Comments on: Comic Book Legends Revealed #182

By: Garrett

Garrett — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:29:32 +0000

Ron Friedman is on the record as saying he threw out the filecards he was given when writing the initial MASS Device, because of a lack of helpful character information (not shocking, given how little personal info is on some of those 1982 filecards). Furthermore, Friedman had the first crack at Flint, Lady Jaye, Shipwreck, and the Dreadnoks, as they debuted in Revenge of Cobra well before their comic and action figure appearances. The Sunbow staff seems to have written episodes with Tomax & Xamot in the summer of 1984, and Marv Wolfman and Ron Friedman basically established the backgrounds and personality for Quick Kick. Lastly, Serpentor and Cobra-La were devised almost entirely by Buzz Dixon.

By: M-Wolverine

M-Wolverine — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:14:15 +0000

“The powers that be wanted G.I. Joe to be crystal clear and idiot proof and Todd drew it as if the reader had a brain and could follow a story.” Yes, because garbled, incoherent art with no structure is just having faith in your readers, and not sloppy work. What a self-serving crock. We’re supposed to figure out for ourselves how anybody survived that firefight going full auto at point blank range with no cover.

I think when people refer to Hama “working on the cartoon” they probably mean him doing the character cards for Hasbro, which both the characters in the show and comic (obviously) were based on.

And wow, blast from the past – Tue Sorensen! I had many the pleasant online international discussion with him in the old Usenet days of the Internet. Good guy.

By: DazedGenoshan

DazedGenoshan — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:44:42 +0000

Maybe its because I didn’t get to Scott and Maddy’s early courtship until long after I knew she was a clone and Jean was destined to come back in the picture, BUT the controversy of Scott’s leaving his wife (clone or not) and child for another woman was, in a twisted way, on of the few things I liked about Cyclops- its the only thing that made him seem even remotely human and realistic. At the time I was first getting into X-Men (issue #281, still one of my favorites- oh and Jean “dies” in that issues too, ironically enough), divorce was very commonplace, to the point it was almost considered respectable, and staying in a “bad marriage” the height of foolishness.
With but a few exceptions, Cyclops was usually treated as a space-holder, nothing more than an orders spouting field commander whose emotional range was limited to stoic soldier and hair-trigger temper. Having a crazy X-wife (sorry couldn’t resist) and struggling with the loss of custody of his child (albeit this was very short-lived and he seemed to get over it pretty quickly until the Cable/Stryfe debacle made jogged his memory) were the only things interesting happening to Scott for decades. I did like his befuddled attraction to Psylocke, but it was as short-lived as his lament over losing his baby.

Ironically enough, swapping Jean for Emma Frost FINALLY made his character awesome… apparently those redheaded she-devils were holding him back all those years! Sure, sure, being possessed by Apocalypse helped nudge him into relevance, but still… The X-Books might be convoluted and even bat-$h!t insane at times, but I will always love them (with the exception of the creativity gap between AoA and New X-Men), and adore their unique, Nth level form of science fiction meets prime-time soap opera.

By: Garrett

Garrett — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 22:35:58 +0000

I’m fairly certain that Larry Hama had a lot to do with the replacement of MacFarlane-Russ Heath (*the* G.I. Joe artist, having been lead designer for the Sunbow show and an artist during the comic’s heyday) once complained in an interview about how Hama refused to switch inkers because said inker knew how to ink the weaponry even though Heath didn’t much like the inking in general.

As for the art in the published issue, it was my first, and it was pretty straightforward-until the end, with Hawk. Joe comic fans forget that the change was ordered for Sunbow’s benefit in 1986, as the studio had never used the character before (the same with Grand Slam, who looked extremely similar to Flash), and was extremely keen about too many similar looking characters after having wildly altered the designs of most of the ’82 line for the MASS Device miniseries in an effort to give the team a more varied appearance. Hama never changed Hawk’s hair color over resentments towards Sunbow and the Steve Gerber-assembled writing staff, who never said a bad word about Hama publicly until The Visionaries, when a minor villain was named Falkhama and referred to as a bit of a never-was in that show’s world of magic. The same can’t be said about Hama, and at least the Sunbow staff members in question (Buzz Dixon and Flint Dille) have recanted their antipathy towards Hama.

