#149: Being Brave in a Hostile Universe

Folks seem to have been impressed with the biblical quote that I opened last week’s Newsletter up with. I’m told that I seem to be literate and erudite! Which makes it a shame, then, that the reason that I’m familiar with that quote was that it was used as the centerpiece to an episode of the great television series HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL. Click on this link to experience that moment yourself.

Elsewhere, my much more talented musician and artist brother Mighty Joe Castro has been clicking away at his own Newsletter (which you can experience here. This past week, Joe talked about how he and some colleagues wrote the signature song for a small independent film, and how he wound up playing a small role in the picture. You all can watch that masterpiece right here: The Boog

It’s time to lay down some wisdom. Or at least some half-baked answers to a bunch of nutty questions. That’s always entertaining, right?

Joe West

What are your thoughts on non-mutant characters being members of an X-team? Obviously Deadpool and Juggernaut aren’t mutants, but they’re so tied to X-Men history that them being members of mutant teams doesn’t feel off. Can you see other non-mutant characters being on X-teams this era? (Ex: Quicksilver, Fantomex, Omega Sentinel, etc)

I think that there are characters who have existed in and around the X-Universe for so long, Joe, that it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. Juggernaut is certainly one of those, as is Deadpool, as is Longshot, etc. But in general, I find that a slippery slope to go down. as it isn’t really an X-Men team if the membership isn’t primarily if not exclusively mutants. As I put this point in another context about another thing entirely, it’s perfectly fine for Catholics or Protestants to observe the day of remembrance of the Holocaust, but it’s not really about them or for them.

CG

Yeah I apologize I was frustrated.

BUT you give off snark too sir.

But don’t worry I won’t be asking anything anymore.

Well, for sure, CG, I give off plenty of snark. But in fairness, it is my Newsletter. But that said, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask any question that you want. I’d just request that you do so with civility.

Dylan D

The current crop of X books are not being written by veteran X writers. That’s what I mean when I say there’s no X book on the market for me. Every so often there will be a one-shot or a flashback miniseries but nothing set in the present-day 616 universe.

Ever since Mr. Claremont was fired from UXM in 2006, I have only read X books written by him or other 80s/90s X-writers. I have no interest in Millennial or Zoomer writers. On a related note, I haven’t read a Spider-Man book since Marvel ended The Marriage and I won’t read Spidey again until The Marriage is restored (yes, I am aware of Ultimate Spider-Man).

Just to be clear, are you saying Mr. Claremont and other veteran X writers will never write another ongoing series set in present-day 616 during your tenure?

Here’s the thing, Dylan: the only way to become a veteran X-writer is to write X-books, right? And it’s been a long time since 2006. So I wouldn’t say that it’s absolutely impossible that a past creator could come back to take on a present day series. But I do think that, in the same way that the All-Star greats of any competitive sports team don’t really have the wherewithal to return to the field in the same way a decade or two later, it’s more important for me and mine to be looking to field the great X-writers of tomorrow, the people whom readers of today won’t want to follow the books without. The good news, such as it is, is that that older body of work still exists and you can return to it any time you like.

Ray Cornwall

What is the status of Miracleman: The Dark Age? Has the script been delivered? If so, is Mark currently working on it?

At the moment, Ray, nothing is going on with THE DARK AGE. If something changes in that regard, I’m sure you’ll hear about it.

Jeff Ryan

You mentioned you felt you weren't "up to the task" of keeping Nova a high-selling title. Nova was the second spinoff of New Warriors being put out during the apex of the 1990s comics crash. In retrospect, was there anything you think could have done?

There’s really no way of knowing whether anything would have worked at that particular moment in time, Jeff. But I could have been more decisive (or, alternatively, harsh) and made an immediate sharp creative change in an attempt to bring in additional readers. That’s what editor Marie Javins did when she inherited HELLSTORM—she dumped the entire creative team mid-story and brought in newcomer Warren Ellis. Warren wasn’t then a big name and the series didn’t get salvaged by that move. But it provided a platform for Warren to show what he could do and led to him getting other assignments. So some good was served by it. At the time, though, I hesitated.

Chris Sutcliffe

I'm curious how much thought goes into the amount of comics that are released each month. Obviously there's a minimum to keep the lights on, and a maximum before diminishing returns, but how is this organised? Is there a company wide person in charge, or do you as head of the X-Men like have a min and max number you have to deliver between?

