Neil Gaiman to return to Marvel

Fade2Black

According to CBR Neil Gaiman will collaborate with Brian Michael Bendis on the final issue of Age of Ultron, before co-writing Guardians of the Galaxy no. 5. What's even more surprising is that he plans on introducing the character Angela (from the Spawn series) into the Marvel U. As many of you may recall Neil won the rights to that character in a highly publicized legal battle with Todd McFarlane.

Thoughts?

David_D

It's a strange move. It seems motivated more by spitting in McFarlane's eye than out of any need for Angela in the Marvel Universe. Are there actual Angela fans out there, who have waiting for this? Is someone like, "Angela! AT LAST!!!" I guess she'll use some Heaven Magic to put the world right again at the end of Age of Ultron?

I would be more interested in Gaiman creating something new rather than him coming by with one of his old toys to play.

SolitaireRose

I think it's got to be part of the on-going Marvelman issue where Gaiman is letting Marvel use the character to raise money to sort out the right issues.

Greg

<blockquote class="Quote" rel="David_D">Are there actual Angela fans out there, who have waiting for this? Is someone like, "Angela! AT LAST!!!" </blockquote>

Me. Not much a McFarlane fan, Gaiman and Angela is what got me into Spawn, so I'm cool with this. Heck let her make an appearance in Fearless Defenders too.

mwhitt80

David_D said:

Are there actual Angela fans out there?

Sorry I had to correct your question ;)
You know what's great: Angela is going to show up in Marvel Now before Ghost Rider. My superhero is pathetic.

Mr_Cosmic

I know next to nothing about the character but I'm excited to see Gaiman on GotG. Not exactly something I thought would ever happen.

Fade2Black

Well here's hoping the move will generate all sorts of renewed interest in the character, if for no other reason than I can finally flip that ol' Angela McFarlane figure on eBay (you know, the panty-less variant one).

Hex

Well... this sounds like the worst idea ever. Can't really see Angela boosting GoG sales. Also, I can't be the only one who foresees legal headaches down the road. Here's an idea Marvel, give Guardians back to DnA!

mwhitt80

Fade2Black said:

if for no other reason than I can finally flip that ol' Angela McFarlane figure on eBay (you know, the panty-less variant one).

double take on that post. I'm not interested in actually owning on but I gots to know... Is that real? And what does it say about my thoughts on McFarlane toys that I can 75% believe that is a real toy (my thought is that it's a barbie under carriage either)?

Greg

It was a mis-paint if I remember right. All of the other variants have her undercarriage painted, for one run of variants they didn't paint said area.

Greg

As far as the legal stuff, I thought the courts awarded full ownership of Angela to Neil.

Maybe @JoeSergi has some knowledge on this?

Hex

Greg said:

As far as the legal stuff, I thought the courts awarded full ownership of Angela to Neil.

Exactly why if I was Marvel I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Fade2Black

Greg said:

It was a mis-paint if I remember right. All of the other variants have her undercarriage painted, for one run of variants they didn't paint said area.

Yeah apparently the initial run didn't get painted in the nether-region and was quickly dubbed a rare "no panties" variant. (Sometimes I wonder if these little slip-ups (pun intended) aren't done intentionally).

http://www.amazon.com/PANTIES-McFarlanes-Ultra-Action-Extremely-production/dp/B008RDML54
Don't let this Amazon price fool you, they don't actually sell for that much $$$.

David_D

I think No Panties Variant is my new drag name.

DoctorDoom

Ah, Angela. Last I remember, she was killed in Spawn #100, yes?

Greg

DoctorDoom said:

Ah, Angela. Last I remember, she was killed in Spawn #100, yes?

Yes.

DoctorDoom

Thanks for the confirmation.

mwhitt80

In all honesty this should be interesting. Angela and Medieval Spawn are co-owned by Mcfarlane and Gaiman. Want to see Todd blow a gasket: Spawn and Angela in Marvel Now. Heck Neil could use all the variants of Angela if he wants.

I'm starting to tear up now at the thought of Spawn being in Marvel Now before Ghost Rider. This has gotten beyond pathetic. Anyone have a favorite hero I can borrow?

DoctorDoom

Hell, throw Cogliostro into the mix.

Hex

mwhitt80 said:

I'm starting to tear up now at the thought of Spawn being in Marvel Now before Ghost Rider.

I'm not up to speed on Ghost Rider. Is there a reason he isn't being utilized other than lack of interest? or is there a legal issue that is holding Marvel back? Please give me the back story.

SolitaireRose

Hex said:

mwhitt80 said:

I'm starting to tear up now at the thought of Spawn being in Marvel Now before Ghost Rider.

I'm not up to speed on Ghost Rider. Is there a reason he isn't being utilized other than lack of interest? or is there a legal issue that is holding Marvel back? Please give me the back story.