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 04:25:24 +0000

I figure the Paul Smith era was Claremont taking a breather after many cosmic shake ups. There was a lot of warmth no doubt. But the love for these characters started during the Byrne era. A lot of touching moments. (Just different). I did not enjoy Cockrum coming after Byrne so much because it felt like a regression. Only the Magneto/Charles vs the Brood stood out really. But I disagree with the put down on the Romita Jr. and Silvestri era by Paul up there. It’s not because it was different from Paul Smith that it was bad. It did take a nasty turn around the Mutant Massacre but even amidst it all it gave powerful stuff. I love the introduction of Rachel in the present time and how she reacted to everything..leading to Wolverine stabbing her out of necessity. And from the Silvestri time I appreciate the dream-like quaity that it offered. Chris and Marc seemed to like the mystical/magical part of stories and it showed. Their best story I think was the X-Men face-off with the Adversary(a mystical creature) leading to their “death”. It had such a feeling of innevitability that they would meet their end that these two issues were as powerful as any stuff from the Byrne era.

By: Paul Ware

Paul Ware — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:31:09 +0000

I came across the Madelyne Pryor storyline in odd lumps long after it had got started – same for the Brood storyline. Given that at that time Jean Grey was dead, I was pleased that Scott – always one of my favourite characters back in the Stan Lee/Roy Thomas days – got some of the happiness he deserved. Plus, the story was all about second chances, a good message in my opinion. The Claremont/Smith period (and like another poster on here I consider this to have started with “Beyond the Farthest Star” even though that was a Cockrum story) was magical. The clutch of two-parters including Wolverine’s wedding and Scott’s first meeting with Maddie, followed by “Romances”, were some of the best comics I have ever read. Byrne’s tenure on the series remains classic, and possibly technically better than Smith’s, but Smith’s has something that Byrne’s lacks: warmth. Not love or affection, just simple warmth. Romita Jr, after a very promising start, was just pants. And Silvestri (apols for spelling) was just another scratchy panel filler who had neither warmth, love, nor any feel for character. Claremont seemed to lose his way with the series after the resurrection of Jean, something that for me was one of the low points in comics history and marked very nearly the point at which I stopped reading X-Men on a regular basis. I loved Claremont’s stories when he was allowed to tell them his own way; one of the great problems with companies like Marvel in the 1980s and 90s was that too many writers were allowed to tamper with other writers’ creations. The last truly great X-Men ish, for me, was “He’ll Never Make Me Cry” – another story that I am convinced was foisted on Chris by a meddling writer/editor (yes, Tall Man, I do mean you) – but one that he pulled all the stops out on and made into a little classic. After that, “Two Girls Out to Have Fun” is the last ish that I would ever read again for pleasure. After that it just went down hill like a greased toboggan. But for all the wonderful issues up to then, Chris Claremont (who has the same agent as me – how’s that for name dropping!) has my eternal thanks for some of the best stories since Stan Lee.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:55:24 +0000

They could have done X-Factor without Jean in my opinion. It’s not like they were reforming the X-Men anyway, they were starting something new.

By: Gabriel Rocha

Gabriel Rocha — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:13:49 +0000

The current comics added the two values, the structure by McFarlane + “realistic” academic training.

By: Comics Bronze Age | Review: The Avengers Annual #10

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:28:46 +0000

[...] Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide also lists this as the first appearance of Madelyne Pryor, though this fact remains in dispute. (It’s interesting to note that The Official Marvel Wiki also lists Avengers Annual #10 as the [...]

