Marvel News & Views: Quesada's Guilty (But Thin!) and Spider-Man is Blue (in Black)

About that no Marvel News & Views thing I said in DCNV? Yeah, looks like I lied.

As you can tell, my template for this column is still a work in progress though. The MNV icon at the top is not final, trust me. And the dividers aren’t either, so I’ll being doing themes with them. This week’s theme is Spider-Man with headshots of his several costumes (and others who have followed the theme) dividing the articles. Enjoy!

Insert AC/DC Reference Here

Beginning this month, Spider-Man is back in black.

Readers have been anticipating this event — their love and nostalgia for the black costume driving their excitement — and wondering what motivates the webslinger to don the black costume again.

In issue #539 of Amazing Spider-Man, they found out.

A sniper hired by the Kingpin to take out Peter Parker and his family has succeeded in shooting his aunt, May Parker. As she lies in a hospital bed near death, a rage-filled Peter is out busting heads and taking names.

And when he’s intent on doing the dirty work of revenge, Spider-Man decides to make a fashion statement.

Ron Garney, the penciller on Amazing Spider-Man for writer J. Michael Straczynski since Issue #529, has also been anticipating the return to black. The artist shared some of his sketches for the storyline with Newsarama and sat down to talk about what it’s like to draw an emotional Peter Parker in the iconic black costume.

Newsarama wants you to know that if you chose “Hell’s Bells” for the headline, you lose. However, if you chose “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” even though you aren’t right, you still win because the song’s just that good. For those of you who selected “Big Balls”…stop being so juvenile. It’s a song about parties, okay?

Can anyone tell me if Garney is good again?

Wow, that sounds harsher than I meant it. Let me try again.

Garney is a great guy (and CT resident) who’s work on titles like Captain America I greatly enjoyed. However, the most recent thing I read of his, I believe it was his art for Busiek’s JLA run, just wasn’t…up to snuff. I was curious if that was an aberration and he’s rocking it again on Amazing. It’s like him doing well will change my mind on not reading Amazing (no, it’s not a Sins Past thing, it is a “I lost interest” thing), but I’d like to know he’s doing bang up work again.

If his cover sketch is any indication (see below) he is. That makes me smile.

As far as the cover, compare it to the sketch. Now tell me that didn’t drop the ball on the final product.

Now, as for the hullabaloo about Spider-Man changing his costume before Spider-Man 3 as a marketing thing…of course it is. And? As far as I’m concerned, if the stories don’t suffer to include the element of the black costume, I don’t care why they’re doing it. This thing we do as comic fans where we get resentful of the slightest appearance of an outside media influencing comics is unseemly and getting beyond annoying. Just because a company is using synergy (black costume in anticipation of Spider-Man 3, John Stewart becoming the JLA’s Green Lantern while he is the same in the JLU cartoon, etc) to sell their product is no reason to start screaming foul. If the work’s good, nothing else matters.

Joey Q Lost a Lot More Weight Than You

This week we quickly recap last week’s Marvel convention news, talk briefly about the New Avengers #31 solicitation, and do another interesting round of reader questions…

Seriously dude’s a weight losing MACHINE! Not that that has much to do with this week’s Newsarama interview of him, but it’s still cool.

Wow…

Jack Murdock is one scary looking guy. Put that mug away, man.

Joe’s sales pitch, while a nice look at how the artist was recruited, doesn’t move me one bit though. I’m still firmly on the fence on this one.

Umm…this Anita Blake thing? Yeah…what’s that all about? Because Chris Sims, blogger extraordinaire, would have me believe it is an unholy (but unintentionally hilarious) mess. Yet every time I read a quote from Marvel about, it seems like they’re under the impression they have the get of the century. Who’s wrong here?

The bit on his family life just makes me ultra sad. Check it out: “It’s incredibly hard to do, Spidey616, and there are days that I’m riddled with guilt.

See, I’m a guy that never trained for a job in an office, I went to art school and that was my thing, my life was going to be in the arts as a freelancer one way or another. So, after years of working from my home I suddenly found myself working in an office, day in and day out. The Marvel Knight years were the toughest, I was in the office on weekends and on weekdays I was in the office until 11PM nearly every night. That of course changed when my daughter was born.

Over the last couple of years as I’ve gotten back to the drawing table a bit more and there are some days that I work from home in order to get some stuff done. On those days my daughter gets home from school and she’s bursting at the seams to see me home early. She picks up a pencil and sits at my table and draws right by my side. It may not seem like much, but it’s the greatest thing ever in my world!

