May 8
House to Astonish Episode 37
Posted on Saturday, May 8, 2010 by Al in Podcast
We’re back with another episode of House to Astonish, with our usual round-up of the solicitations (now with added IDW!) and a bit of chat on Mark Millar’s new magazine, X-Men: First Class getting a director and Zuda losing its competition. We’re also looking at the first issues of The Sixth Gun, Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine and I, Zombie and going all topically political in the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus Dad DiDio, simulated Skype and a surprise appearance by the Go-Bots.
The podcast is here – let us know what you think in the comments thread, by email (now excitingly at housetoastonish@gmail.com!), on Twitter or by amusing comment in tiny lettering at the bottom of the indicia.
I’ve been liking Amazing Spider-Man during the last year, but I’m with Al here. I think I will just skip the OMIT arc, since this is actually the only way I can show how much I hate the way Quesada is messing with Spider-Man. I think it would have been much better if they had given this to somebody in the regular creative team, like Slott or Van Lente. This just feels totally intrusive.
This was a very Thundercats heavy episode. Not that I’m complaining about that or anything though.
The talk of the British anthology’s history as it relates to Clint reminded me of an odd story. When I was 13, my neighbor went to London for a week, and asked if there was anything she wanted me to pick up as a smallish souvenir. I said “Comics, if you find any” with visions of 2000AD, Transformers UK and other mythical beasts I had heard of but never seen, because my local comic shop may have inspired The Android’s Dungeon on THE SIMPSONS. She brought me two tabloid-sized kiddie anthologies, one each of WHIZZER AND CHIPS and something similar whose title didn’t stick with me.
I didn’t hide my disappointment as well as I would’ve liked for decorum’s sake.
OMIT sounds like they’re going to supervillain up the Wedding story, rather than having the bride and groom change their minds out of an in-character se…actually.
Hang on.
In the revealed revised backstory, right, Peter and Mary Jane don’t marry, but they do move in together, right?
And they break up an unspecified amount of time after that, and an unspecified but not insignificant amount of time before Brand New Day, right?
So they actually had a proper over the brush relationship in the interim? Presumably including Kraven’s Last Hunt, losing their baby, moving to Portland, etc.?
SO WHAT’S THE BLOODY POINT OF TELLING US WHY THE WEDDING DIDN’T HAPPEN?
I mean, why not tell us why they broke up – if they haven’t already done so, with that, like, three-panel flashback in that one Pulido story where he draws them like JRjr.
Just seems totally pointless going back to a story that you could comfortably wave away with a line of dialogue. I mean, it’s not as if they didn’t leave enough wiggle room in the original Annual.
On SScarrllett – that’s the one they promoted the same way as OMIT, right? Only with OX instead of OMIT?
And the OX turned out to be what the characters has painted over her nipples? So the OX promotion was really just a picture of her tits in the dark?
Yeah. No. It looks like something Warren Ellis forgot to write down. I can see me being proved wrong by the finished product, but the promorional stuff made my eyes roll so hard I ended up hypnotising my optician.
That’s her over there, painting the kitchen. Say hi, Jayne!
On CLINT:
//\Oo/\\
[…] Fortunately, we do have a podcast, and you’ll find it just one post below. […]
Wait, Adam is considered the “good Kubert brother”? I admit I’m not too familiar with either of them, especially their Marvel work, but I always though Andy seemed slightly better in most respects. Neither is nearly where their Dad was at that age, but very few are, related to him or not.
Adam’s a little less locked into a post-Jim Lee aesthetic* – his Hulk run, for example, was looser and (slightly) closer to an indy/Vertigo sensibility (c.f. Bachalo/Buckingham – Kubert inked by Mark Farmer!) than Andy’s more clenched figures and action movie layouts.
I don’t recall his Spider-Man: The List comic being quite so refreshing, and the AsWoSp preview I read the other day left me a bit cold (one spoke up, two spokes down! Gha!) – and what I’ve heard in the podcast and elsewhere about the plot makes this former scienceman a bit *raised eyebrow* – but that Hulk run, shot from pencils in places (I think) was golden.
WHICH IS ONE BLOODY SENTENCE.
//\oo/\\
* – funnily enough, I’ve recently begun thinking of Lee in terms of _Joe_ Kubert (even though I’m sure other people would rather compare him more to Neal Adams).
Lee as influenced by (and comparable to) Kubert v Adams is a very interesting subject, although it deserves a post that I don’t have time to write, sadly (otherwise I’d have loved to have chewed it over).
Jim Lee always seemed to these eyes to have owed a great debt to Howard Chaykin and John Byrne with a big dash of Macross/Robotech/Voltron/Anime style.
For instance, most of his male characters’ faces look like Reuben Flagg.
I can see the Adams in Jim Lee, especially when he inks his own work (when he isn’t doing his Frank Miller style). But I’ve fallen hard out of love with Adams since my teenage years, especially his self-inked stuff. Those new Batman images of his just look repulsive.
Don’t really see any Joe Kubert in Lee, unless you mean in some storytelling or layout sense rather than a rendering sense, in which case I haven’t paid enough attention to Lee’s work to have an opinion.
