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[…] Original article: Preview: How C-3PO Became The Red Arm Droid — The Beat […]

Can’t wait for the Tula Lotay cover…

I can’t wait until it’s Chris’s turn:
“Visions & Scarlet Witch”

Ba-dum tish.

Well, it’s obviously his wankin’ arm…

No, Harris can’t do this. He never finished War Heroes.

It is true that between War Heroes and Chin Music, Marvel was smart to make this a one-shot.

Robinson & Harris did a Starman story in JSA All-Stars back in 2003ish. Not quite “almost 20 years” but good news nonetheless. Trying not to buy every comic under the Sun, especially Star Wars related, when there are so many and I can read them on Marvel Unlimited. But I might break that embargo for a one-shot.

This comic will make Threepio as cool as Chris Isaak!

On the one hand, I was a big fan of Starman, so I’m interested in seeing Robinson and Harris re-unite.
But on the other hand, this sort of thing is exactly why I never got into all the Expanded Universe stuff. I dug the Star Wars films, and I loved the universe. Part of what I loved about it was the sense that there were all these untold stories in that big wide universe. But I never actually wanted to see those stories told! I could care less about what Luke did at Tosche Station or where Lando bought his cape or the Wampa’s childhood, and I don’t really need the back story of Threepio’s red arm.

I was just thinking about if Chin Music was ever going to be finished or not. I am going to guess no and it got swallowed up in the void like Real Heroes since like Hitch, Harris is working on other projects.

I remember Droids being one of the better 90s Dark Horse Star Wars comics. With the movie connection, the timing, the creative team, and the subject himself, they are going to sell a ton of these. A million dads will be buying these for their kids if not themselves, myself included.

Perfect artist for this.

Wait, I thought censorship was really, really bad, and self censorship was just another form of censorship. Wow, I just can’t keep up anymore with the speech “rules”.

People don’t know how to read comics anymore.

Being upset is no longer a challenge but something to DESTROY. How dare a book make you feel uncomfortable.

Alex, protest is a matter of free speech. Think of the racial politics of, say, 1940’s comics, and think about how many would be tolerable today. People have a right to be outspoken and to shame publishers if they think necessary. And the publisher can choose to listen or not. The true opinion of readers will be what matters in the long run. If the protesters are simply a crackpot minority, their opinion will have little influence.

That said, I don’t think Robinson is anti-GLBT. A few years back, I heard an interview with him where he was talking about loving the San Fransisco party scene, which is pretty much code for: I stay out all night at drugged up parties (an idea somewhat substantiated by this series itself). This sort of scene is generally quite GLBT-friendly, and I have to imagine San Francisco is even more so (my own experience is from Toronto, where most places were ⅓ gay after 4 am). I can’t imagine a person saying they love the SF party scene being trans-phobic, since diversity is a lot of the appeal of the whole thing. I haven’t read this issue, just some articles about it with some panels posted, but simply setting a story in such a bar seems to be something that Marvel or DC would veto in the planning stage.

I won’t disagree if people in that group (I am not a transgender person) are offended by what Robinson wrote, but from the little I know of him, I do believe he would consider himself an ally and have good intentions.

This is sad. Turns out the internet can smother creativity just as easily as it allows it to flourish.

Press Release Translation App:

“giving it the dignity and respect it deserves”

I will continue to write my story as I see fit until I write about anyone who isn’t a straight white male in which case that character will go from a realistic portrayal to something forcibly sanguine.

“I hope comic book fans and creators will think more critically about the way trans characters are portrayed.”

Watch your backs. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

“I promise to work harder in the future to ensure that any trans stories or characters in my work are portrayed in a thoughtful and accepting way.”

I have been advised to belabor the point that I will continue to write my story as I see fit until I write about anyone who isn’t a straight white male in which case that character will go from a realistic portrayal to something forcibly sanguine. Seriously. You win. Lesson learned.

Let’s see what happens, ok, before we go on a “whaaah! Another comic creator cowed by the Internet posse!” bender. It might be that a single caption gets added for context.

The danger with this sort of ‘bad boy’ stories is that all too often readers do identify, see the behaviour as ‘cool’. Asshole things that the asshole characters do are laughed about, and there unfortunately there are folks who feel that “it’s funny, so it’s permissible.”

Of course it’ll still be held against him to his dying day.

Wait, I thought censorship was really, really bad, and self censorship was just another form of censorship. Wow, I just can’t keep up anymore with the speech “rules”.
>>
@MWorrell :
Yeah >> some people don’t seem to realize that they are inviting (an inevitable) backlash — and that they can loose all of the gains they’ve made (and then some) in the blink of an eye.

Trigger warning for Christian readers who have suffered anti-Christian hatred. The word “fundie” is as hateful as the N-word, and should be banned from the arts and public discussion. Mocking people of faith is not only tolerated, but encouraged in comics! “Fundie,” “Jesus freak,” “Bible Thumper,” “Holy Roller” – terms all as hateful as the N-Word.

Here’s the problem with this apology, which relates specifically to writing something to be published later: James Robinson KNEW what he was writing. If he is an ally of LGBTQIA (nailed it!) why didn’t what he wrote strike him as insensitive or harmful at any point in the writing process?

When someone says something in the heat of an argument or just off the cuff, I can understand the apology more, but you have so many eyes on this, and you know what era you are in. No, being conscious of the climate doesn’t mean you will be perfectly controversy-free for the rest of your days, but no one at Image saw this coming?

Does anybody know what the “Cancel Colbert” woman has been up to lately?

It’s good he apologized for that awful (awful) comic. But I’m just wondering why the editors or managers aren’t issuing a statement? I get the impulse for making despicable characters, characters that represent the worst in people, but why did no editor along the way try and help him fix this story? They seem more to blame than James Robinson.

Sabin: Image does not have editors. Creators are solely responsible for the content.

Most of the trans people I’ve seen comment on this, self included, weren’t calling for the book to be pulled off the shelves or rewritten. As far as I know, that stems from the one site Heidi mentioned in the previous article. There were people talking about no longer buying Image Comics, but that’s their right. People stop buying stuff from publishers for smaller reasons.

I was telling my friend Barry about the Robinson-Hates-Gays story, and he said he wasn’t surprised. He said that TONS of so-called liberal artists are really KKK types. He told me about how John Lennon recorded this White Power anthem that just brazenly used the N-word in the title – “Woman is the N-Word of the World” – so Lennon hated blacks and women, a twofer. Why doesn’t this get much press? People talk about John Lennon, but never mention he was a defender of segregation. He also said that while feminists claim Patti Smith was some progressive songwriter, she also is an avowed white supremacist – Patti Smith proudly declared so in a song called “Rock and Roller N-Words.”

I can’t tell if you’re joking or not, but Woman is the N-Word of the World” is not a white power song, it’s a pro feminist song comparing the way men have historically treated women with the way white people have historically treated black folks. Lennon ran the song past several civil rights leaders of the day to make sure it wouldn’t offend or be misunderstood, the last thing he wanted was to have it perceived as a racist anthem. It should also be noted that use of the N word since the 1970’s have changed, it was a bad word in the 70’s but now it’s a BAD word. (For example 1970’s TV used the word, (on news reports, on sitcoms like the Jeffersons and on SNL) without having to bleep it, I doubt Lennon would write a song like that today if he was alive. Lennon was many things, including an admitted abuser of women, but there’s no evidence of him being a racist.

I have no right to criticize someone for being hurt by something or not wanting to read something that contains hurtful words. Whether I am called upon to agree with them is another question. I would never tell someone “stop it, can’t you take a joke,” but if we’re arguing about whether the story is good, or realistic, or whether it condemns or celebrates the attitudes involved, then no one person’s opinion can decide matters.

Sneddon is saying that even though this is what these asshole characters would realistically say, the writer should self-censor because these attitudes are harmful and contribute to violence. There’s a lot of question whether that is true, and comic book writers have plenty of experience with being told, without proof, that their work will cause violence. And it assumes that while the critic is smart enough to understand that the comic doesn’t endorse these attitudes, other readers out there are too dumb or easily influenced to get it.

Again, I’m not saying “don’t be offended.” If a book contains a slur over and over, and someone says “that’s it, I can’t read this” – what right do I have to tell them how to take it? But when the argument shifts into whether it is harmful, or whether it’s artistically valid, then things like “these characters are assholes and we’re not supposed to agree with them” or “that’s how assholes talk in real life” seem to be important.

Otherwise we’re left with a demand that only bad characters say bad things, or at least be punished for saying them.

“This is not a call for censorship.”
That’s exactly what it is.

I now feel like the old man, because the word tranny JUST became a slur, like within less than 5 years. It actually transformed into a slur, at least from my perspective. It’s how people talk about trans people.

OK, let’s all agree that tranny= bad. So I’m reading these panels, and if you replace that word, this sounds just fine. One guy is not as on board as the other guy about this trans woman, and the other guy actually LIKED the encounter he had with her!

