Ending of One More Day?

[Harlekin]

Bendis writes half of Marvel?

New Avengers
Mighty Avengers
Ultimate Spider-Man

 

[masteryoda]

Marvel just made it more confusing, apparently. There was a bio or something on Mephisto in the back of the latest OMD issue and it states that Mephisto and Satan are the same entity.

No, it doesn't. It says in the back that he's often mistaken for the bibical Satan. It also has an amazing recap of almost every appearance he has made.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

JMS's comments on One More Day. Pretty frucking surprising.

That is pretty interesting. PJ and I were just talking about writers burning bridges by voicing concerns about published stories earlier today. I'm sure JMS' career will be fine after something like this--he's too high up on Marvel's food chain for it not to be--but it's pretty telling if the writer of the story feels so strongly that a story is a bad idea that he doesn't actually want credit for writing it. Granted, I'm forced to wonder why JMS didn't just back off and tell Joe Q to have someone else write it if he felt that strongly about it, but it's nice to see the inner workings behind the happy, all-for-one facade of Marvel. It's good to know that there are still opposing viewpoints in the company, since anything else would only lead to stagnation. It's also personally refreshing to note that there are still pros who like the marriage; with Joe Q, Tom Brevoort, and Mark Waid all against it, I was starting to wonder if everybody in comics thought the marriage was a bad idea.

 

[PhotoJones]

I agree that it's always interesting to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, especially when it's portrayed as being the grown-up equivalent of the neighborhood, all boy's treehouse. And I suppose it's refreshing to hear someone like JMS speak out against what's going on on a personal level, even if he recognizes it's pointless to do so on a professional one. I'm just surprised at the backlash Quesada seems to be taking for this. Like I posted earlier, people seem to have issues with Quesada being the final determining factor on something, when it's his actual job to do that and be that. That's what EiC's do. People can ***** and moan all they want about his actual decisions, but don't take up issues with his authority to make decisions. That's just flat out ******ed.

 

[Doc Destruction]

Well, it's mostly because when the EiC jumps in and MAKES writers do things, they tend to be HORRIBLE ideas. Monarch and Sins Past, anyone? New Universe, anyone (the fact that it was to replace the 616 verse)?

Joe Q is pretty HORRIBLE at making these decisions. He's an artist, and good at recruiting names. SO DO THAT. Let your editors run their books. Oh wait, the talent runs the books at Marvel, never mind.

 

[SonOfCthulhu]

I tend to support good writers and good artists more then the editorial staff behind the books.

When the editiorial staff makes bone-headed decisions about the way certain characters are written company-wide, I tend to hold them accountable.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I agree that it's always interesting to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, especially when it's portrayed as being the grown-up equivalent of the neighborhood, all boy's treehouse. And I suppose it's refreshing to hear someone like JMS speak out against what's going on on a personal level, even if he recognizes it's pointless to do so on a professional one. I'm just surprised at the backlash Quesada seems to be taking for this. Like I posted earlier, people seem to have issues with Quesada being the final determining factor on something, when it's his actual job to do that and be that. That's what EiC's do. People can ***** and moan all they want about his actual decisions, but don't take up issues with his authority to make decisions. That's just flat out ******ed.

Was that directed at me, 'cause I don't remember ever saying Joe Q was being an a**hole or doing anything other than his job.

 

[fifthfiend]

JMS's comments on One More Day.

Thanks for that; if nothing else it goes a long way towards explaining how JMS was writing this book when the tone of his previous Spidey comics had been so apparently supportive of the Parker marriage.

Re his comments on "the Gwen story", I want to sympathize but I mean it's not like he couldn't have just not done a story about Gwen's secret pregnancy.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, changing the kids to be Peter's would've been almost as bad as how it actually went down. Why don't more storytellers realize that long-lost children are a ****ing terrible idea 99.999% of the time?

 

[PhotoJones]

Was that directed at me, 'cause I don't remember ever saying Joe Q was being an a**hole or doing anything other than his job.

No, that wasn't directed at you at all. Wasn't it sort of in agreement with what you said?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Basically, but it came right after my post so I was confused.

 

[PhotoJones]

I blame the Hype's whacked out load times.

 

[wobbly]

Thanks for that; if nothing else it goes a long way towards explaining how JMS was writing this book when the tone of his previous Spidey comics had been so apparently supportive of the Parker marriage.

Re his comments on "the Gwen story", I want to sympathize but I mean it's not like he couldn't have just not done a story about Gwen's secret pregnancy.

