THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

I don't like Joe Quesada. Let's get that out of the way early.
I don't like Dan Didio. So there you have it.
I'm biased. My opinions will be skewed that way. I just thought every one should know.

Of course, having met these two guys and having worked under one of them should not enter into it for the purposes of this post. I don't like what they stand for and I don't like what they are doing to the industry I've always loved. I not only think they are incapable of pulling the industry out of the morass it is currently in, I doubt they even have the capacity to realize there is a problem. In truth, THEY perpetuate it on a monthly basis.

Recently, I was reading an old comic (the only comics I read these days) and I came across something on an old "Bullpen Bulletins" page. It was a response Jim Shooter had written to the question "What do you do as Editor-in-Chief?" I'm going to type it here word for word.

When I was a bit younger, one day it occurred to me that Marvel Comics could be even better than they were, if only the people who made them would hire a bright, knowledgeable fan -- like me-- to read over the stuff they were doing before it went out, catch some of the little gaffes, check the continuity, give creative advice from the fan point of view, and in general, guard the integrity of the Marvel Universe.
Well, they DID hire such a person --me, in fact -- back in 1978. Since then, I've learned how hard it is to do all of the above --even when you're vested with the absolute, staggering authority and wonderfully nifty title of Editor in Chief.
It still amazes me sometimes, being Editor in Chief -- being pretty much "in charge" of all the comics and magazines Marvel publishes and all of the editors and other people who work on them.
But, I haven't forgotten what the title really should be -- something like Executive Fan Representative or maybe Designated Fan. And, I haven't lost sight of what I'd hoped to accomplish way back when, before I got this job.
Like I said, as it turns out, it isn't easy.
But, I'm still trying. And I'm getting better at it, I think. I hope you'll agree, after reading about what each of our Marvel Editors has coming up and I hope you'll agree even more after you've seen it all unfold in the comics issue by issue.
If you don't... or even if you do, let me know. You know my address, and you know I read every single letter. Hey, if I'm going to be the DF here, I've got to keep in touch, right?


Now I'm not here to debate Shooter's legacy or anything. That's for a different post. I just can't imagine Quesada or Didio ever thinking along those lines, let alone actually saying or writing it. Anyone who's paying attention can see that Quesada cares more about meeting supposed "famous writers" and getting them to write comics than worrying about the books themselves. He's so happy to hobnob with the Babylon 5 creator or the guy who wrote Commando or some guy who wrote a couple of novels. And Didio is just trying to be Quesada, which might be the saddest of all endeavors. I can't imagine ANYONE (including Quesada himself) actually wanting to be Quesada. What has either one of them done to make comics better? Is signing Mark Millar or Gary Frank to an exclusive contract that innovative? Is the Ultimate line reinventing comics or simply retelling them? How many times can we see a new Doom Patrol comic come out and get cancelled? Where are the new ideas? Where? I mean, sooner or later Vertigo will have milked the Sandman franchise completely dry (if that didn't happen 4 yrs ago). Civil War? Identity Crisis? 52? Am I supposed to be impressed by this shit??!? Say what you will for Shooter but not only did most of titles at Marvel have their definitive runs during his tenure but Marvel also was putting out the toy line comics, Marvel Magazines, the Epic line, The New Universe and he put out a multitude of miniseries' for the first time.
Didio and Quesada do nothing except what's already been done...only their innovation is that they use the "hot, new talent." Quesada is to blame for unleashing Kevin Smith on comics and I defy you to show me anything that load has written that will stand the test of time. The lasting legacy of Quesada/Smith is that now there are no real deadlines and the "talent" can finish the book whenever the hell they feel like it. Have to wait months for the next Smith comic? Who cares? He's such a genius we should just be thankful that he's deigned to slum in the comics genre. After all, he's a very busy man making truly shitty movies that don't make any money. Why should he have to meet a deadline?!? Millar/Hitch on Ultimates? Let em do it at their own pace! Who gives a shit? Not Quesada! Hey, here's a good idea... let's relaunch the Challengers of the Unknown yet again! Didio will say yes! Come up with a new idea? Fuck you! Not at Marvel... Not at DC. Not when we can relaunch the Legion for the 12th time with yet another "great, new creative team!" Now, we can tell that Mordru/Fatal Five/Ferro Lad story again! Let's have Bendis turn Peter Parker into a complete asshole in Ultimate Spider-Man and retell the first 10 issues of Amazing Spider-man but take 40 issues to do it.