We balance our title count on a month-by-month basis very carefully, Chris—more than it seems like you’re aware of, which is understandable. But we’ve got an overall aggregate number that we try to keep to for releases across the line, and then even within that, we try to measure how many releases come out in each family of books, approximately. There may be months where one or another of the families is represented more heavily (usually when there’s some big event storyline going on in the family) but for the most part, we keep things at a consistent level.

Alexander Zalben

With this being a pretty big year for the Fantastic Four, in comics and out, has there been any talk about bringing back the "World's Greatest Comic Magazine" tagline?

It’s something that comes up every once in a while, Alex, but it’s predicated more on nostalgia than anything else. And that topline doesn’t really work well with our current Alex Ross-designed logo, so as long as we’re still using it, I’m not likely to bring TWGCM back atop it. Still, you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Malachi Wells

How much legal challenge is involved in bringing characters from other media into the comics?

Let's say, an X-writer wants to introduce the Earth-616 version of Eclipse/Marcos Diaz, a mutant created for "The Gifted" tv show (and for the sake of this argument, his inclusion makes sense and works well for the story). Do you have the power to approve that, unilaterally as the X-Editor or together with other editors, or are there lawyers who must pour over the contracts before such an idea can even be discussed?

Would that process be different for Ms. Chen from the Venom movies (made by Sony and thus not under Disney umbrella)?

That’s entirely a legal question, Malachi, and one for which I’d consult our legal department before we got too deep into any such planning. It all depends on what the agreements for those show specified, so it wouldn’t be up to me or any one writer.

JV

Any upcoming projects with Steve Epting coming up?

Steve is under exclusive contract elsewhere, JV, so while I spoke with him recently, it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing anything for us for the time being.

TD Mollusk

When a writer is working on multiple concurrent titles, how much more difficult is it for an editor if the titles are managed by different editorial offices?

This could obviously apply to Jed MacKay’s current Avengers & X-Men books, but I was specifically thinking back to 2012-ish, when Bendis had multiple Avengers books under your purview and Hickman was juggling 2 Fantastic Four books edited by you while another team was editing his (first) fairly radical of the Ultimate Comics line.

It’s certainly easier when everything is under a single roof, TD, but that usually isn’t the way it goes. And you haven’t even extended this thought to creators who also do other projects outside of Marvel which may have a pull on their time. But that’s part of the job, to manage these situations and make sure that we get what we need by the time we need it.

Neil Bradbury

With the upcoming Captain America movie as well as the character's new series by Ben Percy next month, I have been revisiting my favourite Red Hulk material, the series written by Jeff Parker. It got me thinking about writers like Jeff who seemed to have lots of critical success on lower tier titles but never quite got that shot at the big books. As a wrestling fan I'd say they were like great intercontinental champs that never got a spot in the main event. Can you give me some insight as to how stuff like that happens? Is sometimes the main event scene a little too crowded and there's just not a big series available before the moment passes? Or is there a feeling that critical success doesn't always add up to sales? Or is it just those writers might not want to be on the big books and be happy where they have more freedom?

Well, Neil, the first thing to say is that nobody is owed work, and nobody is owed a particular kind of work. Advancement of the sort you’re talking about really comes down to being able to craft material that connects with the audience and moves the sales needle as much as anything else. Additionally, though, the editors in question need to like what the writer does and like working with them. I don’t know that I can really speak for Jeff’s specific situation, except to say that somehow he never quite got to a point where everybody in editorial was hot on him. Some were, but others weren’t, as tend to be the case typically. You get the bat, you get a chance to swing at the ball, and then the results determine whether you get the bat again, and for how long, and in what position.

John Austin

The question is what is going on with the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe these days?

with all this renewed interest in Rom and the Dire Wraiths, are there any plans at all for them to possibly show up in the Phoenix comic?

What’s going on in the cosmic side of the MU can most regularly be seen in PHOENIX at the moment, John, as you seem to know. But no, no plans to use the Dire Wraiths there.

J Kevin Carrier

Thanks for sharing that "Sally Sargent" pilot. I'd never even heard of it, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a little surprised to see things like the bad guy swinging an axe at Sally, and her kicking him in the face -- mild by today's standards, but not the kind of thing you usually saw in cartoons of the era. I wonder if that level of "violence" was part of the reason it didn't go forward?

