#172: Late Edition

For the first time, this edition of this Newsletter is coming to you late; Sunday afternoon rather than at noon as has been our pattern up to this point. And it’s possible, and even likely, that we’ll see further disruptions of service throughout this month, as it’s stacked wall-to-wall for me, including an extended trip to the West coast that encompasses the entirety of the San Diego Comic Con and more. So please excuse our shotty response time during this period, and we’ll work to get things back to normal as quickly as we can.

The reason that this edition is running behind—I’m still writing on it at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon—is that I spent the last two days traveling down to Delaware and back. You see, I promised my mother that I’d take her to see SUPERMAN, which we did along with my brother yesterday. Thereafter, my other brother and his daughter joined our group for dinner. A fine time was had, but one that required a fair bit of energy and effort, and so getting this piece completed was one of the casualties. In any event, because I know that people will be curious, my reaction to SUPERMAN was that I thought it was entertaining, but I’m not sure that it’s good. It definitely had a point of view and an ethos that I liked, and there were a lot of pieces of it that I thought were good. But I’m not convinced that the whole thing holds together properly as a single film. My Mom thought it was all right, though she found it too loud and felt like it had too much violence in it. My brother, on the other hand, didn’t really like it at all, feeling like none of the actors were especially convincing in their roles. My wife, though, correctly liked the fact that Superman was heroic and altruistic throughout the film, most of his efforts going to save people and help people rather than fighting something. So it’s a movie that might rise in my estimation if I see it again—though when I’ll have the chance to do so this month is anybody’s guess.

Speaking of business of the week, this past Wednesday I was in attendance when, as part of the promotion for the upcoming FANTASTIC 4: FIRST STEPS film, Delancey Street in New York City was temporarily rebranded as Yancy Street and Jack Kirby Way. Two of Jack’s granddaughters, Tracy and Jillian, were in attendance as well as a few great-grandkids. The family also got to tour the Marvel offices and were given an advance screening of the film, which includes a couple of Kirby Easter eggs. I’ve got a couple of photographs from the event that I can share:

That last photo is of 147 Essex Street, about a block away, which is the building in which Jack Kirby was born. As when Jack lived there in the 1920s, it’s still a bit of a shithole.

A week before that, right before the 4th of July, Jes made the trip into the city so that we could join writer Dan Slott and his fiancé for a birthday celebration. This involved us going to a Speakeasy Magic Show, which was pretty cool. Without giving much of anything away, from the outside, the place looks like just an ordinary dry cleaners, the sort that you wouldn’t look at twice if you walked past it on the street. But it contains a secret passageway through the handing clothes into a back space that’s decorated in the manner of a 1920 club, and where close-up magicians ply their trade in rotation at your table. I’m relatively conversant with how magic is done, and the performers were all reasonably good at their misdirection, card manipulation and sleight of hand. So the whole experience was pretty cool.

Other stuff: I did another podcast, this time with X-Men Horoscopes, where host Lodro Rinzler gives guests a reading based on the issue of X-MEN that was on sale when you were born. My reading, however, was tainted as Lodro insisted on using the issue with the cover month of my birth rather than the issue that was actually on sale when I was born. So the stars are misaligned. Regardless, for those who are curious about a variety of X-Talk, much of which centers on the present day rather than the past, the episode can be found at this link

And one more blast from the past—though this is one that nobody is likely to sit through the entirety of: here is a link to footage filmed at the 1991 Marvel Halloween Party in the Marvel offices. The whole thing’s almost two hours long, but those checking it out will be able to see, among other things, Evan Skolnick dressed up as me, and a young Dan Slott playing party games.

We got a couple of questions this week that weren’t related to our ongoing Ten Masterworks experiment. So here’s what you guys were wondering:

Jeff Ryan

Jim Shooter famously had a mandate that Marvel titles had to begin with characters demonstrating their power set. 20 yeas later, a different mandate said there should only be one character on a comics cover, even for team books. Are there any mandates now: ie, no time travel stories, no editor's notes?

Don’t crop Wolverine’s claws off the sides of a cover.

Brandon Giles

do you mind clarifying what the deal is with comic appearances of the BIg Hero 6 characters? There’s a persistent rumor that marvel fully gave up the rights to the main cast of big hero 6 when the Disney film was made. Is that accurate or is it more that using what was already a fairly obscure team in the MU would just create confusion at this point?

Big Hero 6 are pretty much a Disney concern at this point Brandon. Having made the film and merchandised the film, those characters are best known to people around the world in that form. So as a matter of policy, we don’t use them.

JV

if you were in charge of the X-Office when X-Factor 1 (and the resurrection of Jean Grey happened) came out (which seemed to derail a lot of the X-office and Cyclops/Maddie in particular) - what would you have done?

Yeah, I wouldn’t have done it, JV. And it was being done in another editorial office, as was the case with X-FACTOR in 1986, and I couldn’t stop it, then I’d probably do exactly what the X-Office of that period did: try to make the best of it. It made some money in the short term, but doing that storyline in that manner created a gut shot wound in X-MEN that took years to repair, if it ever truly was.

Kevin Hines

I’d love to know more about Bobbi Chase. I just know Bobbi as the editor for most of Peter Davids Hulk run. So they are another figure I love but know little about what kind of person and editor they were.

I don’t know how much I can really tell you about Bobbie, Kevin, as she and I weren’t especially close. As an editor, she was good with her talent and especially savvy at keeping projects on schedule and on track—which is no doubt why when she was later hired by DC, they put her in a position to take advantage of those skills. She was also very polished and professional. Outside of that, I don’t know that I can give you any better insight.