Even if this was some horrible stuff, why are we fighting for nothing to ever be harsh or inconsiderate ever again? Characters can always murder, but they can never be mean, or ignorant, or clueless- even if they are not heroes. This is what I feel is what some people want. Never touch a negative button.

Personally, I don’t think it should be pulled from the shelves. I think the discussion and awareness that’s getting raised around it is the better approach. And I’m curious as to what sort of statement Robinson’s going to make. But man, is it a tired old gag, and one that I could do without.

@VichusSmith: I’m not sure I agree if pulling out the T-word from the scene makes everything sound just fine or positive. The bit in the last set of panels Heidi posted is kind of crappy no matter what term is used for us. “Wait, so your girl is a man as well?” “Pre-op, so in her mind and in my mind, no. But… err… yeah. Technically.” That’s not exactly what I’d call positive, someone who supposedly likes people like us saying we’re men until surgery, or that it’s all in our mind. That actually bugs me more than the other stuff.

I have no horse in this race but I think calling for or supporting a boycott of Image is wrong, wrong, wrong.

No matter how offensive Airboy #2 is you’re going to have to do much, much more convincing to make me see why Brian Vaughn, John Layman, Brandon Graham, Ed Brubaker, et al. deserve to suffer for Robinson and Hinkle’s comic/

This is as upsetting as discovering that Amy Schumer hates blacks and Mexicans. Or when Joss Whedon and Mark Ruffalo brazenly said woman who don’t have kids are monsters. And GLAAD has given Robinson awards before? What does that say about GLAAD if they are so poorly run they give awards to those who promote killing transsexual people? GLAAD is possibly anti-trans. Will GLAAD be taking back the awards for “Starman” or “Earth 2″? The NAACP never have an award top George Wallace. GLAAD is clearly not up to snuff.

GLAAD did issue a statement about this.
http://www.glaad.org/blog/fans-angered-transphobia-image-comics-airboy

And, as far as I know, when they gave Robinson Media Awards for Starman (back in the 90s) and Earth 2 (more recently), he hadn’t published anything like this. So I don’t think it’s fair to say GLAAD is anti-trans as a result of this, or that they’re not doing their work because they gave Robinson awards in the past for good depictions of gay men.

Unless, wait, are you joking?

Maybe, instead of limiting this to just the feelings of the trans community, we should rethink our attitude toward material that is transgressive just for the sake of being transgressive. I mean, is this use of AIRBOY anything except transgressive just for the sake of being transgressive? And wasn’t everyone perfectly fine with it until it touched on the trans community?

Maybe we should all stop being so damn ironic when it comes to bad behavior in general?

Mike

Rethink our attitude towards transgressive material? What an idiotic notion.
There would have been no Lenny Bruce, Hunter Thompson, the Sex Pistols, EC Comics, Garth Ennis, etc…
Exerting an influence over content has been the objective behind a lot of these recent stories. Norman Mailer stabbed his wife in the eye. John Lennon beat his wife. On the scale of things, this story is pretty low.

I’m pretty much filthy with privilege so although I do have strong opinions on these issues, it’s not really my place to repeat them here beyond saying I understand why people are angry about this, but also have more complicated feelings about to what extent artists should temper what they make, and how much they should apologise for it.
(Well, and it’d be disingenuous to not mention that I felt very uncomfortable at the beginning of this sequence, echoing as it did the one-page tableau fetishising an obese woman in the previous issue, because the previous incident didn’t have any contextualising dialogue, but by the end thought that my discomfort was the point and as such am broadly on board with the book, at least through the next issue.)

But KF, I am curious about the semantics you draw attention to in that comment. “Robinson’s” part of the exchange you quoted was actually largely what brought me round to the belief that although dabbling in really culturally risky – probably appropriative and self-congratulating – territory, the intentions here were sound. But I also thought the potentially problematic word there was “technically”… I read it as “Robinson” parsing his response out for an anachronistic character, but thought it might seem dismissive.

It really didn’t occur to me for a second that “Pre-op, so in her mind and in my mind, no. But… err… yeah. Technically.” could be intended by the writer to mean “it’s all in her mind”… I thought his intention was that the operation itself was a technicality, because as far as the woman and he are concerned, she’s a woman.