That short was made at right around the time that activists got changes made to the broadcast standards for morning cartoons that just about wiped out action-adventure programs, Kevin, so you could be right. It would be years before anybody in an animated show was even allowed to throw a punch again, so doing a show like Sally Sargent would have been difficult.

Christopher Orrell

I've noticed that you've issued the call out to buy issues to support any given series a few times now in response to questions about their future. I was wondering, in your view, what's the best way to support a series that we enjoy?

Does reading it in the Marvel Unlimited app (or the in-app popularity of a title) matter at all, or is the longevity of a series all down to physical sales? What about TBPs - do they factor in, or is it all down to the sales of single issues.

The best way to support any series that you enjoy is to buy it, Christopher. We don’t really care what format you do that in, though—all of the money spends just the same. That said, reading in Marvel Unlimited is a little bit different, in that you’re paying for an overall subscription and so that revenue can’t be credited against any one specific series. Collections and digital sales definitely factor in, though.

Jason

What was the reaction to Coober Skeber #2 around the Marvel offices? I assume it was somewhat positive since Marvel eventually published.Hulk vs Rain.

I don’t think that there was any reaction at all, Jason. I don’t think most people were even aware of it. And “Marvel” didn’t publish that Hulk vs the rain story, I did, at the suggestion, I believe, of Kurt Busiek.

Triple T

Would love to learn more behind the scenes info about your famous Fantastic Four run as editor. How did it start? I imagine you were a big fan of Waid/Wieringo’s Flash run and asked them if they’d be interested?

I wrote at length about the first Waid/Wieringo issue of FANTASTIC FOUR and the run in general at this link, Triple, if you’re interested. Going there is a lot easier than retyping all of that again. And Mark shows up there in the comments.

Leah Chandler-Dady

1. Do you think the reason we're still talking about Krakoa is because it was transformative and revolutionary for the x-books in the same way that, say, Age of Apocalypse was, of the Night Gwen Stacy Died was for Spider-man, rather than comparing it to something like Utopia which doesn't really seem to have had the same kind of lasting impact?

2. When deciding to spin-off solo books for something like the X-franchise, how much do you take into consideration the impact that spinning off a character might have on the team books? What I'm getting at is that traditionally the view seems to have been that major developments for characters take place in their solo books, but given the ensemble nature of the X-franchise across the board, is more allowance given for the role a character might play in the team book? For instance if Gail Simone has a great idea that shakes things up for Wolverine, does she get to do that in Uncanny or is it passed off to the Wolverine team?

1. Mayyyyybe? I think, though, that it’s a little soon to anoint that run as having the same impact and import as “The Night Gwen Stacy Died.” It was a provocative and forward-thinking run, to be sure. But ten years from now, will it still carry the same impact for readers who weren’t there to experience it firsthand? I don’t know.

2. I weigh everything of this sort in making those choices, Leah. But except in very rare instances, appearing in a solo title doesn’t prevent a character from also being in team series. Just look at Psylocke and Magik, for example, to say nothing of Wolverine. But if Gail has a great idea to change Wolverine’s status quo, I’d certainly do that in UNCANNY X-MEN as readily as WOLVERINE. But I’d make sure to consult with the WOLVERINE editor and creative team about it beforehand as necessary. And the reverse is also true.

Isaac Kelley

so what are your thoughts on the current state of Annuals? Over the years they've filled all sorts of roles. Some annuals have been reprint mags, some have been part of crossover events, some have been decidedly inessential, while others have been major milestone events.

The actual purpose of Annuals—getting an additional issue on the stands during the strongest sell-through period—hasn’t been a factor in close to thirty years at this point, Isaac, so the format it self continues and survives based entirely on reader and retailer familiarity and nostalgia more than anything else. Like almost anything else, I think there’ve been good Annuals and bad Annuals, and that all comes down to what is done with them. But there isn’t any formula that’s going to give you a guaranteed hit every single time either.

Leigh Hunt

Not directly under your purview I think but I loved the subtle crossover recently between Sentinels and Mystique. So cool to have two stories merge unannounced. A nice little mystery in one book is then cleverly resolved in the other. Great stuff.

