• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Marvel Comics article in new Maxim Magazine

Started by Bonds25,

36 posts in this topic

Bonds25

Bonds25

Posted
Posted

The new Maxim (Sept. 2009 with Milla Jojovich on the cover) has 5 pages of interviews regarding the history of Marvel Comics. Includes Joe Simon, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Todd McFarlane, Joe Quesada, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
I wish Quesada were history. :sumo:

 

What's this guy done that has you guys so down on him? Is it just the whole marketing towards adults thing? I suppose I can agree with that, but in terms of the quality of the books--I don't see the argument.

 

As much as I like and admire Stan Lee, all I know is that I find it painful to read his early 60s stuff--sooooo corny. And most 1970s stuff is melodramatic. I was a child of the 1980s and liked a lot of it, like some of the 1990s, but I find the writers of today to be more compelling than almost anything I read in the past, I suppose because I'm an adult now and they're targetting stories towards me. Ennis, Bendis, Straczynski, Kevin Smith and others just blow past writers away in mastery of the total narrative package--compelling plot, story, dialogue. The single most improved element of modern comics is DEFINITELY dialogue--I haven't seen realistic and compelling character interaction in past comics of the likes that Bendis and Ennis crank out. All my favorite writers from Marvel came in under Quesada's reigns, which I've got to give him SOME credit for. (shrug)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DiceX

DiceX

Posted
Posted

The writing is due to the people actually writing. I have no beef with the quality of the stories. The writers today are the best in the history of comics.

 

My problem is that you can't read a title. You can't even read a few titles. At any given moment something pivotal, even detrimental to the title will happen somewhere else in the Marvel universe. It goes WAY beyond an occasional crossover because it happens every single month, sometimes completely unsolicited, and it's usually something big.

 

Quesada has 100% control of it, and he is the one that makes it happen "to boost sales in the other titles". Which is moronic given the scale of the problem.

 

Quesada also allowed the Norman Osborn/Gwen Stacey thing happen. The single most asinine thing to be put into a comic. He has also rebooted title after title to restart them at issue #1 just for the sake of trying to sell yet another #1. If that weren't enough, he'll reboot the same title...again...and again...and again... Then when the title crosses a milestone (such as issue #500, 600, etc) he'll go back to THAT numbering just for the sake of selling THAT issue, then reboot it back at #1 AGAIN.

 

Nothing the man does is for the sake of good comics and good stories. He's a snake oil salesman. He's stuck in the '90s mentality that there has to be some gimmick to sell a book, rather than doing it with quality stories and art. The guy is (arguably) an artist, NOT an editor. The fact that he runs the house of ideas WITHOUT HAVING A CLUE, is a slap in the face to anyone that has ever read comics.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DiceX

DiceX

Posted
Posted
The fact that he runs the house of ideas WITHOUT HAVING A CLUE, is a slap in the face to anyone that has ever read comics.

 

I had forgotten that title for Marvel.

 

Because there are none.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cloudofwit

cloudofwit

Posted
Posted
The writing is due to the people actually writing. I have no beef with the quality of the stories. The writers today are the best in the history of comics.

 

My problem is that you can't read a title. You can't even read a few titles. At any given moment something pivotal, even detrimental to the title will happen somewhere else in the Marvel universe. It goes WAY beyond an occasional crossover because it happens every single month, sometimes completely unsolicited, and it's usually something big.

 

Quesada has 100% control of it, and he is the one that makes it happen "to boost sales in the other titles". Which is moronic given the scale of the problem.

 

Quesada also allowed the Norman Osborn/Gwen Stacey thing happen. The single most asinine thing to be put into a comic. He has also rebooted title after title to restart them at issue #1 just for the sake of trying to sell yet another #1. If that weren't enough, he'll reboot the same title...again...and again...and again... Then when the title crosses a milestone (such as issue #500, 600, etc) he'll go back to THAT numbering just for the sake of selling THAT issue, then reboot it back at #1 AGAIN.

 

Nothing the man does is for the sake of good comics and good stories. He's a snake oil salesman. He's stuck in the '90s mentality that there has to be some gimmick to sell a book, rather than doing it with quality stories and art. The guy is (arguably) an artist, NOT an editor. The fact that he runs the house of ideas WITHOUT HAVING A CLUE, is a slap in the face to anyone that has ever read comics.

 

 

Tell us how you really feel. :whistle:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DiceX

DiceX

Posted
Posted
The writing is due to the people actually writing. I have no beef with the quality of the stories. The writers today are the best in the history of comics.

 

My problem is that you can't read a title. You can't even read a few titles. At any given moment something pivotal, even detrimental to the title will happen somewhere else in the Marvel universe. It goes WAY beyond an occasional crossover because it happens every single month, sometimes completely unsolicited, and it's usually something big.

 

Quesada has 100% control of it, and he is the one that makes it happen "to boost sales in the other titles". Which is moronic given the scale of the problem.

 

Quesada also allowed the Norman Osborn/Gwen Stacey thing happen. The single most asinine thing to be put into a comic. He has also rebooted title after title to restart them at issue #1 just for the sake of trying to sell yet another #1. If that weren't enough, he'll reboot the same title...again...and again...and again... Then when the title crosses a milestone (such as issue #500, 600, etc) he'll go back to THAT numbering just for the sake of selling THAT issue, then reboot it back at #1 AGAIN.

 

Nothing the man does is for the sake of good comics and good stories. He's a snake oil salesman. He's stuck in the '90s mentality that there has to be some gimmick to sell a book, rather than doing it with quality stories and art. The guy is (arguably) an artist, NOT an editor. The fact that he runs the house of ideas WITHOUT HAVING A CLUE, is a slap in the face to anyone that has ever read comics.

 

 

Tell us how you really feel. :whistle:

 

Be careful what you wish for. I was holding back a lot.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dicjones

dicjones

Posted
Posted

Sorry, my wife made me end my post before finishing my thought....

 

I didn't have a problem with them killing off karen page, I kind of felt DD's and Karen's story had been told and it was time for something fresh...but, I'm the kind of comic book guy who doesn't mind the occasional death of an essential character...I just wish people would stay dead...it kind of cheapens the whole experience.

 

I even like what they have done with Batman and Bruce Wayne's death...they had the perfect replacement and by killing off Bruce Wayne they have freshened the title and opened up an entirely new set of storylines. With Batman it works well because he really doesn't have any "superpowers".

 

I don't read Batman, so all of this probably isn't fair for me to say, but because of it I feel like there is an opportunity for me to "jump on" and I am thinking about doing so.

 

I mean really, after 700 issues or so, what is there left to tell about Bruce Wayne that could really offer any fresh insight into his character.

 

Maybe that is why comics today seem less "fresh" than they used too, it's the same old characters, doing the same old things.

 

I would be sad if they killed Matt Murdock, but the thought of what new storylines it might open up is exciting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
The writing is due to the people actually writing. I have no beef with the quality of the stories. The writers today are the best in the history of comics.

 

But can you take the pool of writers for granted, as if they would have applied to Marvel on their own? I know that's not true of many of them--Quesada is the first one I've heard of who made an effort to go outside of comics to recruit talent, and to put out so much effort to keep it. Granted, he had the past experience to learn from of McFarlane, Lee, and Liefeld going off on their own to start Image. I seems to me that Marvel and DC mostly just waited for talent to come to them up until Quesada came around.

 

I agree with all your other criticisms though, although whoever was at the helm in the 1990s made even worse versions of the exact same mistakes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing