#3: After the Pilot, the Grind Begins!
Wait, you mean I have to do this every week?
Hey, we’re back again! Look at that!
I want to start off by just thanking everybody who gave me such a warm reception last week. Your time and attention is appreciated, and I never want to take it for granted. It seems as though things are under way here, we had new subscribers signing up all throughout the week, and if that continues to be the case, I can see doing this for a long time to come.
Typically in Television, the hardest show to put together is Episode 2. Episode 1 is your pilot, and needs to introduce all of your characters, communicate the premise of your series and still hook people in with an exciting story. It’s incredibly hard to do, but it’s also the episode you get the most time to work on. But Episode 2 is “just an episode”. It doesn’t need to do all of the heavy lifting that the pilot just did, it instead needs to provide an example of what the thing is going to be like on a regular basis. And so, what we have here this week is very much in the spirit of the Episode 2. I’ll eventually start to play with the categories that I set up as the inspiration moves me, but this time out, it’s very much of-a-piece with what I did last time.
I do want to encourage everybody reading this to ask questions or to make suggestions in terms of what you may be wondering about or what you’d like to see me cover. Back in my Marvel blog days, the feedback of the audience was always invaluable in terms of generating ideas for things to talk about. And left to my own devices, things are likely to get pretty strange around here at certain points. Your best bulwark against that happening is to give me some signposts about what you want to see and know.
Behind the Curtain
I have no idea who wrote this pitch synopsis—I saved it from out of the slush pile (the stack of unsolicited submissions that were sent in to Marvel in the hopes of getting an editor’s attention and being hired) when I was an intern in the summer of 1989, simply because I thought it was very funny, though not in a publishable way. It must have been hanging around the offices for a while given that Mike Carlin hadn’t been the editor of CAPTAIN AMERICA since 1986 or so. But I guess in this would-be writer’s opinion, his foul presence lingered and could only be rectified with a speeding car… Also, dig that dot matrix printing.
Pimp My Wednesday
We’re back to something approximating normal service again this week, and that means that my editorial office has at least one comic dropping this Wednesday.
And this week, that comic is AVENGERS #55, by Jason Aaron (he of the Beard Missives Newsletter, available elsewhere) and Javier Garron. It’s that most classic of Avengers stories, a roster change, and it’s been coming ever since we started to shift things around in AVENGERS #50. it also features Mark Gruenwald’s old creation, the Serpent Society, though used in a bit of a darker manner here by Jason and Javier. Our approach to AVENGERS since the beginning of this run has been to set things up so that every storyline is an Event; in other words, you could take the core idea of any big story and blow it out line-wide. This particular issue is a bit of a pause amidst that madness (as is next month’s #56) before we dive into a huge time travel epic that will be introducing a bevy of new, cool historical characters, some of whom we hinted at in the aforementioned #50. So it’s a great place to test the waters again if you’ve fallen off at some point. (And yes, as the cover above indicated, AXE JUDGMENT DAY is waiting in the wings—but more about that in the weeks to come.)
Also in stores this week and not to be missed is CAPTAIN AMERICA #0. This is the first issue of the ongoing CAPTAIN AMERICA series that I haven’t edited since…I want to say 2004. But I have handed the title over to my former underling Alanna Smith to spearhead, and she has stocked it with her own creators and her own vision. It’s a self-contained story but it also sets up both regular CAPTAIN AMERICA series that we’ll have coming out from here on it. Yes, both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson will be appearing in ongoing titles beginning next month, with Tochi Onyebuchi and R.B. Silva handling CAPTAIN AMERICA: SYMBOL OF TRUTH with Sam and CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY being written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Carmen Carnero focusing on Steve. This kickoff #0 issue was illustrated by the incredibly talented Mattia De Iulis, and it’s spectacular. It’s always a little bit weird to give up a title, particularly one that you’ve held for so long, but I’m pretty happy with the way that these books have been shaping up. Alex Ross delivered both covers on the #0 that you see above, and they should be offered in equivalent quantities—so you can pick the one you like best, or, hell, buy ‘em both, who’s stopping you?