I appreciate that the last thing you might want to do is spend time indulging my curiosity – for someone closer to the issue, discussing semantics with a stranger probably doesn’t fill you with joy. But I was scrutinising this scene so closely – because I WANT books like this that push the medium narratively to be defensible – that I really thought my read of that sentence was sound. It reconciled that whole sequence for me in some ways – largely because what I thought the character was saying is in line with what I believe – so I was caught out by your read.

Does my interpretation of it make any sense at all? There’s still plenty to potentially dislike about the execution of this sequence (and this series) so this piece of phrasing is probably trivial, but for me it was the key to how I feel about the creators’ intentions.

As a queer person, I want to state for the record that the people revving themselves up for a book-burning here … do not speak for me. At all.

Gurkle expresses several of my main thoughts about this matter pretty well, up above. We have people here freaking out because flawed, ugly characters do and say flawed, ugly things in vernacular English? Seriously? Calling for a book to removed from sale because they find it offensive? Because it contains dangerous ideas?

Are these people aware of the irony: how offensive and dangerous those ideas are?

As a vulnerable queer kid, I was harmed more by the lack of the hypothetical comics, the books, the TV shows, etc. that I couldn’t experience because someone thought they would’ve been too “offensive” and “dangerous”, than I was harmed by the hurtful ones that I could experience.

As a queer comics creator, I am harmed more every day by the gatekeepers who make it nearly impossible for me to sell my work, than I am by the other work that I find banal or prudish or mean or ugly or even offensive.

Free speech can be “problematic”. But the solution to every problem it creates is simple: more free speech. If you feel Airboy is offensive and dangerous to trans people, then make comics that counter that message. Or express your opinions about what you don’t like about it. But as soon as you start fanning the Werthamesque fires to suppress “dangerous fiction”, you’re no longer part of the solution. You’re part of the problem.

Bobbie, GLAAD is simply a superficial press-release mill. They give out awards as a way of sucking up to the entertainment media, and they issue statements condemning other things they run across in an effort to get attention as a “watchdog”. Transsexuals are trending this year, so they latched onto this.

The whole “But trans people are being KILLED! This story promotes KILLING trans people!” bit is just moral bullying.

Things have really changed. Eric Clapton’s two biggest hits were about banging his best friend’s wife, and tossing his 6-month-old baby off of an 80-story balcony. Hopefully, we’ve moved forward enough as a society to stop rewarding baby-killers like Eric Clapton!

What company is publishing this title?

It lloks awesome. I loved the Chuck Dixon/ Ernie Colon final issues at Eclipse. This one looks totally different but really makes me want to read it.

That’s a 4 part mini-série published by Image, beginning in June.

I just threw up in my mouth a lot. I hate to see the Emperor’s new clothes, but this is kind of disgusting. Why can’t the hipsters leave the icons alone? Go invent your own hero to contrast yourselves with.

I always find James Robinson to be fresh, insightful and smart (enjoying his two Marvel series now and sad they are winding down) and am looking forward to this one too. And I like classic Airboy too.

“That’s not MY Airboy.”
You haven’t even seen the crazy part yet.

Sorry. I want to read Airboy, not the sad behind the scenes of the creators’ life guest-starring a hallucination of Airboy. There are personal blogs for that kind of writing.

Jerry? B.W.? Don’t read this. Problem solved.

Sheesh! If I hear one more middle-aged fanboy whining that someone is making a comic that he doesn’t want to read…

Good to learn James is now a ‘hipster’. LOL

This series looks fantastic. I’ve been waiting. I want him to return to The Saviors, as well.

Holy cow – that looks gorgeous! LOVE the art. I couldn’t care less about Airboy but bring it on!

I dug Dixon’s Airboy but, man this version looks sweet. Shades Wolf of Wall Street meets 8 -1/2 meets Grant Morrison! Think about what they create when they come down- The Heap!!!

“Sheesh! If I hear one more middle-aged fanboy whining that someone is making a comic that he doesn’t want to read”

As opposed to all the whining about a COVER someone doesn’t want people to see? What makes that whining okay?

Mike

Jason, the only one I see here whining is you complaining that not every single person agrees with you. I was voicing my dislike of the preview. I didn’t realize only 100% positive messages are allowed. I’m pretty sure discussion of both the good and bad of the subject is the whole reason for even having a comment section. But maybe I’m mistaken and it’s only here for stroking the creators’ egos. Though I doubt Robinson needs a bodyguard against a negative comment or two. And as for your advice to us, I’m pretty sure Jerry and I had already figured out we weren’t going to buy it before you said anything. I’ll wait for his next project and hope it’s something more akin to Starman or JSA in quality.

