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Hey! Its the fourth anniversary of the Collector Times being
online! Wow. Four years. And almost my four-year
anniversary. Ive been bitching about all things X for 48 months,
almost, with only a few breaks. Thats quite a bit of bitching.
Luckily, Marvel continues to do dumb things with the X, so I
should be set for quite some time.
Before I get into this months stuff, I want to diverge ever so
slightly. For those whove been reading me for awhile, know
my opinions on the X-Men Icons limited series. For those who
are new here, check the archives. Until then, let me sum up:
they sucked. With a few interesting bits, all of the Icons series
were utter crap, and useless.
This week, we were introduced to the first of the Avengers
Icons series, Tigra. The first issue was better than the entirety of
the X-Icons series put together. It was well-written, with
beautiful art, that used light and shadow to good effect. Id
almost have liked to have seen this comic done in black and
white, and I like my comics in color.
How can the Avengers corner consistently put out high-
quality comics, with the long-time fans and newcomers in mind,
with solid writing AND art, plus a consistent schedule and teams
on their titles? Anyone? Im still leaning towards the answer
being the editors. Oh well. Wonder what will happen once
Mark Powers has left the X-titles?
What is coming next from X-Icons? Well, a Chamber
limited series! Yeah! He was an X-Man for just about a year!
Woohoo! That makes him prime Iconic material! And he wont
even be an X-Man when his limited series comes out! Bah.
Now, I have an announcement to make. With the
Brotherhood now cancelled, I can know longer keep my silence
on this subject any longer.
I am the writer known as "X".
Joe Quesada read some of my columns, and thought that my
insights and ideas may help the floundering X-Line. We chatted
a bit online at first, and during that time, I mentioned that a more
street-level book, without costumes, and characters fighting for
their rights as people, in a world that hates and fears them. Joe
thought the idea was brilliant, and at least worth a shot, so I
worked up a proposal, hammered out some more details, and
we were on our way.
Being an unknown quantity, we decided it would be a neat
gimmick to write the book as "X", a character in the book, the
leader of the revolutionary group known as the Brotherhood.
All the solicitations would be updates by X on the terrorist
movement.
During our talks, Joe got some of my stories about being
mistaken for the wrong gender (See my bio here, as "Lass Lad"
for example. The jokes is everywhere.), and decided that it
would be a great way to throw people off, and a bit of an inside
joke, to call X a she every now and then, and a he on the rest.
And with my dislike of Howard Mackie, Joe also decided to
leak to a few sources that X was referred to as "Howard" on
occasion. Another bit of diversion to throw people off the trail,
since surely I would never let myself be mistaken for Mackie.
Believe me, it hurt, but it was for a good gimmick.
It was truly a blast watching all the folks on the internet
squirm trying to figure it out. I was hard pressed to not spill the
beans during a number of chats with friends. I even went so far
as to tear my own book to shreds right here. If nothing else, I
had a blast.
Sadly, due to rotating artists (Its easy to see why I dislike
this so much now, huh?), not much publicity outside of the
solicitations in Previews, and the events of late last year, it was
decided that The Brotherhood should be put to rest with issue
nine. This was truly a sad day for me, seeing my first comic gig
crashing so quickly, but I guess thats the way things go.
Joe and I are on good terms though, and were already
talking about another project in the near future. Maybe, this
time, I can use my own name.
Oh well. Glad I got that off my chest. The truth is now out
there for all to see. Hope some folks arent too angry with some
of the writing of that book! Until next month, I remain, X! I
mean...
Oh yeah, April Fools. A bit lame, and obvious, perhaps, but it
hopefully made some folks chuckle. Catch everyone next
month, when its my fourth anniversary here. Yikes!
J.
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