#154: Video Jukebox Japan

So as some people asked about, this past week Marvel held one of its regular Editorial Retreats, at which the editors and key creators meet over the course of a few days to brainstorm and work out plotlines and directions for the next couple of years. In general, I tend to find these things relatively grueling—part of that is that they require an intense amount of concentration from me over multiple days, which isn’t easy to sustain. And secondly, because I’m not a big believer in the “wisdom of crowds.” I tend to like to bake stories with fewer voices in the mix, because past a certain mark, it’s impossible to get everybody to agree on anything. But all that said, this week’s version was fairly productive, and my own situation was aided by being able to stay over in the city for both nights, thus allowing me to get more sleep than I typically do on a workday. You’ll be seeing the fruits of this discussion come to fruition over the next bunch of months, all the way deep into 2026.

This week also saw the release of the first three chapters of X-MANHUNT, the first real line crossover we’ve done on the X-Titles. And as you’d expect, reactions so far have been mixed. But what I’ve found interesting is that almost everybody who talks about it has one chapter out of the three that dropped this week that they really liked and wanted the others to be more like. But those opinions were spread out relatively evenly among the three books. So all that seems to say is that STORM fans like STORM and NYX fans like NYX and UNCANNY X-MEN fans like UNCANNY X-MEN. More as this develops—we have the next two installments coming out this week.

And then finally, my Facebook memories feed kicked up a moment from eight years ago where I went down a bit of a large rabbit hole seeking out the Japanese versions of the opening titles to a number of super hero shows of the past. And since they were so handy and I still find these fascinating all this time later, I’m copying the links for you below:

IRON MAN 1996: This one uses the American opening animation but pairs it with an original Japanese theme, which is pretty cool.

SPIDER-MAN 1967: This one is awesome, as the Japanese wrote their own lyrics to the classic 1967 Spidey song! For those who are curious, these lyrics translate approximately to:

Aiming for prey like a spider

I'll fly between the buildings

Oh, it's a spider-man.

The spider's thread is the rope of justice

Once wrapped, it can never be unraveled

Oh, it's a spider-man.

Eyes shining in the darkness

I hate evil and I'm on fire

Let's go, it's an incident. Fire the rope.

Hurry to the scene, someone can help.

Look, I'm looking for it.

Just one more moment

Wow that's cool

Outstanding!

SUPERMAN 1966: A new theme song to this old show, which includes a Japanese title card inserted into the broadcast.

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN 1959: New Japanese narration replaces the original, but the music is the same.

BATMAN 1978: This one has a theme song that’s amazing, and also includes the equally-outlandish end title sequence and song. The Japanese production cut together a new set of titles for this show to go with their new music.

THE IMPOSSIBLES 1967: Included this one mainly because I love the fact that the new theme song is built around the team’s battle cry of “Rally Ho!”

SUPERMAN 1941: This particular YouTuber has uploaded the entire run of the Fleisher Studios/Famous Studios Superman cartoons from the 1940s, all of which have been subtitled in Japanese. I can only wonder what the Japanese audiences made of short like this one, “The Eleventh Hour”, and their propaganda racism.

WONDER WOMAN 1976: For the show’s second season and relocation to the present, the Japanese release got a new title theme.

And now it’s your turn to ask me a bunch of stuff, which i will hastily and half-heartedly attempt to respond to. So let’s go! Rally Ho!

Joe West

Are there any plans for Sam Alexander/Nova in the works? I feel like he used to be everywhere in the 2010s but now is so rarely utilized (he hadn’t appeared in anything between Fallen Friend in 2023 and New Champions #3 this month).

Well, Joe, the problem with having so many characters is that every single one has their fans, but it’s impossible to feature them all at any given time. While there aren’t any immediate plans for a new series with Sam, he’ll likely turn up somewhere again before too long.

Alison Cabot

will Emma wear the uniform she wears on the covers of Exceptional X-Men, or is it just for promotional purposes? Also, do you have any other plans for Emma, like appearances in other books or something more focused on her?