Along with this there are some nice links between other X-books - references and other things showing they are part of the same world. Events from X-Force referenced in NYX, characters from one book turning up in another. This sort of soft crossover used to happen a lot and I have missed it. One that always springs to mind was Spider-Man commenting on the inclement weather in Summer which was due to events in Thor at the same time.

Clearly the big line-wide crossovers are here to stay (with One World Under Doom around the corner) but I'd like to know how you feel about these more subtle crossovers?

Glad you enjoyed our little mystery crossover between MYSTIQUE and SENTINELS, Leigh. The nugget of it—Mystique appearing in some other book but the audience not being aware of it at the time—was something that I threw out when we first began discussing that project, but it was editor Darren Shan and writers Declan Shalvey and Alex Paknadel who put it all together and made it work. In general, I like this kind of casual crossover, and it’s started happening in December and January because that’s where it was mapped for. As soon as we decided to do ‘Raid on Graymalkin” as our first little crossover, I told everybody that December was the point where we should slowly begin mixing the different titles together in assorted ways. There are a couple of other things like that unannounced crossover going on already, or about to, where if you’re reading more of the line, you’ll be able to figure out some larger patterns. I find that kind of thing fun, and it reinforces the concept of a shared universe environment, too.

GB marques

I would like to know if Phoenix/Jean will still have great importance in Marvel's cosmology. Phoenix has always been fundamental to cosmology, will this continue?

Yes, GB.

Andy

I've been reading some 2000 AD for the first time, and I'm struck by how different it is from the classic American comics format. When writers and artists come to Marvel from 2000 AD from the first time, how much do you have to work with them on how they break down a story, how they have to adjust their style, and so on?

Depends completely on the writer and their skill level and understanding of what is required, Andy. The one point that I know gets stressed a lot, and not only to 2000 AD creators, is the need to establish and re-establish everything important every issue. In most 2000 AD serials, because the creators only have a couple of pages each issue, there’s a tendency for them not to do that. Consequently, those serials read great when they’re all collected, and somebody who is really invested and who has been paying attention can follow along. But the more general audience can get easily lost, especially if they miss an issue somewhere.

Gus

1) I'm in a reddit book club reading Pale Fire by Nabokov. There's a character in it named Charles Xavier. I took it as coincidence, but someone else noted that Xavier showed up in the comics a year after Pale Fire came out. Is it possible Stan Lee borrowed the name from there?

2) Side-tangent given all the talk of crossovers this week... There was an amazing crossover during a writer's strike between Jon Stewart (Daily Show), Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report), and Conan O'Brien (Late Night with Conan O'Brien). My question, in the style of Marvel Comics character Stephen Colbert (I've got him in that one with Spidey) - Great crossover, or GREATEST crossover?

1. I have no idea, Gus, but it’s certainly possible that either Lee or Kirby was influenced there.

2. Not in a universe that also includes this, Gus.

Alex Jamieson

One of the main things I enjoy about it is how each issue is structured to give a satisfying reader experience, even as part of a wider story. I remember you mentioned this as being something you have been pushing for line-wide, and I must say, it really shows and I appreciate it.

I wondered if there are any directives/guidelines you use/establish with the writers you work with on properly structuring an issue? Or is it just something that you looks for in a writer's skillset in the 'casting' phase?

I don’t know that there are specific things that I do apart from telling people that I want to focus on making each individual release a complete unit of entertainment, Alex. But even there, I adapt as people’s strengths and weaknesses become apparent. For example, at the outset, Gail Simone was really struggling with my suggestion that we build our early issues so that they functioned as linked stand-alone issues; she was doing her best to comply but this was fighting her natural storytelling instincts. And the situation got way better and way easier when I told her that it was all right to do multi-part stories if she felt that as the strongest way to go. I wanted the best comics she (and everybody else) could make, regardless of whether they hit every single possible metric that I was laying out. I do think that Gail’s issues always feel like they contain a complete unit where lots of things move forward, even if a particular threat or situation doesn’t resolve itself completely in a single chapter.

Chuck Was Right

I know you've said in your Substack and in interviews how Jean is the Phoenix and the Phoenix is Jean, but sometimes, like in the most recent issues of Phoenix and X-Men, I struggle to see that and am wondering what you mean by that. In Phoenix we see that the power can be used by others, which is a bit strange if you think about it, if Jean is wholly the Phoenix how can someone else use those powers or even take them from her? Similarly, in X-Men #10, the way Phoenix is discussed is again as a force, as something that someone hosts and is controlled by.