Here are 5 anecdotes telling you what editors really think about the comics they work on and the fans who read them. And these aren't here say or second hand accounts, I was actually there when these happened.

I brought up an issue of Catwoman to the editor and he asked me what I thought. Now, this is one of the few editors who would even ask... most don't want to hear any opinions on the books, especially not from someone they considered a peon like me. I said "Wasn't all that good if you ask me." He looked at me and said, "Yeah, I wish it was better but what can you do." In my head, I screamed, "You're the fucking editor! If you can't make it better, who can?!?!?" He just didn't care at that point.

Upon hearing that Superboy would be joining the Legion I was very exciting because I'd always loved the old Superboy/Legion stuff so I went to the editor of the Legion and told him that I thought it was very cool that Superboy would be in the Legion. He said, "Oh, I wasn't even thinking about that. I just figured if we slapped the big red "S" on it we could sell more copies."

The previous Legion editor was just as bad. He would constantly complain that readers/fans always told him that they didn't like Lightning Lad being called Livewire and ShadowGirl being called Umbra and so on. He said, "When will these people realize that we don't care what they want! We're not changing the names and we're not bringing back Hal Jordan!" (Until it can be used to sell a few more comics)

In fact, the friggin publisher once said that he really didn't understand the comics being put out these days but it really didn't matter since he's not the target audience. But then again, this is the guy who thought the biggest problem facing comics was his employees getting credit at the local comic store for their comps.

The editor of The Dark Knight Strikes Again (who is a really nice guy btw) once said that when he first saw the pages for that book, they brought tears to his eyes. lol of course, they did... they were HIDEOUS.

But it's a vicious circle... there are so few actually qualified editors working in comics today. Anyone who has the balls to actually say what they think will be weeded out because you can't have them upsetting the "talent." If you only knew the actual qualifications of some of these people, you'd scream. The main focus for all of these people is very simple: Keep their jobs. In this regard, they are alot like politicians. No matter how idealistic they are when they are starting out, once they get there, they forget about everything else but staying there. And if your motivation is to just keep your job, you're only going to work just hard enough to not get fired. (a wise man in the movie Office Space once said that) That's not a recipe for great comic books. Of course, hiring the same 15 people over and over again doesn't really work either. Now, they can put all the spin they want on it and say comics are enjoying a resurgence right now and sales are improving but, come on. All the evidence I need to look at is that everyone I know who used to read comics doesn't anymore. Even the most hardcore fans finally had enough. And that's sad... very, very sad. But at least Didio can have lunch with Brad Meltzer and he can use his buddies names in his new "bestseller." And thank God Quesada can talk to Stracyzinski whenever he wants because in the annals of great comic book writers he's number two on the list.... right behind EVERYBODY ELSE.

Let me end this with a question I'd really like answered. When was the last time anyone in comics created a new character? What was the last new idea? What was the last innovation?

When are the people in charge going to wake the fuck up?

MY VERY OWN GWEN STACY

As I stated in a previous post, the first comic book I ever bought was Amazing Spider-Man 148. I think you can see from the pic why I was instantly hooked. "Adios, Webhead! Give our regards to the fishes!" Classic.

This was also my introduction to Gwen Stacy, albeit the clone version created by The Jackal. After a few issues of the ongoing comic, I went back and bought the preceding issues as I found the monthly mags insufficient to satiate my growing need for more comics each week. So eventually I read the entire courtship of Peter and Gwen. The awkward first steps, the ups and downs, the burgeoning relationship, the undying love and the tragic end. (Don't even get me started on the pure drivel that's involved Gwen in the Spider books recently).

There have only been a handful of comics (or any fiction really) that has touched me to the point of being genuinely affected by what I've read and The Death of Gwen Stacy is the most poignant and moving of them all. The scene is forever burned into my memory.

