The Four Color Media Monitor

On Robot 6 this past week, they revealed that DC, in a typical botch job, hasn't promoted Superman #703, scheduled to be the next in J. Michael Stracynski's silly tale of Superman walking across the USA to visit real life cities. Not only that, the issue's been delayed till next month, thanks in part to the delays that have plagued quite a few of the assignments JMS has taken over the past decade.

I guess that means the buzz is off as quickly as it came. Indeed, Superman #702 only sold about 50,000 copies, which is nothing to write home about these days.

And the retailer in question who's irked at DC for failing to provide any help to him said the following:

I know for a fact that as of August 18th, the day DC’s The Source blog announced that Cincinnati was Superman’s next destination, there was no script. 28 days to go, and J. Michael Straczynski had not turned the script in. Gotta be penciled, inked, lettered, colored, printed and shipped in 28 days. This is the same J. Michael Straczynski that has very publicly proclaimed his love for Superman, who can’t/won’t/didn’t turn the script in on time. Famously late on Thor, never finished The Twelve, loves Superman more than any other comic character, and he isn’t living up to his end of the deal. Straczynski made me a Thor fan, and I didn’t think that was possible. So I was genuinely excited to see him move to DC and take on the Man of Steel. But if you can’t stand the pressures of delivering twenty-two pages every thirty days, write someplace else.

Ultimately, I think it’s about taking responsibility. DC can’t get the script in on time? Fire the guy. He’s one writer. A very good writer, perhaps, but just one writer.

Now there's something I can agree with. If JMS - and his accompanying artist - can't the job done on time, give them their notice of dismissal. JMS would do well enough to go back to Hollywood where he belongs and not annoy us with his increasing obsession of letting his liberal leanings seep into just about anything he writes these days.

Clearly DC has lost interest in making this something special. The local media has begun to lose interest. The local population who never buys comic books but think it would be cool to own issue #703 has started to lose interest. By the time the damn thing arrives, everyone will be distracted by something else shiny.

No doubt about that. But if DC wanted to make this something special, I think it's more likely they were hoping to make it a short-term moneymaking strategy. Now, it's clear it won't be.

Update: JMS, I hadn't noticed before, said in the comments section at CBR that he'd had problems with bronchitis over the past years. Okay, I suppose it's understandable there if he's been unable to get his scripting done on time, and I hope he's been getting better since.

That said, it does not change my opinion about his very weak approach to writing, how he fails to make any serious use of a regular supporting cast in the books he's been assigned to, or how he lets his overly liberal politics find their way very annoyingly into his writing. And that's what's really galling about him as a writer.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Superman