• 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.

Its Official: Marvel Responsible for DC Success!!!

Started by drice6900,

30 posts in this topic

drice6900

drice6900

Posted
Posted

According to Joey Q on Newsarama today:

 

NRAMA: Moving on, one of the trends we’re seeing recently isn’t so much of a deconstruction of the heroes and characters, but deeper examinations of them, with the revelations that their pasts hold dark secrets. Arguably, for Marvel this started with “Sins Past,” and has touched upon it in Avengers Disassembled and Captain America; we’ve seen that Professor X has a reveal coming up in Deadly Genesis, and there are hints that more are coming, given the scope of The Illuminati. In your view, what’s behind this storytelling approach?

 

JQ- See, I’ve always seen characters with dark pasts as a staple of Marvel comics and our characters. Marvel characters have always been designed with feet of clay, with pasts that aren’t always squeaky clean. They’re more human, much more relatable, Peter Parker is partially responsible for his Uncle’s death due to a selfish act on his part. Tony Stark was an arms inventor and dealer, etc. So, for Marvel, this is business as usual.

 

NRAMA: Or a return to business as usual, that is, the cost of being a hero in the Marvel Universe?

 

JQ- Right. And looking at it market-wide, what I do believe you’re seeing is DC realizing this as well and trying to get their characters to have the same sort of back story or stories.

 

NRAMA: Not to stoke a Marvel vs. DC fire, and I’ll thank you in advance for doing your part not to as well, but can you explain that a little more?

 

JQ- Sure. I’ve said it before - there use to be a very clear line of delineation between what made a Marvel character versus a DC character, Bad Boys vs. Boy Scouts. It’s obvious that DC has decided to finally copy the Marvel character formula. So, by virtue of their characters now getting “Marvelized,” I believe the perception is that everyone is doing this when in fact we’ve been doing it for over forty years. This really isn’t a secret to anyone, it’s pretty obvious and darn flattering and I congratulate DC at realizing that there characters needed relevance today. It’s a smart move on their part.

 

Look, in order for this industry to get stronger and smarter all companies need to be open to new ideas and in some cases looking at each other and borrowing the best from both. I’ve made no bones about the fact that when I first started as EIC both Bill and I looked at other companies and realized that there were things that DC and Dark Horse and Image were superior than us in. We took a lot of those ideas to create the Marvel you see today. Just the trade paperback program alone is a huge tribute to the work that DC and Dark Horse and others did before us. When I started Event Comics with Jimmy [Palmiotti], both Jimmy and I knew that the way to create superior comic characters would be to use the Marvel formula, this isn’t brain surgery, both Ash and Painkiller Jane were created using that template. So the fact that DC has come around all I can say is cool, Stan should be proud.

 

NRAMA: Back to the larger recent move within Marvel of adding the darkness in their pasts. For it to come about in a relatively short time with some of your major characters…do you think it’s something that’s in the zeitgeist of this generation of writers, say like changing the heroes out for others under the masks has been for another generation?

 

JQ- The way I see it is that as I said earlier, these dark type of revelations have always been a hallmark of Marvel. What happens is that every new generation of creators tries to find untouched ground. Frank Miller found it in Batman, started by digging into the future and then went into his past and reinvented it in many ways. No different to me than Ed Brubaker digging into Cap’s past. The world moves a lot faster these days than ever before, the net seems to forget stuff quicker than it ever has before. Nothing has changed folks, it’s all still the same just different people attached. Every era in comics has its set of prominent creators, every era has those fans who say those new kids aren’t my cup of tea. There was a time when our grand masters of today where those upstart kids, but much of that gets lost in time.

 

NRAMA: That said, obviously, this is a storytelling style that can only go so far…that is, until the character is irrevocably changed. Where is that line when you’re adding “history” such as the events of the past in Deadly Genesis?

 

JQ- It is a fine line and you have to be careful because if you aren’t then you need to do stuff like Crisis in order to clean it up - I’m referring to the first one since I don’t know where the new one is taking us. Look, if comics have taught us anything it’s that almost anything can be taken back with the touch of some magical reset button.

 

NRAMA: Or three small words…

 

JQ: Right – or three small words. I don’t always recommend it, but it’s the truth. So, yes, you need to tread carefully when you do these things that you don’t send the characters completely over the edge where something drastic is needed to correct thigns.