It’s smart to give it a rest for a while. Let it breathe until August 2015 and relaunch with a big creative team.

Lets be clear, people are upset the book is going away, NOT upset that Robinsons is going away. If it was about sales then they could get a new writer. I loved Hickmans Fantastic Four and couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t care less about Robinsons and dropped it. So yes… I will get on line and moan and complain about the book being canceled. Not because I read it at this time, but because it’s the Fantastic Four and should always be available from Marvel. Get a new writer and don’t let the publisher play games because they are upset with the movie.

This kind of announcement is where Perlmutter needs to come out from his hidden bunker since he doesn’t like to be seen by anyone and explain to the crowd his reasoning behind this whole thing and see how much they actually care about him being pissed off at Fox because they took a good deal when Marvel was at a desperate time in its existence.

I very much agree with both Chris and Spike. The book A) needs a rest and B) needs to not be written by James Robinson, who hasn’t displayed any talent since 2002.

Point of order: while not many people bought it, Robinson’s Shade 12-parter circa ’11 as just as good as anything he wrote in the 90s or 00s.

This same team with these same four characters, with only a few temporary variations, has been around for more than fifty years. It’s a stale dynamic, and would benefit from some permanent changes to its roster.

While the cancellation due to corporate politics bit could be true, I personally suspect it’s just a temporary cancellation that leads into a high profile relaunch.

Johnny, they just had the high profile relaunch. There’s no way to say they’re still looking for one.

@Nick Jones: Perma-nent…chan…ges?

I’m sorry, I’ve been reading DC and Marvel for decades and I have no idea what that series of letters you just typed means.

If you’re going to ruin the Fantastic Four with “permanent changes” then it does need to be put to rest so that Axel Alonso, Tom Brevoort and all the other Powers That Be at Marvel don’t turn it into something unrecognizable like they have the Avengers comic (Comics I guess if you count the different adjectives).

They should bring them back with switched genders so I can sit back and watch a million fedoras explode…

The cynic in me says that if The Fantastic Four were available for future films under the Marvel Studios rather than languishing within FOX Studios we’d see more FF presence in their monthly output of comics.

What would Ben Grimm do?

Enjoy his retirement — he’d be in his 80s by now if the comic had kept to the (approximate) real time kept, however unconsciously/reluctantly, by Lee and Kirby during its first decade.

Marvel have totally lost the plot, what changes are they going to make when
they relaunch the FF is anyone’s guess, the house of no ideas lack a unified direction, it’s just a bunch of clowns playing havoc with titles that they have no affinity or sense of history for, I’m fed up of these cabbages, they can do what they want, I’m reading other publishers.

Curious to see so much negativity about James Robinson here. To me, his run on Fantastic Four has been fun, charming and filled with a good degree of drama. The best thing he has written in the last years (aside maybe from The Shade mini-series).

And much better than the snooze-fest that was Matt Fraction’s run.

Finally, we’ll discover that Franklin’s been stretching space/time all along… http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff_end.html

Multiple Warheads 1-4 was pretty fun reading. Hope the trade does well.

Just so you know… that’s the REMASTERED edition of “A Distant Soil”.

How new and improved is it?
Take a look:
http://www.adistantsoil.com/2013/07/29/minty-fresh-book-of-lost-souls-prequel-and-new-a-distant-soil-trade-at-boston-comic-con-this-weekend/

OK, I might be that ONLY one, but I can’t wait for BLACK KISS XXX-Mas special

[...] Black Kiss:  comicsbeat.com [...]

“Branding” is definitely a loose concept here. Wow. “Let’s put a red tilted box in the corner and a giant number! Branding design done!” Man, whatever happened to actually putting some design skills into comics. Even the logos are boring flat book cover fonts now.

I wish I wasn’t so excited about an All-New Invaders, but damn do I love Namor and the Invaders (So much I’d call “Namor and The All-New Invaders”!!!!”) .

But what’s this? The article states “and Original Human Torch Toro”…well which is it? The original Human Torch, or Toro (who wasn’t the original Human Torch, but the original Toro)…?

Looking forward to seeing what the new titles are, but I dunno if it makes sense to do a modern-day Invaders. Everyone on the cover has been an Avenger, all quite recently, and setting it in the modern-day doesn’t give it much of a unique hook. WW2 or something would be a better selling point, methinks.

