Comic Book Resources

"Make that Marvel mine!": Brevoort and Quesada on controlling character crossovers

The (Old) New Avengers

Let's say you're the writer for Marvel's new Pugnacious Paste-Pot Pete ongoing. You'd like to do the obvious thing and bring in Unus the Untouchable for a six-issue grudge match. But the X-office has just solidified plans for its "Unus-ted We Stand" crossover, in which Double-U plays a leading role. Who decides who gets to play with the Untouchable?

Two of Marvel's top editors weighed in on this very question (albeit using far less absurd hypothetical examples) on Monday. First, in his weekly Cup o' Joe column here at CBR, Editor in Chief Joe Quesada fielded a question from reader Andyb regarding the reported inability of Avengers writers Dan Slott and Kurt Busiek to use the X-Men characters Nightcrawler and the Beast in their respective runs. Though he averred that more often than not the answer to whether a character could cross from his or her usual franchise to another title is "yes," Quesada explained that the decision typically rests with the writers and editors of that character's usual "family," who receive priority in terms of their customary characters' handling:

For example, back when Brand New Day started, Steve Wacker and the Spider-Man creators, of which Dan was one, asked that there be a moratorium on classic Spidey villains in other Marvel books. The reason for this was because they were appearing in so many titles, that they were losing their impact and the Spider titles were suffering because of that. I agreed with this logic as the plan was to let some time pass and then allow the Spider group to revamp and reintroduce the villain heavy-hitters.

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Six by 6 | Only the end of the world again

Uncanny X-Men #141

Earlier this month ABC News ran a special report called Earth 2100, which imagined a possible "worst case scenario" if the "perfect storm" of population growth, resource depletion and climate change converge, causing catastrophic effects to the planet. The report featured graphic novel-style sequences by Josh Neufeld, Sari Wilson, Joe Infurnari, George O’Connor, Tim Hamilton and Leland Purvis.

It wasn't the first time that comic book creators have taken a look at a possible future where everything has gone to hell, both scaring and depressing you with its bleak look at what might be in store for us. So in honor of the show, here are six of my favorite apocalyptic doomsday scenarios, as presented by comics past and present ...

1. Death by robots -- Geekanerd recently did a post on possible robot apocalypse scenarios and how to avoid them, using Battlestar Galactica, Terminator and The Matrix as examples. Another story that falls into that category is the classic Uncanny X-Men story "Days of Future Past." First introduced in issues #141 and 142, the storyline focused on a possible future where mutants have been hunted almost to extinction by the Sentinels, with the survivors being kept in internment camps. Giant robots = bad, bad things.

I remember reading these issues as a kid and being genuinely freaked out about the fate of the X-Men. It was bad enough finding out that Cyclops, Nightcrawler and many of the others were already dead, but to see Storm, Colossus and Wolverine meet their fates ... I took it as canon, actually, that one day the X-Men comic would end with a similar scene, once it caught up to the future those issues portrayed. Of course, I thought Jean Grey was really dead, too, so ...

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Klein revisits DC and Marvel’s Amalgam line, part 2

Iron Lantern

A couple of weeks ago I linked to two posts by Todd Klein where the award-winning letterer took a look back at the logos for the Amalgam line of comics. So it only seems right to link to his follow-up posts, which examine the logos for the second round of the DC/Marvel mash-up books; here's the first one, which talks about Bat-Thing and (heh) Generation Hex, and here's the second one, with info on Spider-Boy Team-Up and Iron Lantern.

Raise your hand

Black Lanterns

In preparation for the big "Blackest Night" event that's spinning out of Green Lantern, DC's Source blog has been posting information on all the Corps. of the rainbow, ending with the above image of the Black Lanterns.

Whose hands do you see?