I guess I'm just confused still. When you say the Phoenix is Jean and vice versa, do you mean that Jean is literally the Phoenix, physically, spiritually, historically? Or is Jean more like a portion of the Phoenix and they form one whole when together? Or are we back in host territory?

I know it's pedantic and silly of me to overthink it all, but I am still confused by it and I hope you can maybe clear up my confusion.

This is one of those places where I feel like the Marvel Handbook has done a bit of harm over the years, Chuck. So let me put it to you this way: I don’t really think that anything is especially well served by concretely defining the ineffable at every turn, so I don’t feel a need to set up a bunch of arbitrary tabletop RPG rules for the characters and their powers. That’s fine for gaming, but in storytelling, it creates as many issues as it solves. I understand your frustration; you’re looking for a definitive answer. But as any religion teaches, sometimes that global understanding is beyond the ken of regular mortal people.

Jean is the Phoenix, and the Phoenix is Jean. Other people can host that entity and use its power, and have from time to time. But you cannot separate the two for any great length of time. They are two halves of the same thing, united, inseparable. Beyond that, any further answers and quantification should come in the stories.

Branden

Loved seeing the new Hellions in X-Men #10 this past Wednesday - it's always great to see lesser known characters like Locus and the Bedlam brothers. Are we going to get an opportunity to learn more about them going forward? It certainly seemed like Cyclops wasn't done with them.

I’m sure we’ll see the new Hellions again as we move forward, Branden. By by that token, we’ve already got a big cast to service, no to mention Alpha Flight showing up in an issue or two. The logo on the cover says X-MEN, so most often we’re going to focus on them. But the Hellions are bound to turn up again, whether in that title or elsewhere around the line.

Robyn Aldrin

I want to clarify something. Ayodele has told us some months ago that Storm is to Eternity what Jean Grey is to Phoenix so in essence Eternity is Storm and they are one being but you told us last week that Storm is a herald of Eternity which is quite different. What is it really?

You’ll have to forgive me, Robyn, but I am getting just a little bit tired of this seemingly unending rivalry between the Storm fans and the Phoenix fans. It isn’t a competition, they’re both important. And if you love one especially greatly, that’s fantastic. But we don’t need to knock down the other one in order to display love for the first. You’re asking me a question about something my writer said online. Just like the questions that I answer here, though, none of it is official until it appears in the actual stories. So I would say that in order to get answers to these kinds of queries, the thing to do would be to keep an eye on STORM and PHOENIX. But I’m not going to wade into this online rivalry and I don’t want it infesting this feature any more than it already has. I’m certainly not going to respond to a second hand statement taken out of context like this. I understand that you simply want answers, but the answers that you and a bunch of others seem to want are those that pump up your favorite while putting down somebody else’s. But they’re all my responsibility, and so I don’t have a dog in this fight. And I’m sorry to hit you with this, but over the last couple of weeks there have been a few times when I thought I was going to need to shut down comments as the Storm and Phoenix fans thought nothing about sniping at one another back and forth in them. Folks, this is my house, and you’re all invited. But don’t put your feet up on the furniture and don’t be rude to my other guests. We can all talk, laugh, and have a good time if we’re simply civil to one another. hen that civility goes away, so does my interest in continuing to bang these pieces out every week. This isn’t really all on your Robyn, you just happened to be the person asking about it this time out, so I’m sorry if I’ve painted your interest with a broad brush. To everybody else: knock it off, okay?

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Off The Wall

Here’s a cool little two-fer from FANTASTIC FOUR #500. By the time we were working on that issue, we had developed a situation where Mike Wieringo would draw his pages on the East Coast and, rather than shipping them to inker Karl Kesel on the West Coast, he’d instead scan them and send them instantaneously to Karl through digital media. Karl would then print them out in non-reproduction blue and ink them, thus saving precious time on our production schedule. So here, I reached out to Mike’s art representative right after FF #500 came out looking to buy a page from it. I was actually looking for something else, which I’ll show you in some future installment, but I wound up buying the penciled page that you see above. I mentioned this to Karl at some point, and generous spirit that he is, he sent me the inks unbidden as a gift. We wound up having them framed together so as to best display them for people wanting to see the differences between the two, and they’re hung on display right by the landing to the staircase to the second floor of the house. So I scope these pages every single day as I head out in the morning.