Yeah, what the h e l l??? Why dont they just put Wolverine on every cover like they did in the 80′s… “Hey speculator market, we got a cover that says -first issue!-, aren’t we lame…!!!”
Alonso, said that “Marvel Now!” was supposed to bring back NuMarvel, in ways that delivered cutting edge new art, like in how the covers were designed in “non-conventional” ways. How can you expect people to take the *sequential* medium seriously, when the only main access to *sequential* are these lame “comic books”. The super hero genre is great, but the “American” version of super hero’s is this twisted culmination of homo-erotic power fantasy fulfillment encased in christian/conservative-extremist regulations (Comics Code Authority), which have been further perverted with stories written to comply with the speculator’s bubble from mid-80′s to early 90′s, and then all chewed up and spat out during the 90′s hell that was the aftershock of the speculators bubble bursting (example: stories created under a bankrupt management like at Marvel Comics ; also please see on youtube.com Max Landis’ “the death and return of superman”). If Marvel stock was no under 10 dollars /share like it was, then there probably would not had been room for the window of time that was just before the stories written to comply with the Disney buy-out -NuMarel was when heads were rolling, people were being replaced, and new independent, more ‘fringe’ creators were hired to take over mass market character-based assets. Now, there is no slew of indi-talent hired to take on the mass market titles -NuMarvel was when Marvel was owned by Marvel. When they were just gaining momentum to create their own Marvel Studios movies, and the comics being printed were freaking awesome! Alias, Daredevil, “e is for Extinction” X-men story, Ultimate Spider-Man and especially the Ultimates stories, Peter Bagge even did a Spider-man one-shot -as well as James Sturm did *Unstable Molecules*!!! Marvel needs to start pushing the boundaries of *sequential* with some new talent, and in new mediums like the larger Magazine format, because print sequential will always be around, but “American comic books” (especially the cheese American version of the super hero if American sequential does not fix up their act), may not.

I was reading the new “Marvel Now”,
But my LCS had no copies to show.
The “old Now” was old news
And the “new Now” issues
Were too new a New Now for review.

(Apologies to Ogden Nash.)

Wouldn’t that make good *journalism*, instead of the flog of a site promotions going on, to include in this article a quote from someone at Marvel that can explain why Alonso said how “Marvel Now!” was supposed to bring back NuMarvel, and yet now Marvel is rejecting NuMarvel, -and how Marvel is N O T progressing the *sequential* medium, as they keep pushing their consumer-market driven “comic books”.

@Marvel : hey, if you guys can crawl yourselves out of not only bankruptcy, but also in doing so you were able to have some killer NuMarvel stories, then why dont you run with that cutting edge shtikt that you had 2000 – 2004??? Why just cater to the Disney buy-out and then ‘rest on your laurels…’??? If corporations can have all of these hundreds of millions of consumers walk around actually thinking they are ‘Americans’, then why can you progress *sequential* in the USA, instead of milking off the consumer mentality of printing only “comic books”???? You can still have brainwashed cubicle gimps that OK with calling themselves “consumers”, and still have better more creative forms of super heroes in *sequential* -or can we??? What? Is that going to cause people to start thinking they are human beings/Americans/members of a community, and stop living as consumers when not at work, as they also ignore they are economic units that comprise a ‘person’ while at work??? Why do we only get these twisted icons that are culminations of christian/conservative-extremist crap (Comics Code Authority) and the speculator’s bubble, and bankrupt management, and compliance to multinational corporate buy-outs (Time/Warner and now Disney)???? Maybe create a different “universe” that is all about *sequential* super heroes, and not “comic book” super heroe -P L E A S E??? Maybe some of these “consumers” will get off their corporate slave a$$es and just do it themselves, instead of waiting for something that puts profit over quality (a multinational corporation) to progress *sequential*…

Is it just me? I seem to be missing an “S.”

Is this new series “Inhuman” or “Inhumans” because well, the team composition is making more sense if it’s the first one.

Silly but True

We need one Marvel universe that prints books as “comic books”, for consumers – these can have their typical “First Issue!” lame designs with books created as a “market share” to promote the mass consumption of plastic in the form of merchandise, as well as promoting data mining in tracking what one does after logging in with an online account to read comics. This brand of Marvel stories are the typical predictable crap written w/out any innovation or creative substance -instead of as *sequential*.

