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Shotgun Reviews presents:
The
Sorry, Sad State of Marvel
by:
Troy Brownfield
Frankly,
we've all known that Marvel's sucked for a while. The beginning
of the big slide was when Marvel farmed out Fantastic Four,
Iron Man, Captain America and Avengers after Onslaught. That
experiment was an abysmal failure, and it's tainted most of
the big M's work since. Granted, there have been flashes of
brilliance, and with the arrival of Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis,
and Grant Morrison, there's some hope, but I think that the
real match is lost.
Listen
here: I used to be a BIG Marvel fan. I mean BIG. But they've
driven me away, and I'm here to tell you why. Step by step,
I'm going to tell you what works and what doesn't. It doesn't
help to just announce that something sucks; you've got to
back it up with the WHY.
Marvel
Knights: By and large, a lot of the Marvel Knights stuff
is good. Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil was great, and David
Mack's is good. The Devin Grayson/J.G. Jones Black Widow was
fine. Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee did wonders with The Inhumans.
And the Ennis/Dillon Punisher looks kick ass.
However,
that's two mini-series that are gone, and the Ennis/Dillon
deal is apparently only supposed to be twelve issues. That
leaves Daredevil alone to support a subsection next year.
True, Morrison's Marvel Boy may be great, but one series can't
keep a whole thing afloat.
I really
liked Black Panther when it started, but I just lost interest.
Chuck Dixon's team book may be okay when it arrives, and that's
fine. But consider: NONE of these are considered Marvel's
flagships characters, and yet this is where most of my praise
will end.
Spider-Man:
They've ruined him. Too many books. Too many re-hashed ideas.
Letting Byrne stay when he's screwing with the fundamentals.
Spider-Man should be a happy-go-lucky guy, cracking awful
jokes as he takes on insane villains. Look at what they did:
he's a clone, he's not a clone, Aunt May's dead, she's alive,
the baby's born, the baby's gone, Mary Jane's dead, there's
four books, there's two; there's two books with the same creative
team. Huh? Simply, they're making it worse. The line should
be, at this point, winnowed to ONE title with ONE team. John
Romita Jr. is a FINE artist. It's the writing that's killing
the character. He needs saved.
Hulk:
Has almost ceased to be relevant. Maybe Paul Jenkins can fix
him, but was the Hulk another "Byrne victim"? We shall see.
Captain
America: The firm screwing Marvel gave Mark Waid over
daring to make this title "about something" has killed it
for me. It will take a miracle for me to ever read it again.
Way to keep the stories stupid, guys.
Thor:
Just. Got. Boring. Fast. There's not enough epic in this book.
Fantastic
Four: The first few issues with Lobdell were great when
the new run began, but Claremont quickly diluted it with pet
Excalibur characters and dangling subplots. Who cares now?
Iron
Man: Busiek's inital stuff on the new run was good, but
it became a pathetic joke with the constant "Warbird's drunk
again" and constant delaying of confrontations. That's not
to mention the '80s dialogue that Roger Stern saddled the
book with.
Thunderbolts:
Probably Marvel's brightest spot. Consistently inventive.
Solid art from Mark Bagley. Always surprising. It's a wonder
they haven't killed this yet.
Avengers:
George Perez's art continues to be stellar, but man, that
Exemplars story was a let-down. Am proceeding with caution.
Spider-Girl:
Why?
Deadpool:
Fun. But that's all.
The
X-books: I read Warren Ellis's latest newsletter, and
he printed a pretty funny (and simultaneously sad) cross-section
of the hate mail he's been getting BEFORE even taking over
Generation X, X-Force and X-Man. Listen, you ingrates: this
man is trying to SAVE the characters you like. I was AMAZED
that some of the readers seemed to be angry that Ellis actually
tries to bring meaning to his stories. Some even called him
out for being British! That's the lesson of tolerance you
get from the X-books?
My only
regret is that he isn't taking over the main two books. By
killing off Cyclops, the two main books have lost all credibility
to me. And Claremont making Gambit and Rogue the leaders?
Insanity. There's no thought here. No depth. I loved Claremont's
stuff growing up, but this just all sounds terrible. It really
is all about the sales.
To sum
up, I'd like to see Ellis's approach succeed, but I'm sure
they'll toss his work as soon as his contract is up. Marvel
has no regard for the long term. They're all about the NOW,
and that's killing them. DC went out of their way to build
up long-term plots, lasting changes, and subuniverses (Vertigo,
buying Wildstorm, publishing America's Best), and they're
greatly enriching the comics field through good reading. What's
Marvel bringing? Lately it's subpar books, crappy animation
and (what looks to be) another dreadful movie.
Marvel
needs to hunker down and THINK, God damn it. They need a master
plan and a dedication to evolution that isn't arbitrary. Let
them die, a lot of people say. I think they need saved, because
Marvel's health is intrinsic to the industry. It's up to the
fans to EXPECT more and ASK for it, and it's up to Marvel
to follow the mode set by DC and put the characters first,
and not the guys screaming for the bottom line.
Troy
Brownfield is Editor-In-Chief of Shotgun Reviews. He's pretty
sure this will piss some people off. Hate mail can be forwarded
to psikotyk@aol.com.
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