17 Comments
Mar 5, 2023·edited Mar 5, 2023

The talk of the Death of Cap storyline had me wondering what your thoughts were on the Winter Soldier/Bucky resurrection - both you and Brubaker have stated that you had a list of concerns and questions that Brubaker answered - can you walk us through that time and your thoughts? And how you think it all turned out?

Personally I was a little trepidatious (even as a fan of Bru from his DC work) but by issue 14 he had won me over. The Bru Cap run is seminal in my opinion (for Cap and Marvel in general).

And it is heartening to see the Winter Soldier as such an integral part of pop culture (the second cap movie is my favourite).

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move over "for sale: baby shoes, never worn" there's an even SHORTER saddest story!

"bryan hitch cover never used"

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FOLLOW-UP WITH AN ACTUAL QUESTION FOR ONCE:

I feel like the Hitch cover is a prime opportunity to commission a single issue story based on that image, like DC used to do back in the Silver Age. Has Marvel ever done that? Had an amazing cover and then made the story to match it?

also hey tom big fan

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If I remember correctly, that's how the 2011 "Vengeance" miniseries happened!

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That Doctor Who book sounds fascinating. There is indeed a lot to learn from Russell T. Davies.

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On the subject of Webtoons, Kathryn & Stuart Immonen have reactivated their fun, experimental Grass of Parnassus strip at Webtoon, and seem to have basically not promoted it at all except on their very quiet tumblr page. But it deserves to be seen, so I'm doing my bit. New chapters up every Monday. https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/grass-of-parnassus/list?title_no=842944

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THANK YOU FOR SHARING IMMONEN WORK! (I miss seeing new art from him on a regular basis.)

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Thank you for sharing this! I’ve read about this book and it looks beautiful. Can’t wait to dive into it!

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Tom, it’s not a job and despite how much we love the posts, it ok to skip a week 👍

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Very true. But also no. 🙃

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I’ve got Sgt. Fury 1, always been fond of that book. On the subject of which Tom, I’ve always loved the idea of SHIELD as a backbone of the MU, yet sadly we are once again without it now.

Tony Stark heading it up I thought was a great idea. Any plans for its return?

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Piggybacking off Alan's question: It seemed as though Brian Bendis was building towards a new iteration of SHIELD in his Spider-Man and Iron Man comics right before he jumped ship. Also, with the completion of Dan Slott's Reckoning war, it appears it may live on as a continuation of Jason Aaron's Man on the Wall concept. My sack o' questions:

Can you share why Bendis' iteration failed to launch? Is it because Brian jumped ship?

Whose "office" / which editor calls the shots regarding the direction of SHIELD?

Has it been "put on the shelf" to stoke the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" dynamic ala Thor and Fantastic Four in the past?

Do you have opinions on the pros & cons of each of the iterations the organization has been portrayed as:

- A. Kirby/Steranko-era stylish clandestine spy organization

- B. Corruption-riddled US federal police force

- C. Historical quasi-mystical secret society

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I don't have a question. I just wanted to make sure you knew your dedication to this newsletter is appreciated.

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Re: Untold Legend of CM... How would the process have looked different if, instead of the EiC, it was someone else on staff who had a fondness for that version of the character (or an equivalent character from way down the bench)? Would they pitch the idea similar to a freelancer? Generally speaking, what kinds of hurdles need to be cleared/questions answered for something like that to get traction? I assume a Mark Millar or Jason Aaron wanting to do, say, Omega the Unknown would have a smoother path to the goal line, but that's an assumption looking in from the outside.

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Here's a fantasy-baseball-type question: you get to pick two now-deceased comics creators (of any kind) who never worked for Marvel and transport them through time at their creative peak - one to work with Stan Lee in the 1960s and one to work with you in the present day. Who do you pick, and why?

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If I can double dip, question-wise:

It always struck me as curious that FF would be relaunched with writer Scott Lobdell only to pass it to Chris Claremont after 3-5 issues. Was that always the intention (if so, why) or did unforeseen events disrupt the best-laid plans of mice and Marvels (if so, what)?

And is it just me or was Alan Davis drawing Fantastic Four a match made in heaven?

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