Finally! JMS is leaving Spider-Man at last
Published by Avi Green on Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 8:35 AM.
Man, I almost missed this news, but now that I have it available, I feel quite relieved. J. Michael Straczynski is leaving Amazing Spider-Man (link via Spider-Man Crawl Space forum):
JMS's run was anything but memorable, filled with a couple of parts where it would seem as though he's confronting some hard questions, but then backed away from them. Or, he was dragging Spidey too far into the realm of the supernatural, one where Dr. Strange is more at home, and straying too far from the urban setting where Spidey works best. Or, as seen more recently, forcing Spider-Man to voice his own political biases. Phooey, who needs it. Morlun was a weak villain, who only seemed to be there for the purpose of getting from point A to point B. The familiar faces in Spidey's cast (Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, Gloria Grant, Robbie and Randy Robertson, Liz Allen Osborn, and of course, J. Jonah Jameson) were largely absent, and there didn't seem to be any new ones with potential introduced, and JMS made very little use of the rogues' gallery either, if at all. After awhile, I couldn't care less, and when that awful Gwen-defaming story came around, I knew it was a good thing that I'd stayed away.
I realize of course that there's still a long way to go for the redemption of Spidey and the rest of the MCU. But for now, JMS' departure is something I can't help but feel relieved by. Now, the challenge is in getting Marvel to actually assign a writer who understands what made Spidey work in years past, and how to best translate those aspects for today. Come to think of it, we can't let Joe Quesada off the hook even now, and there still needs to made calls for his departure as well.
The battle to save Spidey's legacy still must go on, and come to think of it, to save Mary Jane's too. Let's not let up, let's keep on going to fix the problems at hand!
I've seen reports that the latest Wizard magazine mentioned that you're leaving Amazing Spider-Man this coming year. Is that true?So, your coming projects don't have nothing to do with the [remnants] of continuity? That's okay, since I'm not interested in any more of what you have to write, JMS. I stayed away from JMS' writing completely ever since that now notorious storyline "Sins Past" whose only real interest seemed to be in tarnishing innocent Gwen Stacy's image. And, as it turned out, that wasn't even half of the problems to follow, what with Spidey being dragged artificially into the Avengers, who since then haven't even resembled the original concept, and is now beginning to look more like the Defenders. In that case, why launch a new series for the team first led by Dr. Strange in the Bronze Age and have Spidey be a guest member there?
I've been giving it a lot of thought, and what I've enjoyed writing the most for Marvel have been the special projects, like Bullet Points, the new one I'm writing, and I'm most especially happy with how Thor is going. So I finally felt that the best thing I could do would be to devote myself almost entirely to those projects...come up with really cool 6, 12 or 18 issue special projects, in or out of ongoing titles, or reviving titles, and keep Thor my own monthly mainstream Marvel book, so I can give all of those the proper amount of attention.
The cool thing about this is that I get to play anywhere I want in the Marvel universe, I can tell whatever stories I want without worrying about continuity for the most part, and best of all the process calls for the books to be fully written and drawn THEN solicited, so there are no delays. So right now, on the new project, I'm 4 scripts in out of 12, pencils are now coming in on issue 3, and we should have the whole thing done before the first issue hits the stands. That, for me, is the more satisfying way of doing things.
JMS's run was anything but memorable, filled with a couple of parts where it would seem as though he's confronting some hard questions, but then backed away from them. Or, he was dragging Spidey too far into the realm of the supernatural, one where Dr. Strange is more at home, and straying too far from the urban setting where Spidey works best. Or, as seen more recently, forcing Spider-Man to voice his own political biases. Phooey, who needs it. Morlun was a weak villain, who only seemed to be there for the purpose of getting from point A to point B. The familiar faces in Spidey's cast (Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, Gloria Grant, Robbie and Randy Robertson, Liz Allen Osborn, and of course, J. Jonah Jameson) were largely absent, and there didn't seem to be any new ones with potential introduced, and JMS made very little use of the rogues' gallery either, if at all. After awhile, I couldn't care less, and when that awful Gwen-defaming story came around, I knew it was a good thing that I'd stayed away.
I realize of course that there's still a long way to go for the redemption of Spidey and the rest of the MCU. But for now, JMS' departure is something I can't help but feel relieved by. Now, the challenge is in getting Marvel to actually assign a writer who understands what made Spidey work in years past, and how to best translate those aspects for today. Come to think of it, we can't let Joe Quesada off the hook even now, and there still needs to made calls for his departure as well.
The battle to save Spidey's legacy still must go on, and come to think of it, to save Mary Jane's too. Let's not let up, let's keep on going to fix the problems at hand!
Labels: marvel comics, moonbat writers, Spider-Man
