Avengers
I’m Just Sayin’…#7
Hey guys. I’d like to blame the lack of a column last week on FANTASTIC FOUR #556 rendering me physically incapable of forming a coherent thought - I’m fairly sure some of the other guys at Midtown Comics heard me when I flipped through the issue, put it back on the shelves, and said “Aaannnnd I’m done with this piece’a shit,” before I picked up CAPTAIN AMERICA # 37 and IRON MAN #28 - but alas, bronchitis was the culprit. Not a pleasant experience, let me tell you.
As a general practice I do a lot of reading between the proverbial lines, and I’m starting to think there’s a reason why Mark Millar was allowed to have the cover style of FANTASTIC FOUR re-styled into something not unlike a celebrity gossip magazine. For one thing, it feeds Mark Millar’s apparent need to feel like a superstar. For another, it serves as a warning that what you’re going to get if you pay for this comic is highly comparable to a celebrity gossip magazine - mindless, pointless, easily disposable - which would explain why any editor let this happen in the first place - and for another still…well, we all know that once Millar’s gone, the cover style will go back to the classic version. So basically, you have a clear marker for when you should’ve stopped buying, and soon enough you’ll get your “all-clear” to come back. It’d be really interesting if the next creative team gets to start at issue #554 too!
To my fellow New Yorkers, or fellow comic book fans who were in the city this past weekend - any of you who went to the Convention, could you drop me a line? Especially if you went to any Marvel panels? I mean…Marvel Apes?
I mean…is this for real? April Fool’s was two weeks ago, what’s going on here?
Plus, I read some of the report on the Cup O’Joe panel over at Newsarama, and not only am I more than a little disheartened at the thought of these people trotting out Stan Lee to endorse the recentmost violation of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but there was this little portion of the Newsarama report that caught my eye:
Yet another question concerning when Marvel is going to “slow down” with the big, status quo-changing “events” was asked. “You mean when are our books going to suck again,” Quesada joked.
I…guess that could be seen as kind of funny. I know if I were the person asking the question, I’d be annoyed and a little insulted, too. Because not only did Quesada dodge the question, he pretty much turned his shoulder to the person. He may as well have said flat-out: “I don’t care what you as a reader may want.” At least that’d have been a little less disingenuous.
And then there was something else that bothered me:
When asked about the Ultimate line, Quesada reiterated that he wants to keep the line small, and that there’s some “huge upheaval” coming within those titles. He also described the Ultimate universe as a “testing ground” for things that might happen in the Marvel Universe proper.
Wait…I thought the point of the Ultimate universe was so that creators could play with familiar Marvel characters in a different universe, and give the readers something different without toying with the Marvel Universe proper. You know…so that you could have a single Peter Parker who still went to high school, without screwing around too much with the original?
I’m starting to think that Quesada is becoming so self-assured in his persona as the guiding light of Marvel Comics, he is beginning to reveal to us regular people more than he ought to about his true motivations - or in the case of this scene from THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546, maybe Dan Slott is trying to warn us on the sly…
…and we as readers, as fans and as customers need to start speaking up.
There’s one thing I’ve learned from performing standup: I may be the one up on stage, and I may have been the one to think up the jokes, but that doesn’t mean it’s all about me. It’s not all about what jokes I want to tell. The audience is there first and foremost to laugh, and while I as an artist may have a point I want to make on any given night, my job first and foremost to make them laugh, and they have a say in this exchange. And if I’m not delivering the laughs, then I need to be cognizant about that and make the necessary adjustments.
If I were the person who asked about the endless string of “event” stories, I wouldn’t let it drop at that, and I wouldn’t let it slide, either - screw this “eh, if I were him, I probably wouldn’t care, either” mentality. This is the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. They can afford a deficit in slack. Hold him and every last editor there to the standard that should imply. Same goes for DC and any other publisher. They need to work for your money, and if it were me, if the editor-in-chief answered a good faith question with such…flagrant douchery, that would be enough for me to start passing out flyers in front of my comic book shop, encouraging people to stop buying dissatisfying comics and start demanding some real storytelling quality for the three-to-four dollars per issue that they’re asking of us.
Because there was the notion implicit in this “joke,” that what’s important is that people buy the comics, no matter what. When Tom Brevoort tells Jeff Ritter in an interview published by this very Nexus that “a good story takes priority over continuity,” what he’s saying is sales numbers are more important than any actual (or coincidental) quality in the story. When once it was dark, tortured brooding characters in black, it was variant covers and absurd accessories like certificates and armbands. And what’s working now is “big, status-quo changing events.” So basically you’re being told exactly how comics publishing works at its bottom line: a book only “sucks” if it doesn’t sell. And since comic book shops don’t do refunds, what should Quesada and his inner circle care if, after some eight months, you come away from the latest “event” thinking, “wait…that made no sense at all!” Their bait worked, they’ve got your $32-plus, and as far as they’re concerned, all they were responsible for is the fact that they gave you a shiny comic book. And to reinforce that point, how about you hit me one more time:
Just a shiny $3-4 magazine, published in relatively four week’s time. That’s all you were entitled to, and if you don’t think you got a good comic book for your money, then tough; that’s just your opinion and quite frankly, if you didn’t like it then you don’t get what they’re trying to do anyway.
