#163: It's Harder To Let Go
My brother, the talented Mighty Joe Castro (whose own Newsletter can be found here), released a new single this past Friday off of his forthcoming album Between the Lightning and the Thunder. It’s a really good tune, one of his best—and you can experience it for yourself at this handy link.
A multi-talented artist, he did the design for this cover as well.
Apart from that, right into things this time, I think. So bring on those questions!
Joe West
You answered Montana’s question about whether or not Wiccan and Hulkling would appear in Imperial, so I thought I’d go for it and ask: will we see Sam Alexander/Nova in Imperial?
This is the downside with answering any questions of this sort, Joe—other fans then feel empowered to ask the same thing about their own favorites. So let’s not make this a stampede, folks—but just to get it out of the way, no, Joe, Sam Alexander won’t be a player in IMPERIAL, sorry.
Stefan
"But, for example, I don’t think you can point to a story on the face of the Earth that would be better if the characters weren’t named in it."
12 Angry Men.
I didn’t say “good”, Stefan, I said “better”. And while there is a certain thematic resonance to the twelve jurors in that film being nameless anypeople, is it really better than them being called Jack, Pete, Bob and Wilbur? I don’t know that it really is.
Rich Johnston
"I don’t think you can point to a story on the fact of the Earth that would be better if the characters weren’t named in it." - The Handmaid's Tale? The Ocean At The End Of The Lane? Withnail And I? The Witches? Heart Of Darkness? Breakfast At Tiffany's? Fight Club? The Tell-Tale Heart? Rebecca? Layer Cake? Those come to mind... And in comics, The Immortal Iron Fist uses that to effect.
You’ve completely convinced me here, Rich. I look forward to all forthcoming Bleeding Cool stories not naming any characters or creators going forward.
Yliaster
Are there any plans to use the G.O.D.S. characters beyond the Doom one-shot and Scarlet Witch & Vision?
How much is enough, Yliaster? You just listed two upcoming instances where we’ll be touching upon the players in G.O.D.S. Is that not enough? Where is the line on this stuff? Either way, the answer is yes, of course there are plans to use them beyond this.
Brandon Giles
Do you know why JLA/AVENGERS is the only story missing from the DC VS MARVEL omnibus? Are there any plans to do a reprint of the trade anytime soon now that DC and Marvel are open to collaboration again?
I would guess, Brandon, that this is down to the fact that JLA/AVENGERS is large enough on its own to fill up a collection handily, and that such a collection had recently been issued on a limited basis. At the moment, so far as i know, there aren’t any plans to go back to press on it.
Jeff Ryan
When a character who normally appears in a group book gets a miniseries or solo book, is it implied this is the first time they've had an independent away-from-the-team adventure? Or that all the characters have nonstop busy lives, and we'll hear about a minus-their-team adventure from Vision or Iceman or Johnny Storm now?
I think this depends on which character and what story, Jeff. But typically, unless it’s the point of the story, these instances aren’t typically treated as though they’re the one-and-only adventure said character has experienced apart from the team.
Sean Farrell
If we’re still mentioning great final issues - All Star Western #34 by Justin Grey, Jimmy Palmiotti & Darwyn Cooke. It wrapped up J&J’s 105 issue run (!!!) but it tied up Jonah’s previous series as well. Beautiful art by Dar never hurt any book either.
I hadn’t realized that combined run went on for 105 issues, Sean. I liked it as JONAH HEX before the switch-over and was less interested in it after it became ALL-STAR WESTERN.
Jenn
Would there ever be a chance of publishing the Fall of X Unlimited series that Dani was a part of? Her leading X-Corp alongside Sunspot and half of Krakoa Excalibur was an amazing story and I know some fans like myself would love to have it in print to complete our collections.
it isn’t impossible that we might someday do a print version of that story, Jenn—though I have to think that the further away from its publication we get, the less relevant it becomes, and so the less likely it becomes as well.
Chris Sutcliffe
Reading a bunch of comics from the 90s that got cancelled in the same month -- Morbius and Silver Sable in this example -- and it got me wondering whether this was just coincidence, or whether there are certain times of year where you're checking the profitability of the line and cancelling series.
This has differed at assorted times over the years, Chris. But in general today, the possibility of cancellation is a rolling condition and not something that’s only evaluated once or twice in a given year.
