The Four Color Media Monitor

It's a shame the woman writer once known for forming the WiR site and phrasing is going out of her way to act as apologist for DC's rebooting on Comics Alliance, saying, for example:

Let me point out why I'm excited about this movement at DC. I also need to say that I am not an apologist, nor is DC even aware I am writing this. These are just my thoughts as both a writer for the company and as someone who dearly loves the DC Universe above all things including dogs and self-respect. You may completely disagree, but I think this is going to be one of the most exciting times in history to be reading comics. Yes, really.

Oh please. They'll know she's written for that site, even if owner AOL isn't part of the Time Warner network any longer. Especially if she did say something negative about them, then they'd really come to attention over what she says. The late Dwayne McDuffie just uttered one simple line a few years ago that he wasn't happy with the editorial fiat they imposed on him when he wrote the Justice League, and found himself out of a job pretty quickly.

Besides, if the same people in charge the past decade are still manipulating things now, then how can anyone trust this to be an exciting time in history? Sorry, but she is an apologist.

First... I don't believe it's a good thing when the readers know everything about a character. That is asking the writer to play poker with all his cards showing and his pants unzipped. You might win the game, but what FUN is it (except the zipper part)? Fiction is about surprise...it's about twists and turns and sudden reveals. And yes, you can still have those things in a great comic in current continuity. But how much more fun is it to be an explorer?

So it wasn't a good thing when E. Nelson Bridwell was a walking Superman encyclopedia in his time? I'm sorry, I don't buy what she's selling here. Besides, what if any character personality changes they impose on their stable happen to be so perfectly awful, we can't get into them?

[...]this is just the first salvo and I am looking at a big stack of books I have to have already. Mr. Terrific getting his own book? Geoff and Jim on Justice League?

The morning when it was announced, Firestorm, the book I am doing with Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar, was actually a worldwide trending topic on Twitter. Firestorm. Who could have predicted that six months ago?

Mr. Terrific will be getting more than just his own book; he'll be getting tattoos and maybe even a tasteless womanizing persona. As for Johns, I've already sworn off of his work that becomes ever more devoid of flavor. And as for Firestorm, to my knowledge, they're going with the Jason Rusch character, and even the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle, in another ridiculous bit of pandering to PC diversity. I'm not impressed. Nor am I impressed with her lip service to Brian Bendis:

I was at a writing seminar as a guest recently, up at the wonderful Stumptown convention in Portland, to hear Brian Michael Bendis give a speech on comics. He said something that I found a real key to his success...that when something went wrong or contrary to his wishes, instead of falling to pieces, he saw that as an opportunity. It's not specifically DC that I'm so behind on with this plan, it's big ideas, giving creators room to try new, wide-open concepts. That excites me.

Ugh. She bolsters the terrible man who helped destroy the Avengers and Scarlet Witch? Okay, I've read enough. Mainly because not much went contrary to his wishes under Quesada, and even now, that's not exactly happening. He was a favored contributor, with a POV they considered suited to their own, and let him turn it inside out, into a concept that belonged either in the Heroes for Hire or the Defenders, with Spider-Man and Wolverine brought in only for the name value. Anyone who buys into Bendis' limp approach isn't making much of a case.

Labels: Avengers, dc comics, dreadful writers, Justice League of America, marvel comics