by Matt
Welcome to another "Shout Out/Scream At!” column! where I take a look at what makes me a happy fanboy (Shout Outs!) and what frustrates me (Scream Ats!) about the comic industry. This column is all about the 90's! I will be covering Nomad, Guardians of the Galaxy, Savage Dragon, Psylocke and a few more 90's nuggets of joy!!
I admit that I love the 90's. While there was a lot of crap that was produced during this era, this era also produced a lot of fantastic and creative works. And it seems the comic industry is revisiting this era as well and I couldn't be more excited for some of it.
SHOUT OUT! SAVAGE DRAGON #150!
It makes me feel old when a book I have been collecting right from the start hits a major milestone. But I am proud that the Savage Dragon is hitting #150. If I was allowed only one comic to get regularly, I would take this title. You just have to admire Erik Larsen, like him or not, you should respect the guy for his passion and commitment. Why do I love this book so much? I have a ton of reasons and here are just a few.
-PASSION. Erik pours everything he has into this book. He has written and penciled (including covers) the book for 150 issues, at times he has colored it and lettered it on his own. He has stated that the Savage Dragon will be done when he dies and that this is what he wants to do until he dies. You can tell how much he loves the book and that, to me, enhances the enjoyment. He was sick in bed and still cranked out backup stories for his book.
-CREATIVITY. This is one of the few books where I cannot tell what is going to happen. No one is safe, not even the Dragon himself. This book really has it all. Clones? Check. Alternate universes? Check. Colorful characters? Check. Space invaders? Check. Deaths? Check. I could go on and on. His book also tries to stay within "real" time. Meaning, it has been over ten years since the first issue came out, so the Dragon has aged 10 years. I cannot think of any other book that does this. Erik also experiments with how to tell a story. One of my favorite comics is when he covered a whole year using single panels. Each panel covered a different day. Another memorable issue was "The Fly". One of Dragon's baddies transformed himself into a fly and pestered Dragon while he was recovering in the hospital. Erik is also not afraid to let his opinions show in the book. It could be regarding politics or the comic industry, he lets loose with it. He isn't afraid to change the status quo. Issue #75 comes to mind, Dragon makes a decision that he thinks is right by killing his enemy. Darklord (his enemy) warns him that it will be worse if he is killed and the Dragon doesn't believe him. So he kills him anyway and it changes everything! Remember when Image produced a Mars Attacks! series that showed the aliens invading the Image universe? Erik was the only one that worked that into his regular continuity. Some folks may not like continuity, personally, I love it. It makes a stronger book.
-ART. I know a lot of people are turned off by his art. I didn't like his art in the beginning when he was drawing Spider-Man but I got used to it. He may not be the greatest artist but his greatest strength is making the art kinetic.
Erik consistently puts out an entertaining product. It is chuck full of fun stuff. It can be serious and it can be laugh-out-loud funny. It is exactly what I want out of a comic book. Congrats Erik for hitting #150!
SHOUT OUT! The Original Guardians of the Galaxy return!
When the new Guardians of the Galaxy series was announced, I was so excited because I LOVED Jim Valentino's run on the book from the 90's. But I was sad because they were similar in name only. Until Major Victory and Starhawk appeared. And then this cover came out and I am all ga-ga! I love the concept of the original Guardians of the Galaxy and I am glad that they are being used again. And kudos to Marvel's trade program for putting out two classic Guardians of the Galaxy hardcovers reprinting their early appearances!
SHOUT OUT! Avengers/Invaders #12
What does this have to do with the 90's? I enjoy the Golden Age characters and during the 90's I picked up the series called "Saga of the Original Human Torch." This documentary-style comic retold the tales of the early Invaders and I really liked it. The original Human Torch was a neat character and I followed him through Avengers West Coast and Heroes for Hire, all the way till the New Invaders series (which was really underrated) when he was killed. I saw that Marvel was soliciting a new Torch series and I was looking forward to seeing Jim Hammond again. I was stoked when I heard that Jim Krueger and Alex Ross were writing this project. The first couple of issues were okay but the series started to lose some steam. I still collected the rest of the series but found myself barely reading it and filing it away with my collection. The last issue came out and I was thumbing through it and I was taken by total surprise.