That actually segues to something that I had been thinking about over the past few hours. It’s one of those quirks that are common among creative people, especially those who are working on properties that are decades old. And it really amounts to, “I HATE THAT, EXCEPT WHEN I DO IT.”
See, we just had a planning meeting this past Friday, and at it, I got to see some stuff that was percolating with characters and titles that I typically have had more direct oversight on. And while nothing that I was shown was bad, or wrong, or even troubling, it was nonetheless disquieting to me to see these things being developed in ways that might not be exactly how I would do it. And that brought me back to thinking about that theory. Every creative person tends to have strong opinions about the characters and properties they love, and often even red line DO NOT GO THERE areas within their own personal canon. And yet, often, the dictates of this job require that you do go there—and sometimes, you will violate your own self-imposed rules in order to do so.
For example, I’ve been pretty vocal over the years about how much I think it’s a mistake to be giving all of the primary super heroes kids. I get the fact that many of the readers and creators have been with these characters for decades and there’s the desire to see them grow and change. (Plus, as the creators age, it’s only natural that they want to tell stories about what is now becoming more important to them.) But I feel like it always winds up aging the core character, making them feel less young and vibrant, and changing the way that the next generation encountering them for the first time views them. But that didn’t stop me from letting Dan Slott give Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters-Grimm a pair of adopted alien kids. And part of that is because I know that that stories colors within my personal lines, because I was able to craft it to make it so. In the same sort of way, there are relatively few modern designs that appeal to Alex Ross—he has a very classic aesthetic when it comes to the visuals of the characters, largely preferring them teh way he initially encountered them as a child. But that won’t at all prevent him from redesigning any of those characters himself if given the opportunity. Because in those cases, the redesign fits his own aesthetic and works for him. It’s a weird double-edged sword that comes up time and again.
So what does this all amount to? Well, it really just comes down to a cautionary warning: don’t be too set in your opinions. Back in the day, before I edited CAPTAIN AMERICA, another editorial and creative team wanted to bring Bucky Barnes back, and I fought like a demon to keep that from happening. Seriously, I fought dirty. And then, some time later, when I was editing the book an Ed Brubaker wanted to bring Bucky back, I permitted him to do so—in large part because Ed could provide a satisfying answer to all of my questions concerning the story. And that all worked out all right—to the point now where a whole generation doesn’t relate to Bucky as Cap’s dead wartme sidekick any longer, but rather as the Winter Soldier.
So sometimes, even what sounds to you like a bad idea could wind up working out.
Comic Books On Sale 30 Years Ago Today, April 17, 1992
There’s really only one comic book that I could talk about that was released on this date, as 30 years ago, YOUNGBLOOD #1 by Rob Liefeld marked the initial release of the newly-formed Image Comics. This was a big, big deal at the time—I can remember X-MEN editor Bob Harras fulminating when Liefeld’s earlier attempt to launch a quasi-mutant series called THE EXECUTIONERS at Malibu Comics was first announced in the fan press. That project didn’t happen—Harras put his foot down and Rob, I guess not quite certain of his position vis-a-vi X-FORCE, acquiesced for the moment. But it was a pretty ballsy move, and it sent a signal that something was brewing.
If you weren’t around in those days, the sudden explosion of Image took everybody by surprise, but in some ways it was inevitable. There was a lot of arrogance in Marvel editorial in those days—when he was Editor in Chief, Jim Shooter had instilled a philosophy among the staff that the editors were the ones who were important when it came to making the comics, not the writers or the artists, and that attitude persisted even after Shooter’s departure. Nobody on the Marvel side really thought this venture was going to be a fraction as huge as it turned out to be. (Famously, for a few days there at one point, I had a sign posted on my office door: “Gone to Image, back after lunch.” Not exactly an insightful prediction, but very much a reflection of the culture that permeated the editorial floor. Chalk it up to the arrogance of youth—I was a chump.)
