Has Anyone Else Brought This Up?

DC really only seems to make a habit of releasing TPBs or Showcases of their less-than-blockbuster properties when there is some sort of new release related to them that might help them sell some copies. The Batman & The Outsiders Showcases were coordinated with the relaunch of Batman & The Outsiders. They put out the DC Special issues to showcase stories that will be important coming up.

So...Grant Morrison (and Mark Millar) creation, Aztek, just had a TPB released. Grant Morrison is writing Final Crisis. Aztek was a legacy character (the memories of all who had worn the helmet were stored in the helmet itself). Aztek had been sent out to deal with a great evil.

Could a new Aztek be sent out to deal with an evil so great that we're apparently going to see the day it won?

The Wikipedia entry reminds us:

A younger black female Aztek was seen in Grant Morrison's run on JLA during "The Rock of Ages" storyline in which the JLA traveled to an alternate future overrun by Darkseid.

Hmmm...

THE 99: Tolerance Through Comics & Theme Parks

You know...I've read THE 99...and it really doesn't grab me. But I'm not the most important target audience for it.

You see, while I am Muslim, I'm still probably more defined by my Western upbringing than my choice of religion. I don't read comic books and wonder why there isn't someone I can identify with in them (even if I did pitch an embarrassingly bad attempt at a Muslim-starring mini-series to Dan Raspler in 1997).

No, I really think this is geared toward Muslim kids born into the religion and possibly only first generation citizens (at least when we're talking US-based audience).

Quite obviously, the Middle Eastern audience is obviously the biggest target...as evidenced by the theme park they're opening in Kuwait.

That's good stuff. It is great that the property is working out for them to the point that it seems marketable as a theme park. Theme parks and comic books have the opportunity to leave an amazing mark on the lives of children. Maybe it can really make a difference in the world.

SCHWAPP!!!@TheMovies: REDBELT

Brand New Slott

Back in March, Dan Slott said the following over on Spider-Man Crawlspace:

On a personal note, I want to profusely thank jeffgamer for his support around the net. Back in December, jeffgamer's internet-wide dissent of OMD got the notice of NEW YORK POST writer Dareh Gregorian, who wrote an online piece about it: "Spidey Swings". http://www.nypost.com/seven/12292007/news/nationalnews/spidey_swings__153114.htm The article even wrapped up with a quote by jeffgamer: "jeffgamer, wrote: 'The Spider-Man I've loved and read about for 34 years is dead now. No matter how well written or well drawn what comes next may or may not be, it is being built upon the corpse of something that I, and many other readers, cared about deeply.'" That put this phenomenon on Mr. Gregorian's radar. And on January 7th, Mr. Gregorian wrote a follow up story which appeared on PAGE 3 of the actual NEW YORK POST, "Spidey's Smooch Scandal", which showcased the cover to the first BND issue, #546, and plugged it two days before its release! You can't BUY publicity like that! The next day USA TODAY, the wire, and, in turn, local papers around the country picked up the story. The USA TODAY piece was what caught the attention of Howard Stern. The buzz from there grew and led to BND stories on ABC, CBS, CNN, NEWSWEEK, and local evening news shows around the country. So to jeffgamer I say "THANK YOU!". You might just be the butterfly who flapped his wings on the internet, caused a hurricane in the real world, and gave ASM #546 the attention it needed to spike and reach the #1 spot in January! You might just be the guy who brought new readers in off the street, helped major retail chains sell out, and made us go back to press for a second printing on #546! Keep up the good work!

After some negative reactions from posters on the board (which really wasn't worse than anything Joe Quesada used to say on New Joe Fridays), he followed it up a week later by deleting that message and replacing it with the following:

It's been pointed out to me how "snarky" my original post sounded. And if that's the case, then I'm sorry. At the same time, I'd also ask for a little understanding and for you to try to imagine how things look from this side of the equation. After a few months of being on a book like ASM , I'm starting to understand how this works. Passions are always going to run high with fans-- both for & against. Here on the internet it can get pretty vocal. And in the past, I've seen myself as a fan too-- able to spout off just as much as any of you guys. I think I get it now-- that's NOT the case. I get paid to do this. I get the privilege of working in this industry. And part of being a "professional" is that you have to act like one. You guys can say whatever you want and goof up from time to time-- and no one's going to shine a light on it. The trade off is-- I don't get to do that anymore. I think I can live with that. So again... Sorry for being a little too "human" back there. It won't happen again. In the future, when posting here and around the net, I'll strive to take a more professional attitude-- one that you, as consumers, deserve from the people whose work you support.