**SPOILERS**
I thought it would be Jim Hammond returning but it wasn't. It was another Golden Era hero that had "Torch" powers. This totally took me off guard. Surprises just don't happen very much anymore in comics. I am looking forward to reading this series in one sitting now that I have an ending that I know I like!
SHOUT OUT! Psylocke Series
I fall into the camp that prefers British Betsy. Betsy has always wanted to be a warrior so it made sense that she become a ninja but I was not a huge fan of her changing race. I was happy with the recent Uncanny X-Men storyline that brought Betsy back to the X-Men but was a little sad that it was not the British one. But I am excited for the new mini written by Christopher Yost and I hope that he brings this character some stability that she has lacked in years. I would love to see and am confident that Yost can pull this out and make me care about Betsy again.
SHOUT OUT! McKeever/Nomad
I didn't like the original Heroes Reborn. I sold the books more than five years ago and I don't miss it at all. I hated the redesigns, I hated that Jim Lee couldn't stay on the FF the whole time, I hate the eagle on Cap. Perhaps it would be easier if I listed what I liked about it. The only thing that I liked was the 13th issue of each series when they crossed over with Wildstorm. I tried the Return one-shots and I liked them even less than the original. Even though it was Liefeld and Loeb, I picked up the Onslaught Reborn series and that completed the Terrible Trilogy. But I did like the ending of that series, I liked that they moved the girl Bucky to our universe. And boy was I surprised when they whipped her out for Cap #600 and when it was announced that she would get a miniseries. I was going to pass but then I learned that Sean McKeever was returning to Marvel and writing the series! I allow myself one or two $3.99 books (Dark Avengers being the other one I get) and I just might pick this up. I am interested to see where Marvel and McKeever take the character.
SHOUT OUT! Clone Saga?
I hated the original Clone Saga. I was collecting the Amazing Spider-Man for 240 straight issues and I finally had enough of it and dropped it with Amazing Spider-Man #400. That issue being the only good thing that came out of the whole thing. I admit that in the beginning of the Clone Saga, I was curious to see where the story was going but it just got worse and worse and finally I bailed. I am glad that Marvel is at least recognizing the storyline instead of flat out ignoring it. My opinion on continuity is this, if you are a good writer you can make continuity work. Only lazy writers ignore it completely. I was surprised that Marvel wanted to revisit this storyline in this way though. Marvel brought back Howard Mackie and Tom DeFalco to tell the story they originally wanted to tell which makes it more of a morbid curiosity. But I am screaming at the $3.99 price tag. So thanks Marvel, I will wait for the trade.
SCREAM AT! Return of Britannic!
Just kidding! I needed something to scream about! I like Scott Lobdell and I enjoyed a lot of his run on the X-titles but his run on Excalibur was horrible. What really made me appreciate Warren Ellis as a writer was his run on Excalibur. He could have swept the whole Captain Britain/Britannic away but instead chose to work with it. He formed a cool story involving Cap seeing the future (because he was lost in time and came back as Britannic) and stripped Cap to just being Brian Braddock again. And then slowly brought back Captain Britain. Warren also demonstrated this when he took over Stormwatch as well and that instantly made me a fan of Ellis.
6 Shout Outs to one (1 and a half with the $3.99 pricing) Scream At? A lot better than last time!
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7.09.2009
Shout Outs! and Scream Ats!
6.18.2008
Footnotes*...Spidey's Brand New Way
by Doug Smith
As a life-long reader of comics and casual observer of fan reaction around the internet, I’ve realized that the comics industry has three major problems:
(1)Late-shipping comics
(2)Decompression
(3)The two-headed monster known as JoeDan Quesadidio, which is hell-bent on destroying Marvel and DC…and thus, comics as we know them!
But lately, it seems that one-half of that Quesadidio bi-beast has taken steps towards addressing those first two points, and the methods being used could signal a change in the way that both Marvel and DC publish their comics.
That’s right, people, I’m talking about Amazing Spider-Man.
Wait! Come back! I know, I know ... I hated “One More Day” too.