YOUNGBLOOD #1, as it turned out, was more sizzle than steak in the execution. It looked great, but it was weak on story (and the lettering on the first issue was kinda sub-par; that got remedied relatively quickly.) But it, like the other Image launches, was hugely exciting. Had I been a few years younger, I might have been swept up in Image fever myself, as I had been infatuated with all sorts of non-Big Two super hero comics in the 1980s, and this would have been right in my sweet spot. And while it’s not quite the juggernaut that it was in those first few years, Image remains a strong third player in the marketplace, and has shepherded a wide variety of great material over the past three decades. And whether you like his work or not, you have to respect the fact that Rob has remained a vital part of the comic book landscape for all of this time.
A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date
Closer to home, April 17, 2002 saw the release of CAPTAIN MARVEL #31 from my editorial office, by Peter David and Derec Aucoin. We had introduced this version of Captain Marvel in the AVENGERS FOREVER series produced by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. He was really the reimagining of a character, Legacy, who had been created earlier by Ron Marz and Ron Lim. In FOREVER, we were working up to revealing that this new Captain Marvel, like his father before him, was bonded to Rick Jones through the atom-switching Nega-bands. I was interested in spinning something out of the finish of FOREVER, and a CAPTAIN MARVEL series seemed like a good choice. And I was able to make it go by inveigling Peter David into writing it. Peter hadn’t really worked for Marvel since he’d been forced off of INCREDIBLE HULK unceremoniously a few years earlier, but I hoped that I could hook him with the Rick Jones connection—Rick had clearly been something of a pet character of Peter’s during his HULK days. And indeed I was, The series ran for 60 issues in total across two series (35 and 25 issues respectively, with a now-ubiquitous Marvel relaunch right in the middle.) Honestly, I had been hoping to get to 63, as that would have made it the longest-running CAPTAIN MARVEL book that Marvel had ever put out; so close, but so far. Anyway, Peter infused the series with his own off-the-wall sense of humor, so it had a lively snap to it. Typically, it was illustrated for the initial run by Chriscross, an artist with a nice kinetic style. This fill-in by Derec Aucoin would have been done, I expect, to buy Cross a bit more schedule time. It focused on Marlo Chandler, Rick’s wife and, if anything, even more of a pet character of Peter’s than Rick was. It followed up at an event that happened years before at Rick and Marlo’s wedding, where a barely-concealed version of Neil Gaiman’s Death from SANDMAN gave Marlo a gift. Looking at that cover, today, I’d never be able to get away with defacing the Marvel logo like that. The idea to do so, and the Captain Marlo logo adjustment, most likely was the idea of cover artist Kevin Maguire. As you can see, the book had some fans, and Wizard Magazine singled it out for an award that we touted in big letters as a sales come-on. Looking at the cover now, I think it’s entirely too easy to mistake that the book was being published by Wizard, given that their logo is more primary than the Marvel one. Amazingly, we;ve got a new GENIS-VELL series starting up right at the moment, which Peter is also writing, and which is being edited by Danny Khazem, who was only a reader and a fan when this book would have come out. Which just means, I am old.
Monofocus
We have a new episode of DOCTOR WHO debuting later on today, which is always a big event around my household. I clearly haven’t seen it yet as I write these words, but I’ll be posting my impressions as usual over at tombrevoort.com so feel free to check that out in a few hours. I’m keeping my expectations low, both because I haven’t been wild about the quality of the writing on the show for the past few years, and also because this episode looks to be a standard run-the-bases romp before the next Special has to do the heavy lifting of seeing out this Doctor and this production team and welcoming the new guys to the spot. That episode is, by its nature, going to be big, so my guess is that this one will be small in contrast, more typical. We’ll soon see.
