Ew, you bought a current ongoing X title. That was a waste of money.

Save your money for the Utopia crossover. Oh, and the Giant-Sized Old Man Logan issue.

Hah…GOOD one! And here I thought I was the comedian!

First off, nice pin up of the Shadow. When the movie came out, I got into the old radio programs. The ones done by Orson Welles are my favorites.

Second, If I knew what I know now about Civil War and most of the emo crap Marvel has spewed out, I would’ve saved my money and looked elsewhere for great story-telling. Maybe when I get back to college, I can talk the librarians to pick up the TBP’s of Immortal Iron Fist. I have been trying to get better books in the graphic novel section. So I hope when fall comes, there will be something better waiting for us all. =) I found Agents of Atlas because of it and I’m glad I checked it out.

Thanks for linking the article on the kids books being better than most of the adult works out there. Nice to see an Avengers title that doesn’t treats Tigra like a punching bag or a total victim. It’s fucking bullshit that things are so bass-ackwards in the big two that they have forgotten how to tell a story on both levels. Good enough for the young readers and for the older ones. Two writers I can think of that deserve to get Marvel out of this depressing quagmire its in are Dan Slott and Jeff Parker. I know Dan is taking part in the Spider-Man mess but if we got rid of Joe Q and his meddling (same with Bendis), we could get back to what a comic should be. Great story-telling without hurting your wallet or belittling the readers. Can anyone else think of DC or Marvel writers that deserve more credit than their overhyped counterparts? Let me know what you folks think.

Finally, I was surprised by the 200 issue of Sonic you submitted to us. Last time I could think of a villain snapping under the pressure of numerous defeats was Doc Ock in the older Spider-Man issues. Can’t think of the issue number but it took place after Black Cat got beaten to near death and Peter decided to drop out of college. He went off to face Dr. Octopus as if it would be the last time we would see him again. But in the end, he overcame and beat the odds. That is something you rarely see in today’s books.

Maybe one day, the winds will change and we can get back to basics. I hope one day, the big two will remember that if you let both the young and old at heart mingle with great comics… we can please both sides of the fence. I hope…

Mr. Q

I have a dream….

I agree the X-books are probably worse then they have ever been.

They need to draft Cornell and Gage and go the BND route and scratch every thing since the Siege Perilous storyline.

Wolverine is pure fun simply because it takes place the current continuity endless cycle of X-storylines that have plagued the book with mediocrity for the last several years.

-aris

I’m going to have to strongly disagree with you on that assessment, Aris. The BND route is NEVER an acceptable way to solve a problem. That’s not what Marvel should ever be about. You do not rip out whole patches from a quilt just because you don’t like them – that ruins the entire quilt!

One should build from what’s come before, and if something didn’t work prior, you either (A)reinforce it, (B) explain it away in a logical manner, or (C) don’t reference it if you don’t need to. Erasing it outright is a DC move. The Marvel Universe was built upon the foundation that every story matters, and when that rule is broken, readers are alienated.

Q – totally agree with you on Jeff Parker and Dan Slott. Not many writers have had a whole lot of success making the original five X-Men seem fun to read, but Parker sure showed me different. Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are natural additions to this list; ditto Duane S. and JMS for their continued work with Iron Fist and Thor respectively…

…incidentally – I have some tapes of the old Shadow radio show too!

Greg – Well spoken counter argument on the BND mess. What Marvel was a total cop out only to please Joe Q himself. Note to self, look into marriage of Joe Q. Sometimes, when relationships are on the skids, writers or creators tend to take it out on characters. Peter David’s assassination of Betty Ross is a good example of that, imo.

Also, thanks for the listing of Ed, Matt, Duane S., and JMS (I love his run on Thor, but she-male Loki is so wrong). Now those are writers that deliver the goods.

I dunno if I still got the old Shadow radio tapes around the house. Might look into CD’s or perhaps MP3′s of them if they are available.

