OK, NOW I've seen everything!

My buddy Joe Martino is the creator/writer/illustrator of a very cool Arcana comicbook entitled Shadowflame. He just turned 40 and his family threw him a surprise birthday party. This was the cake...

How cool is that? check out the new Shadowflame graphic novel on Amazon. It collects the four issues of the regular comic as well as severl pin-ups. Plus it sports a very cool John Byrne cover.

New York ComicCon

Tomorrow is Day One of New York Comic Con I'm going to be there all weekend, set up at the Atlas Unleashed table (Booth #456). We have some wicked-cool comics that we will be selling, and then we'll be hostingthe hotest party of the weekend, the Indie after party at Blaggards! 8 W. 38th Street, Saturday, October 9th.

The Indie After Party promises to be kickin' and I'm really excited to be associated with both it, and Atlas Unleashed. Plus I'm simply besides myself that my characters (The Wulf Girlz) are going to be a part of  the War of the Independents (hey, not only are they in the series, but they even have trading cards TRADING CARDS!)

Oh yeah, I also want you all to look for an indie comic tie-in to the War of the Independents, the comic is called Shadowflame. You can order your copy of the Shadowflame Graphic novel (with a wicked-cool wraparound cover by comic book legend John Byrne) right now (as soon as you are finished reading this blog). The Previews Order code for Shadowflame is GN (SEP10 0773).

No go and buy a ton of 'em all! (Then seek out and purchase the Wulf Girl comic when it comes out later this year.)

Defending the indefensible

I don’t normally blog like this, but I just read most of an article on Comic Book Resources (CBR) that reported on a Marvel panel at the Emerald City ComiCon. Most notably at this panel was Marvel EiC, Joe Quesada, who fielded some questions about the current non-state of Peter and MJ. Personally, I really wish I had been there, because I have some follow-up questions that I'd like to posit to him.

The first question Quesada was asked was:

To what level do I have to debase myself to get Spider-Man and Mary Jane back together?” The fan then threw out a couple of suggestions, including “I’ll even take a guest spot on ‘Heroes.’”

His response was that he acknowledged the controversial un-marrying of the couple and indicated that Marvel have no plans to undo the undone. He then explained:

“We worked too hard to get Peter to this point. I can understand why some of you want to see the characters grow old, but we have to manage these characters for the future – a future beyond you and me. A married Peter Parker – as cool as that may seem – from a creative standpoint, it handcuffs the character. It’s a very problematic thing for Peter because it cuts him off and makes Peter the oldest person in the book.”

OK, let’s parse this for just a minute. “We worked too hard to get Peter to this point...” A valid point, but how about the 25+ years of work that it took for the previous creators took to get Peter and MJ to the alter, and the 20 years that they spent as a happily married couple? What gives you the right to simply undo all of that?

“...from a creative standpoint, it handcuffs the character...” Doesn’t making him a white male from a working, middle-class, Christian background also handcuff the character? Not to mention loading him up on such high moral standards? Why not make him more like Wolverine and have him simply gut bad guys? Well, that because that‘s so not who the character is. You‘ve set the rules, now you need to abide by them.

“it cuts him off and makes Peter the oldest person in the book.” Ah, Joe, do you read the book? Aunt May? Joe Robertson? Ben Urich? JJJ? Seriously, your answers are making less sense than some of the silly crap I’ve heard attributed to Stan (and I really like Stan).

Joe continued with ...

“It’s very tough to write because you want to see Peter and M.J. happy, and in a book where, really at its crust, is a soap opera about Peter’s life, the minute he gets everything he wants and life is happy, the stories get boring. So how do you create [the conflict the drama needs]?” OK, that’s a valid point, but my counterpoint to this is, if you can’t find writers who can write interesting stories based on the parameters of the character, then, well, you need to hire writers who are more talented.

John Byrne once told me that, when writing Superman, he really needed Superman to utter a curse word, only, Superman simply doesn’t talk like that, so it required John to challenge himself to write believable, powerful dialogue that conveyed the same range of emotions without using the epithet. To my way of thinking, if your writers can't write compelling stories, stop making excuses for them and admit they are simply not talented enough, and you need better writers.

When the fan countered that reading the current spate of stories of a single Peter Parker felt like the character was treading over preexisting territory. Quesada responded by saying,

“I totally understand. But while it may feel like a retread to you, if I talked to a ten-year-old right now who just started reading Spider-Man a year and a half ago, this is totally brand new. And when you look at every iteration of Spider-Man out now – the movies, the cartoons – he’s a single guy.”

Again, is Joe Q. that far out of touch with his fan base? I truly believe that if you spoke to a 10-year-old about Spidey, they would all know who he is, but you would be hard-pressed to find one that was actually reading the comic. I’ve said it over and over, but Joe is not only pitching the book to an audience that simply does not exist, but to one that hasn’t existed in the better part of a decade-and-a-half. Further, isn’t that why the Ultimate and Marvel Adventure universes created? To appeal to a younger (more diverse) audience?

Sure you’ll find youngsters who go to the movies, play the videogames, and watch the animated adventures on TV, but few (if any) of them are actually buying the comic (if they were, sales of the comics would be at those over-inflated ‘80 & early ‘90 numbers, instead of where they currently are today).