I feel like I’m missing something here, Alison, has Emma not been wearing that costume in EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN? As far as I can recall, she has. As for other Emma projects, you and your fellow fans have definitely heard about the upcoming EMMA FROST, THE WHITE QUEEN limited series, based on how many questions i got about it. So there’s that.

Joe

is there an answer on what happens if Rogue and Venom attempt to bond and whose powers would affect them in what way? My brother and I have been going back and forth for weeks now between "just Rogue, but more" and "life draining symbiote horror show" and we could use an expert authority.

Until somebody does this in a comic book story, Joe, it’s all simply conjecture. But I expect that a symbiote trying to bond with Rogue would probably be able to. Then again, she also might be able to suck the life out of it before that process completed itself, though what that might do to her in the process is also a question.

Callie

Are there any smaller comic publishers that you have your eye on, either out of professional curiosity, interest in the indie side of the industry, or as a place where you're keeping an eye out for up and comers? Not talking about like Image and Dark Horse and IDW, but actual smaller publishers

I don’t really view those companies in that manner, Callie. But I keep an eye out for anything that looks interesting, regardless of where it originates.

Badguise

How do you navigate moves that stimulate the comic collector's market? For example, the 1st appearance of a new character prompts some of us to buy a book we may not otherwise be reading. How tempting is it to keep pressing that button? Do you have internal numbers that guide this kind of decision?

With most things of this nature, Badguise, it really is difficult to weaponize them effectively. Sure, we could just suddenly introduce a plethora of characters, but that’s not going to be enough by itself to get you and everyone else to drop coin on all of them. so I’d say that we only do this in a relatively limited fashion.

Glenn Simpson

Over in the Spider-Man arena on Reddit, there is a recurring idea that the success of the new Ultimate Spider-Man (with a married Peter Parker) is an indication that the regular 616 Peter's marriage to MJ should be reinstated, and that it is a fault of the editor(s) over there for not recognizing that and thus reaping similar sales success. I don't necessarily agree, but wondered about your thoughts about how the one book's success affects the other.

Yeah, I’ve been hearing from a couple of yahoos whose idea of a good time is to send us the same form letter about MJ and Paul every single day , Glenn. But here’s the thing: I think the point of view that you’re talking about is simply incorrect. First off, the difference in sales between ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is relatively slim. It’s not like ULTIMATE is doing twice or three times the business or anything. And secondly, I don’t think that the success of ULTIMATE at the moment is just down to Pete and MJ being married within it. I think it has a lot more to do with the quality of the work that Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto are producing. So I get that people who want Pete and MJ back together are of course going to point to that series, but the truth is that it doesn’t really make a convincing argument to me at all. I’ve been around this particular sort of block too many times over the years to mistake the signals.

Betsy

How long do you plan on being the X-Men editor?

Will X-Men and Uncanny ever receive a roster shake up? New characters coming in, or will the rosters stay the same?

It isn’t really up to me how long I’ll be the editor of X-MEN, Betsy. But given my track record, I’d advise people to settle in. I had edited AVENGERS for 26 years when I stepped off, and have been doing FANTASTIC FOUR for 23 (with a multi-year break in the middle when we weren’t publishing it.) So I tend to stick around for the long haul. On the other hand, I could be gone tomorrow. So whichever you prefer, let that inform your dreams this evening. And we’ve already seen the casts of X-MEN and UNCANNY shift a little bit, and I’m sure we’ll see more there eventually.

X of Alex

On the topic of deciding to pull the plug on a series due to low sales--Is the decision taken based on the sales of the latest issue of a title? Sales over the financial quarter: i.e. three months, typically? Pre-order numbers for issues down the line?

These decisions, Alex, are always based on the existing sales trajectory and expectation, coupled with how expensive a title is to produce and any number of other ancillary factors. So it’s not something that you or any fan is going to always be able to predict, as you don’t really have access to the same sales data that we do.

Jeff Ryan

do you think this weekly newsletter, and your other online writings, helps you be a better big-picture editor?