My point is, you have a say in this exchange. Sometimes it’s not just you. Sometimes it does suck. Sometimes it is a stupid idea, sometimes seeing your favorite character reimagined as a monkey even for just a few months is a fan-fiction waste of everybody’s time and money, and whether Karl Kesel was just joking, or if he’s desperate to write something high-profile so that maybe Quesada will return the favor and let him take a real crack at FANTASTIC FOUR like he’s always wanted - or if he’s performing an undercover sting operation on behalf of the Comics Code Authority in some bid to re-establish its own relevance - whatever the reason may be, Joe Quesada okayed this idea and that just goes to show: sometimes the emperor isn’t just wearing no clothes…sometimes he’s playing with himself, too.
I just looked at that last line…I’ve used that joke on stage before, and I have to say, I kinda miss the days when I was only talking about George W. Bush. That reminds me: y’know the difference between the Star Wars prequels and the War in Iraq? One outlines the manipulation of a corrupt, complacent democracy into a manufactured war to facilitate the rise in power of a megalomaniacally oppressive force…and the other’s got lightsabers. Hit me!
January 20, 2009. Mark your calendars and at least enjoy the departure of one stubbornly single-minded pseudo-visionary. After all, as someone else said at the New York Con, “I’m not an elected official, at the end of the day.”
Just sayin’, is all.
Last 5 posts by Greg Manuel
- I'm Just Sayin'...#41 - December 25th, 2008
- I'm Just Sayin'...#40 - December 17th, 2008
- I'm Just Sayin'...#39 - December 10th, 2008
- I'm Just Sayin'...#38 - December 3rd, 2008
- I'm Just Sayin'...#37 - November 26th, 2008
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damn fine article sir… as far as the the Quesada issue- wow… truly if it wasn’t for Cap,Daredevil, Iron Man, and Iron Fist (up until the forthcoming creator shift) I would be done with Marvel… wow they better hope to God DC doesn’t snag Brubaker with another exclusive
Thanks man, I really appreciate it - and I really want to hear from people who went to the convention because I keep wanting to believe that our industry isn’t being overrun with such narcissistic personalities as the kind Joe Quesada’s increasingly showing himself to be.
I mean, even if this Marvel Apes thing is a JOKE…what was the point? To annoy the Internet community? C’mon now…that stopped being cute four years ago!
I don’t think it was meant to annoy. They’ve just milked the Marvel Zombies thing dry after all those covers and series, and they’re looking for the next internet fad.
the thing is, Marvel Zombies was an overnight success, much like those Civil War banners, because they came out after a genuine desire to jut make something fun for the sake of it; they struck a chord with the fanbase/zeitgeist and became such amazing phenomena.
Marvel tried to reproduce the civil war banner sensation with the WWH banners (which almost worked), and then with those forced skrull ones which the fans saw right through. Marvel Apes is their attempt at the next Marvel Zombies, but they’re tipping their hand way too early. Seriously, the only major announcement out of the convention was this title?
Gotta agree with Manolis… it’s simply to try to find the next fad.
What I find sad is the fact that now Marvel is so out of ideas that they have to ape something (couldn’t resist that pun) that DC did a couple of years ago. And to be quite frank, this sort of storyline just works better in the DCU than it does the MU.
And while I consider Karl Kesel the man (which you already know, Greg) even I had to do a double take on this one.
But hopefully after the pain of Miller’s FF, finally Kesel can do his run and make the FF fantastic again. That’s just me, though.
As far as the Apes story goes, I really have no problem with it. I think it’s a little silly and I know I won’t be buying it, but it is the company’s job to make money and it is definitely their right to try and produce something to make said money.
I must say though that I am not a fan of Joe Quesada. I think that under his leadership, really cool, exciting concepts like the Ultimate Universe have crashed and burned, and I think that there have been more events where stories are written by the editors, not the writers. Who cares if someone is exclusive to a company if his/her work ends up being taken over by an editorial mandate. Booo Quesada
See, the thing about caring what readers want is that those that are most vocal about what they want aren’t putting their money where their mouths are. People say they want new, interesting characters . . . and then they fall all over themselves to find reasons not to buy The Order (”the title sounds fascist,” “it’s pro-Reg, so I won’t buy it”) or the Initiative (”it’s pro-reg, I won’t buy it,” “I don’t want to read about Hitler Youth boot camp”).