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On The Spinner Rack

Hey, a new idea! I own a vintage comic book spinner rack, of the kind that used to be ubiquitous in drug stores and candy stores and convenience stores all throughout the 1960s, 1970, 1980s and beyond. This particular rack is the real deal, it saw service before I eventually purchased it for a few hundred dollars in the late 1990s, and I’ve used it for display purposes ever since. It’s stocked with comic book extras, comics that I’ve somehow managed to come into possession of two or more copies of. So every week, I turn the rack one pocket’s rotation and also circulate the books displayed upon it. So the idea of this feature is for us to look at what’s being displayed each week.

This week tops off with a pair of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issues of THOR, #161 and #167. I inherited a bunch of these from an unfortunate fan who was at the time suffering from inoperable terminal cancer and who wanted to give his books to Marvel after his passing. Below that is a copy of AVENGERS #75, introducing Arkon, and an issue of SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN with a really great imaginary story about Jimmy’s son romancing Superman and Lois’ daughter. Below that is another Lee/Kirby issue, CAPTAIN AMERICA #108 in which Kirby allllmost makes the Trapster seem like he’d have a chance in a fight against the star-spangled Avenger. Below that is the ultra-rare variant to FANTASTIC FOUR #16, which was my last issue as editor on the series during my first tenure and which features me on the cover. Next is an issue of MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION reprinting AVENGERS #27 by Stan and Don Heck, then a reprint of John Byrne’s FANTASTIC FOUR #263 that came packaged with an action figure. Finally, at the bottom, there’s an issue of WHAT THE…? that I wrote a couple of stories for and a random issue of GEN 13 BOOTLEG that I somehow got an extra copy of.

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I Buy Crap

Today’s entry comes under the too-often-revisited concept of me buying something that I don’t really need. What you see above is Nostalgia Press’ collection of early E.C. Segar Thimble Theater stories starring his essential creation, Popeye the Sailor. It was issued in 1971, and I read it after checking it out from the Sachem Public Library at some point in the mid-to-late 1970s. It was my first encounter with Segar’s work and what I consider to be possibly the greatest comic strip ever done. If you only know Popeye from his assorted animated cartoons and such, then you don’t really know the character or the strip at all. It was epic, but adventurous and suspenseful and funny all at once. This particular volume collected a trio of continuities from 1936 and 1937 that introduced two of Segar’s greatest characters: the Jeep, a magical little critter who was so popular that the military vehicle was named after him, and Popeye’s father, the reprobate Poopdeck Pappy. Now, in more recent years, Fantagraphics has collected the entire run of Segar’s Thimble Theater strips on more than one occasion (any of which I recommend to anybody interested), so I in no way needed this volume. And yet, I wound up thinking about it the other day, and it was the work of a few minutes to seek out an affordable copy on eBay. And so I’ve got it again. I really am way too much of a pushover for this sort of thing, though fortunately I’m gainfully employed so I can afford to do this from time to time.

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Behind the Curtain

What you see here is a glimpse into the Marvel Bullpen itself. These two photographs showcase a special area that’s been set up to commemorate the Marvel of the past, the Marvel that no longer exists, when everything was done on tangible media and artists actually worked on occasion in the building. So each of those old school desks has pages culled from the Marvel Try-Out Book on them, and the walls are covered with photos and images representing some of the great creators and staff members who have worked for the company and helped make it what it is today. Fun fact: on the right wall is a reproduction of a populated map of the whole of Marvel produced around 1993 or thereabouts. I am the only person depicted in that drawing that still works for the company on a regular basis, a fact that I commemorated by putting a little stickie with a word balloon on it to my caricature, reading “Last One Standing!”

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Pimp My Wednesday

This is a pretty small week for us, but no less filled with excitement. So here’ what’s on the way to you!

NAMOR #7 is the penultimate issue of this project by Jason Aaron, Paul Davidson and Alex Lins, and it’s the one in which the Sub-Mariner learns the long-lost secret of Altantis that only the early kings were aware of. It’s a bit of a game-changer, and it’s got a ridiculously good extended battle sequence that only Jason could have come up with. This whole series is going to be very satisfying to read once it’s in a single volume—but who can wait that long?

