Now
this is pretty ridiculous. It couldn't be that Cassaday and Ryan were picked because they're phenomenal artists well-suited to the stories they were assigned to, oh no, it must be because Whedon
doesn't care about his work at Marvel
. And yeah, you're right, it
is unfortunate that Whedon -- who, lest we forget, was a newcomer to the medium by reasonable standards at the time he started these stories -- happened to pick a bunch of slowpokes to work on his
whopping two gigs at Marvel, but then you had to snark that this must be due to his massive Hollywood Ego(??) getting in the way of functioning in...what, the
real world?
Wow.
You've somehow managed to twist "writer picked late artists" into "writer is spoiled ignoramus who doesn't care about his work." I will admit, that is pretty impressive.
I remember thinking to myself when I read your post agreeing with me about the Bendis/SECRET INVASION situation, "Man, this sure isn't going to last long once I complain about RUNAWAYS."
No artist is so phenomenal that they are worth the kinds of ridiculous delays that accompany both of Whedon's Marvel work. People mocked how long it took Alex Ross & Co. to finish JUSTICE, but in their defense, they said right from the start it would be bimonthly, and anyone who didn't like it taking 2 years to get 12 issues was making a choice.
RUNAWAYS, much like ASTONISHING X-MEN before it, was a monthly. But quickly both fell off the schedule and it took ridiculously long to get two stories finished that, in the end, were generic.
I actually see RUNAWAYS as an improvement over AXM, in that the pace was tighter and it had more fun with the subject matter, while AXM was often more serious (when it wasn't mixed in with slapstick, which works well on TV and not so well with X-Men). But the lateness wasn't an excuse.
To me, Whedon is simply another Hollywood writer who comes into comics, takes a million years to produce a mediocre story with good parts to it, and really doesn't give a flying **** about things like a schedule. More people read the comics monthly than EVER will read it in trade, and things like timely issues matter. RUNAWAYS especially had a storyline complicated with about every character idea Whedon ever had, and gaps of 3-4 months between issues really sapped my will to give a damn.
The part that REALLY gets my goat? Whedon, and Heinberg, and Kevin Smith, and whatever dip**** did ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS. HULK, and other Hollywood braggarts, know damn well the importance of schedule. Scripts for movies and especially TV shows have to be ON TIME. No excuses. An episode has to be completed ON SCHEDULE. Every piece of the chain, from writers, actors, editors, lighting specialists, etc. have to be working, and it one cog can't cut the mustard, they are sacked. And these same guys who can get serious and handle that kind of work for Hollywood usually don't give one hundredth of a percent of a **** when it comes to a monthly comic gig. They just like comics, and want to dip a toe in. And Marvel (as well as DC) are always happy to oblige, like that dork who gets shoved into a locker by the "cool kids" who all but walks into every set-up line.
Whedon isn't the worst offender; unlike Kevin Smith, he actually finished all his commissioned stories. I just find it funny that in no way are his BUFFY comics nearly as delayed. Why? Because he knows to put in fill-in talent when things get slow. But heaven forbid that happen for AXM or RUNAWAYS. I mean, especially RUNAWAYS. He was a "fanboy" of that. What fanboy wants to wait 4 months between issues!? NONE. So what did he do to replicate that matter? Nothing. Whoops, just the artist.
It may come as an incredible shock to Whedon's #1 Patsy Cheerleader on SHH, but there are artists besides Ryan who could have drawn that 6 issue run. They even could have finished it in a faster pace than, say, 14 months for 6 issues. Whedon picked none of them. Once the delays got ridiculous midway through, he could have tried getting another. He didn't. Nope, like a lot of writers, he simply believed his fun-yet-generic storyline was THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and worthy of any length of delay.
No, maybe it isn't completely fair that I rag on Whedon for simply being part of a dysfunctional pattern. But RUNAWAYS #30 came up, and that's just how I felt like venting. I actually liked the run more than some others; plenty of fans found it abysmal in the old RUNAWAYS topic. I at least would give it a B- grade. I mean, that was good enough of a grade to get me out of ITALIAN 202 in college.