Jordan L
in the past you’ve discussed your enjoyment of My Hero Academia and the Vigilantes spin-off. I’m curious if you’ve read any of the other big Shonen Jump action series of the current era. Specifically, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Demon Slayer. I feel as though JJK in particular shares a lot of DNA with the X-Men franchise.
I haven’t read Jujutsu Kaisen, Jordan, but I have sampled the other two. Might have to remedy that.
James Rhoads
Are there any dead characters that you don't want brought back? Most deaths of notable characters are undone after a year or two, but some have remained dead for over a decade. If a writer wanted to bring back characters like Nomad, Bill Foster, or Dorma would you veto any?
There probably are, James, but I don’t know that I could rattle off a list for you or anything. But like killing a character, resurrecting a character after a long time needs a compelling reason for it to happen, at least for me. So for Nomad and Bill Foster, the fact that their places have been taken by other similar characters—the Winter Soldier and Tom Foster, respectively—means that I wouldn’t be in any huge rush to bring either one of them back. Dorma, on the other hand, Kurt Busiek and I hinted might return in the near future during the NAMOR limited series we did during the KING IN BLACK crossover.
Seastar
What's a Fantastic Four villain that you like who maybe isn't in the limelight much anymore? I always liked the Mad Thinker.
Tough question really, Seastar, as if I did feel this way about a given FF villain I could simply ask Ryan North to bring them back next month.
CG
I know the Betsy Conglomeration can be a tad bit vocal and hopefully respectfully so 😌 my question is since we’re gonna be in a Betsy content drought for an undetermined amount of time. Are you able to tease at all if she will show up in PRIDE one-shot or the VIGIL one-shot; so at least we’ll have something to look forward to. Thanks. 🙏🏼
Can’t speak for the PRIDE one-shot, CG, as I haven’t been involved in that book. But Betsy isn’t in the VIGIL, sorry.
Neil Cohen
I agree with what you said about supporting characters, it seems the heroes have retreated more to their ivory towers. Do you think it's a problem when they turn the 'human' supporting characters into superhuman, like Flash into Venom, MJ into Jackpot/Venom? I don't think these days we'd get an "X-Men go skating at Rockefeller Center" scene.
I think it’s definitely a problem to turn every civilian in the cast into a super hero, Neil. Heck, on live action super hero programs, it’s pretty much a cliche at this point, happens all the time. But I don’t love it as a thing in the comics, either. So I didn’t love the development of MJ becoming Jackpot, for example—at least in my interpretation of that character, she didn’t really have any strong desire to go seek out fights or to risk her life battling evil or whatever. But that’s why Marvel is a group, different people can have different ideas, and some of those ideas will work.
Geo Harriet
1) Star Blazers or Spaceship Battleship Yamato... I remember enjoying episodes as a kid but zero recollection of the story other than the cool ass Battleship. As I've gotten older, I prefer a bit more story and scifi than humor and melodrama. I think this series would fit that. If so, where would you recommend a good start to watching? Original series? One of the films? Remake?
2) I remember seeing Akira and Black Magic M-66 back in high school and loved Scavenger's Reign (not anime, but have you seen it?) recently. But I have not kept up with anime at all. I love scifi and tech and based on those I just mentioned, do you have a couple anime recommendations either movie or series wise in that direction?
While I personally don’t think it’s as good as the original series, these days I’d likely point people towards the 2199 remake series, Geo. It’s definitely a lot more contemporary and its visuals aren’t as obviously dated as the old show, which shows its age nowadays.
Boy, this seems like it ought to be an easy lay-up, but nothing instantly comes to mind. I tend to talk about whatever anime I’ve been watching in the regular Monofocus sections, though, so that may be a good place to seek out some recommendations. But I find it difficult to cast for somebody I don’t really know at such a remove, sorry.
Venus
With regards to these Giant-Size issues coming up, I saw Luciano Vecchio has posted a teaser image for the so-called Revelations Back-up story at the end of the first issue. With a teaser on AIPT indicating that a character in this story will appear in the X-Men books this year. Can we assume that all the Revelations stories will be lead ins for upcoming stories?
Not precisely, Venus, but all of the Revelations back-ups will definitely be relevant to upcoming stories, even if they aren’t all as direct as being a lead-in.
Darrell Stark
While we are on the subject of names. DC has taken to having their big 3 call each other Clark, Bruce, and Diana while in costume, That seems like poor Op-Sec to me.