Then create a second Marvel universe that can be books published as actual *sequential* stories containing super heroes created by actual artists and writers who prefer to progress and have fun with the *sequential* form of art -more like NuMarvel, instead of the consumer driven predictable unimaginative “comic books” that have people turn their heads away from super heroes as something lame. This *sequential* form of super hero stories can be in a printed magazine format or other sized formats that can be used to break the boundaries of what Americans consider should be “comics books” and create and awareness for *sequential* stories. Unfortunately Americans are such consumer slaves they will not be able to accept something unless they see some movies star or celebrity use it first, something on TV or the Internet to let them know that it is OK to use; to go drive to… -will never happen… who am I kidding… Big Red box “First Issue!!!” that is best Marvel can do after FIFTY ***50*** YEARS… “If it is not broken, then dont fix it”, right? But then how can you not call spending decades in traffic, fast food, strip malls, homes made to be flipped instead of lived in, more traffic, no rights in the workplace, rising price of gas while the purchasing power of the dollar diminishes ever year from now on, as products are made to break down fast and take our money (instead of made to work and last) and labor is out-sourced while no one that calls themselves an ‘American’ knows what all the amendments are, or how a bill gets passed, or what gerrymandering is, or which congressional district they belong to, or what the suffrage movement really was -how can you call all of that which makes up every moment of every American’s day “not broken”??? Designing sequential as the consumer “comic books” is a pretty stupid thing to do considering we now live in an environment where getting by in life is not enabled, getting by in life is not something everyone can do anymore -our disillusioned consumer lifestyle is a joke, so why still published “comic books” when consumers are a dying breed??? Why not write super hero stories not for consumers, but instead for *human beings*, for *Americans*, for *members of families* ????

Can I borrow someone’s Cliff Notes for the comments section?

Aaron Browne – are you all right?

Matthew Jeske – are you all right?

I do not know what is happening in these comments o______O

Anyway. As someone who used Marvel Now to try out a bunch of new comics that I’m now in love with, I’ll definitely be giving these a try! I’ve been a bit wary of trying Avengers as there are just so many titles to choose from (similar with X-Men but I’ve found a couple I like) so these looks ace.

Ok. (I’m slow…) I just put it all together that Avengers is being given a great big new #1, but just in case you are tired of those it’s also being given a little tiny #24.NOW. So in Marvel Now land (which is a year old and apparently NOW boring) it’s still issue #24, but in All New Marvel Now land (which is shiny and awesome!) it’s being given a new #1! Wow, my head is spinning…

I’m with Mathew. What’s up with Aaron Brown??

@Eric K – What’s up with you?? Nice job being the typical ‘American’ and going strait for the negative attack -you gotta cut people down, not like you know of any other way to be… ‘Way to go, consumer. What a bummer.

That’s… a LOT of stuff from some top-quality creators!

Well-done, Image!

Nicely done, Image. Many of these look appealing.

Holy cow. Exciting stuff here!

Wow…!

Yeah, a few of those sound appealing. The one definate so far?

“Lazarus – Greg Rucka and Michael Lark

Gritty sci-fi thriller set in a dystopian future”

:)

At this point, unless something extraordinary happens tomorrow, Image just “won” SDCC with one panel.

@DC Comics and Didio look at that, this is what “New” means. Not new like “new” Coke but new. Do you see how that works now?

[...] Image Comics announced a slew of new comics. [...]

I have to agree with RAGGEDT. DC has done a poor job on this ndcu. They already had 2 major Wildstorm characters that are gay and Midnighter and Apollo seem to have taken a back seat in all this so called diversity is claiming to have.
DC introducing Alan Scott does nothing more than to alienate the old loyal fans and cheapen the introduction of a NEW Original Character. This is something that has been lacking in this reboot. We have seen sales as everyone knew would be high to now falling back to the original DCU sales. How long will you go to the well and keep going for the quick money spike and your are left with sales falling even further back.
The so called push for diversity in the ndcu is missing the mark. DC claims it wants it yet your minority titles are the first to go. Again DC plays it up big but fails to deliver. It was the same problem in the old DCU. Major heroes given lackluster stories that bored the fans and art work just thrown in.
Sales will be here to show May’s market will it be a 7% drop or 5 % drop in sales for DC. Will the speculators run out to buy the Watchmen titles and the new gay hero? Will they stay or drift off when they do not have a book that will not make them rich?
Will we see the start of the return to the old DCU if sales keep falling ?

@RJT — There’s a world of difference between an adequate product description and avoiding spoilers. It was and is amazingly obtuse and more than a little misleading.

@arrowshaft You clearly do not read Newsarma. Every retailer agrees that sales are WAY UP and DC revitalized the entire industry.

that was a not every retailer, and you can’t claim doubling 2 to 4 in some cases as a win. Look at the overall sales DC numbers have dropped every month and still has not come to a resting place. Look at the long view and not the speculator’s view.