But I’m not here to talk about the storylines spawned in the wake of that much-reviled status quo shakeup. Rather, I want to talk about how Marvel is successfully publishing their flagship title three times a month. Emphasis on HOW. (Successful in terms of scheduling…if you want to look at sales numbers, you can go here and see how the numbers can be interpreted about sixteen different ways to prove a variety of points.)
People were skeptical that Marvel (home of more than their share of late comics, especially since Joe Quesada became EIC) could publish Amazing Spider-Man on an almost-weekly schedule, but damn if they’re not doing it. Since the “Brand New Day” era started, the title has been utilizing a rotating team of writers (Dan Slott, Zeb Wells, Bob Gale, and Marc Guggenheim) and a deep bench of A-list artists, including Steve McNiven, Phil Jimenez, Salvador Larroca, Chris Bachalo, Barry Kitson, and Marcos Martin. Some of these artists have been associated with delayed books in the past, but to the best of my knowledge, Amazing has yet to miss a ship date.
So just how are they doing this?
Obviously, the rotating creators are a major factor in this schedule, but the other big piece of the puzzle is the length of the story arcs. So far, three-issue arcs by a writer/artist team have been the norm, although they are leading up to a longer arc, “New Ways To Die”, in a few months with the prolific John Romita Jr. handling the artwork. Shorter arcs have no doubt helped in the successful scheduling, as even a reliable workhorse like Larroca would be hard-pressed to do six straight issues in a two-month window. But three straight issues are apparently very possible, especially with plenty of lead time. We have to assume that there’s plenty of lead time in Spidey’s editorial office, as Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort recently mentioned on his blog that he and Slott were recently going over the story for ASM #600…that’s about 40 issues and well over a year of lead time!
Both Marvel and DC are in a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation with late work, especially when it comes to high-profile projects. If they delay a book (as Marvel did with Civil War), they get hammered by the fans. If they use fill-in artists (as DC did with Infinite Crisis, and just announced they are doing again as Carlos Pacheco joins J.G. Jones on Final Crisis), they get hammered. They simply can’t win, which is why it’s in their best interests to get the scheduling nightmares under control. I find it fascinating that Marvel can publish Amazing Spider-Man three times a month now, when they couldn’t publish it once a month last year. But if there’s one thing the book’s new editor, Steve Wacker, seems to know, it’s how to make the trains run on time. He came to Marvel after launching the highly successful 52 at DC, a weekly series that used a team of superstar writers, a pool of artists, was received well by fans, sold like hotcakes, and hit its ship date every single week. (It should be noted, of course, that Wacker left DC about halfway through that book’s run, so other people managed to keep the train on the tracks.) Whatever his secret is, Wacker seems to know how to schedule books appropriately and manage talent in a way that leads to success. There can be no doubt that he's using the lessons he learned while working on 52 now that he's a part of the Marvel Bullpen.
Rotating creative teams aren’t the answer for every single book, of course. I understand that creator-owned properties are going to come out on their creator’s schedule, whatever that may be. I’m fine with that. I’m also OK with special miniseries being completed by one team (although, for the love of Kirby, in those cases don’t solicit the first issue until the series is almost done!) as those tend to be more “labor of love”. But seeing what Marvel is accomplishing with Amazing gets me wondering if that model can’t be utilized on other company-owned series, like the much-delayed Astonishing X-Men. I don’t know if the delays on that book were the fault of writer Joss Whedon or artist John Cassaday, or a combination of the two (or, to be fair, completely out of their control). But for the sake of argument, let’s say that it was the artist that was late. I do understand that Cassaday was a big part of the book’s draw, but would it have hurt the book that much to be scheduled with Cassaday doing the first six issue arc, followed by, let’s say, Steve McNiven on issues 7-12, and then back to Cassaday? So long as an individual arc was consistent artistically, and didn’t have single issue rush jobs by fill-in artists, I believe fans would have been happier. And I don’t mean to pick on Cassaday, as I’m a big fan of his artwork; it’s just that this particular title is a very good example of a book that could have benefited by using two alternating A-list artists instead of suffering long delays. (The current volume of Captain America has been using Mike Perkins as a fill-in for Steve Epting, to great effect.) Again, if the problems had nothing to do with Cassaday, then we’ll have to dig deeper for solutions. Two of Marvel’s biggest scheduling disasters (Spider-Man/Black Cat and Ultimate Wolverine vs.Hulk) had nothing to do with late artists.
