There is no way a NAMOR series sells well unless he really is linked to the end of CIVIL WAR. It looks like he may, though, so there is hope. Good to see MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS return, however, I am sure Marvel will not find a way to make it seem valueable, like their last anthology stabs, AMAZING FANTASY, SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED and X-MEN UNLIMITED, and I give it 24 issues or less. Which I guess by modern standards is "4 trades" and thus a success. Low standards rock!
It's good to see Slott included in the "tribal elders" of Bendis, JMS, Brubaker, etc. However, Bendis probably counts as two.
It also it good to see Joe Q thank his fans for Marvel's success in 2006. And thank you, sir, for the good comics that Marvel put out. Don't worry, I'll get back to criticizing him in a minute. But 2006 has seen a lot of good comics, a lot of good revivals and relaunches, and a much better event than 2005 had, DESPITE the flaws, the grimness, the making Hulk an unrootable monster who slaughters innocents for fun, and all that. And for ANNIHILATION.
I do wonder how an EIC that claims to like his fans could put them through 1-2 months of comics where the ad counts LITERALLY outnumbered the story pages, just for a paycheck. But nevermind.
Joe Q said:
For us to sit around a table and say, hey, we need a dozen new Hispanic characters, seems forced and not the way we go about our creative business.
Isn't that how ARANA was originally marketted? She was hailed as "Marvel's first latina superhero", which in itself was untrue. And then they forgot that being Hispanic isn't enough, you need to have a shred of originality. So her solo died, and she thrives as a guest star of other, stronger character titles.
And wasn't the wedding of Black Panther and Storm pretty much just marketted as a "black event" for black heroes? I mean is there a real reason why those two are together aside for their connection to Africa? I guess that is what you get when you have a man who does BET programming do it. I mean, maybe I'm too much of a honkey, but do black people like being spoon-fed by race like that? If I was black I might have found it as pandering. I'd have wanted them to build it slowly, have the romance flourish over maybe a year or two, and then appreciated it as a character progression, because Black Panther and Storm should be CHARACTERS first. But instead they hitched them, retconned and stretched a 26 year old back up story to MTU, and trucked on. Meanwhile, Luke Cage and Jones actually developped over time, felt more real, and note no one whined when they got married.
Some of his views on DC are of course his opinion, but could be poked at. Sometimes I WISH Marvel had as much respect for their characters that they could consider things iconic. And I am sure Marvel marketters could be just as disturbed to see Spider-Man unmask, don armor, turn into a giant spider and eat someone's face, or Cap become an enemy of the people, and whatnot. It can go both ways. Of course, Marvel has outsold DC by a margin of 11-1 out of 12 months, so I guess arguing with success is moot. Hence why Ultimate is used for marketting mostly.
And with all due respect, I'd never call Joe Q an @$$#o!@ for having an opinion. I'd be tempted to call him that when he contradicts himself, does his ignorant huckster routine, or makes endless excuses to any mistake (which he flatly denies). But, his opinions are his.
But, the good does outweigh the bad with Marvel, and 2006 was a better year than 2005 was. No amount of whining can negate this fact in my eyes. Keep it up for 2007.