However, it’s on those days that really become guilt-ridden because I really don’t have to have an office job in order to support my family. I could just be home all day long drawing and I’d be fine. If had gone to school for a career that I knew would mean that I had to work in an office 9 to 5, then I would probably be more geared up for it and in that mind set since it’s what my aspirations were to begin with and because certain jobs require that in order to do what you have to do, you have to be in an office or somewhere other than home. I’ve been very lucky, I have a choice in the matter, so from that point of view it does become difficult for me and it makes balancing the two very painful sometimes on top of just the difficulty finding that extra bit of time to be with the family.”

Can you imagine working a job that makes you feel that guilty, that often?

Bussiwah’s question, essentially, “How can we be sympathetic/empathetic to Spider-Man while he breaks the law and endangers others while doing it?”, makes me smile. In a sad kind of way. To me, it’s like saying, “How can we be sympathetic/empathetic to someone campaigning for Civil Rights in 1960’s America since they were breaking the law and their actions endangered others?” Obviously, not the same because Civil Rights was a real thing and Vigilante Rights are not, but the basis of the question is the same: “How can you do what you think is right if others you care about might be hurt?” Answer: how can you not?

The X-Men: The Hidden Years question inevitably raises its head because of X-Men: First Class and I think Joe handled it fine. However, it did give me pause. The gist of his answer is that Hidden Years was cancelled at a time when the industry was in freefall and the X books needed trimming (like the rest of the Marvel U) to stop the bleeding. Now the industry is on an upswing so we can have more X-books including ones that are flashback books.

All that makes sense to me. But my question is this: isn’t the glut of books part of the reason we entered into freefall? Thus, isn’t beefing up the line again just going to lead down that road again? Now, granted, it is not a guaranteed “if, then” scenario, but I think it is something worth noting. I hope someone is thinking about it. Besides me, I mean. Cause me thinking about it? Probably not such a help to the industry.

Hitch is His Name, Not His Role

So, Newsarama indeed asked Bryan Hitch where the issue currently stands and for some insight on why the inking and coloring seem to be taking an usually long time (though again, for a 46-page issue), and we received this response earlier this week…

Newsarama takes it right to Brian and asks, “Dude, what’s up?”

This whole thing is just too weird for me. Hitch hands in his stuff nearly three months ago and yet Quesada still refers all delayed questions to Hitch? I know E-i-C don’t oversee every aspect of every book, but there’s no way Quesada did not know Hitch’s pencils are in the can now since they have been for three months. It gives the whole situation an air of childish pettiness I don’t care for.

And speaking of childish pettiness, if you crave more, by all means read the talkbacks. The fighting goes on for about 11 or so pages and all sides just repeat the same thing over and over again. Great fun!

The Waning of the Moon

I’ve become rather jaded recently at many of the newer writers brought into comics from outside mediums, with many of the books launched by television writers and novelists belly-flopping in sales and quality a few months after premiering.

So, imagine my surprise at just how consistently excellent the “Moon Knight” relaunch has been. Charlie Huston has proven, like Whedon and Heinberg, to be a major exception to the outside-the-comic-medium rule, and his combination of noir stylings with grim-and-gritty superheroics hit a major chord with readers, myself included. I knew nothing about Moon Knight when I picked up the first issue and now he is one of my favorite characters in the Marvel universe.

I sat down with Huston for an in-depth about his place in the comic industry and lifelong love for Marc Spector.

Huston begins to put away his astronomy charts at Comic Book Resources

A pretty good behind the scenes retrospective interview. I appreciate his candor, especially in reference to dropping the ball on Taskmaster (I liked the arc, but yeah, he kind of did). It’s a shame that he’s done with comics for now and for the foreseeable future (it certainly sounds like that, at least). As far as a first foray into comics, Huston did a very nice job of things.

Thankfully, we still have a few more issues to enjoy his run even if he’s already moved on.

Sure They’ve Had Green Skins and Rock Skins, But What About the Black Skins?

The villains of the Marvel Universe weren’t behind “Civil War,” but the conflict between the heroes almost resulted in something many of the MU’s malevolent malcontents had dreamed about; the destruction of the Fantastic Four. Marvel’s First Family managed to pull through but “Civil War” hadn’t just turned teammates against each other; it had turned husband and wife against each other. Beginning next week in “Black Panther” #26, while Reed and Sue Richards spend some time away from the team to work on their marriage, another super powered married couple will fill in for them; the King and Queen of Wakanda, The Black Panther and Storm. CBR News spoke with “Black Panther” writer Reginald Hudlin about the series.

I say there’s nothing better than using classic DC quotes for headlines about Marvel characters. Comic Book Resources agrees. No, they didn’t say they did, but I can tell. We’re connected like that.

First of all, as long as we are talking inappropriate headlines, dig Comic Book Resources choice for this article: “THE BLACK-TAS-TIC FOUR”

Anyone else thinking, “What a terrible headline?” Because, you really should be.

