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Author Topic: Wolfman Howls  (Read 10956 times)
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TELLE
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« on: January 18, 2006, 03:06:54 AM »

I normally could care less about the goings on at DC but when I saw this article at Publisher's Weekly today I thought people here might be interested, especially as how it touches on several topics that have been discussed here recently (Atlantis was even discussed in Supermanica):

Wolfman Returns for Another Crisis

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6299714.html

Quote
PWCW: You've spoken about how company-wide continuity can often restrict creativity. How do find working with continuity in writing for DC Comics now?


MW: I haven't had to worry about that, fortunately. My Infinite Crisis story is built off my original. That allowed me to be somewhat insular. As far as intra-company continuity goes, my view has always been that the best writers at a company are held hostage by the worst. Poor ideas become part of the whole, which hurts everyone. But readers seem to enjoy the overall company concept.


I always thought characters could meet but that each title should be independent from the others. So if there was, for example, an Atlantis in Superman and an Atlantis in Aquaman, they didn't need to be the same Atlantis. That way writers could let their imaginations go for the most incredible concepts without worrying what was done in a 1959 issue of Action Comics or even in last month's Batman. Part of my Crisis was to get rid of all those continuity elements and start all over again. The problem comes as readers get older and they want to have some sort of link between the titles; they ask how could the JLA characters get together while there are different Atlantises. I believe very strongly in continuity within a title-so everything within, say, The New Titans, was consistent. But I didn't feel it needed to be consistent with what was happening in Green Lantern. Still, that's not what most readers like, so I've never written books with that attitude. But if I had my druthers....

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JulianPerez
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« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2006, 12:07:26 AM »

Quote from: "The Big Bad Wolf"
PWCW: You've spoken about how company-wide continuity can often restrict creativity. How do find working with continuity in writing for DC Comics now?


MW: I haven't had to worry about that, fortunately. My Infinite Crisis story is built off my original. That allowed me to be somewhat insular. As far as intra-company continuity goes, my view has always been that the best writers at a company are held hostage by the worst. Poor ideas become part of the whole, which hurts everyone. But readers seem to enjoy the overall company concept.


I always thought characters could meet but that each title should be independent from the others. So if there was, for example, an Atlantis in Superman and an Atlantis in Aquaman, they didn't need to be the same Atlantis. That way writers could let their imaginations go for the most incredible concepts without worrying what was done in a 1959 issue of Action Comics or even in last month's Batman. Part of my Crisis was to get rid of all those continuity elements and start all over again. The problem comes as readers get older and they want to have some sort of link between the titles; they ask how could the JLA characters get together while there are different Atlantises. I believe very strongly in continuity within a title-so everything within, say, The New Titans, was consistent. But I didn't feel it needed to be consistent with what was happening in Green Lantern. Still, that's not what most readers like, so I've never written books with that attitude. But if I had my druthers....  


Wow, so if Marv Wolfman had the leeway to do whatever he likes, he would unprofessionally ignore a world's verisimilitude and what is being done elsewhere in favor of pushing his own egotistical interpretation of concepts and characters? Big surprise there.

Marv, your career is pretty much over, so hush up and let the real writers like Geoff Johns do their job, huh?

What bothers me is that, dozens of Morrison fanboys right now are reading this sort of comment, pumping their fist, and saying "YOU GO, WOLFMAN!" as they loudly shout over the Radiohead CD playing in the background.
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« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2006, 12:44:05 AM »

I don't like Wolfman at all, but I'll take Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman over the sloppy IC everytime.
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« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2006, 01:10:45 AM »

Quote from: "Super Monkey"
I don't like Wolfman at all, but I'll take Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman over the sloppy IC everytime.


Not to sound rude, SuperMonkey, but have you read it yet? You mentioned on another occasion you don't set foot in comics stores and only buy things on TPB.

