Marvel Comics General

"And I find that really clumsy on their part. They should have scheduled better." pretty much describe modern Marvel events as well.

Yeah, but it's different. With recent events, it's just a matter of conclusions being delayed. With 2099, it was that a huge thing with line-wide consequences happened that forced all the other 2099 titles to tie into it and deal with those consequences, and then before those books had even finished the adjustment story, another huge thing with line-wide consequences happened that forced all the other 2099 titles to tie into and deal with those consequences.

Imagine CWII had shipped on time. Now, imagine that a month after it ended, while most titles were still dealing with clean-up from it, an even bigger event happened. That was what happened with 2099.

Editor: "Hey, Doom's President of the US now, so you have to work that into your book." Creators: "Really? OK, sure. Here's our tie-in to President Doom." Editor: "President Doom? What the hell are you talking about? Doom's just been deposed! You have to work that into your book." Creators: "Son of a bitch."

Well, that describes CC and Iv X :P The Spider, mutant and Inhuman books didn't even get one month free from CWII before they had to do tie-ins again and soon it's MU time.

Again, different situation. CWII didn't really derail Spider-Man, the X-Men or the Inhumans. Those books kept doing their own things, even while the story was going on, and never had to worry about adjusting to any consequences coming from CWII. They're moving into their own big events, which, again, are constrained to their own lines. And Monsters Unleashed is really just Superheroes Fight Monsters - it's big dumb fun, and will almost certainly have no real impact on any books.

What happened with the 2099 line is very unique. It has no parallel with modern events. Because it was limited to a specific line of comics, and the events had particularly huge consequences throughout that line. And one major change was followed so bizarrely quickly by another, arguably bigger change.

Ditko himself has contradicted a lot of that, though, including the belief that it was a dispute over GG's identity that was "the straw that broke the camel's back" and caused him to leave.

Over in Spider-Man, it's a welcome back to Ben Reilly to the Marvel universe.

'cept he's evil now

over in nova dick might have escaped the cancerverse but he brought it back with him

That doesn't make any sense.

what I mean is he got out but he hallucinated his mom as a rotting zombie, and then while flying he grabbed his heart and started to fall and the trail of the fall was inky black tentacles with eyes in it. so he got away but seems to be connected to the many angled ones

@windleopard: Mantis married alien tree way back in the Celestial Madonna Saga, and iirc she got imbued with his essence, becoming a human/alien tree hybrid. the coolest thing she got out of this was that she could somehow regrow her body from plants if she got killed, as it happened in Silver Surfer issues. oh, and she could travel to any planet through plants, provided said planet got some plants in the first place.

also, New Mutants #51 got some of the worst art I ever saw in comics.

https://news.marvel.com/comics/56261/u-s-avengers-roll-call/

Bobby is the new citizen V and the Red Hulk isn't ross but someone all new and all different

Huh, I actually liked Nowlan's art on that issue. Especially his Hepzibah. That is my absolute favourite visual take on Hepzibah ever,

Rulk has his moustache and that's what really matters.

Bobby as Citizen V seems kinda stupid, though. Coincidentally I'm reading Thunderbolts where the whole concept was revived, and that's straight up such a good costume.

Today!

All-New Wolverine #15 is great. I love what Taylor does with Captain Ash. Initially, she seems really cool. Like a cool, fun pirate lady, and really easy to like. Then it turns out, oh, she's a fucking pirate so she's a pretty awful person, because pirates are not known for their strong moral compasses. And the issue ends on a really dark moment. I'm looking forward to next issue.

Champions #3 . . . OK. So, I've decided to drop this series. Waid's just not doing a good job on it. It feels awkward and clumsy, like Old Man Writes About Hip Teens. The main plot, about protecting Arab girls trying to go to school, was OK. Heavy-handed, but fine, sure, whatever. The thing I want to criticize, though, is the Viv stuff at the start. She says that kissing Cho didn't have much affect on her, and wonders if she should try a different gender. So, Viv's primary trait and arc in the Vision series was her massive crush on A Cute Boy. It was sweet and sad. And it feels like Waid is writing that off, and that feels like a mistake. But the impression I'm getting is that she's going to be revealed as asexual. Which, fine, good, ace people need more representation. But I don't trust Waid to do it well. I feel like it's going to come out as "she's ace because she's an android," which is the complete opposite of how it should be done. If she is ace, it should be made very clear that it has nothing to do with her being an android. But I also worry that Waid doesn't actually understand asexuals. They're not cold, they don't have trouble with emotions. They're normal people. And they're also perfectly capable of romantic attraction. And I just do not trust Waid to really get all that. I'm worried he's going to go the route of sending the unintended message that ace people are cold and emotionless, and that's just bullshit. We'll see how it actually develops, but I just don't trust Waid with this shit.