By: JimZipCode

JimZipCode — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:11:08 +0000

The Claremont/Smith run is my favorite X-run, even a little moreso than the Claremont/Byrne run; it’s one of my favorite runs on any book. (Unfairly I count it as starting a few issues early, with Cockrum’s issue with Wolverine alone on the Brood world.) Great moments like “Professor Xavier’s a jerk!” and the Wolverine wedding two-parter. One of the neat elements of Joss Whedon’s X-run was how he seemed to be nostalgic for the same stuff I was — very enjoyable.

When it happened, I thought the terrible thing about Jean Grey’s resurrection and the X-Factor series was that there was NO “right” thing for Scott to do. And the stuff that happened after: a terrible thing to do to a great character. I liked Madelyne Pryor a lot. Don’t see how anyone could call her whiny or wimpy, at least in the original Claremont stories. She stood up for herself.

The resurrected Jean was worthless, basically until Morrison’s X-run.

But it was great to see Famke Janssen in tight leather pants.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:45:02 +0000

alright, yes she should never have been ressurected

By: Walid Koussa

Walid Koussa — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 07:23:17 +0000

I think Bobby is referring to Jeans first resurrection for X-factor, Frank, and not her actual death during the Dark Phoenix Saga.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:08:27 +0000

I have no idea you meant by that comment, Bobby about marketing of the X-Men books. They reached their conclusion because they felt it would serve their story or their Universe better. Shooter wanted Jean tortured; Chris and John felt was her losing her power was enough. The compromise was Jean dying a tragic death while saving the cosmos from herself.

By: Bobby Drake

Bobby Drake — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:36:13 +0000

McFarlane? At his best, his people looked liney and distorted: His Spidey looked pretty cool that way, his human beings looked uninked. His work was ok, but is an example of elevated mediocrity!

Marshall Rogers? At his worst, could outdraw McFarlane, and at his best, made history as one the best artists in Batman history.

Who would you rather be?

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:20:08 +0000

….and therein lies the stagnation and damnation of the Xmen line: another cut and paste fix-it job to help marketing to sell more X-Books. Its why I quit reading the crap: lets undo every good story by every good writer, cause in the real world everyone dies, and no one comes back…..

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:05:07 +0000

Thanks Micheal! I wonder if the best idea would have been to have Jean with the mind of an infant yet still possessing the Phoenix force(to come out at any times) or Jean powerless and Magneto tempting her to in giving her back her powers. Nevertheless it would have been something seeing a Phoenix vs Magneto showdown for 150. Who to root for?

By: Walid Koussa

Walid Koussa — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:42:07 +0000

Mcfarlane’s characters do express better emotions, but Rogers did a better job on pacing and story. They should have just let Mcfarlane finish Roger’s layouts.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:37:52 +0000

Byrne Robotics has a nice summary of Claremont’s,Byrne’s and Austin’s ideas about what would have been done had Jean not been killed. Here’s the link:
http://byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13985&TPN=7

By: Stevicus

Stevicus — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:43:26 +0000

On the G.I. Joe story, I was collecting comics back then, and McFarlane’s style was so much like John Byrne when he was inking himself, and most people did NOT like it. Sloppy and round, very uncomicy, little did anyone know that would be the wave of the future. Mcfarlane, Bagley, Arthur Adams, damn Arthur Adams’ X-Men annuals and Longshot were freakin’ awesome. In the ironic department, whoever started on the Special Missions book, had a very John Byrne take too, only much cleaner, but it still did not look like standard comic fare.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:02:10 +0000

The thing is, Jean returning and Scott dumping Madelyne for her is an old daytime soap opera staple. Madelyne will return somebody. And then Jean will return to!

Lawrence: the idea was for either Jean returned with the mind of a 5(or 10) years old forgetting everything that happened since she was that age while you would have the Phoenix force always looming in the horizon like a threat. Or that Jean was depowered completly while keeping her mind. And yes at some point Magneto offers to give her powers back. All I know was on one or these two instances, Phoenix and Magneto would have duked it out for all the marbles.