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Tweak says, "Breathe, George. Take a moment"

colonel_green (colonel_green) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-10-16 20:20:00

Entry tags:

char: amadeus cho, char: hercules/marvel, creator: dan slott, creator: sean chen, group: dark avengers, group: new avengers, group: young avengers, publisher: marvel comics, title: mighty avengers

Avengers Assemble
Two unlettered pages from Mighty Avengers #30.

Last issue, Stature finally managed to recover the ability to tell the rest of the group about the Unspoken's rampage in China, which necessitates bringing in everybody and their dog.

Sean Chen's Cho is either ten years old, a pygmy, or both, but otherwise it's nice art (Jarvis's obvious enjoyment at having so many old hands around in particular).

The interview with Dan Slott from whence these (and more) came is here. I do like the mention in the interview of the first meeting between New Cap and USAgent being in this issue.

Edit: Actually, there's a lettered preview for this issue out too now.

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stolisomancer
2009-10-17 07:43 pm UTC (link)

Manhunter had rather a lot of scary gay on panel and it didn't do that book's sales any good at all. It got them a few pats on the back, but the book still got canceled twice.

It's a fair point to make, that they could maybe expand their readership by broadening their demographic appeal, but the sales data doesn't seem to bear that out. What sells in superhero comics are A) huge crossovers, B) hot artists, and C) old franchises.

I'd argue that they've come a long way in demographic representation in even the last ten years, by introducing Billy, Teddy, Karolina, and Xavin, and allowing Northstar to be peacefully out of the closet nowadays. They're moving forward bit by bit, but looking at the sales data, I can't blame them for doing so extremely slowly.

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va1tyr
2009-10-17 07:53 pm UTC (link)

All new characters are risky, and gay characters tend to be new characters. It takes a lot of work to have established characters come out of the closet believably, and yeah, I can see them not wanting to risk their established properties in such a way.

but the sales data doesn't seem to bear that out.

They're trying to appeal to women by publishing comics with names like Diva and </i>Minx</i>, while writing Jan out of every continuity in ridiculous ways. (Still bitter about Giant Girl.) Really, it's no wonder they're having trouble. Have you seen the debacle that is the treatment of women and minorities over in Spider-Man? Unbelievable. Women do buy comics. They bought the crap out of Sandman, and they buy the crap out of manga. If Marvel could start out with not actively insulting women, it'd be a grand start. Ditto treating gay kissing like Kryptonite.

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stolisomancer
2009-10-17 08:17 pm UTC (link)

It's a shame that they bungled Ultimate X-Men as badly as they did, but that's mostly down to the wrong writers. The whole Ultimate Colossus thing could've been a watershed moment if a decent writer had followed Vaughan. Roberto Aguirre-Sarcasa would've been pretty awesome.

Wasn't Minx a DC line of comics aimed at girls? I didn't think Divas was a good idea, no, especially with the covers they put on it. I don't blame them for the basic idea, but the marketing is bungled pretty hard, the same way they fucked up the old Emma Frost book with the Greg Horn cheesecake covers.

It's kind of a two steps forward, one step back thing, really. On the one hand, they're bringing back just about every character they've ever used and are getting tons of mileage out of the back catalogue, while they're paying a lot of really good independent artists and writers to do quick fun superhero stuff.

They're also working on their racial balance fairly well, with Luke Cage hitting the A-list, Amadeus Cho, Jimmy Woo, Greg Pak's War Machine, the inexplicable decision to make the post-Ellis American Eagle a total badass (the dude used to look ridiculous), more women on the Avengers even if they did kill Jan, and a higher-profile role for Black Panther.

On the other hand, yeah, their attempts to market things specifically to women have largely been embarrassing to watch, I really wish they'd put long pants on Carol Danvers, and I can't stand to read Amazing Spider-Man at the moment.

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va1tyr
2009-10-17 08:39 pm UTC (link)

Oh, God, Emma Frost! I looove Emma Frost, she's fabulous, and apparently her series was aimed at teenage girls! With THOSE covers? Such a wasted opportunity. The new Nomad looks promising, though, and she has clothes on. Fingers crossed.

They're definitely doing better on race at the moment - love the move of Luke Cage into the A-List, and I love Cho. Of course, it's easier as they do have long-established characters of colour, so it's often an issue of promoting them rather than creating new characters - but yes, they've created some pretty cool new ones. There have been some mis-steps - the black Young Avenger was the one on drugs? Oh dear. And yeah, Black Panther... well. Um. There's a lot to be said about that, but at least Marvel made an effort.

Weirdly, I don't mind so much about Carol - she doesn't need the protection and she's sensibly high-necked so no risk of falling out. My main complaint is the side-boob - have it cover all of her breasts! Kate Bishop, on the other hand, should cover up that midriff. And I'm liking Bobbi's more sensible costume. At least they showed more restraint with fifteen-year-old Cassie than DC do with Supergirl. But yeah, DC and Marvel seem to just... not understand that female comic readers are really very similar to male comic readers. Or, indeed, that women are quite similar to men.

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