Hank McCoy (Before the Fur)


Quesada- what a ten years, right?

I think he treated every Marvel comic like they were his own. People just weren’t going to let another decade go by and let X-Men and Spider-man dominate. Iit was time to branch out. It was time to be creative and cool. It was time to make you WANT to read Fantastic Four, and Hulk, and Punisher...AGAIN. And Avengers. I still can’t believe how big Avengers got.

It was a kind of second or third renaissance for Marvel, these last ten years and, I gotta say, they won most of their fanbase back in a big, BIG way. And I think a lot of that had to do with the balanced treatment every book got. The writers and the illustrators gave every title the same tender love and care as any other. That, and I think Marvel just somehow stepped up yet again and took this big leap forward in regards to making their comics and characters human.

I mean they’ve always been human. That’s what people love about them. But something about Bendis’ dialogue has just started to diffuse in the books. The way people talk, the pacing and the choice of words…it just seems so real these days.

Or at least, as real as say a prime time action TV show. You notice that S.H.I.E.L.D. is big these days, too? I mean, S.H.I.E.L.D. was always around in a big way, but now, it’s like every superhero has some loose affiliation with S.H.I.E.L.D. It makes sense, really. I mean, wouldn’t you need some pan-national paramilitary organization to help govern/ conduct all that superhero nonsense? But that’s just it. There’s a little less superhero in Marvel these days I think.

Ooohh, wait. I didn’t mean that. Forget I wrote that. That wasn’t what I was trying to express. What I AM trying to say is this. There’s something about the uniforms and the communication networks and the calling each other by first names that is just kind of working for Marvel, right now. It’s that ‘feel’ that has been making it work, these days, I think it’s like 24 and Tom Clancy and all that jazz.

I think Quesada’s impact isn’t in question. And hey, with the guy still at the helm as far as the creative force behind Marvel I’m satisfied that his work isn’t going to be undone anytime soon. Alonso is an interesting choice to put as editor-in-chief. But I’m not down on the move, by any means. What I will say is this. Alonso has had a lot to do with the direction X-Men has been headed in these last few years. And that direction is…

Gutsy, actually. Interesting. And a little bit gritty, maybe? All this Utopia and Second Coming stuff has been tragic, painful. But a nice blend of keeping the X-Men canon in scope while adding to the legend. So no complaints about his work! A lot of people have been worried about Disney sort of highjacking Marvel’s creative control but I don’t see it happening. Everything is still in the family, as far as I can tell. And I mean hey if you made an investment in something that worked so well, would you want to fiddle around with it? Marvel has been making comic books for almost a decade and the people at Disney would be out of their mind to let that train go off the rails now, right?

So all in all I’m a little taken a back by the news of the EIC switch, but I’ve got a good feeling that the things we’ve come to love aren’t about to disappear. Thoughts?

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