The biggest reason for NOT doing an OMIT type story, at least for me, is that doing so draws attention to the another big OMD problem. Aside from issues of hitting the reset button and creating a morally questionable business engagement, it also raises a quagmire of continuity head-aches: at what point does Harry return to continuity? Did the Mary Jane pregnancy ever happen? (An issue of at least minor importance to Spider-Girl fans) If no one knows about Spider-Man’s identity, and if Aunt May was never shot, how on earth did Civil War play out? Granted, some of these such issues have been hand-waved away, but a story like this just draws attention to a fairly shaky foundation patched up with spackle and chewing gum.
These are exactly the sort of continuity-based questions that create the notion of the anal-retentive comic book reader, an image which is no good for the industry at large. In general, I don’t think people even don’t want to ask these questions, especially now–they just want good Spider-Man stories. But stories that seem to deliberately draw our attention to these problems do more harm than good.
Okay, I had to stop the podcast after “Decepticons” for a couple of minutes because I was laughing so much. It’s funny because it’s true.
I kind of think of Lee in terms of Kubert as being more of a career thing, rather than as a strict stylistic thing – although, naturally, their styles share a certain masculine energy.
I think Lee is a key node in the evolution of the modern American superhero artist, just like J.Kubert and Neal Adams (I rather liked that page of Batman Odyssey where Bats gets shot through the wrist. It made me laugh in rather an unnecessarily cruel way).
I also think, rather pointlessly, that the one of the worst thing to happen to Comics in recent memory was bringing Jim Lee back to Batman. This is an industry that would support Jim Lee in just about *any* creative endeavour, and Lee has proven himself to be both hungry for new artistic experiences and versatile as an artist (albeit in drips and drabs).
This is an artist who can write his own cheques in a way that few can, and he’s now been locked into Doing More Ruddy Batman for nearly ten years (and so many people in the wake of Jim Lee’s Batman are trying to emulate Jim Lee’s hulkish Batman that it’s not even funny).
Where’s Jim Lee’s Ronin? Where’s Jim Lee’s Sin City? Where’s Jim Lee’s anything of his own at all?
(yes, Grifter, yes WildC.A.T.S. That was a long time ago.)
The reason why I compare Lee to Kubert – and yes, it’s a simplistic expression of a personal bias concerning a creator I don’t know in the real world – is that I don’t want to wait another thirty years for Jim Lee’s Fax From Sarajevo.
Like I said: pointless.
//\oo/\\
Count me as another regular ASM reader who will not be picking up OMIT. In a way, I’m glad Quesada is writing it because it will probably be awful and I won’t have to feel guilty skipping it over. I still don’t see how a contract with the Devil is a preferable solution over just having Peter and MJ split up and never mention it again. And at this point I’m more curious about the “psychic blind-spot” which I hope is explained in another story. I do agree that since OMD, the writing and art on the Amazing have been top-notch.
Astonshing Spider-Man and Wolverine was one of the most fun comics I’ve read in a long time. Aaron has stated that he would love to write Spider-Man and based on this, they should definitely slot him in. I think he is my favorite writer at Marvel right now, with Dan Slott a close second. I agree with Al that they need to find more work for him.
At what point does Harry return to continuity?
Wasn’t this part of the retcon dealt with in that Molten Man story about a year ago ?
Yeah – Harry wakes up in the morgue with Norman (at this point still in “hiding”) swapping his “corpse” for a lookalike – Mindy’s Dad from Mork & Mindy, fact fans – whereupon he is sweapt away to Yurp to be deGoblified and, one presumes, taught how to make coffee.
//\oo/\\
Okay, I should have clarified–my question is less “at what point did he not die?” and more “at what point did the regular Spider-cast become aware that he was still alive?”, an admittedly minor question, but one that has consequences for some subsequent storylines post Spectacular Spider-Man 200.
For a second I thought I, Zombie was one of those “Vertigo take the title of an existing DC property, and do something completely different” deals, but I was thinking of I, Vampire.
It seems Harry returned in the gap after One More Day.
I almost wonder if Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis was made into a mini just because no one wanted to wait for the current story to finish. Maybe if the current story was closer on schedule then Xenogenesis would have just been Astonishing #37-42.
I may be behind the curve here, but last I heard, JMS had piped up at Bleeding Cool to debunk the idea that Superman was being withheld from other books, or at least that his plotline had anything to do with it re:
“…my one and only conversation about Action with the friendly folks at DC consisted of the following: ‘Listen, Joe, while you’re doing your thing, we were thinking of doing a Luther story in Action. What do you think?’
‘Sounds great,’ said I.
I didn’t even know Guggenheim was leaving until I read it online. (I try as much as possible not to impinge on the other titles, so there was no reason for me to know.) He’s a terrific writer and, from what I’ve heard, a nice fellow. So’s Paul. I’m cool with either one of them.
That’s the full extent of it. There’s no mandate — editorial or otherwise — that I’m aware of about Superman appearing in, or not appearing in, Action or any other book.”
What’s funny about Xenogenesis is that it seems to be the story Ellis was talking about doing when he & Bianchi were first announced on AXM (or “AXM: Second Stage”, as they were referring to it at the time). I wonder why he left it so long…
I will be amazed if, as Quesada says, O.M.I.T. answers *everything* that was related to the whole deal with Mephisto. Frankly, all this should have been tackled right after One More Day, not years later. It seems pointless opening up that whole can of worms again. The whole thing seems like nothing but an ego-trip for Quesada and makes you wonder how many more stories he has stuffed in a draw that will erase previously told tales.
With regards to Millar’s new anthology, there’s definitely more than a touch of “hey, look at me, look at all my celebrity friends!!!”. But he seems to have started with an uphill battle. The name is extremely low-rent and as yous speculated, if part of the title does get covered up then it could end up on the top-shelf with the other undesirable/embarrassing purchases. Which would really be of no benefit to anyone.
Plus using celebrities, while gets you recognition, the ones that have been announced aren’t exactly general public favourites at the moment. Ross’s approval rating went down the drain & has stayed there after the whole ‘Sachsgate’ scandal and then with details of his extravagant BBC contract. Boyle, while he is definitely razor-sharp, tends to cross the line a touch too often.
Also while ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is a good hook given how well received the film was (even if the book was terrible), it’s strange that Millar wouldn’t be thinking longer term and go back to Icon. They’d probably provide better sales, cash & promotion. Conversely, would that imprint want to reprint sloppy seconds in the future, if Millar went to them after?
Did either of you see ‘Iron Man 2’? If so, any thoughts? Personally I found it just about enjoyable enough. Not as good as the first one and could have used more action. Definitely too many characters/plots going on for me to care about any of them with any great interest. Robert Downey Jr. is definitely the star though, no doubt.
For those of us who are FCBD-less, ComicsAlliance have the full issue of The Sixth Gun up here.
Can anyone explain the Camelot 3000 reference?
Your Decepticon/Thundercats analogy was too funny for words.
“Can anyone explain the Camelot 3000 reference?”
Oh yeah, I was wondering about that too? Did they cut the issue count midway through or something?
It was a reference to how it was a ten-issue series that looked for a long time like it was only going to run to nine issues – the tenth and final one came out a year and a bit after the previous issue (in a time when such delays were very rare from the Big Two, unlike today’s world of Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk etc). I don’t really think we’ll see the tenth issue of The Great Ten any time soon, though 🙂
I assume KICK-ASS 2 will still appear from Marvel/Icon. I can’t imagine Marvel giving Romita Jr. an extended leave to work on a book they aren’t publishing (he did do that GRAY AREAS thing for Image, but that was a more minor book, and I don’t think Icon existed to handle situations like that at the time).
I suppose it’s possible they’ll limit the distribution to North America, just as I think the collected edition the Marvel version only sold in North America and in the UK it had another publisher, so the only “offical” way to get KICK ASS 2 in the UK will be to buy Millar’s anthology. Hm, will the TURF series they’ll be serializing be the sequel to the current series, or the book coming out now? Hard to see the draw of serializing a story which by then will already be available in back issues and probably as a collected edition.
They won’t be available as back issues in Tesco, though. Or Sainsbury’s. Or ASDA. Or Spar. Or Martins. Etcetera, etcetera. Two completely different distribution streams, two overlapping but subtly different audiences.
//\oo/\\
Am I missing something with all the references to how successful the Kick-Ass film has been? Or has it just been far, far more successful in the UK than it has been in the US? Here it’s already fallen out of the top 10, and lost 65% of its audience in the second week of release. It’s a profitable movie, but given just how much it was hyped, it has to be seen as a bit of a disappointment.
AXM: Xenogenesis #1 is on Diamond’s “shipping this week” list. Looks like they’re not waiting for v1 to finish.
Warren clarifies…sort of…the Astonishing X-Men situation on his site :
“So I was writing ASTONISHING X-MEN. I was writing a serial therein called GHOST BOX. I had also started writing the next serial, XENOGENESIS, so we didn’t lose time when GHOST BOX ended. And then there were problems with GHOST BOX, and apparently the only solution was for me to write a short spin-off piece called GHOST BOXES. And then there were problems with XENOGENESIS, and apparently the only solution was for me to write a new serial to temporarily replace it called EXOGENETIC. And this all happened within the same couple of months, as I recall, and basically broke me.
ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #1 comes out today in North America. Kaare Andrews drew it, and it’s really fucking pretty.
EXOGENETIC is still being serialised, yes. We already had two issues of XENOGENESIS in the can, and I believe Marvel wanted to use them to bolster the launch of the ASTONISHING-branded mini-line they recently thought of. Which is why both stories are now being serialised simultaneously.
I’m still working with Marvel, but XENOGENESIS, and the remaining issues of EXOGENETIC (and that’s how fried I was, that I came up with two titles that sound almost the same and didn’t catch it) represent the last of my ASTONISHING X-MEN work.
(EXOGENETIC was nearly called DOCTOR X, but Axel Alonso told me to basically sober up. I still kind of regret that. It has a goofy pulpy sound that reflects the material better.)”
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=9469