As I said last post, my reality and the fictional life of Peter Parker have coincided numerous times. This is perhaps the most important and life altering of those times. My first real girlfriend was named Melanie and while she wasn't the girl I lost my virginity to (nor did she lose hers to me), she WAS the first girl I thought I was in love with and the first girl I ever slept with more than once. We were 16 and our initial courtship was not easy. She had been dating my best friend at the time, Rob but there was a connection between me and Melanie. Rob was not what people would later call "emotionally available" but he was a good guy and a helluva lot of fun to hang out with. Melanie turned to me for her emotional needs and we spent alot of time talking about her relationship with Rob. At 16, I was not what you would call a Casanova. I was insecure, awkward and not at all confident with women... you know, I was a teenager. Melanie was a very good looking girl, even sexy for her age. She had a very developed body and seemed to know she was attractive to the opposite sex. When she told me she loved me one night while we walked to her house, I was both elated and worried. I knew this would be trouble... and it was. After an actual fight with my best friend, I basically had to choose between Melanie and all my other friends since they all vilified me for stealing Rob's girlfriend. I chose the girl and, in retrospect, this was perhaps the worst decision of my life, before or since.

I spent the next 2+ years in a relationship with Melanie. There were good times to be sure and during my forced exile from my friends I started hanging out with two people who are to this day the very best friends I'll ever have. Mostly, I remember the bad stuff. Melanie came from a dysfunctional family and she always said her dad beat her before he had an accident which left him without full mental capabilities. I knew her family well and I liked them. She seemed to hate them but she WAS a teenage girl, so some of that is to be expected. During this time there were moments that I still think about and moments that have become ingrained in legend amongst my friends. Suffice it to say, Melanie was a girl who needed a lot of attention. She was very high maintenance. I was just coming into my own as an obnoxious teen myself and we were a volatile combination.

Melanie cheated on me 7 times during our time together. Each time I caught her, but being a teenager and thinking I was in love and, of course, being addicted to having regular sex, I kept giving her another chance. The final time she cheated on me was with my brother. Somehow I knew it would always come to that. My brother was in constant competition with me and always was looking for a way to prove he was better than me. To his never ending chagrin, he never could. I was better in school, better in sports, better with girls and I was the life of the party. He resented the hell out of me even though I barely bothered with him by this time. I preferred to just let him live his life and just live mine. So Melanie and my brother cheated on me. This almost cost my brother a serious beating (my beloved father stepped in) but it cost Melanie any continued contact from me. I stopped speaking to both of them. As a favor to my mother, I promised not to beat the living shit out of my brother and I kept my word.

But I couldn't just let them get away with it, could I? After a few months, they announced their engagement. I used this as an opportunity to do what I consider the very worst thing I've ever done. First I started talking to them again. While my brother hardly cared, Melanie took to it like a drowning woman reaching for a lifeboat. She said she had missed me and was glad to have me back in her life. She seemed really sincere and genuinely happy to renew our friendship. So I seduced her. Well, that's not totally true. I spent time with her and we would talk and I manipulated her into telling me things she shouldn't... like that she felt she made a huge mistake, that she never should have cheated on me and she wished we were still together. This only made me more determined to destroy her. On numerous occasions, I would go over to their apartment when my brother wasn't around and we would fool around. We would start to have sex but, at some point (sometimes before and sometimes after penetration), I would get up and say I had to leave and get dressed and walk out. I did this at least 5 times. I think this is a heinous act. I basically was out for revenge and I kept intentionally hurting her as badly as I could. A very large regret to this day.

My brother not only was a jerk and a scumbag, he was a coke addict and a woman beater. He hit Melanie and I was forced to confront him about it. I made it abundantly clear that it HAD to stop or he was going to get whatever he did to her back on him tenfold. I think this "protection" of her was one of the reasons she was so susceptible to my manipulations. Another regret. Melanie had used coke for a while but an overdose and a trip to the emergency room was enough to scare her straight as far as I know. 5 months before their wedding, my father died of a heart attack. This sent my brother into a tailspin and he used more and more as the weeks went by. We were both running my Dad's shop in the months after his death and there were days he would show up with coke all over his moustache. He was pathetic. A month before the wedding, my fathers partners fired him for embezzling money to support his habit. He became suicidal. I hardly cared, to be honest. The only effect this had on my life was that he would get high and then call me saying how much he wanted to kill himself and, frankly, it was annoying. I know that sounds bad but it was and I started avoiding the calls. It also made Melanie talk to me more and more as she realized the sinking ship she was on.

