Consistency. That’s the word that’s been on my mind for weeks now. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine, which is in large part due to my being incredibly anal. I need thinks to make sense in both their plot as well as the flow. Movies, TV, books, video games, life, etc. Everything needs to make sense or I get a headache. Fiction has to be the most annoying one though, especially comics. The problem with serial fiction is that things are bound to change as times move on, whether it be the writer moving on or the artist, it’s very rare to see someone hang around for an extended period of time these days.
Oh, sure, you’ll find books like Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, JSA, Captain America, and (before the last issue of One More Day) Amazing Spider-Man where you’ll realize that for the most part the same writer has been handling these characters for years (in the case of Ult Spidey I believe Bendis is up to #127 issues in a row now, as well as three annuals). That’s not all too common in today’s market. And before you start, I am NOT including creator owned into this, that’s just not fair. Giving a book a single creator helps give it a distinct voice, in a way that a committee just can’t accomplish. Sure, you could have four writers on one book, each following the same basic script, and no two of them will truly feel the same. That’s just the reality of the situation though, everyone has their own take on things that’s bound to bleed threw into their writing. It just comes with the territory though, and sometimes the only way to truly generate the right feel of a book, for a writer to truly leave their mark, is to just stay on it and not let go.
When JMS came on to Amazing Spider-Man back in 2001, the book was in shambled after a horribly failed reboot attempt by Howard Mackie and John Byrne, he had a huge hill to climb. How do you return Marvel’s most iconic character to where he belongs? Before I start on that, I feel it’s important to describe just what exactly Mackie did that was so wrong. His relaunch was part of an attempt by Marvel to do something they’d been trying since the Clone Saga, to make Peter more “relatable”. Aunt May was brought back to life, Mysterio’s VERY recent death in Kevin Smith’s Guardian Devil arc of Daredevil was retconned without a second thought, Sandman was turned back into a villain, oh, and Mary Jane was blown up to get rid of the marriage. Fans weren’t happy, and she was back and revealed to have been kidnapped by a stalker. Crap, right? That sort of thing happens when editorial moves Mary Jane out of the equation, they always wind up having to reinsert her. JMS was controversial in his run, especially with ideas like the ‘Spider-Totem’ as a potential origin, saying that Spider-Man’s powers may have been magic and destined to be received for a grander purpose, or the much hated ‘Sins Past’ story of pity sex from Gwen Stacy for Norman Osborn. Even the best runs have their bad moments, but JMS did something that most writers seem to ignore when writing Spider-Man. He put his focus towards Peter’s personal life at an equal amount of his super heroic life. Actually, that’s one of the few positive things I have to say about Brand New Day, they’re actually giving a boost to the supporting cast.
Five years ago.
One of the big changes JMS brought onto the book was moving Peter out of the Bugle in favor of making him a teacher at his old high school, taking Pete’s science background, as well as his sense of a responsibility, and having him give back to a community that helped raise him, and that desperately needed him. That was a really cool touch, but you know what the highlight of his run was though? It was something that made the end of his tenure on the book seem that much more forced on him, because he spent years not only making the marriage with Mary Jane work, but he gave us, as readers, an understanding for why they NEED each other. Peter and Mary Jane were best friends, lovers, two halves of a whole, the absence of one was destructive to the other, and it was very clear that theirs was the storybook romance of true love. When One More Day happened and people were upset at the arc, I never once blamed Straczynski, after all, there was no possible way that someone who showed that much affection for the couple could possibly ever want to break them up.
But this isn’t a rant about Spider-Man or his marriage! Back on track!
Six and a half years on Spider-Man meant that for that long we had the good fortune of reading a consistent voice for Peter, even with other books running on the side, we always knew that the Peter we saw every month in Amazing Spider-Man would be the same guy we saw the issue before, and that we would see in the issue after. Consistency, you know?