He's had three series that have failed in the last few years, all of which had some big name talent on the book. Kind of like Moon Knight, there just doesn't seem to be enough interest to keep a book running. Nothing to do with rights.

mwhitt80

<blockquote class="Quote" rel="Hex">
I'm not up to speed on Ghost Rider. Is there a reason he isn't being utilized other than lack of interest? or is there a legal issue that is holding Marvel back? Please give me the back story.
</blockquote>

what SR said.


edited for a little more information:
Out of the 4 series launched since 2001 only 1 has made it past the first 6 months. One series made Johnny Blaze an accountant (6 issues). One was a pretty good Garth Ennis story (6 issues not counting the cool 6 issue western story). The longest running series was incredible (48 issue series counting minis); my favorte Ghost Rider run. This was followed by a terrible relaunch that tried to fix the Ghost Rider problem by making GR a girl and more hardcore. This one lasted 10 issues with double shipping and was bad.
Blame the 90s, bad writing, or GR just being one those really difficult characters (or all 3), but he will be sitting on the sidelines for a while. Which isn't a bad thing after the last series.

LibraryBoy

Anything involving Gaiman and Marvel that isn't the reprinting of Marvelman/Miracleman pretty much doesn't matter to me (unless he were to write, like, The Greatest Doctor Strange Story Ever or something like that). If there are big Angela fans out there and this makes them happy, then great, I'm legitimately pleased for them, we should all have comics we like. But for me, this doesn't seem like as big a deal as they're making it out to be.

Chuck_Melville

It's big enough for me. I'm looking forward to it. I don't even care about Angela; I just enjoy Gaiman's writing.

David_D

How about his co-writing?

Hex

SolitaireRose said:

He's had three series that have failed in the last few years, all of which had some big name talent on the book. Kind of like Moon Knight, there just doesn't seem to be enough interest to keep a book running. Nothing to do with rights.

Well the obvious solution is to relaunch the Champions. Both Herc and Ghost Rider aren't being used right now, and with the Black Widows star power from the Avengers moive... How could it fail!?!

Just keep Angela far far away from it please

Chuck_Melville

David_D said:

How about his co-writing?

The only co-written work of Gaiman's I can recall having read was the Black Orchid mini-series back in the late 80's... and that was pretty good.

David_D

Chuck_Melville said:

David_D said:

How about his co-writing?

The only co-written work of Gaiman's I can recall having read was the Black Orchid mini-series back in the late 80's... and that was pretty good.

I thought that was just Gaiman. Are you talking about the prestige format one with McKean illustrating? Or something else?

The reason I bring up the co-write thing is that I wonder how much writing Gaiman is really doing on this. I don't imagine he and Bendis truly co-scripting five issues into Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy run. Probably Gaiman just wrote the Angelina bits. It feels a somewhat nominal credit. But, that is just a guess, I could be wrong, maybe it is a true collaboration and will have a lot of Gaiman writing in it, enough to interest a Gaiman fan. But it doesn't feel like the sort of thing he likely did a lot of actual writing on, especially when it is not like a standalone work that could be easily packaged and sold under Gaiman's name later the way that something like 1602 was.

LibraryBoy

David_D said:

The reason I bring up the co-write thing is that I wonder how much writing Gaiman is really doing on this. I don't imagine he and Bendis truly co-scripting five issues into Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy run. Probably Gaiman just wrote the Angelina bits. It feels a somewhat nominal credit. But, that is just a guess, I could be wrong, maybe it is a true collaboration and will have a lot of Gaiman writing in it, enough to interest a Gaiman fan. But it doesn't feel like the sort of thing he likely did a lot of actual writing on, especially when it is not like a standalone work that could be easily packaged and sold under Gaiman's name later the way that something like 1602 was.

I think that's what happened with Death's appearance in the Paul Cornell Action Comics run that featured Lex, right? Cornell wrote the issue, but Gaiman wrote Death's dialog, or at least had approval on it? I may be misremembering that, but there was something along those lines going on there, I think.

SolitaireRose

Hex said:

SolitaireRose said:

He's had three series that have failed in the last few years, all of which had some big name talent on the book. Kind of like Moon Knight, there just doesn't seem to be enough interest to keep a book running. Nothing to do with rights.

Well the obvious solution is to relaunch the Champions. Both Herc and Ghost Rider aren't being used right now, and with the Black Widows star power from the Avengers movie... How could it fail!?!

Welllll.....

They don't have the rights to the name any more. They were going to do a new Champions series in the wake of Civil War only to find out they'd lost the name and had to rename the comic "The Order". Sadly, no Hercules, no Black Widow, no...

Great Googly Moogly that was a mess of a team. Did they just grab cards and random and say "Yep, that's our new super-hero team!"

David_D

SolitaireRose said:

Hex said:

SolitaireRose said:

He's had three series that have failed in the last few years, all of which had some big name talent on the book. Kind of like Moon Knight, there just doesn't seem to be enough interest to keep a book running. Nothing to do with rights.

Well the obvious solution is to relaunch the Champions. Both Herc and Ghost Rider aren't being used right now, and with the Black Widows star power from the Avengers movie... How could it fail!?!

Welllll.....

They don't have the rights to the name any more. They were going to do a new Champions series in the wake of Civil War only to find out they'd lost the name and had to rename the comic "The Order". Sadly, no Hercules, no Black Widow, no...

Great Googly Moogly that was a mess of a team. Did they just grab cards and random and say "Yep, that's our new super-hero team!"

Anything goes in the MU California.