 

NRAMA: In this regard – who’s sacrosanct in this style of storytelling? I know you’re going to make a joke about no one must ever find out that Aunt May once danced topless, so why don’t you get that out of the way…

 

JQ- The stuff that’s sacrosanct to me in comics is the stuff that directly is responsible for the character being who they are. You can’t bring Uncle Ben back; you can’t bring Bruce Wayne’s parents back. Once you do that the character ceases to exist. Outside of that, I think it’s all fair game as long as you keep the characters from becoming completely dislikable. Look, you couldn’t get more dislikable than what had happened to Hal Jordan and what he became, yet fans were willing to take him back as a hero despite what went on during that Parallax stuff. So you tell me, where are the boundaries and the point of no return?

 

NRAMA: Hard to say, but c’mon - is there a character that you can’t see a revelation of past sins of an element of their past coming back to haunt them working on?

 

JQ- I can never say never in this position because comics grow and will continue growing. Tastes will change and they’ll change back. Creators will come and go as will EiCs and what may seem completely impossible today may seem like the only way to go tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
shrunkenhead

shrunkenhead

Posted
Posted

What balls, I can't believe he said DC is copying the Marvel formula! Has JQ forgotten that Batman was written as a dark and troubled character in the FORTIES?

 

Well, this now explains why Marvel pumps out garbage and DC is kicking their azz weekly on the stands. DC must be ripping them off!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
delekkerste

delekkerste

Posted
Posted

Marvel is responsible for DC's recent resurgence. Marvel's books have sucked so bad lately that even die-hard Marvel fans like myself have been buying more books from the Distinguished Competition. foreheadslap.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
followtheleader

followtheleader

Posted
Posted

I think the sadest thing is that he believes adding darkness to all of the heroes past's is a good thing. A few, yes. More than that, it cheapens those that it would work with and your left with garbage. We don't need a few hundred Batmans or Wolverines. That's what makes Batman and Wolverine special.

 

Pat

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ares

Ares

Posted
Posted
Marvel is responsible for DC's recent resurgence. Marvel's books have sucked so bad lately that even die-hard Marvel fans like myself have been buying more books from the Distinguished Competition. foreheadslap.gif

 

sign-funnypost.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted

I absolutely hate when a hack like Joe Q tries to pawn off his constant, and hyper-speed character "dark past revelations" as "everyone's been doing it for 40 years".

 

Sure Joe, there was the odd revelation here and there, but NOT everyone in the MU, and NOT at the insane speed you're pumping them out, you fat fool!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Quinzel-migration

Quinzel-migration

Posted
Posted

That guy is such a tool sometimes. He's editor-in-chief of a a big company and he talks like a 14 year-old blind fanboy. That's so silly, but it's also a bit sad that he can't give another company credit for success without saying that it's only because they're copying them. Joe Q. knows that "controversial" and stupid stuff like this gets him online with interviews- but he's crazy if he thinks it actually makes people want to read their books.

 

I sure remember when DC got attention with stuff like Watchmen, Sandman, Hellblazer, Frank Miller's Batman stuff, Preacher, basically the entire Vertigo line and even Crisis on Infinite Earths after directly copying that "dark, character changing" stuff right from Marvel. I wonder if DC will start sending them royalty checks now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
awe4one

awe4one

Posted
Posted

It's obvious Joey is nothing but an attention whore. When the spotlight's not on him or Marvel, he finds a way to go over the top to garner publicity. The hype act got stale three years ago and fans are hip. I'm not sure Marvel could successfully hype a project, even if it's the best thing done since the advent of comics, without fans looking at it with a jaded eye...

 

Joey has cried wolf a couple of times too often...

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites
october

october

Posted
Posted

I am thankful, once again, that I am not a Marvel fan. I don't know you guys put up with this craap.

 

Good point about the hype machine. It's becoming a semi-annual event for Marvel to proclaim their latest inane crossover storyline as "the biggest thing to happen in comics".

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hobgoblin

Hobgoblin

Posted
Posted
I am thankful, once again, that I am not a Marvel fan. I don't know you guys put up with this craap.

 

Good point about the hype machine. It's becoming a semi-annual event for Marvel to proclaim their latest inane crossover storyline as "the biggest thing to happen in comics".

 

Yeah, I still like Marvel characters and books, of course; but that doesn't mean that I have to like Joe. Q. He annoys me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
seank

seank

Posted
Posted
So what has DC had to say about all this?

 

DC doesn't have to say anything. They just need to keep putting out books like 100 Bullets, Fables, and Infinite Crisis. Marvel can talk about doing original and high-quality work, but DC puts it on the shelves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing