not sure it was ever clear enough for the readers, but Michael Collins was a naive man, safe in his beliefs that what he was doing was right, and believed he was in the company of friends...who were really just using him. Becoming Deathlok woke him up, especially after talking with Misty Knight. And this was a perfect way to try and bring both HER and the CYBERFOLK idea back. Plus I was trying to weave Luther Manning back into the book. Thankfully, I had you Tom, to talk me through a lot of complicated issues. Once Tracy gave birth..the baby needed a name and I chose the name Patricia, to honor someone who at that time was an important person in his life. I also felt it was the perfect opportunity to show just how difficult Michael's family's life was..I couldn't just write them out of the book...it had to be wrenching for everyone. I really had confidence that we would get folks back to the book with Kevin on board as a regular artist and Luther Manning finally became part of the book. A lot of what I was thinking came from a fan letter that complained about the book not being FUN. The letter writer pointed out what made the original version of Deathlok more FUN. So I was trying to do that...

There really isn’t all that much to be said about DEATHLOK #27. At this point, the series was more or less back on the rails, and the creative team was beginning to gel as a unit. That said, there is one element that I need to address at this point, as it would become a bit of a gadfly as we moved into the final act of the series. And that’s the villainous character, Timestream.

Timestream had been created for the first DEATHLOK ANNUAL, in an attempt by Greg to begin to build up a cadre of villains that belonged to this series rather than having been borrowed from elsewhere. However, when he was used in that first story, we didn’t have any particular plans to bring him back. And so Greg gave him a faux-Latin speech pattern—he composed his sentence structure in the manner of Yoda. (“Deathlok it is! Once more a thorn in my side he becomes!”) And this was fine when he was simply a one-off creation, but now that he’d come back and was going to wind up being a main player over the course of the rest of the run, that decision became something of an albatross. It was difficult to get readers to really invest in the seriousness of the menace represented by a guy whose dialogue was constantly unintentionally comics (and occasionally difficult to figure out.) But we also never reached a point where we decided to change his speech pattern. It had been established, so both Greg and I considered it to he a “fact”. rather than something we could have altered if we so wished. Which was dumb. We should have just made it a plot point and found a way to adjust it so that it wasn’t so aggravating to the audience so often.

This issue also saw the return of Siege, a character that Greg had high hopes for developing and spinning off. In those days, the notion of a second version of the main hero was all over the Marvel line: Thunderstrike, War Machine, the U.S. Agent, Vengeance, Outlaw, etc. But the fact of the matter is that we probably should have focused more of our attention on getting Michael Collins back on track. Sharing so much page time with Siege, who did much the same thing that Deathlok did and who was a bit more one-note in the fact that he was a soldier willing to kill ate up some of the oxygen and pulled attention away from Collins. And in the end, despite appearing in a few issues of DAREDEVIL written by D.G. Chichester along the way, Siege didn’t really catch on with other creators or with the readership as a while.

Also, that cover copy is pretty illegible. It took me a while to really understand what colors would work atop what colors and the like. The whole thing might have benefitted from a box or some such.

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Monofocus

I hadn’t realized it until the episode dropped, but ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING’s fourth season debuted this week on Hulu. And while it continues to be breezy and entertaining, it definitely feels as though the premise has been stretched beyond believability. And I’m not even talking about the idea that you’d have four murders in the same location in a short period of time, I’m talking about the notion that these three random characters would even be involved in four murders in any amount of time. But that’s the show, it’s what you sign up for, so you sort of need to let that go if you’re going to watch. And the main cast of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selina Gomez continues to be strong. This season, I am told, is even more guest-star laden than the last, and this first episode bears that out—to the point where it starts to get a bit distracting. You don’t really absorb the reality of the plot because you’re looking at that person as the famous actor rather than whatever their character is meant to be. So we’ll see how well it holds up across an entire season, but I feel like it’s running a bit on fumes at the moment.

I also watched THE FIRST SLAM DUNK on Netflix, a film that brought an end to the extremely popular anime adaptation of the extremely popular and successful basketball manga. (I know, it is kind of weird that the last SLAM DUNK project is called THE FIRST.) It’s a show and a manga that I’ve hear about over the years but never watched or read, so I wasn’t familiar with any of the characters or their established conflicts. But the film is good enough to establish all of that in the course of the story, giving individual focus to each one of the five players on the Shohoku High Basketball Team in turn throughout the movie. And the film is essentially the story of a single championship match between the leads and their more talented and polished rivals, the unbeatable Sannoh High team. So it’s like watching an actual basketball championship in progress, with flashbacks and digressions along the way to illustrate the backstory of the particular challenges that each player is facing. I can say that I didn’t have any difficulty following it—it helps that the plot really boils down to put ball in hoop. The animation was nice and fluid, maybe a hair too computer generated-looking for me in some spots. But it held me for its two hour run time, so if you have an interest in sports stories or simply adore basketball, I’d recommend checking it out.

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Posted at TomBrevoort.com

Yesterday, I wrote about The First Book Length Comic Book Story

And five years ago, I wrote about The Five Best Comic Books of 1987

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And that’s the bell, so we’re finished here for the week! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday or whenever you’re reading this, and I’ll speak to you again in seven days.

Hat’s All, Folks!

Tom B