And Annalise Bissa, Associate Editor extraordinaire, has another issue of PHOENIX by Stephanie Phillips and Alessandro Miracolo dropping this week! Maybe this is the one that will answer everybody’s lingering questions about Jean and the Phoenix and how they are one! Or maybe the Dark Gods will just louse up everything instead, they’re good at that.

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A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date

Well, not a comic book, really, and when I say worked on it, I don’t mean actually putting it together. But this MARVEL VISIONARIES Hardcover devoted to the work of editor and writer Stan Lee was released on February 2, 2005. And like the other volumes in this line, I was pretty much responsible for selecting which stories would be included. It’s an interesting challenge to try to sum up a creator’s whole body of work in just a limited number of pages—I think I had 336 to work with here, which was helpful. You want to cover all of the really key characters and stories that they worked on while also encompassing the whole of their career. With Stan, that included a lot of years in which he churned out a lot of repetitive and unmemorable pap, as well as a long stretch where he became an elder statesman and only came back to pen the occasional story. I’m pretty happy with how this volume balances all of that out. My favorite selections include a very early Captain America story with the Red Skull from CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #16, a forgotten short in which a fictionalized version of Stan argues with a guy who wants to ban horror comics, Stan’s favorite Daredevil story, done with Gene Colan, and the Spidey drug issues that ran originally without the Comics Code seal. I also included a short Spidey tale that Stan had written for Glenn Greenberg and myself for a 1995 Annual that was penciled by Darick Robertson and inked by George Perez. That one was a bit of an egotistical selection, but it did represent the Legend-era Stan pretty well, and I can vouch for the fact that he genuinely did write it. A good spread of artists represented in this book as well, including Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, the aforementioned Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Joe Maneely, Al Avison, Barry Windsor-Smith, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, John Romita, Marie Severin and Robertson and Perez. I still stand behind all of the volumes in this line 100%, so if you run across them anywhere and are tempted—buy them!

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The New Warriors Chronicles

As I’ve spoken about in the past, when I took over the series, NEW WARRIORS was in a bit of a scheduling crisis, a situation not made any easier by the fact that the writer was departing. Having found my replacement in the person of my old friend Evan Skolnick, I now had to deal with the shortfall. If I’m remembering things accurately, Evan wound up having to write his first three plots over the next three weeks in order to get us closer to back on track. Regular artist Richard Pace (not Case) was busy drawing issue #54, though he had enough time to generate this pretty cool cover. It does heavily weight the image towards Cut, his favorite design among the new villains we had introduced, but the image has some impact to it, so that was perfectly fine. (Cut’s partner was Dry, I am not kidding—not our finest hour in terms of creating character names…)

So for this issue, I needed a fill-in art job commissioned. The difficulty I had with that is that, as a young editor, I didn’t have much of a built-up farm team of creators whom I could call upon in a pinch just yet. And also, NEW WARRIORS was clearly a series on the decline, so artists weren’t exactly lining up wanting to draw it. It was also new enough that those same creators didn’t have any particular emotional attachment to it. So this presented a challenge. Having no other real option available to me, I began to scour what we used to call the “slush pile”, which was comprised of samples that prospective Marvel artists had sent in to be evaluated in the hopes of getting hired. Often, much of what was there was still woefully inadequate, but this time I lucked out.

I came across a set of pages done for an issue of NOW Comics’ GREEN HORNET series, penciled by Patrick (now Patch) Zircher. And they were a little bit raw around the edges, but the guts of them were exactly what I was looking for. In fact, the style felt a lot more in line with what I envisioned a NEW WARRIORS book should look like than what Pace had been doing. So I reached out to Patrick and hired him on to do just this single issue fill-in. But if it worked out, I would have a new person that I could add to my Rota and build up over time. For Zircher, this was the mainstream break that he had been waiting for, and he wasn’t about to blow it. The schedule was still bad enough that I needed to have two inkers jam to get the book completed, but that wasn’t Patrick’s fault. He came through on this issue really well. And if nothing else, he makes the somewhat ridiculous design of our mastermind villain Protocol actually look imposing.