Let’s hop the fence for a minute though and check out the other side of things. Let’s talk about JLA. Currently written by Dwayne McDuffie, the book has just started to find it’s voice, but it’s not an easy road. Brad Meltzer launched the title and did his best to define the voices and purposes for the team, but no sooner did he start making headway then did he leave. McDuffie came on to follow up, but his run was messed with early on by editorial forced tie ins, and fill ins written by Alan Burnett. The book struggled to find a footing until very recently, when it’s finally started to become clear that McDuffie might actually have it in him to write these characters for an extended period of time. Of course, if you want to really rag on JLA, look back to the last volume of the series and how things were once Joe Kelly left. Anybody else remember that? A bunch of writers doing short story arcs and trying to share the creative love. Yeah, don’t share the creative love. Sharing the creative love is bad. It’s leads to things like the Claremont/Byrne story arc ‘The Tenth Circle’. Anybody remember that? No? You lucky sons of bitches.
A long run for a writer on a book can usually be the sign for success, it allows them to tell THEIR story without interruption. Look at Bendis’s run on Daredevil, it was epic, thrilling, and despite the six issues of hell known as Echo’s Vision Quest, it was start to finish among the best Daredevil stories ever told. You know why? Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev. There wasn’t a new artist every six issues, there was no down time, it was Bendis and Maleev every issue for four years, and because of that the book had a defined feel to it. The characters looked and acted consistently, there was no outcry that people were behaving awkwardly as the run continued, everyone was too busy gasping in awe at how well done the book was. The time eventually came for them to leave the book, which raised the question of how do you follow four years of greatness? By passing the torch to Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, one of the few creative teams in comics who have the passion and ability to follow up the ground work laid by Bendis and Maleev. Where is Daredevil right now? Still critically acclaimed, and hasn’t missed a beat. The creative shift wasn’t jarring because it was taken over by two people who have respect not only for the character, but for the creators they’re stepping into the shoes of. They maintained the feel of the book while at the same time making it their own, and rather then create a new run on the book, so to speak, they continued with the story Bendis had been telling.
Daredevil #71 cover by Alex Maleev
Daredevil #101 cover by Marko Djurdjevic
How about a classic example; Stan Lee and Jack Kirby setting a record that was only recently shattered as they did over a hundred issues of Fantastic Four in a row, setting down the groundwork for which the over four hundred issues since have followed firmly. It’s still called one of the greatest runs in comics history, and if anything, it’s done more then just lay the groundwork for the Fantastic Four. It’s the groundwork for Marvel. The Black Panther, the Inhumans, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Skrulls, Doctor Doom. That’s just a sampling of what they brought to the table. We also have the voices and characterizations they developed, ones that have never truly been overwritten. Anytime a new writer comes on to the book, they gravitate more towards how Stan wrote the characters, sure, they stay true to what’s come since then, but the development of the Four during their first hundred issues all those years ago have never been forgotten.
Fantastic Four #1 by Jack Kirby
Chris Claremont wrote X-Men for something like fifteen years straight, and will go down as arguably the greatest writer to ever handle the book. For fifteen years he wrote the core title back when the off shoot titles were limited to X-Factor and New Mutants, not even a Wolverine solo series. Days of Future Past? Claremont. Dark Phoenix? Claremont. Mutant Massacre? Claremont. As much as I hate the work he’s tried to pass off as quality over the past few years, it can’t be forgotten that these characters that we claim he’s so out of touch with are, in a way, his characters. It was his steady pen that made Wolverine into the character he is today, as for around ten years no other writer truly put their pen to his story. People complained that he selfish took characters from his hey-day and hoarded them for himself in recent years, and I can see the problem with that, but come on, even if he’s past his prime is anybody going to deny Chris Claremont his beloved Psylocke?
X-Men #141 by John Byrne, his last arc on the book. Claremont would stay for almost ten more years.
I think I’ll talk about Exiles for a minute. Judd worked his ass off and produced one of the best monthly comics that he’s ever managed to write, and it was all steady and good and then Chuck Austen came on and took a shit on ‘s characters. Illyana Rasputin had just debuted, and by the time that actually got his hands on her as a character she’d already been developed as the bat-shit crazy psycho killer of the team, who’s personality and depth were “I kill things dead”. Bleh. Austen even managed to screw up a three part story that tied in with the other book he was writing! Seriously, how do you do a tie in to a book that you write that you COMPLETELY IGNORE! came back and salvaged the book for a time, even repairing some of the damage before his next departure. Austen came back on, did a decent story, did a horrible story, and then we were given the gift of Tony Bedard who looked at what had done on the title and built on it. By the time Tony left the book for Claremont’s entry, he had brought the book back to the cusp of greatness, given us a cast of characters we cared deeply about, and a status quo that we appreciated. Claremont destroyed this inside of six issues, and that’s why I don’t read New Exiles.