I think the problem with Sins Past is once JMS put the idea out there Quesada was always gonna run with it (the man thrives on controversy as he knows how well it sells even if the stories are rubbish), but with his own twisted ideas thrown into the mix too.
Agree in asking what JMS was thinking of in the first place though.. There was no need to ever go there at all.

I can understand his just being the frustrated 'hired help' though. He doesn't own the characters and you either take the orders from on high or quit (I would have thought JMS wealthy enough to just tell Mr. Q to get lost mind you)

With 'One More Day' this is all Quesada's agenda and he knows we all know it too. Hell, afaik there was no controversy with the marriage until Quesada spent a few years telling anyone who'd print an article on him that there was one.
The manner in which they have built up to this was rather cynical too: Add one thing after another that is so sh#tty the fans will be grateful if much of that crap is undone even if that comes with a heavy price.
From the looks of it Peter will get his secret ID back, maybe the 'Other' and 'Sins Past' might be undone too, and the price paid for this is the marriage, what Mr. Q. Wanted all along.

Whatever...hopefully this will blow up in his face, the titles will take a sales hit and the notion undone in due course. With it being Mephisto behind the deal they have a built in out right there after all.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Quesada was always gonna run with it (the man thrives on controversy as he knows how well it sells even if the stories are rubbish)

Comic fans are stupid enough to keep buying the comics, even though he's been EiC long enough for us all to know his game, so it's really not fair to fault him for this strategy. If the system works and fans are throwing money at him hand over fist for each new outrage, why stop? I'm not a huge fan of Quesada or anything, but he's clearly found a formula that works. Quality's hard; selling crap to idiots who'll buy it indiscriminately isn't and it gets him even more money than many quality stories do.

 

[PhotoJones]

Word on that. Although, he's had more quality books under his rule then Bob Harras did.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

True. But many of those series are barely hanging on by a thread and his good graces. When he needs cold, hard cash, he goes for pure, unadulterated shock value. Get 'em talking--doesn't matter how--and you're sitting on a gold mine. He's come right out and said as much in interviews.

 

[wobbly]

Comic fans are stupid enough to keep buying the comics, even though he's been EiC long enough for us all to know his game, so it's really not fair to fault him for this strategy. If the system works and fans are throwing money at him hand over fist for each new outrage, why stop? I'm not a huge fan of Quesada or anything, but he's clearly found a formula that works. Quality's hard; selling crap to idiots who'll buy it indiscriminately isn't and it gets him even more money than many quality stories do.

Sadly, that's all very true.

 

[PhotoJones]

True. But many of those series are barely hanging on by a thread and his good graces. When he needs cold, hard cash, he goes for pure, unadulterated shock value. Get 'em talking--doesn't matter how--and you're sitting on a gold mine. He's come right out and said as much in interviews.

That's true. But, I don't know if it's apathy or if I've just become jaded, but it doesn't really bother me anymore. I still have my Iron Fist, Captain America, Daredevil, X-Factor, Runaways, Loners, The Order, New Warriors, Thor and Punisher. As long as those keep up the quality, I'm a happy reader.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

Wait until Iron Fist is replaced by Shang Chi, Captain America is replaced by the Punisher, Daredevil is replaced with his teenage self, X-Factor gets the cancellation, Runaways gets written by Bendis, Loners is killed Alpha Flight style, The Order gets written by Bendis, the New Warriors do something stupid, and blow up another school, and Thor gets beat up by new and improved Thor-buster Iron Man, all to turn a buck.

 

[Xofenroht]

Doubt it.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

Of course.

 

[Xofenroht]

Whatever, you're just trying to start a fight with me so you can use that iron maiden and electrodes, like we talked about.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

I meant, "Of course," in the idea that it was always a joke.

 

[fifthfiend]

Comic fans are stupid enough to keep buying the comics, even though he's been EiC long enough for us all to know his game, so it's really not fair to fault him for this strategy. If the system works and fans are throwing money at him hand over fist for each new outrage, why stop? I'm not a huge fan of Quesada or anything, but he's clearly found a formula that works. Quality's hard; selling crap to idiots who'll buy it indiscriminately isn't and it gets him even more money than many quality stories do.

I can't really credit arguments from pure profiteering in re: a company with four decades of brand equity and multiple massively successful Hollywood adaptations that still can't manage to move books outside of a tiny niche of an audience.

I'm just saying, you're making an argument that is reducible to "Joe Quesada is such a canny operater, so superlatively adroit at cynically manipulating the market, that Tokyopop whips his ass, every single day of the week."

Making people read the damn comics backwards, and they still whip his ass.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

So how long till MJ starts ****ing around?