By the way, before I went with the headline I have up there, I toyed with “2, 4, 6, 8, Those Fantastics Need to Integrate!” I rejected it on the basis that the number theme was naturally problematic when dealing with a team who uses a number but not the one your chant stops on. Also, you’d sort of have to be an ass to use it. Certainly, I am a bit of one for thinking of it, but I’d be a huge one if actually went through with it.

Anyway, where were we?

Oh right. Black Panther joins the FF. Cool. Black Panther visits the Zombieverse? Not so much. God I hate that verse. I think it is mostly because everyone else loves it so. If everyone else was like, “It’s sort of cool,” I’d probably say, “It’s just not for me.” But since that’s not the case, I hate it. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.

That is all.

TIM’S TIRADES

The High Cost of Ads

There are, of course, a lot of things that set my teeth on edge. Some of them have to do with comics. One in particular that always annoys me because it is something I never notice is fans complaining about ads. Yes, there are more ads in comics these days (I think…I see to remember that the 70’s comics I’ve read were ad heavy but that could be more to do with how many ads they packed on a single page) but why are we so worried about it.

I make special exceptions for retailers here. For retailers, more ads often means more shipping costs and that’s not cool. It is hard enough to be a comic book seller without unexpected costs like that. Retailers can complain about this all day and I will not begrudge them it.

Fans, however…not so much. The content of the comic is unchanged. Bendis did not cut a rat-a-tat dialogue exchange, Vaughan did not decide to hold off a cliffhanger, Morrison did not pocket a crazy idea, and Johns did not miss a chance to get inside the head of a villain for that car ad. It is a bit thicker, perhaps, and you might need to give your fingers a bit more of a work out, but otherwise, same exact comic it would be without the ads. Critique the art, the dialogue, the plot, the treatment of characters, how much attention continuity was paid…all fine and dandy. That Yaris ad though? Leave it be. Comic fans are already perceived as crotchety bunch prone to complaining for complaining sake. Why confirm the stereotype?

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Daredevil #95

New storyline. Same great creative team. My favorite comic book character. How could I not be craving this?

Sensational Spider-Man #36

My friend Tim asked me the other day how I could be reading this book and not Amazing when Amazing is the book everything happens in. My answer is simple; it is for precisely that reason that I read THIS book. Amazing is all that event stuff that shows Marvel doesn’t trust the character anymore. Sensational does not play that game.

Sensational, to me, feels like the late 80’s, early 90’s Spidey issues that I’d borrow from friends before I started collecting comics on my own. It is a well written nostalgia trip that takes place in the present Marvel U just enough to prevent me from worrying about when all this is taking place but not so much as to feel like it is drowning in interconnected continuity.

Plus, any writer who has the confidence to use Stegron and Will o’ Wisp in back to back storylines? A-okay with me.

My first MNV letter EVER comes from a fella across the pond in the United Kingdom. I am so very international.

Thanks for bringing back the MNV dude, it was much missed and much needed!

World War Hulk – I am totally with you. Hulk always sounds awesome when you read a solicitation but the reality is often very, very different. I have read absolutely nothing of the Planet Hulk story yet do like the idea of a ‘Hulk Smash’ fest on the entire Marvel Universe. Hell, maybe he could fix the continuity? I’d buy Hulk doing it a lot more than freakin’ Superboy… perhaps he could just pound the crap out of the MU?

Ms Marvel – I’ll buy anything with Ms Marvel in it. Then again I do find she is rapidly becoming Marvel’s newest over exposed super hero. Maybe it’s the Civil War stuff but I would prefer to just see her stick to this title and keep out of whatever Avengers team they’ve stuck her on. It’s been good so far and oncoming MODOK story aside I look forward to it each month.

Sensational Spider-man 38 – Freakin’ awesome. The cover alone sells this issue, let alone the proper on panel return of Eddie Brock. I can’t wait to read this one. FNSM used to be my favourite but Sensational is rapidly moving to the fore.

Keep up the great work,
-Adam May

Thanks the letter, I will certainly try to keep up the good work. I’m prone to failure so, no guarantees, but I’ll do my best.

As for Ms. Marvel, do me a huge favor, would you? Write back when you can and explain to me why she’s taken off all of the sudden. I like her just fine, but her popularity has seemed to increase tenfold in the past two years or so and as a superfan I figure you might know why.

Thanks again…hope to hear from you soon.

And that’s that. My first full length regular MNV. Excellent. Please e-mail at parallax2@juno.com to let me know what you think or hit the message boards. I promise I’ll put the thread in the right place this time.

Un Gajje Really Does Hate Those Friggin’ Zombies