On that thought, Tony Bedard needs more work. His Exiles was amazing, his Birds of Prey is second only to Gail Simone, and I was really looking forward to his Outsiders run that never happened.
How dare you forget Negation! Bad Grey! Bad! – Skitch
Gail Simone! That’s consistency for you! Read her Birds of Prey, where just about every issue was a must-read. Sure the book wasn’t even acknowledged by the greater DC universe outside of Oracle, but she still made a compelling and well written book. You know how Black Canary is the leader of the JLA right now? Well, without BoP that would have never happened. Simone made her important, she made us care, and she made Dinah into a strong female leading character, one that wasn’t standing due to the existence of Ollie (as Green Arrow/Black Canary would have you beleive).
Now I’m going to shift away from writers, and talk about the art.
When a book has an ongoing artist that hardly lasts for one story arc, that isn’t an ongoing artist. Final Crisis doesn’t have an official artist. It has JG Jones on the first three issues, JG and Carlos Pacheco on four, five, and six, and then Doug Mahnke exclusively on seven. That’s jarring, and it’s not meant to be a rag on any of the three artists as they’re all among my favorites, but when you can’t even have one artist for seven issues? That’s sad. And it hurts the quality of the book as these are three very different artists with three very unique styles.
I call this the Superman test. From left to right: J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke
An artist on a book is just as important as a writer, as comics are a visual medium. We see as much as, if not more then, we read (unless it’s a Bendis title, in which case there’s usually more words then arts :P), so what we see is incredibly important. Sometimes you luck out and the artistic changes aren’t so bad, maybe you’ll find a pair of similar artists. Other times you can open a book and not even recognize it as the art has changed so much. Every artist has their on little flair, the little things they do for the book that nobody else does, the little marks that they leave. That’s cool, I dig that, but when that’s happening every three issues I roll my eyes.
I miss when an ongoing regular artist was just that, a regular artist. Sure, there are cases where I find it acceptable, like with Gary Frank on Action Comics. He draws one of the best Superman’s I have ever seen, and he doesn’t face too many delays (if any), so if he needs a few issues off between arcs to maintain the quality? I’m all for it. Especially since DC tends to have fill in artists that use similar styles to his. Hell, there was an issue a few months back after Superman and the Legion, but before Brainiac, where I didn’t even realize until halfway through the issue that it was a different artist. I saw Frank do the cover and didn’t even think about it. That’s pretty freakin cool.
Then we have a book like X-Force which has two artists on a rotation that look VERY different. Clayton Crain and Mike Choi are yin and yang for artists, and at no point will you EVER confuse their styles. In fact, normally I would call this a jarring change in art except for one thing. Mike Choi was born to draw the X-Men. I don’t care what team, or what characters, every time I see him pencil any character with an X I say to myself “Damn! That’s awesome!”. This, of course, is not a rag on Clayton Crain who I do like, it’s just that Mike Choi is better suited for this book. His pencils are clean, his characters unique, and all in all it’s just really freaking pretty for a book about X-characters killing people!
In fact, I’ll say this right now. Kick Greg Land off of Uncanny X-Men, and let Mike Choi pencil in his place! I might love his X-23, but his Emma is to die for!
And on a final note for this short column, I ask this one question to all of my readers, and, hopefully, to DC if by chance anyone is reading this.
Where are the Kubert brothers? When will they actually pencil interiors on an ongoing? I understand their Batman and Superman runs were met with delays, but come on! You sign two of the best artists in Marvel’s history to exclusive deals and you do next to nothing with them?! You want consistency, put a Kubert on a book.
Now dance, fucker, dance, man, he never had a chance, and no one even knew it was really only you
I hear Checkmate ended this week, but I wouldn’t know. While when it was written by Greg Rucka it was among the best monthly books around, the creative shift to Bruce Jones made me say “Fuck it” and drop the book halfway through his second issue. I get it Bruce, you like horror. Checkmate is espionage though, not horror, and you did a piss poor job of trying to disguise that.