Delays can be deadly to a reader’s interest in a book. I know that I was certainly losing interest in Astonishing as the months went by with no new issues in sight. It didn’t help that I was finding the story itself to be a little on the thin side with each issue, which leads me to that other great threat to comics….
Decompression.
Now, I don’t think decompression is a bad thing, if used properly. The problem is, too many comics aren’t using it properly. At three bucks a pop, we fans want to get our money’s worth. We also don’t want to wait several months to get to the end of a storyline. Again, interest will start to wane; it’s only natural. Going back to the Astonishing example, a six-part story that feels padded isn’t very satisfying. It’s even worse when delays happen during the course of that story, and now the reader is being asked to give nine or ten months (or even more) to a storyline that isn’t wowing them. I felt that the last two pre-BND arcs in Amazing Spider-Man (“Back In Black”, which was six parts, and “One More Day”, which was four parts) suffered greatly from this combination; stories that were taking more issues than needed to tell the story, compounded by serious delays. By the time “Back In Black” was over, I was fed up and pissed off at having spent several months and $18 on what could have been done in just two or three issues.
Six issues is plenty of time to decide that you don’t like a book and drop it. I dropped Gail Simone’s All-New Atom after slogging through the first six issues, which I didn’t enjoy at all. Several months later, I picked up an issue on a whim and enjoyed it enough to put the book back on my pull list. Now, had those first six issues been just three issues, I probably would have been willing to give the next storyline a chance, and DC might have kept me as a reader; but by the time issue six came out my mind was made up. Marvel just relaunched Cable and I could tell by the end of issue two that I was done with this book. Not that it was bad, but it was so glacially paced that I felt I was wasting my money; no way was I going to buy through issue five to see how things turned out. I might have been tempted to buy through issue three, had that been the end of the first arc; but that would have required much more economical storytelling on the part of the creators.
This brings us, again, back to the “Brand New Day” era. The three-issue arcs make for a nice, quick, well-paced read. There seems to be a conscious effort to pick up the pace. Part of that is no doubt due to the scheduling of talent; shorter arcs mean a better chance of having one artist doing the whole story. But it’s also made for crisper storytelling which is more satisfying to me, the consumer. The stories don’t feel “compressed”; the pacing feels just right, not too rushed and not too slow. Every story is different, and the trend towards forcing everything into arcs of five or six issues defeats the whole point of decompression, which was to allow stories to find their natural length and rhythm, instead of being shoved into one or two issues. In allowing writers and artists more freedom in their storytelling, Marvel and DC went too far in the other direction; now, hopefully, the pendulum will swing back the other way, and a happy balance can be found.
There’s definitely a lesson to be learned from the way Marvel is handling Amazing Spider-Man, and it’s a lesson that can, and should, be applied to titles at both companies. Build in plenty of lead time. Tighten up story arcs. Schedule artists (and writers) in such a way that deadlines don’t become constantly moving targets. Monthly titles like Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Action Comics, Mighty Avengers…these books shouldn’t be allowed to get months behind schedule. Because if Marvel can publish Spider-Man three times a month using top-notch artists, then there’s really no reason for any monthly title to get behind to the point that storylines have to be wrapped up several months later in a “special” issue or annual (yeah, I’m looking at you now, DC Comics).
Love it or hate it, Amazing Spider-Man just might be the way of the future.
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5.13.2008
From Top to Bottom: Comic Crossovers
by Matt
Welcome to the 3rd edition of the weekly "From Top to Bottom" column! Every week I will look at something within the comics industry and give you my opinion on what I think is the best and what I think ranks amongst the bottom-feeders.
I was reviewing some of my old monthly orders through mailordercomics.com the other day and I noticed that the new (well, it was ordered about a year ago) Batman/Spawn crossover was canceled. Now, I am a HUGE sucker for crossovers, and even though I don't follow Spawn or Batman all that much, I HAD to get this book.