Stefan

For those curious, some background...

Appreciate you bosting all of that stuff, Stefan, but I really don’t think this is the proper time. The man has just died; let’s allow those that loved him to grieve in peace without rehashing old dust-ups. A year from now, if you want to get into this and ask me about it, I’ll be happy enough to respond. But right this moment feels like poor form.

Stefan

But he already approved Xtinction Agenda's blanket veto (and I knew he would), because he's doing this so that the next time anyone has a criticism of a comic he's working on, he can say "You guys can't even agree on 10 classics, it would be foolish of me to take your opinion seriously" or something to that effect. It's clever, because most won't recognize that he designed the rules of the "game" specifically to get the outcome he desired, which ultimately invalidates his point.

I also have to say, Stefan, that I think you’re projecting here to a ridiculous degree. Please don’t claim to know what’s in my mind or in my heart. And if you don’t like that game, then you don’t need to participate, simple as that. But your cynicism isn’t helping anything.

Ellis

are you involved with the upcoming Punisher: Red Band series? And if so, since Frank Castle is coming back, would the new Punisher Joe Garrison still be around?

I am not involved in it, Ellis, so those are matters that would be best taken up with Devin Lewis, who is.

Seastar

I am excited for your Age of Revelation event, but I was disappointed to see that Jean Grey isn't involved in it at all, despite there being close to a dozen titles announced for it.

Who says Jean Grey isn’t involved in it at all, Seastar?

Oswald The Hero

I was curious if Spider-Man: Octo Girl or the soon to be released Spider-Man: Shadow Warrior have any future plans?

I’ve no idea, Oswald. Sorry.

Venus

Did you know Marie Severin at all or meet her? She must have had some stories to tell.

No, I’m afraid that Marie was gone from staff by the time that I started, and that I never had any particular interactions with her. I think she may have done a pin-up for me back during the UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN days, but that’s about it.

Jordan L

With the Age of Revelation announcement, can you talk a little bit about the behind-the-scenes decision to position Doug as the Heir of Apocalypse? Where did that idea originate? How and why was it decided that Doug would be a central figure of this event?

HEIR OF APOCALYPSE had been started by the previous editorial team, Jordan—it was conceived on their watch, and they hired the creative team. But it fell to us to execute most of it. And this meant deciding on which of the assorted involved characters would become the titular heir. This was made more complicated by the fact that we were also setting up the new books, and so already had certain characters earmarked for other titles and other roles. In terms of the options that were left to us, Doug seemed to make for the most interesting choice. And I was pretty adamant that if we were going to make this large of a change to any X-Character, that I wanted it to be followed up on, rather than becoming one of those developments that were kicked to the curb just as soon as they happened. Jed was game to follow up on those developments, though, and so they became a part of our ongoing X-MEN plans—as you’re beginning to see now.

---

Ten Masterworks

At this point, I think we’ve reached the clear end of this experiment, as literally every option that has been presented has been vetoed with the exception of a list of books that I wrote or that are often-ridiculed mishaps from Marvel’s history. This isn’t really an unexpected outcome, in fact it’s precisely what happened the last time I tried this, back on my old Marvel.com blog. And it both illustrates the point that opinions throughout fandom are always going to be divided and divisive, and that you can always count on people becoming frustrated and trying to kick over the game board.

I’ve got another similar thought-exercise that I did back then that I’d be interested in gaming out again. But I think that ought to wait until a period when I’m going to be able to be around consistently enough to oversee the process a bit more.

Thanks to all who contributed!

---

Pimp My Wednesday

Got just enough time left to run down the new books we have dropping this week, So let’s go!

As the cover indicates, EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #11 guest-features Ironheart, fresh from her recent Disney+ debut series. It’s the first part of three, and is written by Eve L. Ewing and illustrated by Federica Mancin.

Elsewhere, Kamala Khan’s journey through assorted high points in mutant history arrives at GIANT-SIZE HOUSE OF M #1, which brings both her and Old Man Legion to the mutant-positive reality run by Magneto. It’s written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and illustrated by Fracnesco Manna, and it also features a Revelation back-up story by the regular WOLVERINE creative team of Saladin Ahmed and Martin Coccolo.

Off in space, cataclysmic events continue to transpire in IMPERIAL #2, the second issue of writer Jonathan Hickman’s reorganization of the galactic portions of the Marvel Universe. Once again, he’s joined by the tag-team pairing of artists Iban Coello and Federico Vicentini.

And as you’ve no doubt just heard about recently, X-MEN: AGE OF REVELATION #0 is making its surprise appearance on the stands this Wednesday. It’s a project that we’ve been quietly working on for months, and this kickoff special sets the stage by outlining the events that took place between the present day and ten years hence, when the Age of Revelation is in full wing. It’s by Jed MacKay and Humberto Ramos, and the consumer version is wrapped in this great Ryan Stegman cover. For those who can’t wait, all of our Retailers got a single copy of the Retailer version of the book this past week, this one with a cover by Humberto Ramos. A quick spot-check of eBay indicated that this edition is going for around $29.99 at the low end, so you may simply want to hold off until Wednesday to see what all the shouting is about.

---

Posted at TomBrevoort.com

Yesterday, I didn’t write anything.

But five years ago, I wrote about Five Mean Caricatures of Comic Book Creators. It’s a good one.

---

Next week, we’ll hopefully be back to full fighting strength before I head out on my extended adventure. And, if not, we’re at least slowly weaning you all off any dependence on this feature to secure your mental well-being.

Hat’s All, Folks!

Tom B