Highway 62

But instead, let’s talk about an issue more near and dear to my heart. That of Marvel Comics, of whom I’ve already dedicated an entire column to, detailing the myriad of ways that they have won my undying affection. Yeah, I know, the only Marvel comic I read now is New X-Men, but even so, it was not always thus.

And Marvel’s a good subject right now, because they’re at a major crossroads. Though that, in and of itself isn’t new: Marvel’s been at a series of crossroads since Ron Perelman bought the company back in what, 1989? Just that for a long time there were two forks that Marvel could take: painful reconstruction or imminent annihilation due to bankruptcy.

If any of you are interested in the story behind that particular story, be sure to read Dan Raviv’s Comic Wars, which goes through that period of Marvel’s history in great detail (and teaches you more about the voodoo of high-powered banking than you were perhaps interested in knowing.) I just finished it a couple of nights ago, and not only is it informative, but it’s a fun read. Goes by quick for something so rooted in what is usually a relatively dry subject.

But the particular crossroad that Marvel is looking at now has to do with the recent ouster of Bill Jemas, formerly Publisher of Marvel (who had a little box in every single credit page just to remind you who he was. Like you were going to forget.) Lots of people have had a lot to say about this, unfortunately, most of them have seen fit to do nothing more than sing “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead.” Not helpful. Cathartic, perhaps, but not very helpful.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not a fan of Mr. Jemas’ personal manner on the net or when addressing his customers (his customers, for cryin’ out loud! You never want to piss off your customers, but he couldn’t help but do it quite nearly every time he opened his mouth.) Nor do I want to praise him as a writer. Marville was unreadable dreck. Namor wasn’t much better. And have you ever seen the proposed storylines in the first Ultimate Spider Man volume? There in the back? It’s deep-fried comedy gold. I couldn’t make this stuff up, but Mr. Jemas just overflowed with it.

Nor do I want to be seen as supporting a lot of the policies he put forth as a publisher. No overprinting, while making good on the bottom line (which was essential for the post-bankruptcy Marvel) is just another way to piss your customers off. And in reality, the reader isn’t the customer, not directly. The retailer is. They’re the ones ordering the book to put in your hot little hands. They’re the ones who deal with Diamond. They’re the ones who put their money out ahead of time and really have to take the risk. You think you risk three bucks with a comic? Try risking 3000 bucks. In a week.

But I’m getting on another track. No overprinting is bad. Looks good for Marvel in the short term, but it’s a long-term road to a shrinking market. But if you’re not going to be around long enough to reap that particular whirlwind, then what’s the big deal, right?

So yeah, Mr. Jemas was responsible for a lot of grief. He’s a loudmouth and lightning rod for controversy. He was hated by most of the readers (and I might count myself in that camp). But now that he’s gone, do you all expect Marvel to pull a miraculous turnaround overnight?

Marvel certainly seems to be going that route. I mean, the body’s barely cold and the management at Marvel seems pretty bent on undoing a lot of what Mr. Jemas has wrought. Yeah, sure, Marville wasn’t going to last much longer anyways. That was already dead on the vine. But what about Epic Comics? That seemed like a pretty good idea. Get some new talent into Marvel, give them a shot with the Marvel box of toys, pay them better than most indies might and get them some exposure. Yeah, sure, they had to slog through far more scripts than they ever bargained for. A lot more.

It’s a lot of work to read an entire bad script. Even the first few pages (which, realistically are all it’s going to take to eliminate anywhere from seventy-five to ninety-five percent of the submissions) of a couple thousand scripts are going to drain the strength of even the most dedicated editors.

But as far as I can tell, Epic’s all but stillborn at this point. They’ve gotten three books out now, with a handful announced for February. February. That’s nearly five months from now. And the books that have come out now are hardly barn-burners (even with high-powered writing and artwork and variant covers to drive sales). Epic was Mr. Jemas’ initiative, and I’m guessing it’ll have the long-term longevity that Mr. Jemas’ career did.

Too bad. Like I said, it could’ve been an effective idea. But it was of Jemas, and now it’ll be excised.

Much like the Tsunami line. “Oh, come on,” you say. “It’s only a resolicit for the trades and a price hike for the monthlies. What’s the harm in that?” Smells a little like The Crew to me. But in the case of Tsunami, it was another Bill Jemas initiative (one that at least had some limited success, though like Marvel itself, there was some fat in the line that could have stood trimming.) And like anything that was associated with him, it’s likely to get amputated.

“What about the Ultimate line?” You ask. Well, my thesis falls a bit short there, but I think that Marvel would have to be really suicidal (or utterly self-loathing) to go through with killing off their best-selling books overall. The Ultimates sells well, when it’s out, but I keep hearing anecdotal evidence that “fans will wait for quality” is beginning to lose steam. The rest of the Ultimate line seems to move along well enough. They ship a lot of units, which is where it’s at.

And part of me thinks that the Ultimate line is a good idea. Dump the continuity (though that’s becoming harder and harder now), get a fresh take on some of the classic characters, that’s good. Nevermind that the Ultimate line largely exists to plunder Marvel’s moribund back history (a back history that they seem to be ashamed of at every turn). It’s all reinventing other people’s work (and Marvel is under no obligation to pay Joe Simon a nickel for Ultimate Captain America, because he’s ultimate, see?) So aesthetically, yeah, I’m less than wild about Ultimate Marvel Anything.

But as it was conceived, the Ultimate line seems to be doing its intended job. As does the reinvention of the Marvel line overall. Okay, so Marvel wants to turn all of their franchise characters into movies. Yeah, that whole ‘minimize for adaptability’ thing grates on my nerves some. Make it all real world. Yeah, that works well for superhero comics. ‘Cause superheroes are inherently realistic and stuff.

Okay, back to Mr. Jemas. The one thing that makes me more than a little hesitant to joining the bashing celebration and dancing on Mr. Jemas’ grave is that least Bill Jemas wanted to make comic books. Yes, his writing was execrable. But at least he wanted to make comics. Avi Arad, Creative Supervisor at Marvel, wants to make movies. He still seems to think that making movies helps sell comic books. You’d think that the spate of recent Marvel movies would have disabused him of this notion by now. Unless there’s an actual effort to sell comic books linked to movies, which I’ve not seen, then the only bump you’ll see in comics numbers will be minimal and not long-lived.

Sure, most of the creative input in Nu-Marvel may have come from Joe Quesada, and he’s still Editor in Chief there. That’s probably a good thing (though I have to say that I often disagree with Mr. Quesada). But I can’t help but think that the new person they’ve brought in to serve as Publisher, I can’t help but think that he won’t be able to prevent the permanent slide from “comics as cool in and of themselves” to “comics are really breeding grounds for other media franchises” that I’ve seen.

Like Grant Morrison (betcha thought I’d go a whole column without mentioning him, huh?) I prefer comics that are doing things that can only be done in comics. I want to read comics that make me say “Wow. There’s no way on or off Earth that they’ll be able to adapt this into a movie. What a great comic.” As it is, Marvel does one comic like that now. I don’t need to tell you what it is.

Oh, I do? It’s New X-Men, and this last arc has been just great. But overall, Marvel’s comics read like storyboards, and not in a good way. I can’t help but think that this trend has nowhere else to go but become even more prevalent than it is now. And I can’t help but think that Mr. Jemas’ departure is going to do anything but accelerate that process.

Right. Hmm. That was kind of a bummer, wasn’t it? Oh well, it can’t all be sunshine and happy ponies.

I’ll be back in a week. You kids play nice.