I don’t really know that it does, Jeff.

Nick

How great is Aliens v Avengers?? Considering the talent involved it shouldn’t have been a surprise but I'm blown away by how fantastic each issue has been. Was it a project that started to come together when you were editing the Avengers line?

It did, yes, but I never really had any involvement with it, Nick. Rather, it was all the work of editor Sarah Brunstad.

Mongho

I don't think the X-Office is doing enough to rehabilitate Beast's reputation. All over the internet, you can't talk about Beast without someone going 'WARCRIMES' or 'how could you like that sack of ****?'

I’m sorry that you’re hearing whatever stuff that you’re hearing about a favorite character, Mongho. But I don’t really see it as an imperative to rehabilitate Beast’s reputation. We’re not going to be ignoring his past, as hopefully anybody who’s been reading X-MEN can see, but those earlier stories will continue to influence the stories we’re telling going forward. In coming onto the X-titles, as much as possible my philosophy was to “play the ball where it lays” in terms of the characters. There have been a lot of strange and confusing and even destructive stories about many of the X-characters over the years, but all of them also help to define what readers love about those characters. I’m interested in charting a course forward, not in trying to go back and erase some storytelling choices that I may not have liked.

MADMan James

The Shang Chi comments got me wondering about Doc Savage. His series isn’t available in Marvel Unlimited, presumably due to rights. However, a guest appearance in Marvel Two in One is available. Are the rights negotiations different for a guest spot?

It all depends upon what the original licensing deal states, I expect, James. In the case of that MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE issue, we had to skip including it in the MARVEL MASTERWORKS volume when we got up to that point, so we can’t easily reprint it. But digital may be something of an exception, since nobody may have thought about it when the original deal was made. Or this could be something else entirely.

KurtBusiek

I can't remember for sure, but was one of the reasons I left the book to make room for UNTOLD TALES, which launched later that year?

No, you were off of NIGHT THRASHER (and I’m pretty sure the final issues had shipped) by the time we reached out to you about UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN. I think more likely it was other projects elsewhere, such as JONNY DEMON, that were the culprit. That and the fact that you didn’t have any special desire to write Night Thrasher specifically.

Jordan L

what’s your personal preference regarding the portrayal of Xavier’s leg paralysis? I always assumed it would only be a matter of time before he was back in a wheelchair. But he’s been consistently waking around for what, 20 years at this point? I wonder if forcing him back into a wheelchair would feel too contrived at this point, especially because we’ve seen him gain and lose the ability to walk at least twice already.

“Play the ball where it lays”, Jordan. On the other hand, I did put Magneto into a hover-wheelchair.

Sergio Flores

I had a question about cover assignments. Does an interior artist on an issue have “right of first refusal” on receiving the cover assignment as well? Assuming that their speed allows them to do both I guess. I would guess that there are marketing and/or economic considerations that factor in as well (an Alex Ross or other superstar artists’s cover is probably going to sell more copies). And a first issue probably has more pressure to use a superstar artist. Maybe I’ve answered my own question here. Are there situations where an interior artist could easily do a cover but they’re passed over for a superstar? Is this something that new artists have to understand is just a part of the business?

The cover is as much a marketing tool as it is a page of the comic, Sergio—it’s the one image that most people are going to see before they buy your book. So nobody is guaranteed a spot on the cover. Certain artists are better at covers than others, and certain artists move the needle more in terms of fans responding to their work and picking up a book based on its cover imagery. So while it isn’t a problem for the interior artist to do the cover, it isn’t a guaranteed thing.

Gus

Storm #5 did a lot with Oblivion, Eternity, and the Living Tribunal, per Hickman's revamp in G.O.D.S.

My question is, now that Hickman moved on to other projects, is there someone who officially oversees those characters?

Those characters are mostly property of the entire Marvel Universe, Gus, so they mostly aren’t controlled by one specific office. Though people mostly tend to turn to me when they want to do something outré with them, given my position and long time overseeing the MU.