And meanwhile, the records show that in spite of how Chuck Austen was one of the most hated man in comics . . . people bought his X-Men run. People are still buying One More Day and all of the other “cancer that is killing comics” events.
Ryan: I’ll tell you this much…Marvel is missing out on a BIG promo campaign every time they pass up your boy Karl: The Kesel Run! C’MON, people! Marvel better hurry up and pull that trigger before Dark Horse comes knocking on his door…
Andrew: You make a solid point, here. But I think part of why readers may reject a certain change after clamoring for it, is because there’s SOMEthing about its execution that doesn’t sit right with them. Perhaps it’s a bit of characterization that feels a bit too forced. Or maybe it’s the way the proverbial deck was cleared when the new writer came aboard. And I actually read a good portion of Chuck Austen’s UNCANNY X-MEN; I enjoyed some of it, but then there were some things that really turned me off. I distinctly remember a scene during his “Romeo & Juliet” homage story, where he actually has Angel and Husk finally embrace their feelings for each other…in mid-air…with Husk’s MOTHER WATCHING.
And then, in a move that I guess was supposed to be funny, the camera holds on Mrs. Guthrie watching Warren & Paige off-panel…and then PAIGE’S NIGHTGOWN COMES WAFTING DOWN, LANDING ON HER MOTHER’S HEAD?!
I’ve made a great many perverted joke in my day, but…EWWWWWWW!!!
But you see my point - it can’t be just ANY kind of change. There has to be a point, and it has to be a logical, organic change. Take “Law & Order.” Could we REALLY have done another season of Sam Waterston as the Executive Assistant District Attorney? Could we REALLY have stood to see him partnered with another hot assistant? No - but you can’t lose such an iconic character as Jack McCoy. So what do you do? Put him in the District Attorney’s seat, and find someone who can fill the EADA’s spot. That’s an example of smartly executed change. Jack McCoy was in the same position for too long. They needed to do something new for him. Like Jimmy James said in an episode of NewsRadio - “I stopped reading BEATLE BAILEY when I realized he wasn’t gonna shoot anybody.”
Using myself as an example, there are more than a few comics I passed up on, chiefly because I didn’t like the way that proverbial board was cleared. I don’t read NEW AVENGERS or MIGHTY AVENGERS because it all sprang from AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED - which to me spat on the original concept of THE AVENGERS. I didn’t bother with anything pertaining to “The Initiative” (save for IRON MAN) or “The Order” because they were spun off of CIVIL WAR, which to me was a VERY poorly executed story. Fruit from the tainted tree - it ain’t fair to either book, but that’s how I felt about it. Again, to use “Law & Order” as an example: Jesse L. Martin’s Detective Ed Green was written out of the series. He was on the show for 9 long years, and carried the police portion of that program like a CHAMP following the loss of Lennie Briscoe and death of Jerry Orbach. Tonight he went out a hero. And that’s why I’m tuning in next week.
And I’ll tell you, I think the readers who are still on board with “Brand New Day” are waiting for there to be a point to the change. They’re waiting to see a bigger, better reason for it than just, “Me an’ the boys just don’t like a married Peter Parker. Well, heck - never mind the boys, *I* just don’t like a married Peter Parker.” That’s not enough for such a huge, controversial move. There has to be more, and time will tell if there is. I don’t think there’s more to it myself, and that’s why I don’t support THAT change.
It’s not enough that you give the fans change. It has to be well done, and respectful of what came before, and should feel like a logical extension of the franchise.
LOL
you really do love your L&O!!
i see your points about Quesada, and it’s true the ultimate universe has deteriorated on his watch, apart from ultimate spiderman. Kirkman missed the point on U. X-Men, Loeb is bastardising Ultimates and the artist they brought onto U. FF is chasing people away!! Let’s not even start on Ultimate Power and Wolvie/Hulk
as for Brand New Day: i’m a big fan! it’s really enough for me to hear Slott’s cryptic comments about Harry to have faith they’re gearing to some major reveals about his resurrection which is really my major gripe with the story. MJ will be back in Pete’s life sooner rather than later, and the reversal of the unmasking was telegraphed from the first day it occured
Man, when you’re actively ripping off JLApe, you have seriously run out of ideas. What’s next, “Jester’s Last Laugh”?
Besides, monkeys are DC’s forte. Maybe this is just a clever plan by Marvel to force DC to respond with more ape content. They’re already putting Congorilla on the new Justice League, maybe they’ll overreact and put Titano on the Outsiders and give Detective Chimp an ongoing.
detective Chimp HAS an ongoing! he’s the only readable character in Shadowpact, in any case