Avengers #2 is great. It's a really good Kang story, in that it's complicated and involved paradoxes, alternate Kangs and time travel. Kang trying to drain a century of life off Hercules was hilariously stupid, as Hercules notes while bitch-slapping Kang. Del Mundo's art is gorgeous. So good. He's amazing.

Scarlet Witch #13 is good. Very pretty, for the most part, though some panels just look wrong. Good story, too.

Nova #1 has a pretty fun Ego cameo. It's the funnest Ego's ever been. I enjoy Ego as kind of a loser. Sam hits him with an asteroid. Also, "Cosmic Zip" is used as a sound effect. And Sam is terrible at talking to girls.

Moon Knight is finally making sense. While still being weird and trippy. It's good.

Ed Brisson and Mike Perkins are the creative team for a new Iron Fist ongoing

So the Kaare Andrews book was cancelled?

Edit: Nope, Iron Fist, Iron Fists and PMaIF will all be running at the same time.◊

edited 8th Dec '16 9:54:02 AM by LordofLore

Many writers and artists(for example Leth right before her own thread) started sharing a Bennett thread on twitter but I(like many others in this thread) was blocked so I logged out, copied it and logged in again. I think it's about Angela and the way her solo book got ignored after it was cancelled:

edited 8th Dec '16 10:10:01 AM by LordofLore

Wait why were many others in this thread blocked, lol.

Also I think her point is well taken. Queerbaiting is definitely annoying but there's a difference between actively queerbaiting and wanting to write a gay romance only to have it censored by the editors.

EDIT: Leth seems rather annoyed that Bleedingcool felt the need to make a story out of her tweets. Must be a slow news day.

edited 8th Dec '16 1:49:02 PM by comicwriter

She has a bot that blocks accounts based on what seems to be words in tweets directed at her without regard for if they're positive or not. I was blocked when Animosity came out and I applauded her on a great issue and said I was sorry about what happened with Angela. She has said she won't loosen the bot's filters because she still gets tons of death threats and hate mail so I can understand why. If you don't have really thick skin like Gail Simone it's hard for a woman to be a public figure in this industry without getting threats.

edited 8th Dec '16 1:50:21 PM by LordofLore

Queerbaiting is when the writer wants to heavily and explicitly tease gay romances, but doesn't want to actually commit to having at least one, assuming no obstructions from executives that be. See Steven Moffat's Sherlock for a clear as day case.

So this probably sounds like a dumb question but I'm writing a story and I've hit a bit of a Roadblock.

What do the Brotherhood of Mutants do? Like, if I want them to show up in a chapter for a fight, I can't just have them break into Senator Kelly's house or something. What's a typical plot that would involve the 60s Era Brotherhood?

There's no way Bennett's tweets were about Angela; she made that book pretty goddamn queer. If I had to guess, I'd think it's probably about Josie & the Pussycats. I can definitely see Archie Comics telling her she can't do a gay romance in that book.

And I have to say: If you're an editor, and you hire someone who is known for including queer content in her comics, then why are you then saying she can't include queer content? Also, why would you not tell her when you first spoke to her that the thing she is arguably best-known for is something you won't allow?

As Ryan North noted to her, I don't think anyone will hold this against Bennett. Anyone who knows her knows what she does, and knows how important queer representation is to her. So people will realize that she wasn't engaging in queer-baiting. But it still sucks for her, and it was still unfair on the publisher's part to bring her in without laying out their full expectations on what she could and could not do.

Edit: Also, if you want a perfect example of queer-baiting: Chris fucking Claremont. In the '80s? Sure, he was pushing the boundaries as much as he could. Since then? Fuck him, quite frankly. He's continued to push subtext without having the decency to actually include an openly queer relationship. Bendis strikes me as another queer-baity writer, because he includes openly queer characters, but never includes queer romances.

As for what the Brotherhood did in the '60s: Mostly, they just looked for other mutants to recruit. They started off by trying to conquer a small Central American nation, but that was basically the last time they tried to do anything major in the '60s.

edited 8th Dec '16 3:29:17 PM by Tiamatty

Archie had the first gay marriage in a mainstream comic so I doubt it was them.

But that was with a character specifically introduced as The Gay One. Bennett's working with characters who have traditionally been depicted as straight. And I don't see Archie Comics being cool with her changing any of them to be gay. And I really don't see what else she's working on that she could have been talking about. Bombshells is already The Queerest Comic Ever, Insexts and Animosity are creator-owned so she can do whatever the hell she wants, Batwoman will be about a queer character (and hasn't actually started yet). The context of her tweets makes it pretty clear she was talking about a book that's already had a couple issues come out but hasn't finished yet. Josie & the Pussycats is the only option that makes any sense.