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Before I get into this months topic, I have a slight addition to
the last Great X-Pectations to make. The issue of New X-Men
that just came out has some additions to the artist list. The cover
is by Tony "Starman" Harris, so he gets an honorable mention,
at the least, however, Quitely cant even manage a monthly
cover? And inside the cover, the pencils are by former fill-in
artist who needed a fill-in artist, Ethan Van Sciver, and another
penciller to help him finish his first issue since 117, I think.
Welcome to the New X-Pencillers list, Tom Derenick!
While I like Tom, have I mentioned this is disgusting? I ran
the numbers through my head, and with Uncanny, New, and
Ultimate, weve had around 17-19 different pencillers in less
than a year. I went with these three, because theyre all edited
by the same person, Mark Powers. If he cant keep his
creators on a deadline... Well, Ill just leave it at that, and let the
reader decide. Liefeld was almost capable of keeping up a
better run than that. Wait, was Powers editing Cable when he
came back?
Now, let us move to something new. Something very new.
There have been a lot of rumors running around lately about
some of the X-Books getting relaunched, renumbered, and
retitled. The titles in question are Cable, Deadpool, and X-
Force. The main reason Ive heard behind this is to get them
further away from Liefelds versions, and stop paying him
royalties.
The retitled books would be called Soldier X, Agent X, and
X-Statics, at least as far as current rumors are reporting. And
the current writer on Cable has JUST confirmed the Soldier X
title change.
For the most part, Ive been behind Joe Quesadas regime
at Marvel, but lately, its seemed a lot like Business as Usual at
the House of Ideas, and by that I mean the usual for the 90s.
Were getting a flood of limited series that are crap, lots of
renumberings and silly reboots and number ones, and
recreations just to get interest back up for a short little time.
Joe, this is a short term solution to a long term problem.
You will not save the books with little boosts in the arm to get
spikes in readership every few months. Eventually, it will piss off
the core fans, and theyll not come back. Either from the title, or
Marvel entirely. Change is good, but means nothing if the
change doesnt have meaning and is changed again right away,
or changed back to the old status quo.
A note could be taken from DCs book here. Theyve
instituted change in characters, passed torches, moved on, killed
characters and left them dead, and let a title keep going and beat
the numbering into the ground. Not always, mind you, but far
more than Marvel has, and with major characters like the Flash
and Green Lantern.
I can at least understand it with X-Force, since this isnt
really the old X-Force, and an entirely new concept and
characters running around in a title thats not really theirs. They
pretty much used it to piss off the old hardcore fans. Now that
theyre done with that, Marvel can move on and give them a
proper title all their own.
Im still waiting for hard confirmation and details on all these
relaunches, so Im reserving judgment so far, and will continue
to do so until I hear storylines, and pick up the first few issues if
I feel like it. At the very least, new books should give me new
things to bitch about!
Until then, keep reading what I tell you to.
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