Unrelated question: Is there any chance of adjusting Howards the Duck's appearance now the Marvel is part of the Disney family?
I tend not to like that either, Darrell—I seem to think that it was writer Brad Meltzer who first popularized that approach. On the other hand, I don’t really mind the X-Men calling one another Scott and Logan and Kurt and whatever, so it’s very much a situational thing. I think you can use the civilian names just so long as you also include the super hero name prominently and early. And no, the conditions that required those changes to Howard’s design are still in place, and after so many years, there really isn’t any good reason to even want to go back to the old design at this point other than nostalgia.
Ray Cornwall
I hang on the subreddit for Marvel Unlimited, and the most frequently asked question in there is "Where do I start?" My advice is always "wherever you feel like", along with some common starting points. But my advice has always been to just find what brings you joy as a reader, keep a browser open to a Marvel wiki page when you get lost, and just have fun. What advice do you give to new readers?
Pretty much exactly this, Ray. Though I will try to tailor a recommendation to a specific potential reader if I know who they are and what they’re apt to like or be the most interested in. I do think that comics in general have spent so much time talking about the interconnectivity of all of these stories that they do create their own barrier-to-entry among people who don’t know any better. Especially in the era of streaming and binging, I think few people test out a new show with a random episode any longer. Everyone is more apt to start at the beginning. So the same feeling extends to comics.
Nacho Teso
who came up with the name New Avengers for the relaunch after Avengers Disassembled? Were other names considered at the time?
Also, the title ended up vanishing when U.S.Avengers came out. Did you ever consider another volume? Or were there enough Avengers titles and that made it difficult for New Avengers to have a reason to exist?
It’s been a long while, Nacho, but I’d guess that it was either Brian Bendis or else Joe Quesada (or perhaps the two of them in conversation) who landed on the name NEW AVENGERS. And no, no other names were considered, apart from possibly just AVENGERS. Looking back, I was surprised that it had been so long since we last did a NEW AVENGERS series. But we had been dealing with diminishing returns on books with that title ever since Bendis brought back AVENGERS, so it may simply have been that by that point, there wasn’t any great benefit to using it. I do remember having to convince people to call Jonathan’s run NEW AVENGERS, as a few people were hung up on the idea that it didn’t really feature the New Avengers. But my take in that instance was that it was a strong name with a strong pedigree and that would serve the project better than calling it something like ILLUMINATI.
Justin Wilder
Now that three of the line's books, specifically team books, are coming to a close, do you have any takeaways or reflections that you'd be willing to share? I know you don't edit any of the three directly, but I'm curious from your role and process in the Conductor of X capacity.
A somewhat related question - is there any further public source of sales data or ways consumers can see how well a book is doing? I always check out ICv2's monthly sales chart and Bleeding Cool's weekly report for Wednesday sales, but both are only pulling from a small number of stores in the ComicHub system. I had causally started tracking NYX, X-Force and X-Factor's rankings on those charts since they debuted and was curious if there was more data I could dive into.
I think people are maybe making too big a deal out of the fact that certain series are running their course, Justin. This is nothing new—if you look at the two rounds of X-Books last launched during the Krakoa era, you’ll find that pretty much all of those were only around for a limited time as well. Right from the start, i was very up front about the fact that not everything that we tried was going to be successful long term, and that possibly nothing we did was going to work. You can’t predict what the audience is going to connect with, you can simply place good bets and back material that you believe in. So everything that every pundit is saying is absolutely correct, but I still wouldn’t have done anything much differently in retrospect. If all that an NYX or an X-FACTOR can do at the moment is ten issues, then I’m fine with those being the ten—even though I would certainly have liked a #11 and a #12 and so on. And no, I don’t know that there’s really any public source that you can look at to find up-to-date and accurate sales data. Just about everybody putting information of that sort out into the public is at best guessing.
Branden
Something that I've been wondering about lately is what is your approach with characters who have backstories that might be controversial or complicated? For instance, many people have pointed out how Magma's backstory is inspired by another story that is controversial in itself and involves certain aspects that certainly wouldn't fly in modern days; and on the other side of the question, there is the whole... Monet St Croix, M Twins, Penance debacle.
What do you believe is the best way to navigate situations such as these?
