So Excalibur is gone for good? Don't think there's much chance of it being relaunched a la She-Hulk or Runaways?
SHE-HULK and RUNAWAYS were cancelled with clear statements that they were going to be imminently relaunched in an attempt to capitalise on the good reviews. NEW EXCALIBUR just gets a text page saying "This is the last issue" and listing all the creators who worked on the book. It wasn't a commercial or a critical success, and there's no concept worth relaunching. I suspect they're going to replace it with an MI-13 series, and that some of the cast will be folded into NEW EXILES.
Man... Chris Claremont... I know its easy to kick a man when he's down... but has he really written anything worth reading in the last ten years or so? New Excaliber was only slightly less insipid than the relaunch of its predecessor, excalibur a few years ago.
Claremont is certainly the father of most modern X-men concepts, and no one can ever take that away from him, but boy... there's something to be said for going out on top right? Knowing when to retire. I mean you can think of athletes as having passed their prime after a good run, but maybe good writers need to either take a long break (which he did) or realize that they've made their mark and that they have no more stories to tell. The salad days are over.
Gently--the problem with that is then watching the stuff you contributed to show up in movie theaters while you work an entry-level job in a cube. As long as people will hire him to write something, I can't imagine someone like Claremont walking away quietly. I don't think I could either, in his position.
Paul, the British creators/US publishers/British readers isn't a bad thing. We're just outsourcing the publication to a foreign country desperate for trade to prop up a failing currency.
"but has he [Chris Claremont] really written anything worth reading in the last ten years or so? "
I'm reading his 16-issue "Gen13" relaunch right now, published circa 2002-2003. So far I'm really enjoying it. I'm not sure how it will all turn out ... it may not end as well as it began. (See Paul's comments about how the last "New Excalibur" began with a possibly interesting "hawk/dove" theme but then didn't capitalize.) But purely in terms of structure, each issue so far has been really solid. Probably this is in part thanks to Bob Harras, the editor on the comic. Harras was good at reining in some of Claremont's storytelling excesses back in the late '80s, and apparently he never lost the touch.
Personally I'd love to see more of Claremont doing stuff like his "Gen13" arc, stuff that DOESN'T take place in the Marvel Universe. He's too invested in that world, it seems, and the baggage weighs him down.
Claremont *has* written some decent material in the last few years, although it'd be fair to say that he hasn't been doing so consistently. As I said, I thought the Nocturne two-parter in NEW EXCALIBUR was fine, and the origin of Albion showed a lot of promise. I thought there were some good ideas in X-TREME X-MEN as well, although they generally weren't followed through properly.
Then maybe all he really needs is a good editor. Someone who won't be awed by his reputation and someone other than the never say 'no' crowd at Marvel. Basically, someone who won't let him right any more #%@$ing mind control stories.
I'm so glad I read your capsule review of Ultimate X-men this week Paul. It crystalized my feelings perfectly. I've thought something was wrong with this whole arc, but I could never quite put my finger on it. The story was decent enough, good dialogue. And I was legitametly surprised at some of the twists. Strife didn't really work for me, but other than that...what was it? The characters. They're completely sidelined in favor of telling the story. There really are almost no character moments, and you could replace almost all of them with mutants with similar powers and the story wouldn't change a bit.
Anyway, I'm glad you were able to articulate what I just couldn't put my finger on.
Claremont not only needs a good editor, he needs the editor to stick around. Or go ahead with the ideas that were originally pitched/greenlighted in the first place, instead of yanking them out of the book altogether or changing their minds mid-stream.
And you can laugh all you want about the dollar, but the only countries it hurts are those whose currency are doing well against it. It's European and Canadian businesses that are screaming bloody murder over it, not American ones.
Heh, I'm an idiot - until I read you're review of Suburban Glamour I totally thought it was meant to be set in small town America (as you can imagine I was slightly confused as to why words such as pillock and innit were showing up.) I think it was the girl from New York that made me really think it was set in America, I mean I know we live in a global society it just never occurred to me that you'd go half way around the world just to get away from the big city, of course she's clearly not all she seems so like I said I'm an idiot.
"The characters. They're completely sidelined in favor of telling the story. There really are almost no character moments, and you could replace almost all of them with mutants with similar powers and the story wouldn't change a bit."
Now, I do agree with this statement, although in my opinion this arc has been a vast improvement over his earlier ones. I just find it so odd as Kirkman is well known for his strong characters in books like The Walking Dead, I just can't quite reconcile the two book's with the same author.
SUBURBAN GLAMOUR is pretty obviously England if you know the country, if only because the high street is full of genuine British shops like Caffe Nero. But I can see how that might not be immediately obvious to some Americans.
Plus if you're actually looking there's the union flag flying in one panel above the tourist information building, and Lanbern High is apparently in Worcestershire county, and if you're really paying attention in one panel you could tell by the shape of the power outlets, hey, so I went a little crazy trying to find the Britishness.
"Claremont not only needs a good editor, he needs the editor to stick around. Or go ahead with the ideas that were originally pitched/greenlighted in the first place, instead of yanking them out of the book altogether or changing their minds mid-stream."
Amen. I finished up his Gen-13 run last night. Once again, all the great ideas that he started with in the first four or five issues went nowhere, and the run ended with a completely confusing and meaningless bunch of events from out of left field. Why, Chris, why???
Any thoughts on the news that "One More Day" has been delayed by a month?