This was also the issue where Evan began to set up the players that he wanted to use on a regular basis going forward. With most of the existing team captured, Nova is forced to call upon a number of the replacement Warriors who had been involved in the recent storyline leading up to issue #50. This included Turbo, a character that Evan had created as a series pitch and whom he’d permitted Fabian Nicieza to introduce to the Marvel Universe earlier, and Alex Power. We also began the reclamation project for Carlton LaFroyge, Hindsight Lad. Fabian had introduced him as something of a joke character. A classmate of Speedball’s who had discovered Speedy’s true identity, he had inveigled his way into the orbit of the team, where he wore a ridiculous homemade costume with rear view mirrors on his helmet and claimed that his ability was to tell people what they had done wrong after they had done it. Oh, and he was fat, too. Hindsight Lad felt less like a good-natured send-up of comic book fans than something that was a bit more mean-spirited, and so from the start I knew that we were going to need to give him a makeover to make him palatable. That process begins here as Nova legitimately needs Carlton’s help in contacting the reservists and getting him the help he needs. For the first time, he’s got a valuable role to play.

The cover on this issue is a bit garishly overcolored, which tended to happen as we all began to get our arms around computer coloring and how best to employ it. Here, color artist Jung Choi goes a bit overboard with the modeling on the logo letters and the cover copy, to the point where it’s a bit difficult to read, which defeats the purpose. But if nothing else, at that moment it helped to convey the idea that something different was going on here—even if you had to get up close to the cover in order to tell just what that was.

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Monofocus

This week I powered through the four episodes of the anniversary documentary series SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT. As I’ve talked about before, while I haven’t watched SNL with any regularity in 25 years, it was regular viewing for me during the 1980s and much of the 1990s, and I maintain a fascination with just how the show is put together every week. These episodes covered a lot of interesting behand-the-scenes ground, and they held my attention all the way through. The first one was about recruiting talent, and included clips from the audition pieces of a bunch of SNL stalwarts (each prospective player gets five minutes to essentially show off who they are and what they can do), the second one focused on the writer’s room and the weekly process of creating and honing an hour’s worth of live broadcast comedy, the third was completely dedicated to dissecting the history of a single sketch, the famous Cowbell, and the final one was dedicated to a long warts-and-all look to Lorne Michaels’ first season back at the helm, a year in which the show was whisker-close to being cancelled altogether. This was well put together, and I’ve got the two hour retrospective on the musical performances of SNL cued up to tackle next.

I also cracked the first episode of the new season of MYTHIC QUEST, Rob McElhenney comedy set behind the scenes at the offices of a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. To be honest, the show has probably overstayed its time at this point, having long since resolved most of the core conflicts of its characters in recent years. Thus, it now struggles to move people into new roles and new alignments while still not changing the underlying series structure at the same time. This is a delicate dance, and eventually it all gets a bit too unwieldy. That said, based on the first episode alone, the show is still pretty fun, and as it does thirty minute episodes, I’m likely to work my way through the balance of the season.

Elsewhere, a full trailer has now dropped for the upcoming prequel series MY HERO ACADEMIA: VIGILANTES (or “ILLEGALS” as it seems to be called in the title card) and I’m definitely primed for it. In fact, I pulled out the volumes of the manga intending to refresh my memory of them in preparation for the show, but I haven’t yet actually had a moment to review them. Anyway, this has become a very link-intensive Newsletter, but that won’t stop me from sharing the trailer with you. It’s at this link.

And finally, I came across a copy of KEEP YOUR HAIR BLACK by cartoonist Jordan Jeffries on a giveaway table up at Marvel and picked it up on a whim. This is a mini-comic, a ‘zine, hand-stapled and folded. It was released in 2014, so I have no idea how this copy got to Marvel a decade later. But I read it on the train and I was really impressed by it. The conceit of the volume (it’s not quite a book, more like a pamphlet if that makes sense) is that it’s a collection of short stories set between 1994 and 2007 in which specific songs are an element in different characters’ romantic relationships. And I thought it was really well done—so much so that, when I got home, I immediately looked up Jeffries online and ordered pretty much everything that he had still in print from his website, and I’ve been working my way through the stack ever since.

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Posted at TomBrevoort.com

Yesterday, I wrote about the MOVIEMAKER ILLUSTRATED COMICBOOK FILMBOOK

Five years ago, I reposted this piece about this example from How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way

And ten years ago, I wrote about this great cover.

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And that’ll do us, I think. As Sha Na Na used to say (link), grease for peace!

Hat’s All, Folks!

Tom B