As I’ve said a few times already in these answers today, Branden, it depends entirely on the specific situation that we’re dealing with. But there are certainly storytelling choices that are seen as tone-deaf or ill-considered today, and that wouldn’t all be handled in the same manner. Sometimes, that means becoming comfortable with calling a character John Greycrow rather than the derogatory codename he’d been saddled with. In other cases, it may mean pivoting away from using certain characters unless there’s a very good or necessary reason to. and sometimes, it’s just about focusing on the stuff that still works and is relevant and not bringing up the occasional awkward story that may be lurking in a character’s back catalog.
Yliaster
Regarding the new AoA series, the Marvel.com article says that it takes place after the original AoA crossover. Does that mean it's going to ignore all the stuff from the 2010s (Uncanny X-Force, David Lapham's AoA, X-Termination)? Because it ends with the universe being damned to be devoured by a horde of reality-consuming monsters while Death Seed Jean Grey holds them off for a while to seal off the reality.
Also, any Nate Grey crumbs?
We’re not going to ignore that any of that stuff existed, Yliaster, but neither are we going to spend a whole lot of time accounting for any of it either. It’s tough enough to do a story that harkens back to a big event that saw print three decades ago in terms of making the story accessible to a readership of today. But once you try to square every circle of every follow-up story that had been tried in the time between, you’re talking to only the narrowest portion of the audience. So we’re going to work to keep everything as clean as possible here. And the project is being written by Jeph Loeb, so the likelihood that you’ll see Nate Grey in it somewhere is probably better than average.
X of Alex
On the topic of long-running series renumbering to #1--that's commonplace now, but it was almost never seen from the 60s to the mid-80s. Was this hesitance to turn the meter back to #1 due to an abundance of mail subscriptions, or something else?
No, Alex, it was the fact that until the advent of the direct market, there wasn’t any great sales reason to reset the numbering of a given title. And in fact, at different periods, a new #1 would have a harder time getting placement on the newsstand rather than being something that was sought after. It was only once the fan-aligned direct marketplace became such a force in distribution that people started to realize that those consumers were more likely to turn out for a new #1, and so relaunching became another tool in the arsenal.
JV
Can you talk about the decision to hire Mike Grell to write Iron Man in the mid 2000s?
It seems like an odd choice - a writer known for grounded action or fantasy work mainly in the creator owned world. Also at a time where the Avengers books were being helmed by new and 'hot' writers entering the field.
I say this as a huge Mike Grell fan - so no disrespect intended.
I think Mike was maybe the right person for the job at the wrong time, unfortunately, JV. But based on his work on WARLORD and GREEN ARROW and JON SABLE, FREELANCE and the like, I felt as though he could write complex and compelling grown up characters, and that seemed like a good fit for Tony Stark to my mind. if I’m recalling things correctly, it was Kurt Busiek who first put the idea of Grell into my mind.
Off The Wall
This spread is I believe the largest piece of original artwork that I own. It comes from an issue of DARK REIGN: ZODIAC, a three-issue limited series by Joe Casey and Nathan Fox that introduced a new villainous character to the Marvel Universe, one whom we’ve brought back in recent years to bedevil Moon Knight. Nathan had chosen to draw the book on larger boards than had become industry standard, much closer to the twice-up size that had been used up through the mid-1960s. And after the project had completed, he gave me this spread as a gift. It sat in my office for years as it was simply too unwieldy to easily transport home with me. It wasn’t until I needed to clean my office out during the COVID lockdown that I was able to get it out of there and back to my home. The thing is enormous.
On The Spinner Rack
The Racks turn and new comics from the past show up!
Starting at the top here, we have a beaten up copy of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #115, followed by my original now-coverless subscription copy of FLASH #232 and then a copy of FLASH #229 that I bought in recent years—all of them 100-Page Super-Spectaculars, a format that I loved. Underneath that is FLASH #77, part of the “Return of Barry Allen” story—I was so into that story as it was coming out that even though I’d eventually get a copy in my Marvel comp bundle I started buying the book new every week when it came out starting with this issue. Under that is FANTASTIC FOUR #229, the one and only HOWARD THE DUCK ANNUAL, and an issue of the fun indy book QUICKEN FORBIDDEN. Next is an issue of FANTASTIC FORCE that I wrote, a random issue of TOMB OF DRACULA and finally ACTION COMICS #800
And on the Me-Rack, we start off with the issue of AVENGERS that introduced Triathlon, followed by a version of AVENGERS #1 that was printed with a chromium cover. Next is DEATHLOK #3, the first good comic that I put out and one that made it seem entirely too easy to do so. Under that is FANTASTIC FOUR #16, my last as editor at least for a few years. Then CIVIL WAR #7 and the MARVELS EPILOGUE, an issue of FF, the last issue of the first series of SHE-HULK by Slott and Pelletier, a SECRET AVENGERS issue that contained a Modesty Blaise pastiche, and an issue of the Waid/Wieringo FANTASTIC FOUR run.
