David: Things have been looking forward a lot lately. I guess it’s the turn of the year, but it’s all “#whatsnext” and “#YOLO” lately to the point that sometimes – sometimes – I think we forget about the past. So let’s look back, Matt. Marvel has a storied past filled with glorious and gloriously stupid comics, characters and ideas that are currently unused. What would be the first thing you’d bring back right now if you could?
Matthew: NFL SUPERPRO!!! There should be… like, a whole graphic novel about NFL Superpro! And he could… oh, I don’t know… I guess he could, like, fight mascots or something? Does that sound cool?
I kid. Kinda.
It’s a good question. It’s a tough question, too! It’s tough because I don’t know where to separate myself in terms of my fanboy status — do I bring back something that I read as a kid, something I loved that’s no longer around? Do I pick something that I only came to in my later years, something I read as an adult and had a completely different appreciation for? I think the reader I am and the reader I was are so amazingly different that it becomes a touch hard to differentiate there between the two halves.
So I’ll go somewhere in the middle. Let’s pick the one answer every dork like me will pick and let’s go with ROM, SPACE KNIGHT.
David: Okay, honest question about that: have you ever read Rom, Space Knight?
Matthew: I own every issue. Wanna see pictures? Need some credentials?
David: Okay, I was just checking. That’s something everyone has this esteem for that makes me wonder if it’s irony or mocking because man, it was not very good. I read it when I was a kid and even then I was like, okay, this isn’t so hot. And I have every issue too! I read them, but every time even when I was 8 I felt like I need to read a Transformers comic from Marvel to wash the taste out of my mouth!
What is it that Rom brings to the table that you think Marvel is missing today?
Matthew: I think that Marvel’s Cosmic line is incredibly limited in what they work with right now. And, don’t get me wrong — I really like “Nova.” The Kevin Maguire issue of “Guardians” is fantastic. But the problem Marvel has with Cosmic right now that they didn’t have a couple years ago is that those books aren’t pushing it; it’s all kind of the same stuff you’d find in any other book, even if it’s good. I mean, Nova’s on Earth, and Duggan is bringing in Beta Ray Bill and that’s neat, but it’s hardly anything special, right? And Bendis is taking the Guardians in circles (again with the Earth crap) and Badoon this and Badoon that …Come on. Try harder!
Marvel has constantly flirted with a Space Knight revival, but they still haven’t gone the distance. It’s always just little snippets, little teases and cameos in “Infinity” or wherever. They’re the only element of Marvel Cosmic that I don’t think got their due revival in DnA’s epic cosmic run, and I think ROM is a good character to use as a jumping-off point for that. Sure, ROM spent a good deal of time on Earth (he went to Rick Jones’ wedding and teamed up with the Heroes for Hire!), but he’s a great character to use as an exploratory device for Marvel Cosmic because I don’t think he fits in on Earth as much as Sam Alexander and Peter Quill.
So, I mean, couple that with fan nostalgia for ROM and I think there’s a lot of stuff that can be done in the Cosmic Marvel U to help differentiate it more, because right now the only difference between “Nova” and “Guardians” and the rest of Marvel’s line is the use of stars as a backdrop every now and then. I think ROM’s the guy to do it with. Who doesn’t want to see him get the armor back on and get into another war with the Dire Wraiths, right? Besides you, I mean.
Continued belowDavid: And the guy who owns his rights who isn’t Marvel. Him as well!
I agree with one sentiment. How about we let the cosmic books be cosmic books again? That’s not so hard! I know they’re trying really hard to inflate their sales by tying them to Earthbound ideas, but in the process, it makes the books less interesting (well, Nova kicks ass). Isn’t it a little that just, what, five years ago Cosmic Marvel was maybe the coolest part of Marvel?
Matthew: Well, yeah, rights are certainly an issue. If you wanna be all boring about it and not let me have my fantasy, ya goon!
But, yeah, Cosmic Marvel is best when it is Cosmic Marvel. I had hopes for “Guardians,” but Bendis keeps finding ways to tie it back — the opening arc and the secret of Earth, Infinity (surely they could have gone anywhere else but Earth, no?) and now the X-Men crossover. My secret hope is that when Nova starts appearing in the “New Warriors” book, Duggan will throw him into space for a while. I get that he’s a new hero and has to report to his mom for bed time, but it could be a bit more exciting.
So, take ROM, throw him on Galador and surrounding planets and have some fun with it. He fits less in with the modern Earth crowd, I think. He’d be a good fit to make Cosmic actually Cosmic again, and not just “Books with Stars and Space Ships Occasionally.”
(I should also note that I know a Silver Surfer book that seems like Dan Slott’s Doctor Who pitch is coming out, so that could be the same thing, kinda, I guess.)
What do you want to see?
David: For me, and I know this is every bit as boring as bringing up rights in a theoretical “what do you want to see” article, but I want the Marvel Handbook to come back! When I was a kid, I’d read all about every character, no matter how cool or lame they may have been! For my tiny, fanboy self, it was the best. So here’s my idea: bring it back as a online database as part of Marvel Unlimited or the Marvel site, bring back the old Marvel card power levels deal so we could see who is the biggest and baddest in Marvel, or settle debates like “who is the most powerful Fantastic Four member” (clearly the Invisible Woman, by the way!) with a simple link, and engage users in a different way!
Sure, they’d basically be Wikipedia entries at this point, but they are official official, and I bet people would eat it up. I know I did as a kid, and it was a whole lot of fun to learn about all kinds of characters and everything about them.
I know you don’t like the idea, but you didn’t grow up with those sweet babies either. I bet there would be a market for them, which I am basing entirely off the fact I want them. Science.