Two weeks before the wedding, I was going on a ski trip with all my friends that would turn out to be one of the most wild and fun times of my life. Pure unadulterated joy. Drunken revelry. It was a blast. The night before I left, Melanie came to the apt I shared with a buddy of mine. She was distraught and talked about leaving my brother. I told her that even if she did, there was no future with me... we were done and I wasn't even going to fool around anymore. I felt more sorry for her than angry at that time and I just didn't have the venom to continue to screw with her emotions. The night we got back from the ski trip was Sunday and I had about 20 people in the apt to watch the Broncos/Giants Superbowl. At halftime, my roommate told me my brother was on the phone and that he sounded bad. Against my better judgement, I answered the phone.

After I said hello, I heard the two words that would forever change my life:

"Melanie's dead."

SHADES OF GREY

One of the comic book characters I most identify with is Peter Parker. Now, I know that I'm not alone in this amazing revelation, since Spider-Man has been one of the most beloved characters in all of fiction due mostly to this fact. Almost everyone can identify with Peter... that's why we cared about him.
It went a little deeper for me. I've had a Parker-esque level of bad luck in my life and the fictional life of Peter and my reality have coincided at a few turns. That should become pretty obvious in posts to come.
I never had a father figure in my life. My parents got divorced when I was 8 yrs old and I never had a coach or teacher or anyone to fill the void of my father. Now, don't get me wrong. My father didn't abandon me and my family. He stayed around until he died when I was 20. It's just that he was a TERRIBLE father. A worse husband. My father was the kind of guy you loved to hang out with, always quick with a story or joke and he was generous of spirit and with his wallet. He always paid for things and bought lunches for his workers. In my opinion, he did this as a way of validating himself. And, again, don't get me wrong... he wasn't an evil man. He was just fucked up. He had a bad childhood and was forced to work at a young age, thereby missing the fun of his teenage yrs and blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't think that forgives him being a jerk most of my life. He thought if he bought me stuff that I would be okay with it. He was always trying to buy something for me or my brother or my sister so we would think he loved us. I never accepted any of his gifts when I was in my early teens. Later on, I took the big stuff because I needed a car and my mother couldn't afford to get me one.
My dad was a text book example of a narcissistic, immature man who did things because he thought he should, not because he wanted to. He was always trying to prove something to someone... who knows, maybe himself.
I've never been able to remember much about my own childhood. Everything before age 7 is pretty much gone. I don't know if it is from hitting my head numerous times as a teen or if it's because things just aren't worth remembering. I do remember being told that my parents were getting divorced and feeling an overwhelming sense of relief. My parents didn't belong together and, unfortunately, I was the only one of the kids who knew that my father was cheating on my mom. Now, at 8, I didn't really understand what that meant but I knew it made my mother cry alot and that was enough to make me think that for the first time that my dad was a jerk. It's also the overriding reason why I've NEVER cheated on anyone in my life. NEVER.
My father cheated. He cheated alot. He cheated on my mother when she was pregnant with my sister. And, apparently, he was okay with cheating. He even helped my brother cheat with my girlfriend on me when I was 17. He would let him come over to his house so they wouldn't get caught. Isn't that a great dad? Letting one son fuck over the other? My dad was just one betrayal in a long line of betrayals in my life by people who were supposed to love me and look after me. It taught me early that you can't really depend on anyone except yourself in life. Sooner or later, when it comes right down to it and it's a choice between you and them, people will always do what's best for them before they do what's best for you.
So this is my teen years. A dad who tried to buy my love and helped my brother screw me over with the first girlfriend I slept with. It makes me wonder what things might have been like if I had someone like Uncle Ben or Ward Cleaver or, hell, even Danny Tanner from Full House as a father figure. Or any father figure for that matter.