I Buy Crap
I ordered a copy of this book pretty much on a whim, based almost entirely on the design twanging the strings of nostalgia in my heart. I figured it was going to be another in a growing series of volumes that serve to try to build up Jack Kirby (a sentiment I’m in favor of) at the expense of Stan Lee (a a sentiment that I’m not.) But to my great surprise, it was a lot more even-handed than that, a volume that expresses a point of view similar to my own: the idea that it isn’t necessary to tear one man down to show support for the other, and the fact that the Marvel Universe as we understand it wouldn’t have come to fruition without both creators working in tandem, if not always together.
Behind the Curtain
And speaking of Jack Kirby, those who knew him will tell you that Jack’s experiences during World War II had a profound effect on him, and that he’d tell his old war stories at any opportunity. For a time, while working on THE LOSERS in OUR FIGHTING FORCES for DC, he fictionalized some of those personal tales. i think it’s fair to say that the War was a seminal event in Kirby’s life, one that haunted him for the remainder of his days. Exactly when he produced the piece above is uncertain, but it looks to my eye to have been a product of the mid-late 1970s. I suspect that the color may have been added to it some time after it had initially been drawn. Kirby had a powerful and unique sense of color, one that wasn’t rooted in realism so much as emotionalism—making an image look like what it felt like. Anyway, whether this moment was reflective of a personal experience on Jack’s part or simply on a situation that he thought was powerful, the end result here is pretty impactful.
Pimp My Wednesday
It’s a big week for releases out of my office. So let’s get started!
What’s the best extended battle sequence you’re going to experience this year? Well, I can’t say for sure, but I feel pretty confident that ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM will contain one that’ll be in the top-3. It’s by Ryan North and RB Silva and it pits Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Doom against Dormammu, with the winner taking the Earth.
UNCANNY X-MEN #14 continues the “Dark Artery” storyline which sheds some light on the history of Haven House, where the X-Men have chosen to make their home. It’s delivered by Gail Simone and David Marquez—this book is always at its strongest when David is there to deliver the visuals.
And things are also pretty intense over in the pages of EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #9, as the crew goes up against Mister Sinister in order to rescue the stricken Axo from his clutches. Eve L. Ewing writes it and Carmen Carnero illustrates it.
Elsewhere, FANTASTIC FOUR is now FANTASTIC ONE, after an escapade to restore Ben Grimm’s stolen powers has gone awry, leaving only Valeria Richards to sort matters out. I think that this issue will be quite unexpected—but then, what else WOULD you expect from Ryan North and Cory Smith at this point?
And over in WEAPON X-MEN #4, a large face familiar to long-time readers makes its reappearance, courtesy of Joe Casey and Chriscross—as well as some dumb luck. When this story was first plotted, Marvel’s rights to Red Ronin were in question, which meant that we were going to have to field it in an incomplete fashion, with its outer shell having been disassembled and never calling it by its proper name. But as this issue was being produced, that situation righted itself, meaning that we could make Red Ronin clearly red Ronin again! And that’s how you’ll get to enjoy it.
And finally, courtesy of Associate Editor Annalise Bissa, PHOENIX moves into a new story arc in its eleventh issue, featuring the return of Jean’s long-dead sister Sara grey. Only Stephanie Phillips and Roi Merdaco know why and how she’s back—for everybody else, you’re going to have to read it for yourselves.