I have an interest in television, as I do with most of the creative arts. And so, it’s relatively easy to get me to pick up a book about the making of a particular show, assuming that it’s a show that I either watched at some point or that has some aspect to it that interests me. So this past week, I’ve been doing some reading along those lines. I finished up A.S. Berman’s book on the history of SOAP, a show that I remember watching a little bit while it was first airing and that I certainly consumed in syndication thereafter. It was an envelope-pushing show at the time, but most of that went over my head as a kid. I wasn’t interested in the exaggerated soap opera shenanigans so much as I was that Burt had been abducted and replaced by aliens, and that Corrine had a devil baby. The producers apparently regretted going quite so broad with the series, but honestly, that’s the only reason I paid attention to it back then. I wasn’t aware of all the controversy surrounding its launch, which made this tome worth reading through. Now, I’ve started Brian Baumgartner’s oral history of the U.S. version of THE OFFICE, largely because it was offered as a digital book for $1.99. I was never as huge a fan of that series as some, but I did wind up watching a whole bunch of it over the years as a confection. And it’s definitely interesting to see both how the rights to the Rickey Gervais U.K. version were acquired and then retooled for a more American sensibility.
In actual broadcast, it’s too early to say for certain given that only one episode has so far dropped, but the anime adaptation of the popular manga SPY x FAMILY seems like it’s got a real shot at being something. For those unfamiliar, the plot concerns the super-spy known as Twilight, who, in order to take on a crucial secret mission, is forced to adopt the covert identity of Loid Forger (a GREAT alias name) and adopt a fake wife and child. Unfortunately, his make belief wife is secretly herself an assassin, and his adopted daughter turns out to be a telepath, the sought-after end product of a secret experiment. So far, based on the initial episode, it’s got a lot of energy and heart. And the title sequence, which you can see here , is great.
I also finished off BETTER OFF TED, a wonderfully strange sitcom set in an office environment that got progressively less strange as it went on. You can almost see the network and the producers desperately trying to shave off the show’s sharp edges in the hopes of attracting a wider audience, all in vain. And unfortunately, the attempts to make it more conventional wind up making it less interesting. But given that it only lasted for two short seasons, it’s still worth a look, in particular the early, rawer episodes.
Finally, I just wanted to comment for a moment about this interesting wave of nostalgia that’s been turning up in shows of late. No sooner had the chatter died down about Cobie Smulders reprising her HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER role on the quasi-sequel series HOW I MET YOUR FATHER, than this week’s episode of the new WONDER YEARS dropped an incredible callback to the original show by revealing that Dean’s older brother Bruce served in Vietnam alongside old show’s Winnie Cooper’s brother Brian, who died in the original pilot. I’ve been watching the new show as much as anything because I like the period in which it’s set (and it gets extra points for largely having Dean read period-accurate comics—though bags and boards didn’t come along until much later than 1969) so I was as blindsided by this episode-ending revelation as anyone. It was cleverly done, in that the episode would have worked whether a viewer understood the significance of that photograph or not, but for people who watched the original show, it made for a nice rush of endorphins. As much as anything, that’s part of what we look for in our entertainment—part of why comic book history is so important and so often referenced in new stories. We want that hint of recognition, of familiarity. We want to ride the coattails of those who came before us and use their works as the foundation on which to continue to build upward. On the other hand, sometimes nostalgia is weaponized against you, as in the case of STAR TREK: PICARD, which is about as badly-structured and badly-written as I could imagine, yet which draws me back time and again thanks to my affection for a bunch of the cast and the characters they are playing. Nostalgia isn’t by itself a bad thing, but it’s also not a great raison d’etre.
And that takes us up to the GMail length-limit once again, so I’ll call it here! Thanks for the support, and see you all next week!
Tom B
if that Cap pitch actually happened we'd now have a miniseries about that nefarious car
I am the slush file, Tom.