The Diamond List for May 11th, 2011

[Dread]

Greg Rucka on PUNISHER is a good "get" for Marvel. Although if they want to keep him, especially with every creator sniffing at making their own properties now that Mark Millar has shown them how, they'll need to put him on a book that's "important".

Don't get me wrong; relaunching the non-MarvelMAX PUNISHER title with a name like Rucka is a good thing. I'd argue the "Marvel Universe" PUNISHER title has been relaunched so many times that it needed a high profile talent who hasn't been attached to Marvel in a while, if ever. But the Punisher is not a major character anymore, and hasn't been since the mid 90's. What would be ballsier would be putting Rucka on a book that "counts" more. Such as SECRET AVENGERS, although Marvel probably missed a moment to have Warren Ellis on it after Nick Spencer's drive by run. Or maybe whichever Avenger title Bendis decides to relinquish first.

That's just my opinion, of course. I imagine Sean McKeever is THRILLED to have worked for Marvel for years and never got a big book, then got signed by DC and, at the very least, was handed the keys to a C-List franchise like TEEN TITANS, and is now back at Marvel, back to doing what he usually was doing - getting attached to under-promoted books that get canned and don't sell. Again, Rucka on PUNISHER is a great start. But I see it as a start. Want to make DC really sweat? Stick him on AVENGERS. Do Marvel have the balls? They talk tough when Spider-Man has to be single again, but when it comes to the real ballsy choices, they often choose safer stocks than elderly widows with a few extra nickels. Bendis on MOON KNIGHT? Such a no brainer it is stunning it hadn't happened yet (sort of like DC "letting" Geoff Johns relaunch AQUAMAN).

 

[Tron Bonne]

Greg Rucka on PUNISHER is a good "get" for Marvel. Although if they want to keep him, especially with every creator sniffing at making their own properties now that Mark Millar has shown them how, they'll need to put him on a book that's "important".

Hmm, I'm not all that sure about that, to be honest. I think Rucka probably puts more importance on creative freedom and lack of editorial crap with his experience at DC.

 

[Dread]

Hmm, I'm not all that sure about that, to be honest. I think Rucka probably puts more importance on creative freedom and lack of editorial crap with his experience at DC.

Fair enough. I'm just saying that Greg Rucka is a writer who used to be a HUGE deal over at DC for ages of time, and is now at the House Of Ideas. If he felt appreciated at DC, he'd have just signed another exclusive or would be writing SOMETHING over there. He isn't, like a damn lot of former DC talent it seems. A relaunch of the PUNISHER seems to happen every other year, so by all means letting Rucka at the helm is a good idea. But let's be honest. The Punisher's day is long behind him. Gone are the days when his book is a top 10 seller, or a top 20, or even a top 35. The last time his book sold anywhere that well was during Fraction's PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL and in the midst of SECRET INVASION crossover mania. In terms of the comic market and the overall economy, 2007-2008 was already "forever ago". The Punisher is in that same boat as Ghost Rider and to a lesser degree, Wolverine - used to be CRAZY popular in the 80's and 90's and nowadays just goes on tour playing old hits and just barely breaking even as a nostalgia act for "hardcore rawkers".

The character has had 3 films, all of which under-performed, at best. If Dolph Lundgren in the 80's couldn't make it work, nobody is going to now that the era of the emotionless 80's action hero is dead. I imagine Rucka wanted to work on PUNISHER and I imagine he'll get a lot of creative freedom...but it'll be a book absolutely nobody will give two ****'s about, nor a book which effects the line at all. And if that's cool with him, well, cool. It can be fun to play in your own corner of the Marvel Universe a while. But I see that as a waste of potential if that's ALL he does at Marvel.

Marvel has to start raising more superstars than Bendis. Eventually he'll want to do creator owned stuff or even TV/film half the time like Millar and he won't be able to write 5 books at once, even with his "so easy a caveman can do it" dialogue style. They have Brubaker and Fraction too, and to a degree, Slott. But it never hurts to have more. I'm just saying that the best way to make DC sweat over the loss of a B or C level writer is to amp them to B+ or A level. It will be better if Marvel starts this process for the next Bendis now, instead of waiting for when Bendis inevitably explores other options and they're stuck. Much as I imagine, given how DC has been ruling most of the Top 10 list lately, they regret letting Geoff Johns cement himself over there after having him test his waters at Marvel at the start of the decade.

Rucka's a big deal, or should be. Thus...put him on a book, maybe not now but in the near future, that actually IS a big deal. At least that'd be my strategy. I mean, Marvel is starting to branch "DnA" onto more "mainstream" books, even given them a shot at NEW MUTANTS, which against all odds has hung tough as a C-List X-Men book. So that could be their strategy anyway after Rucka puts in a year or so on PUNISHER and gets a decent launch and good buzz. I just see Marvel waste opportunities 9 out of 10 times, so it'd be good to see them capitalize on one for once, properly.