I worked with my father in his shop for a year or so before he died. My father had married the woman he last cheated on my mother with and now, 8 yrs later, he was cheating on her with a white trash secretary from the auto parts store next store. It was something right out of Jerry Springer (even though Springer hadn't been created yet). He got her pregnant and he was under alot of stress. You could tell he was feeling the heat and that it was wearing on him. He also knew that I had lost ALL respect for him due to this last bit of infidelity. We were sitting in the office at the end of one day and I was ignoring him as usual. It was just the two of us. It was at this moment that my father said the only thing that could ever be construed as fatherly advice. He said to me "Creep" (that was my father's little nickname for me) "I know you don't think much of me but when you get older you'll see that the world isn't always black and white. There are alot of shades of grey in life and you just have to try to live in a shade that let's you sleep at night." Not exactly "with great power comes great responsibility" but it stuck with me.

My father DID teach me something. He taught me how to be a great father. He gave me the perfect blueprint on what NOT to do as a father and it's served me well in life.

The sad part is that I don't miss him. How could I? I never really knew him. 20 yrs of my life and I have no idea what made him tick. What I miss is having a father figure in my life. Someone to show me what's important in life, to have that lifesavers moment with. That's one of the things that comics couldn't help me with. There weren't alot of great dads in comics. Odin? banished his son to Midgard to learn humility. Reed Richards? Spent too much time adventuring and leaving his son with a scary witch. Bruce Wayne? Took his ward out to fight crime and wasn't exactly a fountain of emotional stability. Uncle Ben was only around for half an issue. I guess the best one was Pa Kent and I just never really cared about Superman enough to get to know him.

So what's a father figure worth? One helluva lot when you don't have one.

A Belated Eulogy

Captain America is dead.

Captain America is dead. A character who few would argue was the heart, soul and moral compass of the Marvel Universe was dispatched by a sniper's bullet. This is easily one of the most ridiculous and utterly pointless deaths in Marvel's history. I don't want to hear about the culmination of storylines or any other such nonsense. Captain America should not die handcuffed at the hands of a sniper. If any character deserved to go out in a heroic and meaningful manner, it was Cap. This is another example of a company (one that used to put out comics with heart) using a gimmick death to make headlines and sell more books because they can't come up with any other reason for people to buy their comics. This smells as bad as the Death of Superman and was just as big a slap in the face.

Why kill Captain America?

"Killing Captain America was really a more compelling story for our readers," said Dan Buckley, publisher at Marvel Entertainment. "It was more interesting than to see Cap in jail, reflecting. Besides exploring the question of who killed Captain America, we will be focusing on who was Steve Rogers the character, since not much is really known about him.

"We know about Captain America, the hero, the icon, but we don't know much about Steve. We will be exploring what Steve Rogers meant to those close to him and on a macro level, what Captain America's death means to the Marvel Universe. We'll be exploring what Captain America the icon means and whether the legacy should be carried on," Buckley said.

Buckley also said there are no plans to resurrect Captain America — for the time being.

"Steve Rogers is dead," he said. "As [Marvel Entertainment editor in chief] Joe [Quesada] says, 'A death should mean something. A resurrection should mean something.'"

The clueless words of two very clueless men. Not much is known about Steve Rogers?!?!? Has Buckley ever read a Captain America comic? Did he ever read the Gerry Conway run? The DeMatteis run? The Stern/Byrne issues? Anything by Gruenwald? Is he an idiot? All valid questions, if you ask me. To anyone who was a fan of Cap, Steve Rogers is a very known commodity.
Killing off a character is more interesting than telling stories about him in jail?!?! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. This is the biggest problem with comics today. The editors don't edit and the people in charge don't know dick about comics. Editors today don't tell writers when their stories suck because they want to keep the "names" on the book. Since when is Ed Brubaker a name? Why is he allowed and even encouraged to kill off a character that should be used as Superman is used at DC: as the hero everyone looks to for the right thing to do?
Now I know Brubaker is just writing stories he thinks are good and interesting so it's the editors job to stop him when he doesn't write something good or when he writes something that is contrary to the best interests of both a character and the company. But they don't... ever. All the "talent" today rarely get told NOT to do something. The editors are nothing more than traffic cops, taking scripts and pages from the creators and giving them to the colorists, letterers and production people and then to the printer. They don't do anything which is why it's funny when an editor changing company's makes headlines... so now he kisses ass at Marvel instead of DC? big fucking deal.

In an interview with Reuters, Marvel publisher Dan Buckley basically said it was Captain America's secret identity, not Captain America, who was the goner.