I was nervous about everything I heard about IC, until I actually read it, and then I realized that my fears were unwarranted because Geoff Johns is a guy that is genuinely in love with Silver Age minutiae; he pulled Mr. Atom out of mothballs, he brought Earth-2 Superman into relevancy, restored Power Girl to her original origin, and recently, he...

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

...brought back Barry Allen, killed before his time. Good work has been done with Wally since then, but there's no reason that we can't have both, right?


END SPOILERS


INFINITE CRISIS is a joy to read; one big fanboy joygasm. There's nothing more exciting than a miniseries where one wonders what's going to happen next.

If this is the guy that's going to define the next decade of DC COMICS, it couldn't be in better hands.

...Plus, the four minis that led up to it were fantastic. Cat-Man is SO cool! And any miniseries like RANN/THANAGAR WAR has Darkfire as Empress of the Citadel, Captain Comet as the hero, a Coluan flying saucer attacked by a shapechanging "living" starship, the evil Hawkgod from the JSA series, Green Lanterns...wow!
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"Wait, folks...in a startling new development, Black Goliath has ripped Stilt-Man's leg off, and appears to be beating him with it!"
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« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2006, 01:24:43 AM »

If he is such a big sliver age fan as you say, then why did he not know that the Earth-2 Superman never had that big key/fortress? That he worked for the Daily Star NOT the daily planet? Why would he make Superboy-prime into a murder of all people? Why is Alex is villian now when he was always a hero like his dad? Why didn't he know that the Anti-Monitor never had a body?

These mistakes and plot holes make it seem to me like he doesn't know much about these characters at all. I know that the series is not over yet, but it's going to take some serious backflips to explain away those things.
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« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2006, 01:53:13 AM »

When Power Girl saw a fortress with a key, I'm pretty sure she was seeing Earth-1. She would have had prior knowledge, and visits, to Earth-1, correct?

Furthermore, Superboy-Prime is not a pre-Crisis character. He, like many of the Earths, was created explicitly for Crisis on Infinite Earths. I am interested, however, in who gets creator credits for him. Would it be Maggin and Swan, who wrote that Crisis crossover, or Wolfman?

 I don't have any real confidence in the Crisis series itself. With the exception of some heartwarming nostalgic things, it seems to be the same fast-paced bloodbath that the first Crisis was. I have more confidence in how the aftermath is going to turn out, and not the series itself.
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JulianPerez
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« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2006, 03:33:39 AM »

Quote from: "Gangbuster Thorul"
I don't have any real confidence in the Crisis series itself. With the exception of some heartwarming nostalgic things, it seems to be the same fast-paced bloodbath that the first Crisis was. I have more confidence in how the aftermath is going to turn out, and not the series itself.


To be fair:

Geoff Johns made me LIKE all the characters he decided to kill off before he did it. I thought Blue Beetle was a wank until, come IC, he was written by Johns and made a truly likeable sort. He's almost - ALMOST done the impossible and make Kyle Rayner likeable in his GL series.

I don't disagree with any of the deaths that were shown.

The Freedom Fighters were never made interesting, and let me be the first to say it: SOMEBODY had to clear off the Keith Giffen era League, a nauseating period where characters behaved out of character to get cheap laughs. To quote Sean Penn: "I don't see why others say I have no sense of humor when I don't laugh at things that aren't funny."
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« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2006, 02:01:00 PM »

Julian, you had me up until you quoted Sean Penn.  Not exactly a mensa cadidate, that one.

And I thought Beetle bought the farm before Infinite Crisis even started?  Anyway, I'm no fan of Giffen-era JLA either, but I did kind of like the Freedom Fighters, if admittedly for no defensible reason.  It just seems to me like killing off characters -- only to bring back new ones with the same name who are just as dull if not worse -- is about the most overused cheap stunt in modern comics, and how it could still provide any impact at all is beyond me.

I look forward to reading IC when it's collected into a TPB and added to my local library's collection.  Let's say Spring of 2007.
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