Tell me I’m lame!
Matthew: Well, before I tell you you’re lame… I mean, honest question about that: have you ever read the Marvel Handbooks?
David: I see what you did there.
Matthew: Okay, I was just checking.
I don’t want to tell you you’re lame, anymore than I am for wanting to see a pseudo-robot I am fond of getting the spotlight again. As just a cold pitch of “What if Handbooks were a thing still?”, yeah, I think that’s kind of lame, but I really like your explanation — to design a somewhat interactive database is actually kind of smart, and the more I think on it, the more I like it.
Now, I’ll note: I did have these as a kid, and as an adult. Marvel still did these a few times a year in the noughties, especially with the Ultimate Universe the more convoluted it became, and I think they do similar-esque things in re-prints now and again. So I’m fairly familiar with them from Marvel. Not only that, but I’d point out that Tim Daniel designed a similar book for The Walking Dead not too long ago, and I understand that there are more things like that in potential development.
Continued belowI guess as a reader, I just never had too much use for them. I guess it depends on your level of involvement in a book; personally I don’t ever really want to read about the backstories, and I can’t remember the last time I had the “Who would win in a fight?” argument. I think, though, if this were an online thing like you suggest, it would make a lot of sense. I don’t particularly see the point of paying for something like this because to me it represents clutter (particularly because of how out-dated they become so quickly), but, yeah, if Marvel designed their own Wiki as opposed to letting the fans do it (or, really, if they’d just clean up their website and provide accurate information…) I think that could be a slam-dunk endeavor.
David: I knew I could win you over.
Another thing I’d love to see is a kind of independent super-team in the vein of “X-Statix” or “The Order” that didn’t necessarily do things for the right reasons. There are “bad” teams like Thunderbolts and “we don’t give a shit” teams like Guardians of the Galaxy, but I like the idea of there being a bit of a selfish team to the mix. Both X-Statix and The Order were a whole lot of fun, and they didn’t seem like anything else around at Marvel then, or now for that matter.
Ultimately though, it seems like the theme is we want more fun, whether that means Galadorian robot heroes or old school/new school handbooks or books like X-Statix, but we want more fun in our Marvel comics. Seems fair to say.
Matthew: I think also something to mention about “X-Statix” or “The Order” is both of those books were hyper-stylized, and I think that definitely played a part about why those books were so good. Like, The Order was told in part through interviews, and that structure was a big part of the narrative; with X-Statix you’ve got a guy like Mike Allred who is a storyteller like no other, and he always brings some very interesting dimensions to his work.
So maybe one thing that you and I would could agree on wanting to see is Marvel books in general putting a larger emphasis on how the books look, rather than just that the books have pictures. I don’t mean to insult any particular artists, but it sometimes seems like books are thrown together to meet deadlines — and although they might be technically solid, it’s always more exciting to wait a bit longer to see what David Aja did on “Hawkeye” than to get a double-shipped book of muscle-y dudes throwing down.
It’s probably a tricky tightrope, that, but I think if Marvel allowed more time to their books production schedules we’d get more visually stunning and appealing endeavors, which could certainly play a large part towards the overall quality in the way that it worked for “The Order” or “X-Statix.” More Kevin Maguire “Guardians,” less … other issues of “Guardians,” I guess.
(That last bit sounds weird, but I hope my intent is clear?)
David: Oh, that definitely makes sense. I think double-shipping has negatively impacted a lot of their books, and I’m really hoping they give more books time to stick to their identity like they have with “Hawkeye”. So yeah, give books time to breathe where you can to maintain quality, and arm creators with the ability to make books look the way they want them to. I’m not saying they should drop down to two issues a year, but it’s hard to maintain quality when your book is double-shipping and getting dropped into events all of the time (see: Wolverine and the X-Men).
Matthew: Right — and with a book like “WAXM,” you know, you’ve got artists like Chris Bachalo and Ramon Perez, but they don’t get as much time to design or play with the books as they do elsewhere. Perez’s issues were great, but they weren’t “Tale of Sand” great, you know? And wow, can you imagine if it was? “WAXM” is a great read, one of my favorites month-in, month-out, but it would’ve been cool to see more of the artists be a bit more playful throughout in the same way Nick Bradshaw is/was.
Continued belowDavid: I think they all worked, but I do think the speed did hamstring them a bit perhaps. I think the “Tale of Sand” thing is more of a stylistic choice, however.
Either way, for our last and biggest point, it seems we want Marvel to go back to the days of shipping once a month. I’m sure readers would agree with us, if only because that gets really expensive. I know budget concerns have grown increasingly since Image Expo and their onslaught of big books, but getting Marvel back down to once a month shipping would be a boon for everyone, and a retro callback we could get behind.
Matthew: Sure, definitely the biggest thing I support.
Honestly, like, there are tons of books I’d love to see get revivals — we never brought up “NEXTWAVE” somehow, which is a surprise for us — but Marvel does put out a lot of books both you and I want to buy on a regular basis, with more coming throughout the year. But it would also be nice to see them slow the heck down and actually let things develop a bit more, particularly with their flagship books.
David: Agreed. One of the sad side effects of double shipping is it makes readers make a choice between things like “do I want this second issue of Avengers this month or the one issue of Superior Foes of Spider-Man”, which negatively impacts the lower tier books. Sure, maybe they’re looking to more strongly emphasize the Avengers franchise, but at the cost of their own books, especially ones that seem like they are on the verge of getting canceled perpetually? That’s a huge bummer.
More comics are always great, but not when they’re cannibalizing other books Marvel is releasing.