In another thread on that board, he doesn't seem to deal well with a BND colleague getting praise where he isn't receiving the same:

Seriously? If you liked Zeb's issues of ASM (which kicked much ass), something to keep in mind, was that Zeb got to play with BND when all the pieces on the board were already set up.

Funny that backhanded compliment thing there. Or, if you prefer, trying to make an excuse as for why people might think Zeb's arc kicked more ass. There is the fact that, from what I'm aware of, the arc didn't really have anything that would make it stand out as being a BRAND NEW DAY story versus a plain ol' Spidey story.

Shame that Zeb wound up off the book and never seemed to have been highlight in the promotions for BRAND NEW DAY as much as the others involved in the book.

I think that comment came before Slott's epiphany about watching his words over the internet. Of course, I have documented irrational behavior from him directed at me after his supposedly coming to the understanding of how a professional is supposed to act. Professional or not, he does slyly try to invite people from that board to come over to his spot on 606studios.com (where he can, you know, delete or edit anything he doesn't like).

This ain't exactly bitching and moaning with fans, but it's a bit unprofessional to try to defend your own work from poor reviews that you suggest came from people just flipping through in the store and then slide a few digs in at a competitor's book and the creators involved.

From his message board on 606studios.com:

Thought for the day...

---

Reading a comic in the store is like trying to watch an entire movie on the display monitor at Blockbusters. Reading a comic in the store on Comic Day is like trying to watch an entire movie on the display monitor at a crowded and noisy Blockbusters. Reading a comic in the store when the store owner or manager is there... (Because you KNOW they don't like you doing it. And NO, you're not their favorite customer that they have a "special relationship" with. And No, they're not cool with it. That's an urban myth. Like your girlfriend from... Canada.) ...well, reading it like that means that you're reading it as quickly as humanly possible. Wonderful. Now you're the guy who's not only trying to watch an entire movie on the display monitor at Blockbusters, you're also the guy who's flipped open the control panel, hit the FAST FORWARD button and is watching that movie at 16X speed. Awesome. I'm sure you're totally following the plot, the snappy dialogue, and all of the extra little touches. Meanwhile... On the same trip, you've purchased a copy of ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #whenever-Grant-Morrison-and-Frank-Quitely-felt-like-finishing-it. But with this book you've cradled it in your arms all the way home, read it in your Queen Anne chair in front of a roaring fire, and all while enjoying your snifter of port. Jeepers, I really wonder which comic you're going to like more?

Yeah...people enjoy someone else's work more than yours because of the ambiance. Right.

I've heard about a little bit that will be appearing on the last page of tomorrow's Amazing Spider-Man. It comes off as a dig at JMS's recounting of how Quesada said OMD made sense (it's magic), from what my sources say. This points out that either the full script went in after a certain date or scripting was done after the finished art.

That's important because I thought for a second the following panel was taken from my interaction with Slott...then I said, "nah...the script had to have been in long before that!" Maybe not...

That's something that was expressed to me by Dan several times. Like when he was stalking me for a phone call and I indicated I'd only call him if I could record it and put it up on the blog (because he was trying to twist anything he could to attack Newsarama at the time and continues to try to twist facts in any argument). But maybe there are other people he had a mad-on for that he said the same to...given how far gone he was for a month or so there.

SCHWAPP!!!@TheMovies: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Marvel Loves Sexually Controversial Images

Yeah...THIS won't get a lot of negative attention (that will likely just help Marvel advertise it). I've run this by a few friends and the general consensus is the fourth panel (top right) is meant to evoke images of a facial/money shot. That doesn't even get into the potentially sensual depiction of all the girls gathering around to "help" in the rest of the panels...

Why I Despise Greg Land's Artwork Reason 139

Because somewhere out there, there is a pornstar receiving a facial that has Pixie's smile in the scene/picture. Friggin' Land and his crutches...

SCHWAPP!!!@TheMovies: Iron Man

Final Defecations on Countdown Part Três

Here we go again. I'm picking apart what statements DC made about Countdown that they didn't necessarily live up to. They are inconsistencies that not only demonstrate a lack of solid planning and some small degree of false advertising. But the main point is how difficult it is for them to put together a solid book that is editorially driven when editorial didn't even seem to know what they were doing.

Oh...and we're still pulling some of this from the first Newsarama interview about Countdown...