Tyler

I'm curious if the name ID of some titles plays a role in whether or not a book that isn't doing gangbuster sells continues or is canceled? Obviously full sales data isn't available to the public, but from what we're able to see it looked like NYX was doing just as well, if not slightly better, than Phoenix. But does Phoenix edge it out because it's the more broadly recognizable character/title? Which maybe also gives it more upside down the line?

As I mentioned above, Tyler, you and other fans like you really don’t have access to the genuine data in the same way that we do internally. So you’re making do with the best intel that you have, but it doesn’t give you an accurate picture of the situation. There can be instances in which the popularity of a character or something key about them may play a role in determining the future prospects of a series, sure. But that wasn’t the case in this instance.

Kevin F

How was the Marvel Summit? Did you and your X-Writers come together to map out the next year of stories? Can we expect new series soon to replace the recently canceled titles?

Spoke about the Summit at the top of this Newsletter, Kevin. But yes, we did some work on future X-plans over that span of time. In terms of replacing titles, that’s already been happening. We haven’t gone a single month since I’ve been running the line when we haven’t launched a new project of one sort or another. So there’s been a constant influx of new things all along, and there’ll continue to be.

Christopher Krayer

When using a countdown clock in a book, who's job is it to try to make it realistic? Does the writer put in the script the time clock and then the dialogue? Often I find characters saying 30 seconds of dialogue and the clock ticks down five seconds. Is it the artist who draws it into the action? I've seen books where a car chases go 5 miles in ten seconds. Is it the letter trying to make the script and the art match up? I feel like that should be one of the things an editor tries to make more realistic. Unfortunately I can count on hand I've seen comics do countdowns successfully. I wish we could get a system-wide ban on it.

I think the problem here, Christopher, is that you’re reading too slowly. But to answer your question fairly, typically it’ll be the writer who determines the clock times and who obviously writes the dialogue for any given panel, though in both cases, the editor can add or change it as seems appropriate. And in a world where we have human beings flying through the air, I’m less worried about being realistic than I am in verisimilitude, and in the drama of any given situation.

Shaun

With Storm ditching the X-Men for the Avengers, is it time for the twins to come home? Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver should be on an X team, it's only fair!

Nah, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch aren’t mutants, Shaun, so while it wouldn’t be impossible to put them into X-books, they wouldn’t be among my first choices.

Michael

Can you think of any reason why, in this year of the Fantastic Four movie, Marvel is simply re-issuing two of the previous Waid/Wieringo collections with new trade dress instead of releasing Epic collections of the material? I'm considering buying them, but don't want to if Epic volumes are coming or if the complete series isn't re-released. (I'm a little gun-shy after the Mighty Marvel Masterworks series was retroactively cancelled.)

I can think of all sorts of reasons, Michael, which is why those books have been released in those formats. An Epic collection would be pricier and also be less inviting to a more casual consumer who might be interested in the characters due to the promotion for the upcoming film. Especially because, in that format, it would be Volume 22 or some such. That said, you should definitely pick it up, as it’s a great run and you’ll enjoy it.

Michael Simpson

Can we expect this new exploration of Emma’s past and introduction of new characters to somehow affect the present day version of this character? Or will all this be entirely secluded to the past?

The story is set entirely in the past, Michael. But like everything else, it forms a part of Emma’s history that can be called upon again in the present as need be.

Branden

I was wondering what seems to be the appeal of limited series' set in a character's past. We've gotten quite a few of those lately, from Ann Nocenti's Storm to Rogue: The Savage Land, and to the Emma Frost: White Queen title that was just announced today as of writing this comment. Is there more value to these stories than giving them solo adventures in the present or is it perhaps because Rogue and Emma are both vital pieces of team books?