A Comic Book On Sale 85 Years Ago Today, May 11, 1940
The second issue of NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR COMICS was released 85 years ago today, and was distributed primarily at the Fairgrounds itself, though a certain number of copies got sold through regular distribution channels. It was a big, fat comic book, larger than the then-normal 64 page package and with cardstock covers that made it seem like something special. That and the 96 page length jumped the price up to 15 cents, a full nickel more than a typical comic book of the era. The book contained a number of stories featuring characters drawn from both the National Comics and All-American Comics stables (at the time, DC wasn’t one company, but two, linked by ownership.) Many of those stories took place at the Fair itself, using the event as a backdrop for costumed action or comedy shenanigans. But the thing that makes this book of historic importance is that this cover by Jack Burnley represents the first time that Superman and Batman were depicted in the same image. As sales for this edition were quite good, DC decided to make it a regular things, completely apart from the World’s Fair. This, a number of months later, WORLD’S BEST COMICS #1 came out, a similar package with a similar line-up of stories. By issue #2 the title had been changed to WORLD’S FINEST COMICS after a competing publisher complained that the initial title was too close to one of their publications. For years, Superman and Batman and Robin would share cover images on WORLD’S FINEST COMICS while never actually mingling on the interiors. Each issue would include solo entries of both heroes. It wasn’t until page counts began to shrink in the early 1950s that the leap was made and Superman and Batman began to share team-up adventures as the World’s Finest Team in its pages. It’s worth mentioning that Hourman, the Sandman and Johnny Thunder were also featured in this 1940 issue, bu they were all second-stringers, especially when compared to this “Big Two”.
A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date
The BEST OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR Hardcover came out on May 11, 2005, and then, like now, there was a FANTASTIC FOUR movie on the horizon, thus making the market receptive to collections featuring the characters. I didn’t really put this book together in any meaningful way, but I did curate its contents for the most part. When a collection of great classic Fantastic Four stories was called for, my knowledge of the series’ history was called upon to generate a list of contents to fit a given page count. Only one story that I had put forward was left out of this book, that being a chapter of the Walt Simonson/Art Adams three-parter that introduced the “New Fantastic Four” made up of Spider-Man, Wolverine and the Hulk and Ghost Rider. it wound up being dropped to make room for an issue of MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 written by Roberto Saccasa and illustrated by Steve McNiven, which was a good choice. Otherwise, though, the stories were all selected by me. I love this sort of “Whitman’s Sampler” package, and so I’m happy with the experience this volume conveys in terms of representing the great runs the book had up to this point and getting across what makes the characters so terrific. That cover was put together from four disparate images from across the years, by Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Mike Wieringo and Steve McNiven. Sadly, there never was a Volume 2.
The New Warriors Chronicles
When I inherited the NEW WARRIORS titles, it was as a part of the Spider-Man Group. For those who were not around at that point, a quick history lesson: in 1995, the ownership of Marvel for reasons that don’t really make a whole lot of sense decided to divide editorial into five smaller (and more easily controlled) fiefdoms rather than one single editorial unit. So five Editors in Chief were put into place: Bob Harras headed up the X-Men group, Bob Budiansky was given oversight of the Spider-Man Group, Mark Gruenwald handled the Marvel Heroes Group, Bobbie Chase oversaw the Marvel Edge Group, and Carl Potts was in charge of the Epic Comics Group. So everything else was reshuffled along these lines as well. In this swap-over, I ended up along with Budiansky (who had been my boss since I started at Marvel) in the Spider-Man Group. But due to the people who were already in place working on Spidey titles, I mostly wound up operating around the periphery, doing a lot of satellite limited series and quasi-related projects apart from the main Spider-Man titles.
Up to this point, NEW WARRIORS didn’t have much of anything to do with the world of Spider-Man, outside of one thing: the series had been launched by editor Danny Fingeroth, who thereafter came to be in charge of the Spider-Man line after the departure of earlier editor Jim Salicrup. While the WARRIORS books were in the hands of Rob Tokar right before they came to me, they were still within Danny’s domain—so when that became Bob’s domain, they had to go somewhere, and I was elected. For the most part, while he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinions, Bob stayed out of NEW WARRIORS—he had more important things to worry about with needing to grow the Spider-Man business by 10% over the next fiscal year. But as a part of those efforts, he wanted to strengthen the ties between Spider-Man and the New Warriors, turning the series into an adjunct of the core; an Avengers or X-Men team that was at the beck-and-call of the needs of the Spidey office.
This didn’t entirely sit well with me, as I saw it not in keeping with what I perceived as the central premise of the book: that being a new generation of young heroes not liking what they see in the world and working to bring about positive social change, grappling with difficult decisions along the way. Spider-Man was intended to be a youthful character, but given that at that moment he was also a married man with a baby on the way, he didn’t really feel like a peer to the New Warriors but rather belonged to a generation that preceded them. It was a fit that didn’t come from character concept but rather publishing happenstance. But that was ultimately irrelevant, as Bob was determined to work the Warriors into the group’s larger plans.