DD: Right. We’re also going to deal with Mary Marvel in a big way in this series. As Freddy has taken the forefront in Trials of Shazam, we wanted to focus on the other members of the Marvel Family, and this is a great place for us to push Mary Marvel to the forefront and examine that character.

Ummm...did they really do that? Did they examine that character or completely and drastically change everything about her? Let's forget whether the changes were good or not for the moment. But to suggest they were going to examine her when they nearly reinvented her from scratch just seems wrong. I don't recall her being written as the jealous, obsessed or power hungry type. Yes, we haven't seen her having lost her powers...but when she gained them back, she was still willing to make a deal with the Fourth World devil to get a slight bump up in power? That's wholesale change of character.

DD: There’s going to be another storyline that will focus on some of the key villains of the DC Universe that will take us through the underbelly of the DCU again, with lines that will tie all the way back to Identity Crisis.

Ah...another of the storylines that happened outside of Countdown (as Mary Marvel had some Eclipso bits happen in Countdown to Mystery, I believe). It would seem that, if we're talking about villain focus, it has to be Salvation Run. If they're trying to count all the spin-offs in this interview, it's a little disingenuous, in my opinion. Other than using a quick Piper/Trickster bit to introduce the Suicide Squad prison planet deal, Countdown didn't really do much with that.

DD: Where 52 is world-building, which is what was so interesting about it, as we were rebuilding the DC Universe from the ground up following the events of Infinite Crisis, Countdown is the book where, as the expression goes sh-- blows up. There’s a lot of excitement within the pages, and again, how the book is being crafted and paced is different from the way 52 was crafted, just because of the way it’s being assembled.

Ah...the SHIT BLOWS UP talk. If shit really blew up, a large majority of this series wouldn't have made it to the shelves, as there would have been devastating explosions at the printer.

But let's look at the portion of the last sentence that I bolded: it's redundant and tells the reader nothing. Essentially, it "is being crafted and paced" differently because of how it "is being crafted and paced". How it is being assembled is how it is being crafted. It feels like that sentence is one of the best confirmations that DC tried to reinvent the wheel for no real constructive purpose.

MM: Oh, and in regards to JG, we didn’t want to leave him out of the mix completely, so he’ll be doing a few guest variant covers.

We didn't get any variants, but JG did step in for two covers. They occurred during the handoff to Mike Carlin and after the handoff, though.

Finally...we are done with the first interview and work our way over to COUNTING DOWN for issue #51.

Newsarama: Mike, we touched upon it earlier this year when we spoke, but just to recap a touch, can you give us a feel again, from your point of view, why you were tapped for editing this project? It wasn't exactly hazing, was it?

Mike Marts: Of course it was hazing! Dan Didio wooed me to DC with sweet promises of easy projects with quick creators and cushy deadlines... and then WHAM! As soon as I was in the door, he got that sinister grin he’s so famous and told me his real reasons for tempting me over to the dark side...WEEKLY COMICS!

Oh, Mike...if you only knew how it would turn out. Truer words have not been spoken. Though the "dark side" wasn't so much the weekly comics aspect.

MM: Countdown is an ambitious, epic project the likes of which have only been tried once before — 52 (duh)--but this time around we’ve taken a few steps further... while 52 was told in real time, Countdown will be told in current time, and reflect events happening in the DCU right now. Meaning that any major event that happens in the DCU over the next year will be reflected and touched upon in Countdown — and vice versa.

I could be wrong, but I really don't remember that much crossing over with the biggest event in the DC Universe during that time: Sinestro Corps War. That's unless you count their spoiling Kyle Rayner's and Superman Prime's fates. It wasn't really reflected or touched upon. Didio already apologized for the situation that led those points to be spoiled, but there's been no real addressing of how something as important as that war could be virtually ignored while they covered the bachelorette party of Black Canary. Not the fault of Marts, though...since he was begging off since issue 6.

Mike Marts: All right, let's take a look around the desk...in the last twenty-four hours, here is what's hit my inbox related to Countdown...color proofs from Guy Major on #47...second proofs for lettering on #46...the third script revision from Paul Dini for that same issue...cover inks from Terry and Rachel Dodson on #42...final pencils on #38 from artist Jesus Saiz...cover pencils and inks for #31 from one of Wildstorm's top artists...plot revision on #27 from writer Sean McKeever...and confirmation for the story conference call with Paul Dini on #26. How's that?

Fans of the "Marvel method" of scripting might disagree, but the highlighted sentence fragments above point out another possible item contributing to the inconsistent product. The "Marvel method" might work for regular monthly production, but when plots are already being penciled several issues ahead and you might script yourself into an inconvenient spot...it is a little more difficult to fix with a weekly.