 

[Frankenmation]

DC COMICS
BATMAN AND ROBIN #23 $2.99
BATMAN ARKHAM CITY #1 (OF 5) $2.99 (maybe)
BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 $2.99
FLASHPOINT #1 $3.99 (big maybe)

MARVEL COMICS
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #660 $3.99
FF #3 $2.99

 

[Dwarf lord]

Fair enough. I'm just saying that Greg Rucka is a writer who used to be a HUGE deal over at DC for ages of time, and is now at the House Of Ideas. If he felt appreciated at DC, he'd have just signed another exclusive or would be writing SOMETHING over there. He isn't, like a damn lot of former DC talent it seems.

I don't think "appreciated" is the right word per se. I think they appreciated him fine, just they appreciated him doing what they wanted him to do. He didn't like the direction they were going in and him knowing that his name carries weight decided to jump ship. That's fair and really has nothing to do with DC (although I find it funny that he used to be a major part of the creative machine over there and now he's leaving for them doing something that he was a part of). But I do agree. This is a catch for Marvel.


That said... (for the first time in almost 4 years)

Batman, Inc. #6
Batgirl #21

 

[Tron Bonne]

I don't think "appreciated" is the right word per se. I think they appreciated him fine, just they appreciated him doing what they wanted him to do. He didn't like the direction they were going in and him knowing that his name carries weight decided to jump ship. That's fair and really has nothing to do with DC (although I find it funny that he used to be a major part of the creative machine over there and now he's leaving for them doing something that he was a part of). But I do agree. This is a catch for Marvel.

Well, no, it definitely had something to do with DC. He was frustrated with their editorial work going all the way back to Wonder Woman and 52.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I've not read much by Rucka but I LOVED the Final Crisis: Revelations mini he did. I thought that was amazing. It does make me curious about what he'd do with Punisher.

 

[Dwarf lord]

Well, no, it definitely had something to do with DC. He was frustrated with their editorial work going all the way back to Wonder Woman and 52.

Yes, certainly. But I don't think it was that they didn't appreciate him. By that logic, they don't appreciate Johns, Waid, Morrison or any of their writers because they base their stories more around events than individual stories. It's not like they were singling out Rucka through any of this. He was even part of the massive "DC Event Regime" along with the other three writers I mentioned, so they obviously thought very highly of him.

And they allowed some of his less than good selling titles like Gotham Central to last a lot longer than it probably should have. 40 issues for a rather poorly selling book is crazy and shows how much they appreciated Rucka. This was a guy who spent his entire career with DC writing flagship characters and titles (Adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman, occasionally Detective Comics and Batman and of course he always had his hand in events). If he didn't feel appreciated, that sound like a personal problem. I have very little sympathy for someone who DC put so much faith in and then says they didn't appreciate him.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Well, it wasn't just the events that drove Rucka and Waid away. That was part of it, sure, but there was a lot more to it than simply that. The idea of appreciating them is fairly washy, especially in business.

 

[Dwarf lord]

You know, Waid, I can buy. If he were to come out and say he wasn't appreciated by DC, I could see where h was coming from. Yeah, he had a place on the events. In many ways, Waid was hosed by the system. He had a pretty good thing with Legion going, oh wait Geoff Johns wants the Silver Age Legion back, cancel that. Oh, why don't you take Flash now that Wally's back? Oh wait, Geoff Johns wants to write the return of Barry Allen and take the Flash back. And other than that he had just been writing odd titles here and there as work came. He could easily be on the same level as Morrison and Johns, but DC wouldn't let him. It didn't help matters, in my eyes to see that DC is trying very hard to make a universe that he created come to light. Too bad they didn't let him spear head it.

 

[imdaly]

MARVEL COMICS
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #660
ASTONISHING X-MEN #37
BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #518
DARK WOLVERINE #9
DAREDEVIL REBORN #4
EMMA #3
FEAR ITSELF YOUTH IN REVOLT #1
FF #3
FORMIC WARS BURNING EARTH #5
INCREDIBLE HULKS #628
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #623
NEW AVENGERS #12
NEW MUTANTS #25
PUNlSHERMAX #13
STAND NO MANS LAND #4
SUPER HEROES #14
X-MEN #11
X-MEN LEGACY #248

 

[Phaedrus45]

Additional comics coming out tomorrow I'm going to pick up.

DEAN KOONTZ NEVERMORE #2
DEATH OF ZORRO #3
LONE RANGER #25 - (It's about time this final issue of the series came out. Each issue has been constantly delayed, and when I read them, they doesn't feel delayed-worthy.)
ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME #10
TOTAL RECALL #1 - (It's not on my pull list...I don't have much hope that it will be very good...but, I'll give it a try.)