It's just so F-ing ridiculous.
Especially since most of these writers want all there books to be taken so seriously...and goof and lighthearted comics fun is such a taboo...then we are shovled plots like OSBORN. (and Civil War, and Secret Invasion)
A total split from any functional , reasonable thinking. Yet blokes like Bendis, JMS and Millar cry and pout if there poinant plots are not lauded as anything but genius.
It's not even like these kind of things wouldnt work with better setup. They are just too Lazy and impatient to do anything but retcon good old stories.
While Bendis and Millar have their flaws as writers, I have noticed that in the editorially mandated and "creator summit" style events, there is a reoccuring problem. There are often checklists of "essential moments" that HAVE to happen in the event stories, and a conclusion that is essential to spring-boarding the next year's worth of stories (essentially, an ending that is more of a prologue than a climax). The pattern, though, is the story that leads up to said moments or climaxes is usually choppy at best, and not as thought out.
The easy example is, of course, CIVIL WAR. The ending was that Capt. America surrenders and Iron Man and the SHRA side end up the victors of the fight and the debate. The problem was that much of the rest of the build-up offered little to lead to that climax emotionally. What did Spider-Man unmasking have to do with it? Or the clone of Thor? Even Bill Foster's death in a way was essentially just to show how "serious" the conflict was (because the deaths of other superheroes like Typeface or Bantam in FRONTLINE didn't matter). It was a choppy story that showed far more editorial rewrites and debates than anyone admitted.
You could argue the same of SECRET INVASION, where the Secret Warriors ended up contributing very little to the story, and Norman Osborn was almost an extended cameo until the end. Many of the subtle themes the story was supposed to have only existed in NEWSARAMA interviews because the actual story had little of it.
Marvel has an idea, and sometimes it may not be too bad, or even lead to some good spring-board tie in's or launches. It has been leading up to said ideas that has been the hurdle that, at least in the last 3 years, they have not overcome.
I agree. There could easily be some bad people in the government, but 1) they're usually not as heavy-handed as Osborn has been and 2) they weren't around during this zeitgeist of public goodwill toward the government that Obama has inspired. Look at the Avengers arc "Red Zone." The Red f***ing Skull wormed his way into the US government, but it was plausible because he used an alias, so no one actually knew he was the Red Skull, and then he was subtle about corrupting the government from within, not appointing well known criminals to head major law enforcement units.
Indeed. Like my above response, Marvel had an idea; everyone has been going on about how corrupt Iron Man is, even when his motives in the end are somewhat noble. So let's install a genuine villain into the central leadership position and give the heroes, who have been split for years since CW, at least one reason to mobilize again, besides to stop an immediate crisis, like Hulk destroying Manhattan with, essentially, an alien street gang.
The problem was the lead-up. Marvel probably wished they had thought of something like the Luthor Presidency during the Bush era. The problem was that Post-Crisis (1986), Luthor had not been a hands-dirty mad scientist. No crime he did was provable. He was not a raving loony in a suit of armor, and ironically, the moment he was, he was immediately impeached. There was years of lead up to the idea DC had with Luthor. It may not have been intended fully from 1986, but it still worked. Just as Marvel did not INTEND to keep Thor on a shelf for some four years, but it happened, and it worked out well to build demand.
Norman Osborn, while a well known and popular figure like Luthor, especially after the Spider-Man films, did not have that build-up. As recently as CIVIL WAR, he was a nanobot controlled psycho who, at least in the eyes of the media, had just tried to assassinate an Atlantian diplomat with a handgun on live TV (he was being controlled by Iron Man to start a fight with Atlantis for cover, but that wasn't what the media knew). Unlike Luthor, Osborn had been exposed, tried, and convicted for his crimes as the Green Goblin; even Bendis in THE PULSE alongside Mark Bagley aided in this key detail. The Green Goblin had committed no end of robberies, acts of explosive terrorism, attempted murder, and yes, outright murders of college students, hapless police, and even a newspaper reporter. As recently as Millar's MKSM, he was releasing a small army of supervillains onto NYC. The idea of the public at any moment falling for Norman Osborn as a genuine civil servant even in the pages of THUNDERBOLTS after his acts in FRONTLINE were alone spotty. The idea of the media and the rest of Marvel's citizens mindlessly worshiping Osborn now that he shot a Skrull Queen on TV is sheer absurdity, more absurd than many story contrivances in recent memory. I may have complained about some of the Loki amnesty in THOR, but that isn't even 10% as ridiculous as the idea of the entire USA embracing the authority of a tried and convicted serial killer and superhuman terrorist, nor can I believe international authorities like China, France, Germany, Britain, or basically any nation not led by a dictator even returning HAMMER's calls, much less accepting their agents' authority.
Plus, the time for this story socially ended in Jan. 2009. The fact that we are in the midst of it shows out of touch some of Marvel is, which is astonishing since they are based in NYC which is one of the most blue liberal states in the union, besides California. Barack Obama's victory in the election wasn't as easy as some thought, but it was also widely predicted and anticipated since he won the nomination; McCain and his party were the underdogs, not the Democrats, not that year. Even when Hillary was the favorite, the 2008 election was widely expected to lead Democratic after 8 years of an unpopular Bush administration that even many Republicans wanted to flee from. The inability to make a logical conclusion and anticipation from that data by Marvel is almost staggering for people who are far older and more experienced than I am with social trends. Norman Osborn may as well have a T-Shirt that says, "I AM BUSH/CHENEY", and while there was a time for those stories, and while Marvel has done a lot of them, that time is now over. It's akin to AMERICAN DAD being virtually pointless without conservatives in government power and command. Seth McFarlane would never dare tear into Liberals as savagely as he has Conservatives (one episode of FAMILY GUY literally compared McCain/Palin's campaign to Nazi's, which is absurdity even for most Democrats), and making fun of the #2 political party is usually seen as kicking a man when one is down by the audience, at least those outside the choir. Politics work in cycles and it was inevitable that the Democrats would regain power, especially after the 2006 elections. A shame that Marvel's "tapping the pulse" ability was about a year out of date.
In interviews, Bendis has tried to claim that the Skrull invasion helped this, but I haven't seen how Osborn or anyone has tried to use it to explain away his criminal past. Did ONE MORE DAY/BRAND NEW DAY erase some of that knowledge? Who knows. And that is the problem. An explanation of, "we'll get to it, promise, sort of" isn't good enough, not with a plot point as vital as this. Even fictional universes usually need some sort of logical accessability or conclusions to make them work; that was what helped make WATCHMEN so popular. Even super powered or costumed people act like people in certain situations. The Osborn affair's build up is almost worse than a satire, and it is expected to be taken seriously. As good as this may be for launched titles like AGENTS OF ATLAS or side titles like AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, the inability to take the premise seriously is a major, major problem.
Joe Quesada in a NEWSARAMA interview claimed he never focuses on failures for long (while he admitted to having some, although he never named specifics) because Marvel publishes a lot of material and can't slow down too long to mope, in so many words. While this is understandable, being in a rush to do something without focusing on getting it right only works so far, and leads to mistakes being repeated.
