Episode 1218 Talkback: Spotlight on Marvel Comics in the 2000's Part One
Pants
Posts: 567
Our look at Marvel Comics through the ages nears its conclusion. The launch of the Ultimate line, Bendis on Daredevil, Alias and the Sentry are some of the topics discussed in this episode as we go through the years 2000-2001. (1:45:10)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
Matthew
I'm a latecomer to comics, getting into the hobby around '04, so this episode covers some of the very first back issues I ever tried, things like the early issues of Ult. Spidey and Ult. X-Men, stuff recent enough (at the time) to my current books as to not be too different from what I was reading. I'm very much looking forward to the next parts, and I hope you don't gloss over the post-'05 stuff too much. I think it's perfectly fine that these are long and multi-episodic. Give the decade the discussion time it deserves!
Bill Jemas was a jerky Marvel CEO, but in fairness he DID co-create the basis of The Ultimate Universe, and specifically a lot of the foundation for Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis is the first to say so whenever Brian talks about how he got the job. Those Ultimate books were smash sales0 hits, and helped bring the company out of it's downward spiral.
Yes Jemas jerked Waid and Wieringo around on FF, Peter David on Capt Marvel, and was dickish to DC, fans at cons, and retailers, but he did play an important creative role in Marvel's post 90's rebound, and deserves credit as much as he deserves boos or jeers.
On Bendis's DD run... Murd, Brian missed 2 arcs out of 5 years, the Bob Gale story, (20-25) and the David Mack ECHO/WOLVERINE?KINGPIN arc. (issues 51-55). 2 stories out of 5 years is not "missing several arcs".
Sorry, but like it or not, the newbies who listen to you DO think they're getting a history lesson, so it's important that you guys get the facts straight.
Pants, good seeing you at C2E2 ;)
@rebis
take his snark with a grain of salt he records about 500 hrs of podcasts with Bendis a year. That's his snuggle bunny ;)
I'm just saying recognize that you are covering historical facts & should make every effort to get those facts riight.
Murd prides himself (quite fairly) on his Crisis ThesIs but if he had left out a creators contribution or said it was a great 6 issue series he would be wrong
if you leave out information or characterizing a fact incorrectly those notions should be corrected.
And in general, I disagreed with the geeks quite a bit in this episode, which is unusual for me. For one thing, I was the exact opposite of what they said for the Sentry. I read and enjoyed the series quite a bit and I didn't fall for the marketing (they said that the people who didn't fall for it didn't like it). I loved Morrison's twist at the end of his X-Men run, but disliked the retcon (although, in general, I thought that Morrison's run was a great story, but not necessarily a great X-Men story. In other words, it was a really well-told tale, it just didn't feel like the X-Men to me). I liked X-Treme X-Men (even if it had a horrible name) quite a bit and I don't consider it a "guilty" pleasure at all. I consider it just a good old-fashioned X-Men book (with a horrible title).
I could have sworn there was one other thing, but I can't think of it. This isn't it, but you were talking about whether it was in character for Dr Doom to be grieving the World Trade Center. That one wasn't my problem as much as the Juggernaut being upset over the destruction of a building that he himself tried to destroy just a decade prior.
Is it creepy that I my mind read the post with his voice?
To my mind, the thing that Quesada and Jemas did when they came in was return Marvel to being STORY BASED stuff. Many writers have talked in the past about how artists wouldn't draw the stories they plotted or how the editor would either tell them what story they were writing (or change the dialogue in order to change the story itself). You may call that a return to grim and gritty, but I see it as a return to having the writers write...and that's what brought people back to the books. It was also the deathknell of the "Marvel Method" as more and more writers used full-scripting where now (from what I hear in interviews) ALL of Marvel's books are done via full scripts.
Also, I REALLY disagree with the assertion that PAD's Captain Marvel dynamic between Rick Jones and Genis was based on Firestorm...it was a RETURN to the dynamic that Rick Jones and Mar-Vell had during the original series, which was itself a Marvelized version of the relationship between Billy Batson and Captain Marvel. To say it was based on Firestorm made me get all nerdy on you.
I'll have more notes as I keep listening...
Restarted the Marvel Masterworks initiative by making sure they stayed in print.