Well I like Mcduffie, but his stuff in FF toward the end was horrible. The Roster shake up seemed botched and token.
The stories had a rushed and jumbled feel. And the Gravity story was one of the worst arcs IMO in the past 2 years in any comic.
Understanding that the Gravity as Captain Marvel "thing" never got off the ground, it didnt have to be so rushed and sloppy. This is Marvel comics, and FF has been a cornerstone of why they are tops. FF deserves better.
I'm not sure why a talent like Mcduffie delivered such a mess. Maybe he was peeved becuase of the Captain Marvel "thing" with gravity was taken away by the powers that be, maybe he just had his eye on the door. But i really can't find much commendation in his attempt to "spice" things up when it seemed so half ass.
At any rate i stopped buying FF after that. Partly becuase I dislike Millar with a passion and am too narrow minded to even give him a chance, and partly becuase i was dissapointed with that Gravity and T'challa deal.
To be fair, Gravity was not entirely his fault. He had the go-ahead from the editors to get the ball rolling on Gravity as the new Capt. Marvel in BEYOND!. The editors then switched gears, presumably because they knew they would get more buzz by hinting to revive THE Mar-Vell, and they knew it would amp up SI in the end. So, this left McDuffie with two options. He could have left Gravity dead in BEYOND! and went, "Hey, not my problem" like many writers would have, and passed the buck to whoever wanted to use Greg next. Instead, he used the next ongoing he was immediately on to address the issue and basically get Gravity back to about the status quo he was before BEYOND!. He took responsibility and I respected that. Plus, it got Gravity some cosmic experience (which is a plus for a new hero) and about the only thing that irked me is McDuffie never had Gravity at least CALL his poor girlfriend in NY to let her know he was alive. She knew he was a hero and went to his funeral (which McDuffie wrote in BEYOND! #6). That to me seemed OOC.
To me, McDuffie's run on FF was like the Gerald Ford presidency after Nixon and before Carter; a "middle of the road" run to get things to some state of normalcy. FF had been mired in CW with their characterizations divided. Reed was a Nazi witch-doctor who Sue no longer respected. Thing abstained in France. Johnny was his usual ****** self. They needed some run that allowed things to go back to basics. McDuffie was that run. Yeah, T'Challa and Storm was a stunt, but FF has altered their rosters before for longer periods, so I let it slip. The run was at least lighter hearted. I agree it wasn't anything too meaningful; aside for the Gravity stuff, I forgot half of it.
Millar & Hitch are on a better run so far; even with their "U.S. flag draped robot overreacts to threats and seems to 'pre-emptive strike' other nations" schtick doesn't come off as half as cynical as the political stuff in ULTIMATES. But their sales are sagging quickly and that means fixing this franchise may be a near impossible task. Or, Millar & Hitch don't have the pull they used to.
Which is a totally baseless theory, unless you can provide something that proves Finch just drew one or two Skrulls for the hell of it.
Wanda was throwing in all of the Avenger's rogues, from Ultron to the Kree/Skrull War. Just because there were a few Skrulls (alongside Kree) in DISASSEMBLED doesn't mean it was planned that far back. MA #14 all but revealed that the Skrull imposters really didn't start moving pieces into place until after the New Avengers roster was finalized with Wolverine and Sentry (which would have been about 6 or so issues in) and even then they were sitting back and allowing Civil War and World War Hulk to run their courses (although if Pym has been a Skrull since that time, then he DID have a hand in CW because Pym was the one who made Clor and was cloning heroes and was the 3rd biggest face of the Pro-Reg side behind Iron Man and Reed).
Bendis has pulled this trick before. USM #100, he tried to tie things together and make it seem like he had everything planned to the minute detail since he launched the book, and it was an awkward mess. Just because you are writing your own stories doesn't mean you can't retcon yourself. It is fine for Bendis to have come up with the Skrull Invasion thing in, say, 2006, figure ways to make it work and go from there; but claiming he had it all mapped out since 2004 is, again, akin to pulling a George Lucas with Episodes 1-3. And not even Lucas could get away with that bull**** to most mainstreamers. Hence why he admits it took him "over ten years" to even come up with a script idea for INDY 4.
It is akin to some things I said about Millar; some of these writers would get better rapport if they were honest, but Bendis among many writers comes off as ridiculously smug and "smarter-than-thou". Granted, I suppose considering his success, his status as Marvel's #1 writer on their #1 ongoing, and that he has never been told "no" by an editor since about 2005, he may have a reason to be so. But that doesn't mean he could go another way. Instead he is making himself seem smarter than he is, which is too typical.
Weren't the Skrulls in Avengers: Disassembled there because Wanda was reliving the Kree/Skrull War. I mean, come on. One does not go with the other, unless Wanda is working with the Skrulls which would be stupid and illogical. But this is Bendis.
Exactly.