"This is the end of Steve Rogers, the meat-and-potatoes guy from 1941," Buckley told the wire service. "But Captain America is a costume, and there are other people who could take it over."

Captain America is a costume. Captain America is a costume. He said that. Let that sink in. He told Reuters that, not Wizard or Newsarama. He told people who don't usually write stories on comics that the death of a character that has been around since March 1941 was no big deal since the costume is what's important, not the man who wore it all those years. This is the friggin publisher of Marvel Comics!

This is the man who controls the greatest characters ever created in fiction. None of which were created by anyone who currently writes or draws them or edits or "publishes" them. The shortsightedness and total lack of comprehension as to what these characters are capable of and what they should be about is mind numbing. Absolutely mind numbing.

Goodbye, Steve Rogers. With the current state of Marvel, you're much better off.

RAISED BY COMICS

Let me start by saying that I LOVE comic books. I truly believe it to be the greatest art form or genre or whatever the hell else you want to call it. I've read them, studied them, went to school for them, worked on them and spent a good portion of my life creating my own characters and stories. I'm good at them... no, correct that, I'm GREAT at them. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

I read my first comic at age 10. It was a DC Presents featuring the Atom. It was like turning on a light switch in my head. When I got home from school that afternoon, I asked my mom if she'd ever heard of comics. To my never ending delight, she was a old time comic fan. She had read the early Marvel comics including the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor and Captain America. She told me if I wanted her to she would take me to the newsstand to buy some with my allowance.

The first comic I bought with my own money and read over and over was Amazing Spider-Man 148. I'll never forget it. The cover had Spidey chained and being thrown off the Brooklyn Bridge by the Jackal and Tarantula. It was amazing, no pun intended. I was hooked.

Over the next few years, I bought every comic put out by Marvel and DC and some by the now defunct First Comics. Eventually I narrowed my focus and weened out the comics I didn't really like. To be truthful, I was a Marvel guy. While I liked alot of DC comics (Justice League, Warlord, GL/GA, Batman Family, Teen Titans among others) I just understood and related to Marvel Comics alot more.

In fact, I credit Marvel comics and its writers for raising me to be the man I am today. I am neither ashamed nor embarrassed by that fact. Spider-Man gave me my sense of responsibility and, along with Bugs Bunny, my sense of humor. Cap gave me my love of country and patriotism. Thor, and Supes too, showed my a sense of nobility. I also learned lessons from Luke Cage, Iron Man, Hawkeye, the X-men, Iron Fist and a host of others. Back when I started reading comic books, there actually were lessons to be learned. There were morals to the stories. They taught you things. And not just life lessons, they taught me how a good story was written, how a narrative was developed, how a subplot was introduced and brought to it's fruition. Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Cary Bates, Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, Marv Wolfman, J.M. DeMatteis and others. These were my instructors. I learned alot from them.

These days comics seem more interested in smart ass dialogue and showing who's the biggest "badass". The current writers think they are bigger than the characters. They all want to put their "stamp" on the character which is such total bullshit. These characters have been around for 40/50/60 years but they aren't as important as the guys writing them?!?! Puh-leeze. I read alot of the interview with these so called geniuses and it seems like, although they supposedly grew up loving comics, they can't wait to shit all over the stories and continuity that came before them. In fact, continuity seems like a four letter word these days. The current creators treat the reader like they are too stupid to understand what's happened before that issue.

But, then again, when I started to read comics, things actually happened. There was action. Heroes and villains fought each other. Seems like comics can go months with nothing but a conversation happening... these days the characters TALK more about doing something than actually doing it. And what is the preoccupation with bars. Characters routinely find themselves in bars just talking about stuff. I guess that's where all these new writers spend most of their time, so the old adage "write what you know" comes to the forefront.

I read online that in the 60's/70's comics were written for kids. In the 80's/90's, they were written for teens. Now I'm told they are written for adults. What a brilliant concept! Write comics for adults and don't try to develop younger readers so when you're audience grows old and dies, your entire industry crumbles! What a plan.

Oh yeah, I should probably tell you all: I don't read comics anymore. They are a part of my past. I couldn't continue to read the characters I loved bastardized and twisted into something they were never meant to be.

I didn't out grow comics... apparently, THEY outgrew me.