Rage of the Red Lantern’s was exactly what I was expecting, which is to say that Johns is my new definitive writer for Green Lantern (Sorry Ron!). He’s been crafting the Blackest Night since his first issue of Rebirth, and the build up has been nicely paced and perfectly executed. In fact, the only misstep this book has taken was the artistic choice for the Star Sapphire arc. Johns tells the space opera like nobody else can, and he’s easily made Green Lantern into the must-read book that it always deserved to be, just like he did with the Flash several years ago. So here I am, hyped for Flash: Rebirth, don’t let me down Geoff!
I am not ashamed to say that I bootlegged a movie called “The Mutant Chronicles” this week after hearing that it’s not even set for a theatrical release until December, and that I’d be getting a dvd quality rip. So I watched it from start to finish and want to honestly tell all of my loyal readers to save their money, because this was the biggest piece of shit I’ve seen in months. Seriously, I had more fun watching Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror then I did watching this pile. I also watched Hancock that same night, and my review of that is that it’s a fine movie for about an hour, then they try and explain his origins and the movie sodomizes itself. Straight forward super heroics and a dysfunctional hero are more fun then what they tried to turn it into.
You’ve been warned!
I like baseball sometimes. I mean, not all the time, but I like it when I’m watching it with Mike or Ryan. Now Mike has gone and had a kid since last years World Series, while Ryan went and moved to Las Vegas, so I have no baseball buddies and thus hadn’t watched much this season. This of course led to me cursing in outrage when I discovered that my beloved Sarah Connor wasn’t on last week because of the ball game. Stupid ball game, I wanted my Summer Glau of the week!
Rawr
Iron Fist didn’t take nearly the level of quality drop that I was expecting with the creative shift. I mean, any time a book loses two writers the caliber of Brubaker and Fraction, you can expect the book to die a horrible death. Especially a book like Iron Fist which has a history of, well, being a book nobody cares about. So low and behold my surprise when the book retains it’s must read status despite switching over to the guy who writes the very “meh” Cable.
I need to drop Teen Titans, really, I do. McKeever is absolutely horrible on it, and every issue seems to be worse then the last. Static is supposed to be joining, and I REALLY want to see that, but I’m just not sure how much longer I can hold on.
JLA had it’s best issue since Dwayne McDuffie came on board this past week, and it reassured my faith in the man. All he needed was the freedom to tell the stories he wanted to tell, as opposed to the ones DC wanted him to tell, and the quality sky rocketed. He’s giving voices to the roster, and he’s telling stories that may not seem fresh in concept, but are quite original in execution. And hey, he’s bringing back Milestone next month! That’s just really freaking cool!
Legion has just started to become readable again, which just stands to piss me off that it’s over in three issues. Hopefully we get two new Legion books. One for the old school Legion, and one for the DnA Legion (yes, they are no longer the post-boot, they are no DnA! Even if DnA aren’t writing it!). I loved the current run, but after Waid and Bedard left the book it just seemed to slip. Shooter finally got his grasp on it, but it was too little too late from old man Legion himself.
James Robinson on Superman is everything I dreamed of, I swear. I love his work on the book, and I salivate over the thought of the next issue. But that’s not why I’m saying it, no, not at all. Who wants to see me do a variation of my Avengers Power Reviews but for the Superman family of books? Anyone?
I read the new issue of Wolverine Origins, part three of Original Sin. Mike Deodato is the new regular artist on this book. Well, for about three issues, then he’s going to Dark Avengers. This book is skippable, hell, this crossover is skippable, which sucks since I was loving Legacy before this shit storm crossover.
Again, sorry for the short column this week, just been a bit busy.
What I read this week:
- Rage of the Red Lanterns
- Justice League of America
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Superman
- Teen Titans
- Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes
- Avengers: The Initiative
- Immortal Iron Fist
- Nova
- Thor
- Wolverine Origins
- X-Force
Best of the week:
- Rage of the Red Lanterns
- Superman
- Avengers: The Initiative
What I watched this week:
- Heroes
- South Park
- Entourage
- Dexter
- Superjail
- Metalocalypse
The Gold Standard