Well, Branden, part of the appeal is simply the fact that a lot of readers seem to like them. That ROGUE project, for example, sold really well for us, for all that certain corners of the internet were outraged at the very idea of it before it came out. But certainly, it does make it simpler to coordinate matters in the present when the characters aren’t showing up on a regular basis in multiple books. Though it’s not like we don’t do that also, as can be seen with PSYLOCKE and MAGIK, for instance. It isn’t really a question of more so much as it is different. In this case, we weren’t trying to build an Emma series set in the present. And doing this story doesn’t keep us from doing that at some point in the future.

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Off The Wall

What you see above is a really nice double-page splash penciled by Scott Kolins for AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES #1 featuring the original Avengers. Scott gave it to me as a gift once the project reached its conclusion. By this point, Kolins had developed an appealing line-based style, as you can see above. The precision of his line here is pretty immaculate. These pages were all colored directly from these tight pencils for the final book. It’s one of the nicest original images that I own.

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On The Spinner Rack

Another week comes with another turn of this baby, so let’s see what’s come up this time. It tops off with a pair of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby THOR issues. Then there’s a random AVENGERS issue by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, followed by one of the great 100-Page issues of DETECTIVE COMICS edited by Archie Goodwin. Below that, we have a Roy Thomas and Gene Colan issue of DAREDEVIL, followed by an AVENGERS ANNUAL drawn by the late Don Newton, one of the few Marvel super hero jobs he did. Next is a battered copy of an issue of Bob Bollings’ great series LITTLE ARCHIE, followed by a reprint of an issue of SUB-MARINER that was packed in with an action figure. Finally at the bottom, we have an issue of Marvel’s MIGHTY MOUSE comic in which I wrote the back-up story, and an issue of WILDSTORM SPOTLIGHT written by Alan Moore and featuring Mr. Majestic.

I also have a second spinner rack in my office space. This one’s not an original rack, but rather one of the replicas that were offered for purchase through Kickstarter a few years back. This particular rack is entirely dedicated to copies of comic books that I myself edited, so it’s a lot more egotistical than the other one. But I figured that I could show it as well. so from the top here, we have the last issue of the first volume of SILVER SURFER by Dan Slott and Mike Allred as well as the first issue of the second volume below it. Beneath that are two crossovers, INCREDIBLE HULK VS SUPERMAN and JLA/AVENGERS #1, both of which I worked on. Next is the Eisner Award-winning CAPTAIN AMERICA #601 by Ed Brubaker and Gene Colan, Gene’s final Marvel job, followed by the final issue of UNSTABLE MOLECULES, a favorite series. Next is the first issue of CIVIL WAR II, an issue of SHIELD by Mark Waid and Chris Sprouse, and the first issue of ORIGINAL SIN. Finally at the bottom is the lenticular cover edition of AVENGERS #675, the first part of the 16-part NO SURRENDER weekly storyline.

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I Buy Crap

What you see above is the printer’s proof for the cover to FLASH #227, one of the earliest comic books that I can recall buying. I own a number of these original proofs, many of which I bought at the estate sale for editor Julie Schwartz. This one, though, I ran across on eBay, and the owner offered me a good deal on it. I can recall seeing this Nick Cardy cover on the magazine rack of the little candy store that my mother would take us to after church on Sundays, a place where I got a bunch of my earliest comic books before they stopped carrying them a short time later. Flash’s earpieces are huge in this image, and the impression the cover gives is somewhat at odds with the contents of the story, which is about Captain Boomerang’s aged father who keeps a scrapbook concerning his son’s illegal activities. But as a seven-year-old, I loved it. If you’re interested, I wrote about the issue extensively over at this link. I still have my original copy, now coverless and in tatters, on my spinner rack. But this proof will end up framed and mounted in the same area as the other ones I own.