Now, speaking plainly, integrating NEW WARRIORS into the Spider-Man Group certainly saved the title. The book got a big sales bump with this issue and especially the next one, and those increased numbers held for the whole of the period when Marvel was divided in this fashion. So ultimately, it was the right choice, whether or not I believed in it at the moment. Certainly there were New Warriors fans who didn’t care for this, and who decried it in fan mail and on the nascent message board circuit. But numbers don’t lie, and the increase in the numbers kept the series going when it had been heading for the rocks.
So, MAXIMUM CLONAGE. When Bob inherited the Spidey books, they were in the midst of the Clone Saga, which was bringing a lot of heat to them (for all that it’s not generally well beloved as a period in hindsight.) The return of Spider-Man’s clone now calling himself Ben Reilly and his transformation into the Scarlet Spider gave the Spidey books an exciting new mythology to draw upon—and draw upon it we did. One of the difficulties right off the bat was that need to grow 10%, not an easy task. The Clone Saga had been intended to head to a specific conclusion, one that would end up with Ben Reilly turning out to be the real Spider-Man and the married guy that we’d been following for the past twenty years revealed to be the Clone and leaving the series with MJ and baby in tow. For a lot of reasons having to do with sales projections and cold feet and indecision, things didn’t go this way, and in fact wound up running fitfully in place for a long enough stretch to test the patience of even the most loyal Spider-Man fans until the whole matter was eventually resolved.
But all of that was to come. Right now, Budiansky had decided that the series should immediately go into a crossover to boost numbers across the boards. This crossover would run through all of the existing Spidey titles, as well as NEW WARRIORS since it was now a part of the line. It was first called MAXIMUM CLONAGE as a joke, a play on the earlier successful Spidey crossover MAXIMUM CARNAGE. But before anybody knew otherwise, it became MAXIMUM CLONAGE for real. It was intended as the last big blow-out before the wrap-up that would pivot to the new status quo for the wall-crawler, squeezing every last ounce of sales interest out of the situation. As the New Warriors weren’t really involved in the main story at all, their involvement was limited to the prologue issue, NEW WARRIORS #61, and only brief appearances within the core storyline. The impact, however, would be felt the following month, in #62.
So in this story, the Warriors wind up battling Spidercide, one of the many clones of Spider-Man that the Jackal has created. Spidercide is looting scientific centers for the chemicals and components that the Jackal needs to carry out his master MAXIMUM CLONAGE plan, and while the Warriors are able to face him (and a bevy of other clone monsters along the way), they aren’t really able to accomplish much of anything, by design. Consequently, Evan and Patrick did as much work as they could during this issue to establish the situations facing each of our individual characters and to keeping our own running subplots running—the idea being that maybe we’d be able to pick up a few readers if they came to the issue for the crossover and got interested in what was going on outside of it. It isn’t a great issue, but as these things go, it also wasn’t terrible—it did the job it was mandated to do and still felt like an issue of our series. The worst I can say for it is that I don’t think the cover coloring does it any favors. That sickly green-brown background is really ugly, and the color fade in the above-the-logo copy makes it too difficult to read. Also, I don’t know where else I might have put it, but the MAXIMUM CLONAGE tie-in logo is a bit buried down there towards the bottom—ideally, you would have wanted that to be as visible as possible at the top, to attract the audience that you were trying to capture. I think I was counting on the Spider-Man logo in that top strap copy to be the attractor, but that would have worked better if people could have read it from a distance. It’s also a really dense issue, with Zircher needing to pack the pages with tons and tons of smaller panels in order to fit all of the story into it. On that front, it feels a bit like a George Perez issue of NEW TEEN TITANS, so it’s possible that I’d looped Patrick in on that series being my guiding light in terms of what NEW WARRIORS ought to be doing.
Monofocus
This week, the first four episodes of the second season of the Korean-made reality game series THE DEVIL’S PLAN dropped on Netflix, so my evenings have been mainly dedicated to watching this new season. Subtitled DEATH ROOM for this series, it remains a good example of why I like this genre as much as I do. Whereas American reality television is most often dedicated to loud, often shrill people behaving badly, Korean game shows are about legitimately super-intelligent people competing with one another in games that involve an astonishing amount of genuine smarts to navigate. It’s a good example of this genre, very much in keeping with the spirit of the granddaddy of this type, THE GENIUS. And it’s been utterly compelling so far. In the manner of Korean television, each episode is more than 90 minutes in length—that’s without any commercial interruption—and the network they’re airing on drops multiple episodes in the span of a week. So it’s a definite time commitment. Here’s the trailer, which can’t quite capture the essence of the series, but is better than nothing.
