I personally always thought that Gambit’s costume gave away his true origin. If you compare it to Archangel’s around that time, you see the similarities in style of someone who’s been altered by the hand of Apocalypse. Really it would have been a great way to rework the bright and sunny Longshot (who didn’t need reworking) into the dark, edgy type of character that was gaining so much popularity at the time.

Ultimately that’s the type of story that was going on in Uncanny… everyone’s gone, lets track ‘em down and make everything right. I really loved the fact that Claremont spread the team to the four winds and then (very) slowly brought them back together. Like every young kid at the time I loved Wolvie and still remember fondly when he, jubilee and the new Psylocke show up in Genosha, not knowing the rest of the X-family is going to be involved… and thus started x-tinction agenda, which I remember loving all but some of the terrible are that surfaced in the cross-over books.

http://volokh.com/2009/09/28/roman-polanski-george-orwell-and-salvador-dali/

And talking about creators pushing their views on stories, anyone ever read Ditko’s Mr. A? Most of them are literally just Objectivist ESSAYS with a few pictures of black and white cards.

Steve Ditko- freaky manifesto voice-over in place of an interview in the video Masters of Comic Book Art
Neal Adams booth: “Ask Me About The Expanding Universe!”
Frank Brunner- bragged how his psychedelic drug use made his comics possible
Dave Sim– misogynist loon manifesto
Grant Morrison– any number of quotes, but we cited his story of being kidnapped by aliens in the book Writers on Comics Scriptwriting
Alan Moore- various claims of working magical rites as documented in The Birth Caul and elsewhere

…and so on. Now, we didn’t REALLY think those guys are all clinically insane, and they’ve all done amazing work. but still, you rattle off the list and seeing them all in a row, you can’t help but conclude that a lot of industry pros are, well, not too tightly wrapped.

Don’t forget Denny O’Neil and his rabid liberalism. Some of his in-story rants from Green Lantern/Green Arrow are cringe-inducing and as insane as anything Ditko has done.

Both are collected in “Visionaries” trades. I have the Simonson Thors; and was looking at the Byrne FF’s in the shop last month, to re-read the FF-vs-Superman story.

Is an “omnibus” something different?

Actually, they didn’t GET the Siege until the end of issue #228, when Roma gave it to them as a means of getting rid of villains they defeated without having to reveal themselves to any authorities (and thus blow their “we died in Dallas” cover). Also, Storm never actually went through the Siege at all (being kidnapped and “de-aged” beforehand).

>>> Sorry Guys-wouldn’t mention it except for the synchronicity, but I was just ripping on my boss; literally, the most brilliant person I know-believes that Europeans evolved from Neanderthals and other humans evolved from distinct proto-humans.

Some recent studies have started to suggest that, rather than existing as a separate species that simply died off and was replaced by Cro-Magnon, Neanderthals may actually have interbred with Cro-Magnon and contributed at least some of their genetic material to modern man, so your boss’ theory isn’t completely insane.

The problem with deriding people for believing something that sounds crazy compared to what we “know” is true is that, often, we find out we didn’t know half as much as we think we did.

I always appreciate hearing reminders of the difference between islamic terrorists and Muslim people. It’s a crucial distinction that isn’t noted often enough, imho. To me it’s similar to the difference between a crazed Palin supporter and a real Christian, or the difference between a brutal Zionist and a true Jew

And I agree with David that we shouldn’t judge the creators by their beliefs, with a provision that they shouldn’t make sharing that belief a bigger priority than telling a story (unless a story is being particularly presented as a philosophical/political/pro-religion/pro-pagan/propagandist piece).
I think both Alan Moore and Frank Miller have blurred that line occasionally.
And Grant Morrison? He has squatted right over that line and dropped an Eric Cartman-style dump right on top of it, from time to time.