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Behind the Curtain

This is the first page to the very first X-Men story that I ever worked on in an editorial capacity, a little three-page adventure designed to introduce the readers of FOX KIDS Magazine to the heroes who would soon be lighting up their Saturday mornings. It was written by Scott Lobdell, who was then the regular writer on UNCANNY X-MEN, and he was the one who suggested that we get Dave Cockrum to illustrate it, which was a good call as Dave had devised many of the characters featured in the show. Inks were provided by Jimmy Palmiotti, and colors were done by Paul Mounts. Paul produced fully painted colors for this story, as the magazine had way better reproduction than the comics did at this point in time. This is why there are registration marks on the board. When the page was shot, we’d get a transparent black plate and an image in non-reproducing blue printed on watercolor board, on which Mounts would paint the final colors. The registration marks permitted us to precisely align the two layers. That Rogue balloon looks like it’s been corrected to include a reference to her super-strength for the purposes of clarity—the audience for this story was expected to never have heard of the X-Men before this.

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Pimp My Wednesday

X-MANHUNT continues on this week, with two chapters dropping at a comic book retailer near you! Plus some other surprises! Let’s see what we’ve got!

Despite the wrong credits on this mock-up, this issue of X-MEN was produced by the regular team of Jed MacKay and Netho Diaz, and they pick up where STORM #6 left off, with the X-Men attempting to recapture the fleeing Professor X, who is under Storm’s protection.

And then comes X-FACTOR #8, which is also Legacy #300, where editor Darren Shan takes over for a chapter. Creators Mark Russell and Bob Quinn pit their team against the aforementioned X-Men, and we learn a little bit more about what is driving Professor X’s flight. But the whole thing moves into X-FORCE next week.

Meanwhile, Jason Aaron, Paul Davidson and Alex Lins wrap up their undersea epic adventure of NAMOR with the release of its 8th and final issue. I really love this little series, which owes as much to the sort of men’s adventure stories that Jason specializes in as to being a super hero comic. We wind up in an interesting status quo for the subsea realms as well.

And finally, Associate Editor Annalise Bissa along with writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Alessandro Miracolo move Jean Grey into a showdown with Perrikus and his Dark God brethren in PHOENIX #9. Jean gets a bit of a costume redesign in this one, not that you can tell that from this particular Yasmine Putri cover.

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A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date

MOCKINGBIRD #1 was released on March 9, 2016, nine years ago, and quickly went on to garner acclaim for its approach to story structure and its handling of its lead character. The series was written by Chelsea Cain, a prominent author who was put in touch with me by mutual friend Brian Bendis. Artwork was provided by Kate Niemczyk, who was then a newcomer in the field. The entire creative team was made up of women, and I only edited the first two issues, passing control of the series over to Katie Kubert and Christina Harrington at that point, as seemed appropriate. Unfortunately, in the wake of the infamous “milkshake” incident when a bunch of braindead troglodytes decided that the problem with comic books was that people kept letting girls make them, the series became something of a flashpoint for controversy, deserved or not. To her credit Chelsea never backed down from a fight, even when it was one that she couldn’t really win on a battleground—the internet—where you weren’t ever going to change anybody’s mind and where the point of the attack had little to do with a comic book story and more to do with larger culture wars. It was all pretty ridiculous, but I was proud of her for standing up or herself, even if doing so occasionally gave me some headaches by way of blowback. All in all, the book ran for eight issues and was pretty wonderful and well-remembered by those who read it. So I’d still call that a win.

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The New Warriors Chronicles

We wound up needing another fill-in art job on NOVA #15, mainly because I wanted to be sure that writer/artist Chris Marrinan would be able to draw the big finale to his long-percolating “Deathstorm” storyline in #16. I suspect that we may have had trouble finding anybody to step into the breach on such short notice, as the artist who did this issue, Mike Harris, wasn’t really a good stylistic match with what Marrinan had been doing, though he tried his best to mimic the style. But Mike was much more from the Neal Adams school of comic book illustration, and so the more kinetic and exaggerated style that Marrinan used wasn’t his natural approach. It was a bit of an ill-fit. I’m sure that under other circumstances, we would have brought Dario Carassco back again, but we had him busy drawing NIGHT THRASHER at the time. But pulling the issue back out for this piece, I find that the end result was more pleasing than I had remembered.