I’ve also started to chow down on the second season of POKER FACE over on Peacock, though I’ve only worked through two of the three episodes initially dropped due to needing to get caught up on DEVIL’S PLAN. But it’s very much the same show, a throwback to series of the 1970s, particularly COLUMBO, and a genre that became known as “Howcatchem”. In essence, while every episode revolves around a murder, the question is never who did it, it’s rather all about how lead character, the hapless and eternally hunted Charlie Cole, is going to find and expose the killer. Charlie has one edge, though: to an almost supernatural degree, she can always tell when somebody is lying, like a human lie detector. As with COLUMBO, every episode features at least one big name guest star, often as that story’s requisite killer, and is set in a different location around the country as Charlie stays on the move to elude the mob, who is out to cap her. Based on the first two episodes, the show remains as fun and energetic as ever, with Natasha Lyons often carrying the production in her role as Charlie.
And I’ve continued to work my way through that SUPERMAN FAMILY DC’S FINEST collection, where i came across another bananas story that I just have to share with you. It’s from SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE #20, though it isn’t the cover-featured tale, but rather the leadoff story in the issue. In this story, Superman gets fed up with the way that Lois is always an enormous pain in his life, constantly trying to expose his secret identity as Clark Kent and getting into all sorts of trouble that require him to rescue her. Sick of it all, he decides to do something about it. So he travels into the past and takes a job as a late night disk jockey rather than going to work at the Daily Planet. (Now, how this works is a bit hand-wavey, because you’d have to assume that there would be another Superman already there that would still get a job at the Planet. But the story ignores that, and so will we.) At first, everything seems good—Clark is good at spinning platters and generates a bunch of fan mail for the station, and he can operate as Superman with relative ease. But he still finds himself having to bail Lois out of danger fairly routinely, which he’s not happy about—she still gets into scrapes even though she doesn’t really know him. What’s more, his assistant Liza Landis begins to suspect that Clark may be Superman as well, and begins to bedevil him in the same manner as Lois, in the hopes that the Man of Steel will be so impressed by how smart she is that he’ll marry her. Eventually, Superman’s rejection of Liza has her quit her job and leave the station, and the Man of Tomorrow thinks he’s got it made. But when Lois shows up to interview Clark thanks to his increasing popularity, Superman’s had all he can take and returns to the present and the status quo. In a final kicker, though, Lois is interviewing the “Wife of the Year”, who turns out to be Liza Landis. And Superman is relieved at his good luck, as Liza is now fat, having gained a lot of weight after she got married. “Thank goodness i never married her!” he thinks to himself. It’s a really unkind note to go out on, in a story that’s overwhelmingly misogynistic to begin with. There was very little in editor Mort Weisinger’s world that was worst and more ignoble than being either fat or bald—both of which were characteristics of Weisinger himself.
But there isn’t a fight, there’s no super-foe to vanquish, no challenge to be met. It’s entirely a story about Superman trying to get some peace and quiet and failing completely, the sort of story you just couldn’t do today. And yet, this was a typical outing for the Superman titles during the Silver Age, and they remained the most popular and best-selling books all throughout the decade. Something to think about there.
Posted at TomBrevoort.com
Yesterday, I wrote about this week’s episode of Doctor Who
Five years ago, I wrote about the first chapter of Leo Ortolani’s unofficial Last Fantastic Four Story
And ten years ago, I wrote about the strange coloring choices on this Great Cover.
That’s gonna do us this week, folks. But we’ll all meet back here next Sunday (or whenever you have a moment to check this feature out) for more of the same! Be there if you can!
Hat’s All, Folks!
Tom B
Thanks for the continued support Tom - means a lot! ❤️🙌
Phoenix #11 was refreshing in quality and tone, certainly a better creative direction for the series than the initial 10 issues. I only have one question- why is Cable referring to Jean as "stepmother" when he has, many many MANY times in both recent and distant past, called her his mother? Frankly this has been one of the few very consistent details in the x-men line over the decades.