Marvel has no word on the scheduling of the 3 times a month Amazing Spider-Man issues. I think that these delays are going to kill the start of something fresh and new for Spider-Man.
I'll be talking about this in the September sales column when it goes up at the Beat.
I don't know if "fresh and new" is the right way to describe it, really.
Yeah Ultimate X-men, it's finally starting to make sense what's wrong with it.
Even when Kirkman tried to do character bits with Jean, we ended up with cheesecake. Beast's return is underwhelming. The Bishop/Psylocke plot is ok. Scot's closing of the schools doesn't feel ... weighty.
Any thoughts on the news that "One More Day" has been delayed by a month?
Wait, what do you mean by a month?
*checks Newsarama*
Holy CRAP! This thing won't wrap up until the end of the year?!?
I'm not one to normally complain about delays (mainly because I rarely keep track of when things are supposed to be out), but this is mind-boggling.
I know Quesada is a busy man, but had a looooong lead time on this. I'm to lazy to check when this thing was first hyped, but it was towards the beginning of the year. I just don't know what's going on.
Part of me thinks that this is due to the relaunch. Perhaps the first "Brand New Day" issues needed to be pushed back, and they didn't want there to be a large gap between the two projects.
No, the "Brand New Day" creative team are supposedly several arcs in. It's almost certainly Quesada. He has a long track record of missing his deadlines by months.
Now that you mention it, I do recall that that very first Daredevil arc (the one with Kevin Smith) was supremely late. So late that the Spider-office retconned the ending before it even came out.
(Ah, the controversy. Good times...)
I guess, in a way, that first arc led directly to where Marvel is now.
"I'll be talking about this in the September sales column when it goes up at the Beat."
Could you put up a link to your columns as i don't normally read that site
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.c...september-2007/
"Now that you mention it, I do recall that that very first Daredevil arc (the one with Kevin Smith) was supremely late."
That was Kevin Smith's fault has recalled by Joe Q in the Daredevil movie DVD.
Althought, Joe Q doesn't have a great track record (Daredevil:Father anyone?) Now how could an editor put pressure on an artist or writer when the boss doesn't follow the rule ?
Yes, it's worth noting that these massive errors are a huge blow to Quesada's credibility as an editor - how can he complain about those who work for him being unprofessional when he doesn't ever show the least sign of it himself?
Agreed. You'd think that SOMEONE at Marvel would be putting a bit more pressure on Quesada to either meet deadlines, stop taking on so many pencilling assignments, or step down as EiC. Surely at least some of their stockholders have some long-term thinking
Well, the rumour is that he is stepping down... in favour of Jeph Loeb.
That's me done with Marvel then.
Good God, I think my inner child was just crushed by a brick. Jeph Loeb? Wouldn't it be less drastic to just shut down the company?
In fairness, in the event that One More Day actually makes the new shipping dates, the series will have shipped more or less monthly, which is tolerable to me. In a world featuring such horrific offenders as Hitch's Ultimates, Mighty Avengers, All-Star Batman and Heinberg's Wonder Woman, a series coming out monthly isn't something I'm going to devote special attention to. They just really shouldn't have advertised it as coming out more frequently than once a month. Surely they must have known they wouldn't make that schedule since the delays had started by the second issue.
The fact is, though, that Quesada probably shouldn't draw big 'event' comics which actually have a reason to come out on time, i.e. delaying a major new launch if they do not. At least on Daredevil: Father the only things hurt by the lateness were story momentum and probably a few sales.
"That was Kevin Smith's fault has recalled by Joe Q in the Daredevil movie DVD."
Then why was David Mack's run so late? It also had art by Quesada, and Mack theoretically had even more time to work on his scripts thanks to the lateness of the previous arc.
Indeed, didn't Quesada eventually get pulled from Mack's arc so they had some hope of finishing it within two calendar years?
PS:
[NB: All of these are AFTER the first delay - originally, OMD was meant to be in August. This was changed to September...]
http://www.newsarama.com/
NewJoeF...Fridays100.html [25 May 2007]
NRAMA: The clip is pretty high quality looking? How much time goes in production? And just to assure readers, things are still on pace for One More Day pages, right? J
JQ: Yeah, things are on pace for Spider-Man: One More Day.
http://www.newsarama.com/
NewJoeF...eFridays51.html [15 June 2007]
NRAMA: Progress wise - where are you on One More Day? Looking good for finishing it up soon?
JQ: Yup, everything is on target to ship on time so I’m keeping my fingers crossed [winks].
Now, by the September solicits, all thoughts of shipping weekly had been abandoned, with three weeks between pt 1 & 2 (originally solicited dates taken from here (ASM544, FNSM 24; scroll to near the bottom), here (SSM41), and here (ASM545) (since it's Marvel's own website, not sure I 100% I believe that last one, but it's all I can find other than the latest-delay press release)
Amazing Spider-Man #544. First solicited for 5 Sep 2007, released on-time
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24. First solicited for 26 Sep 2007, released 10 Oct 2007 (two weeks late)
Sensational Spider-Man #41. First solicited for 10 Oct 2007, currently due 28 Nov 2007 (one and a half months late)
Amazing Spider-Man #545. First solicited for 28 Nov 2007, currently due 27 Dec 2007 (one month late)
Jeph Loeb? Not going to happen. Not for a very long time, even if then. Loeb is too busy in TV.
Jane: legendary comment!
... bring back Shooter 
Good lord. I did not realize Amazing Spider-Man was that late.
I see you took notes Rich...
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