MM: Each artist-be it Jim Calafiore, Jesus Saiz, David Lopez or Carlos Magno-may bring their own unique drawing style to the pages of Countdown, but we're fortunate to have layout artist Keith Giffen back on board for this new weekly series. Keith is essential in providing the series with a consistent, unified look and feel.

Newsarama Note: As Dan Didio explained on Wednesday, Giffen was finishing his commitment to 52 during the production time of the first few issues of Countdown.

OK...so...Keith is so essential that they basically went half the series without him and without any other layout artist? Don't get me wrong...I believe that Mike Marts felt Keith and/or some layout artist was essential...but the decision to go forward at a time that wouldn't allow Keith to participate or to not use someone else in the interim probably came from above him.

NRAMA: Story-wise, this week, we saw the first tie-in with another event in the DCU, that is, the scene with Batman and Karate Kid fighting, from JLA. Where much of that fight was off camera in that issue, are we correct to assume that this is that fight?

MM: That great action sequence from Calafiore is indeed "the fight" from the JLA/JSA crossover. We hope readers enjoyed this subtle crossover. Fortunately Paul Dini and the guys responsible for writing that issue-Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray-had Brad Meltzer's JLA script to work from fairly early on.

NRAMA: Okay - given the economy of pages, nothing in comics is there without a reason, and Dan has said that Karate Kid will be playing a roll in the series - any hints as to what we'll see with him? And will it be just him, or the entire Legion?

MM: There is so much more coming for Karate Kid...a journey that I'm sure no one is expecting. And I'd love to spoil some bits about the Legion, but Didio, Meltzer and Johns would break my neck. What I can say is that Karate Kid won't be alone on his journey...

Ah...one of the first major gripes that people bunched their panties over: the Batman/Karate Kid fight appearing in detail HERE instead of in the actual Lightning Saga crossover. That was a pretty bad move, as far as pleasing the customer. I, also, think it was one that was pretty easy to see coming from months out. It is one thing to show what happened in the series, but to do it to the exclusion of it appearing in the Lightning Saga (whether real or perceived).

And "a journey that I'm sure no one is expecting"? Well...that's one way to classify the character having the black plague, coughing from universe to universe and dying at the end. It was so great that he brought along Una to die, too. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, either...but it doesn't make it a good thing.

NRAMA: By and large, and if they can be put into a single group, how do these crossovers occur? I'd assume that Paul can pull in the elements he needs, but how do other writers get to use Countdown elements in their titles?

MM: Dini was great in that he had an extremely detailed weekly outline of Countdown in before the end of '06...this allowed the editorial staff-and in turn their writers-to plan these "crossing over" moments well in advance.

That's funny. Not to focus too much on this, but we all know Geoff Johns plans stuff out fairly far in advance. Yet we have Kyle Rayner not only appearing hale and hearty in Countdown before his storybeats were over in Sinestro Corps, but he had been advertised as being a member of that group long before it came to pass, effectively killing any tension over his Parallax moment as soon as Countdown solicits came out. That's on top of the point that there wasn't really much touching upon and reflecting done in Countdown regarding the whole fear/will war.

NRAMA: Okay - into the events in the issue…first off, the Red Hood thing - now Jimmy knows who he is, and on top of that, knows that Dick Grayson was a former Robin? What the heck?

MM: Oh, you caught that...? We thought we were playing it fairly subtle, but hat's off to those who picked it up. This will have major story ramifications down the road-oh, wait-did I just give something else away?

NRAMA: Sure, sure, play it coy - but doesn't that mean that he (along with any other reporter) knows who Batman is?

MM: No, definitely not. The Jimmy/Jason Todd connection is a unique situation-one we're not going to spoil by revealing in the second issue!

NRAMA: So, bluntly, it's not a goof?

MM: Nope. Trust us.

Hmmmm. I knew there was something that would fall on Marts at some point. This is it right here.

I don't remember seeing that whole goof addressed. Oh...and it was a goof. A straight fuck up. No cute little idea. A fuck up. If I want to try to play favorites on this one, I can only save Graymiotti, at best. I mean...they were given what had to happen in the issue from Dini, I do believe. Ah...screw it. Everybody who worked on the issue probably slapped themselves in the head at some point and said they should have done something to keep that from slipping through. ;)

Alright...that's it for the third installment. I'm probably doing this for myself at this point, since most people just want to forget that Countdown existed.