@arrowshaft I was being sarcastic….

o I sorry

I was trying to say Newsarma is hyped garbage. As are these hyped stunts to sell comics kind of transparent and desperate.

>Will we see the start of the return to the old DCU if sales keep falling ?

Nope. Sales were dropping on the old DCU too. Bringing back the old DCU would just tie their writers’ hands with a lot of baggage, and make their books less enticing to new readers.

Look, it’s still Alan Scott, just like Superman was still Superman, regardless of whether he was written by Jerry Siegel, Elliot S. Maggin, John Byrne, Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison.

The problem with gay superheroes is that it’s much more of a challenge to be fabulous. The straight superheroes are already dressed in colorful outlandish costumes. Standing out would be a bitch.

@goodman There are 52 worlds never say never. Remember things have to get f’d enough to need a crisis. A dare I say New Crisis…… I think we all know were the road leads.

RaggedT,
You have a point on the “no internet in 198o’s” idea…good or bad it kept things secret and more of a mystery. If you read about something it was usually at the exact time it was happening or a few weeks later.

There were a couple of comic mags back then…I forget their names…Comics Monthly maybe? That doesn’t sound right but I had a few of them and thats where I got my “in the know” kind of info…nothing like a breaking story on Watchme # 1 two weeks after issue # 3 hit the direct market…lol.

I guess my biggest problem with all of this is it seems so forced. It feels like DC had no plans on creating a gay character (rebooting an established character or creating a brand new one) and then they sat down one day and said…”hey…Marvel has a half black half hispanic Spiderman now…what can we do now to appear as socially diverse???” Someone in the back of the room raised a hand and said…”we can make a character who has never been a homosexual a homosexual”…

Dramatic pause in the room….then…

YESSSSSS!!! Brilliant…that should keep our name in the press and make us look like we actually care about diversity. Run with it…

It takes no creativity to do what DC has done…If you want to make your newly rebooted DCU Earth 2 Alan Scott gay…fine…but don’t tell everyone you are doing it…let it happen…let the fans react to the book and the storytelling…not the announcement.
Take your time…let the story unfold.

Wouldn’t it have been much cooler to pick up the book and see Alan Scott kiss his boyfriend without knowing it was going to happen? Reaction could go from shock…to awwwww, how sweet…to NO WAY..or whatever.

We’ve been robbed of that part of the story.

And the reason we’ve been robbed is because DC (and Marvel) care more about appearing diverse than being diverse. That’s what all of this is about.

I have but one word that proves my point on this and I’ve gone back to it time and time again….

Oracle.

Where was your diversity when that choic was made DC??

>DC numbers have dropped every month and still has not come to a resting place. Look at the long view and not the speculator’s view

The long view is that comic sales have been trending down for over 60 years. Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency. Television. Computer games. Rising prices. Exile from the newsstand. The Internet. A reboot can only do so much, but it creates a foundation for new readers and new stories.

>I guess my biggest problem with all of this is it seems so forced. It feels like DC had no plans on creating a gay character (rebooting an established character or creating a brand new one) and then they sat down one day and said…”hey…Marvel has a half black half hispanic Spiderman now…what can we do now to appear as socially diverse???” Someone in the back of the room raised a hand and said…”we can make a character who has never been a homosexual a homosexual”…

Or maybe that’s all in your head. Maybe it “seems so forced” because you’re not a writer looking for a way to take characters that peaked 60 years ago, and make them relevant today, leading lives and struggling with issues that people struggle with today. Maybe Robinson’s version of what happened is exactly what happened: “I really believe in this idea of relaunching the Justice Society and making them younger. But I thought it was a shame that we lost Jade and Obsidian, who are Alan Scott’s children. Obsidian has been in the comics for years and was a positive gay character. And then, in the way that one idea can spring forward to the next, I thought, well, let’s make Alan Scott gay.”

Maybe diversity really matters to Robinson. Maybe diversity matters to a lot of writers and other creative people, for reasons you may not understand.

And maybe DC uses marketing like every other company uses marketing- to tell people that they have a product that might interest them, because otherwise people won’t know and may not buy it. How awful and cynical of them.

Todd,
Having read the first issue, how would you have promoted Earth 2?

“What if Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (and their sidekicks) were the only superheroes to pop up, and what happens when there’s something bigger than they can handle?” is the the first issue. It would be more accurate to describe it as the next generation rising from the ashes of the old. All that hype was about the trinity killing people.