Company crossovers follow 3 different formulas: either it is a full team-up with one universe visiting another, a mishmash of the characters in the same universe (see Amalgam) or somehow the characters have always existed in the same universe. I am not a huge fan of the Amalgam-type crossovers, so you won't find those here. But I am a huge fan of seeing characters from separate universes interacting. Crossovers rarely matter in the scheme of things; they are all about having fun. We all want to see heroes from separate universes smack the crap out of each other before they figure out that it was all just a misunderstanding and then team up to defeat the evildoer. Some company crossovers have been fantastic and others have been pretty close, most were not bad and some were complete disasters. In researching this, I have found that there are a ton of them out there - and I think I have them all! Here are my Top 3.
I am a huge Backlash fan. I loved the Kindred series, I loved his solo series, I just really love Backlash. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Spider-Man (Ben Reilly no less!) would be teaming with a B-level character like Backlash and it would be drawn by Backlash creator Brett Booth himself! While this wasn't in continuity or a crossover that was really demanded, this was meant to be fun. The Venom/Taboo symbiote angle was well-played, the idea behind the team up was good, in short the execution of this crossover just screamed fun. Of course, it helps if you are a big fan of both characters.
2)Wildcats/Aliens
This was one of the rare crossovers that actually impacted continuity in a major, major way. Stormwatch discovers a meteor heading towards Earth and they send a team to blow it up, and, ultimately, bring back Aliens to Skywatch. The Aliens massacre all but a few aboard and the original team of Wildcats goes to investigate and rescue. Battalion is the only surviving member of the Stormwatch team; all the rest were killed by the Aliens. This led to Stormwatch being discontinued and the series itself being canceled, but it did also lead to the formation of the book and team called the Authority. I love this crossover because it actually affected the book and team in continuity. I have a soft spot for Stormwatch and was so shocked after reading this book. It really lived up to the famous comic mantra that this changes EVERYTHING!
The grand daddy of them all! Busiek and Perez knocked this book right out of the park. It exceeded my expectations. We got the best of both worlds, highlighting what makes the DC and Marvel universes unique and fun. We also got to see the teams fight and then we got to see them as if they were in the same universe. Aside from the writing and the insanely detailed art (I could not imagine an artist other than Perez), it was the little things that made this crossover my all-time favorite. I loved that heroes were treated differently on both worlds, that magic, the Speed Force, the Infinity Gems (and many other things) didn't work in different universes. The geek in me also loved trying to find every single incarnation of the each member of the Avengers in #4. This was a dream crossover!
Honorable Mentions: There are sooo many crossovers out there that it was hard to narrow down my top 3 favorites. so I will recommend a few more: Batman/Spider-Man (the one Bagley drew), the Nexus/Madman jam, Hellboy/Starman/Batman and the first Superman/Aliens series are also among my favorites.
And here are 3 crossovers that shouldn't have happened. In ANY universe!
I admit that I haven't read this. However, just the idea is silly enough to make it onto this list. If I find this book in a 25 cent bin I'll probably snag it, just to satisfy the voyeur in me.
The first crossover between these 2 teams had some redeeming value which was called Art Adams. The second crossover was so bad that I totally have forgotten what it was all about. All I know if that it was painful to get through it. More painful than the first one, which at the time I didn't think was possible. And if I had a choice, I would rather buy the Punisher/Archie crossover at FULL PRICE than read this one again.
It took me years to finally read this book. I bought it because like I said, I am a sucka for these type of books. Eventually, I decided to read it. After reading it, I sold it on eBay with a bunch of other crappy Image books and I have not looked back. This book represents what goes wrong with a crossover book. I thought Wolverine would be a good crossover with any character but he couldn't pull Badrock. And who wants to see a crossover with Badrock? Was there really demand for that like JLA/Avengers or Batman/Spider-Man? That would be like taking a corny Marvel character like Gladiator and team him with Supreme. Oh wait, they already did that. Crossovers only work if there is demand to see them together or if they both are similar type characters. That is what made even Team 7/Team X work better than Badrock/Wolverine.
After writing this, I thought about characters that would make excellent crossovers. So next week, I will present my Top 3 choices for crossovers that should happen and I will also give my Bottom 3 for crossovers I hope will never happen!
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