In this issue, the big threat is Kraa, who was related to Zorr, the first foe that Nova had battled when he got his powers. The character is a bit undercooked here, but he was set up as being a deadly interplanetary scourge, and Nova is shanghaied into space by other members of the Nova Corps in order to confront him. I think I was a bit stumped by what to do for cover copy on this issue’s cover, as it showcased Kraa, a new villain, and Nova himself was only barely visible. But I do still kind of love the rhyming tag line that I came up with here, even if it is wonderfully silly (and relies on a reader knowing who the hell Zorr is in the first place.)

It also looks to me like this issue ran a page over length, as there isn’t any letters page, which forced us to include the Statement of Ownership, which was required to run due to second class postage requirements, on the final story page of the issue, which looks terrible. Looking at the numbers, it shows that NOVA had been selling 41,975 copies, and that would have been a few issues earlier. During this time, if your book fell below 40,000 copies, it was slated for cancellation, so clearly the series was about to hit the rocks if it hadn’t gotten there already. I knew that I had to make some sort of a change, so it’s maybe time to get into the plan that I spoke a bit about a few weeks past.

During this period, there were a couple of moves that you could make with a book that stood a good change of garnering interest and spiking sales. You could marry the lead character or have them have a kid, but those weren’t options for Nova. You could kill somebody important off, but apart from Nova himself, there wasn’t anybody in the series who would have made much of an impact if they met their maker. You could change the creative team, bringing on a fan favorite writer or artist who might bring their fans to the book. But there weren’t any big deal Nova fans that we were going to be able to get as new creators—we were having enough trouble staffing fill-in artists. Which left the final two options: you could bring in another character to take over the mantle of your lead character, and you could change the main character’s costume. So that’s what I figured we had to do. It would be an eleventh hour Hail Mary play, but I figured that such a move was the only chance the series had to keep going.

I spoke to Chris about this, explaining my reasoning, and he began to think about it. Along with some pages for #16, he sent in a small sketch of a half-formed new look for Nova that included no helmet, wild, wavy black hair and a blackened face. The design wasn’t complete, but I liked it, and it became the centerpiece of the New Nova endeavor. (Eventually, it would become the design of Garthan Saal, the replacement Xandarian Nova we’d bring on in a few issues. But there’s more to the story than that.) I also let Evan Skolnick know about this, since it would impact on NEW WARRIORS, and he was very strongly against the idea. Evan had intended to make Nova the center of his New Warriors team, effectively the lead character, and this would completely kibosh those plans. But I told him that I felt I had to do what I could to salvage the solo series, so we’d need to incorporate whatever happened into the team title as well. And that’s maybe a good place to leave things until NOVA rotates back around in these walkthroughs.

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Monofocus

I was given a volume of the manga during last year’s Reading Circle Secret Santa and enjoyed it enough where I meant to seek out more at some point, so I’ve begun watching the anime for FRIEREN: BEYOND JOURNEY’S END on Netflix. And so far, I’m finding it a very calm and tranquil show, very much in the spirit of the manga that I had read. The story concerns Frieren, an elven mage in a Dungeons and Dragons-style world who, years ago, alongside a party of adventurers, had defeated a great evil and saved the world. But Elves have much longer lifespans than the other races, and so the actual story here is about Feieren being called back into the world of her friends, who have all aged or died since last she saw them. She has a different perspective on life, and her journey is one of learning to value the things that are important while she has them. So it’s less plot-oriented, at least in the earliest episodes, and more character-centric, while also world-building the universe in which the story is set. Here’s a really nice trailer that does a good job of getting across the show’s melancholy flavor.

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Posted at TomBrevoort.com

Yesterday, I wrote about the first issue I received in my one-year FANTASTIC FOUR subscription.

Five years ago, I wrote about some more Marvel Covers From Around The World

And ten years ago, I wrote about the FANTASTIC VOYAGE animated series.

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Rally Ho, Hatketeers! That’s going to bring this edition to a close! So stay safe, keep your head on a swivel, and I’ll hopefully see you again next time!

Hat’s All, Folks!

Tom B