Very well said Sean. Agree completely. You can’t always just say “we agree to disagree” on stuff like this. Do I think less of creators whos’ views are very different than mine? Depends on the view. With Adams I wonder what’s going on in his brain but I wouldn’t stop reading/enjoying his stuff. Card though? Not so much.

Interesting how someone like Neil Adams would still believe an all but disproved theory. Reminds me of this guy I used to work with. We were both system engineers so he’s not brainless. Anyway, he truly believed the earth was only 5000 years old, dinosaurs were mythic creatures that never existed and Heaven was a small place, which could fit only 2000 people, and was filled and the doors locked centuries ago.

I know. I feel the same about Christians

I like books by Frank Miller and Alan Moore, and yet I can think of very few things they would agree on politically. Being good at {writing | drawing | singing | whatever } says exactly nothing whatsoever about their competence or expertise in any other field. If I worried about the beliefs of any of these creators, I’d have a much narrower selection.

I could do without the snark directed at conservatives, however: that a given person disagrees with you about any given issue does not make them a bad person – it just means that you haven’t persuaded them of your position yet.

It depends what you mean by condoning. Mormons condemn the PRACTICE but they support the PRINCIPLE of polygamy – see D&C 132, current temple sealings, previous prophets still revered, no apology, etc. (I was a Mormon for 36 years). Loving this thread by the way!

Given Card’s apparent embrace of a resoundingly conservative religious group (well, *sociopolitically* conservative, that is … the whole idea of basing a religion on what amounts to an early 19th century version of CHARIOTS OF THE GODS is a bit unusual, I suppose, though offhand every religion I’ve ever heard of is based on similarly unlikely precepts), not to mention his homophobia, I’m not sure the left would accept him, either.

Barry Smith chronicles quite an alleged UFO experience of his won in TwoMorrows’ STREETWISE. Which doesn’t make him insane — or, rather, if it *does*, my own shelves of UFO & paranormal books raise all sorts of doubts about my own mental processes as well — but is … interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuIqMtB4J3M”

Wow, thanks.

That sounds much better than what we eventually got. I wonder what the X-Men books would look like now if Claremont never left (when he returned, he wasn’t the same – if he had been given more creative control in the first place and never left, things would be different).

“but what really bothers me is that in the rare occassions you do have a conservative writing comics, its like the end of the world to some people. is it so hard to accept that some people might have a different view of things than you??”

Actually, Card is a socialist / communist, I believe, so don’t be so quick to claim him.

And, yes, when the different view of things extends to denying people equal civil rights, it’s not a different view that can be tolerated. That’s extremist, not just “conversative”, like the difference between radical Islamic terrorists and people of the Muslim faith.

Yes, that’s what I meant by my “sanity” comment; I was merely being snarky.

In the case of Grant Morrison though, he really is insane. And thank God for that.

But insane or crackpots? I wouldn’t go that far.

I doubt many of us actually mean that literally. Still, it reminds me of the time I was at Comic-con in San Diego and my friends Tim and Kurt and I were laughing about how clearly, working in comics makes you crazy, and rattled off the list of evidence.

Steve Ditko- freaky manifesto voice-over in place of an interview in the video Masters of Comic Book Art
Neal Adams booth: “Ask Me About The Expanding Universe!”
Frank Brunner- bragged how his psychedelic drug use made his comics possible
Dave Sim– misogynist loon manifesto
Grant Morrison– any number of quotes, but we cited his story of being kidnapped by aliens in the book Writers on Comics Scriptwriting
Alan Moore- various claims of working magical rites as documented in The Birth Caul and elsewhere

…and so on. Now, we didn’t REALLY think those guys are all clinically insane, and they’ve all done amazing work. but still, you rattle off the list and seeing them all in a row, you can’t help but conclude that a lot of industry pros are, well, not too tightly wrapped.

And those are just the BIG ones. Let’s not even get into all the small-scale stuff like alcoholism and weird quirky work habits and all the other stuff documented about comics pros over the years.