One final note, more like a weird idea. Not sure if I shared it before but worth mentioning. Think Marvel should pair up Punisher and Deadpool into either a crossover or new series ala Cable and Deadpool? Those two working together (providing they don’t kill each other) will drive Norman and his Dark Reign party up the frikkin’ wall.

Just a weird thought.

Mr. Q

In Joe Q’s defense, he probably did it so he can sleep with MJ. No man wants to f*** with Spider-Man like that so he did what he could to get the ball rolling.

I agree absolutely wrong way to do it. Doesn’t negate the fact that there are good Spiderman stories coming out of the Mephisting.

Marvel deserves the flack they get over OMD and how they got the Spidey book to where they are.

But hot damn. The books are great. They need to bring that spirit and fun back to the X-men.

I want someone to write some good X-stories. At this point im no longer invested in what’s going on. So how they get there matters much less then that they do.

Keep up the good commentary.

-aris

“Mephisting.” That’s an excellent way to put it, Aris. I have to bow down to that one! ‘Nolis, can we get that on a T-shirt or a sticker or something?

However, for a lot of us, OMD does negate the great concepts that have been present in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN because there’s nothing about Peter’s marital status that gets in the way of those stories. Joe Quesada and company can’t prove otherwise because they know his marriage wasn’t a real obstacle. They just got rid of it because they didn’t like it. Shouldn’t someone have a better reason to alter something about a character that, for lack of a better comparison, they’re only temporarily in charge of? You have to have a good reason, a REAL reason, to make such a drastic alteration to a character that’s NOT EVEN YOURS.

In fact, some of these BND storylines would’ve been improved by Peter’s marriage staying in place. Take Jackpot: What if Spider-Man sees this new, registered superheroine running around that looks like a dead ringer for his wife? Does he suspect Mary Jane of doing something to her own body to give herself enhanced abilities? Maybe he thinks Mary Jane became a superhero to be closer to him? But then, it turns out she’s this entirely different person…and he kind of digs it. Awww, crap – now he’s thinking about someone who’s kind of like his wife, but NOT his wife…that’s going to eat at a guy like Peter – his father never gave another woman a second look. Neither did his Uncle Ben. How are you NOT going to play with that?

I’m not being sarcastic here – can’t you imagine Peter agonizing over the sorts of sticky feelings these create? And let’s say he discovers that the Jackpot that died was actually a lesbian – is he going to be relieved (whew! I never would’ve had a chance with her – I can stop thinking about her now), or is he going to be doubly bummed? (She doesn’t even like guys. I never would’ve had a chance with her anyway…so why can’t I stop thinking about her???)

Then there’s the mayoral race, Freak, the new Vulture, the Spider-Tracer Killer…none of those stories required a single Peter Parker any more than they did an involved or a married one. So many of us ask…why’d you bother? Why should I read this?

I’ve read the stories and a lot of them look fun, but at the same time they don’t cover any new ground or tell us anything new about Peter Parker or the people around him. And for those of us who can’t get past OMD, it’s like…what’s the point? Why should I lay down more and more money for a character that doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere?

As for the X-Men…I would argue that they’re not supposed to be “fun.” The X-Men, at their best throughout the years, are the team that is fighting an intensely personal battle that nobody’s really rooting for them to win. The fun comes in those brief moments when they can enjoy some downtime…go out somewhere, play a little pickup game of baseball or softball…moments when they can FORGET about WHO THEY ARE for just a little while before a giant-assed robot comes a-stomping through their living room.

The Fantastic Four, at their best, are about making new discoveries. The Avengers, at their best, are about protecting mankind. The X-Men, at their best are about the right to exist in a world that wishes they’d just go away. And the best stories are the ones where the deck is perpetually stacked against them. And whenever they reach a level of legitimacy, something takes it away. Because the moment they win, and win for real? The story’s over.

That’s why the best X-Men uniform designs have a dark, foreboding quality to them, and the best mutant powers are the ones that seem tailor-made for super-villains: invasive, destructive, lethal, nigh-impossible to control, visually unorthodox…and that’s why I’m buying the X-books right now. They hit the right notes for me.