No, I'm not buying the company line that Spidey has to be perpetually younger, not when the same folks who are buying Spidey are buying comics featuring adventures of adult characters, Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, etc. Also, Peter is one of the most moral and upstanding characters in the Marvel Universe. He would never make a deal with the Devil (completely ignoring that any deal with the devil always ends badly for the person making the deal, as well as the fact that my own moral upbringing prevents me from acknowledging that Mephisto has that much power).

As I’ve told Spidey editor, Stephen Wacker, I’m too much of a fan of the character to boycott the book, and I’m too professional to get mad at the creators to yell at them in public, so I’ll keep reading the title and hope that eventually editorial will come to their (spider) senses and simply fix the book. ‘Til then, I feel that it is my own moral imperative to continue to remind them that “With great responsibility...”

Whatever happened to Spider-Man?

I’m trying to be fair, I really am. I mean, I love the character, and in spite of what I think about most of the stories in Amazing Spider-Man’s post Brand New Day world (any one else notice that editorial has stopped referring to Spidey’s life in that fashion. I can only guess that want to stop bringing attention to the fact that these aren’t real Spidey adventures, as they are the result of a Mephisto-induced world).

I really don’t go out of my way to publicly state how much I hate most of the stories, but lately, I have to say the past couple of issues of ASM have had what can only be described as some of the worst art I’ve ever seen in a Spidey comic in my entire life (and I’ve been reading since Amazing Fantasy #15.

The art in ASM #611 (with Deadpool) blew chunks (no disrespect to the artist, but his style just does not belong in Marvel’s Signature series. It looked rushed, muddy, and amateurish. And when did Deadpool become such a jackass. I mean I know that he is a smart-mouth mercenary, but seriously, the writing was crap too. I mean, When John Byrne was writing She-Hulk, and all that goofy crap was going on in that title (the silly stories, breaking the 4th wall), that was all fine and good, but when she appeared in any other title, it was business as usual and things operated pretty much they way they did in the “regular” marvel Universe. Here Deadpool’s stupidity exploded all over the pages of Amazing, completely ruining my reading pleasure).

Then in ASM #612, the back-up tale with Pete, MJ and that girl reporter from Front Line, the art there was equally bad. I mean, after the atrocious (and confusingly badly-written) Who Was Ben Reily? storyline (ASM 608–610), this title is seriously hitting the skids (there is even a retcon in #612 regarding events in 600/601, it just makes me shutter.

Now I’m not telling anyone to stop buying this title. I want everyone to make up their own minds, but the writing of late is just bad. I am urging everyone to write into the Spidey offices to tell them what they thing (bad or good), as this is the only way that anyone in that office will know what we really think.

In Quest of a(nother) No Prize

As many of you all know, Marvel Comics has a long-established history of awarding a No Prize to fans who either spot an error in a Marvel Comic, explain away something that appeared to be an error, or for Marvel Zombiesim far and away beyond normal fannish activities.

I have two No Prizes (Yes I am a Marvel Zombie Geek-a-zoid.)



Well, in Amazing Spider-Man #555 Spider-Editor Stephen Wacker steps into the Letter’s column (Hey! A letter’s column! I had almost forgotten that these used to appear in virtually every issue of every non-reprint Marvel comic!). Anywho, this issue included an appearance of Dr. Strange, and Wolverine who (along with Spidey) are New Avengers, and hiding out in Doc Strange’s place in the Village. The part of this scenario that is odd, is that not only did Doc recently bow out of the team, the team itself relocated to new digs owned by Danny (Iron Fist) Rand, and that after both of those events, Spidey changed from his Back-in-Black dudes to his classic Red-and-blue jammies.

Well, Mr. Wacker graciously ‘splains that rather than launching into his own reasoning, he is throwing open the doors to fans to set the record straight and to give an “official” continuity timeline of what was going on. To that end, I figured that I toss in my two cents (before they discontinue the penny). Needless to say, I just shot off a version of the rest of this post to the Spider-Offices.

Gentlemen:

I dove into this task of explaining the presence of Dr. Strange, Spidey (in his red and blues) and Wolverine hanging out in Doc’s Greenwich Village home) headlong, and worked up this entire complex scenario that involved Dr. Doom’s time travel platform (as recently seen in The Mighty Avengers #9–11), pocket universes, trickery by the gods themselves, unorthodox deals with other-worldly demons, nefarious subterfuge by global-spanning intelligence organizations (as well as their self-serving villainous counterparts), Machiavellian manipulations by world leaders with hidden agendas, secret intergalactic invasions…and that’s when it hit me!



It was all as plain as the nose on my face. There on page 16, panel 1, Spidey makes a revealing comment to himself. He says (and I quote) “B-but I remember how ridiculous a blue hoody looks over this costume. I doubt a Yankees jacket would be much better…”

A Yankees jacket? A Yankees jacket?

It has long been established that Peter (like his beloved Uncle Ben before him) is a Mets fan (I refer you to Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #33). Not to mention that he grew up in Queens (the home of Shea Stadium — where the Mets play). No self-respecting resident of Queens would root for the Yankees! Which can lead us to only one conclusion.

Spider-Man is a Skrull.

Now I’m not saying that all Yankee fans (or even all Yankee players) are Skrulls, (but it would certainly explain quite a bit about their years of championship teams).

Hence, after careful consideration I have to go with the only answer that makes any sense. Something that John Byrne once said. “They’re ALL imaginary stories.” Or, in the words of our current editor-in-chief…

“It’s magic, we don’t have to explain anything.”