This Post Was Originally Scheduled for July

So I just saw this, posted about a week ago that says that J.G. Jones won't be drawing the last issue of the much ballyhooed Final Crisis. I can't say much about the series, since I gave up on it after reading the first issue. I haven't even heard much about what's going on in the book or in the slew of related mini-series that seem to come out every week. It may be a convoluted mess or it may be the single greatest DC story ever told, I can't say. If it turns out to be the latter, I'll read it. The former, I just saved myself some time. That's the lesson I learned after Infinite Crisis.

But enough complaining about DC. The point of this post is about punctuality. Specifically the punctuality of artists. Even more specifically, the punctuality of artists who happen to be working on heavily hyped series that were announced and being worked on long before they were scheduled to hit the shelves.

Now, if I'm not mistaken, J.G. Jones had around a year's worth of lead in time for his work on Final Crisis. In fact, I think I mentioned that in this post I made a while back:

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started."

So Grant Morrison (That's what GM stands for, in case you were wondering) started writing the book in the spring of 2006. Jones began drawing it in the spring of 2007. The first issue of Final Crisis came out in May of this year. And it's not like Jones was drawing anything else at the time. Sounds to me like he had a year to work on it. He made it through the first couple issues okay, but then issue number three was delayed. It was announced that issues four through six will feature Carlos Pacheco as a fill-in artist. And now the seventh and final issue will be drawn by Doug Mahnke with no J.G. Jones at all.

Over on the Marvel side of things, Joe Maduriera is just as guilty. He was announced as the artist for Ultimates 3 in the fall of 2005. It was his first work for Marvel since 1997 and his first comics work in five years. Since Maduriera's last comic, his creator owned Battle Chasers series, was often severely delayed until he gave up on it after nine issues fans questioned his ability to get a series out on a regular schedule. In an interview with Wizard, series writer Jeph Loeb assured everyone that since there would be a several month break between the last issue of Ultimates 2 and the first issue of 3, he and Maduriera would have plenty of time to get issues done and keep the book ahead of schedule. Even if he Jeph Loeb couldn't finish his scripts until the last issue of Ultimates 2 came out in the spring of 2007 (And it's not like Ultimates 3 relys heavily on what happened in one and two. Actually, I don't think Loeb read either of them.) Maduriera still had around six months to work on a five issue miniseries which was the only book he was doing at the time. And still there was a four month delay between issues three and four. What gives?

In an email to Comic Book Resources, Jones summed up his situation thusly:

“Any problems completing the series are my own,” he wrote. “I love Doug Mahnke’s art, and he would have probably been a better choice to draw this series in the first place.”

Wow. Jones either seems disappointed that he couldn't finish the series or bitter than he was taken off of it. Or both.

What problems could have come up that would get these artists so far behind schedule? How could you have approximately a year or better head start on a project and still fall behind on it? Are they sick, distracted, a perfectionist, or just plain lazy? Or is it the comic companies they work for having unreal expectations?

As If I Needed It, Another Reason to Hate Countdown

Recently I discovered an interview with Grant Morrison over at Newsarama. He discussed his plans for Final Crisis and the DCU and even addressed some of the complaints that have surfaced about Final Crisis #1 not jiving with Countdown or the Death of the New Gods mini series. You can read the whole thing for yourself but here are a few of the bits I found interesting...

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started. There wasn’t really much opportunity, or desire, to modify our content at that stage...so when Countdown was originally being discussed, it was just a case of me saying ‘Here’s issue 1 of Final Crisis and a rough breakdown of the following six issues. As long as you guys leave things off where Final Crisis begins, we‘ll be fine.’ Obviously, I would have preferred it if the New Gods hadn’t been spotlighted at all, let alone quite so intensively before I got a chance to bring them back but I don’t run DC and don’t make the decisions as to how and where the characters are deployed...J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis. "

So Countdown and its ever abundant spin off mini-series and one shots were conceived and written after the die had already been cast for Final Crisis? Really? And still no one bothered to make sure everyone was on the same page? No one made sure Morrison knew about what was going on in the lead in to his series? No one made the other writers aware of what Morrison was doing? There were not just months, but years of lead in time to make sure everything went smoothly for what is unquestionably the most high profile book on DC's schedule this year and still something slips by the editorial staff? Are you kidding me?

Isn't Final Crisis supposed to be the series that solves DC's continuity mess and creates a sense of order and cohesion for the universe? Actually, isn't that what Infinite Crisis before it and Crisis on Infinite Earths before that were supposed to do? If you're writers and editors aren't on the ball to make sure everyone's working toward the same end then any sense of order and cohesion goes right out the window.

And another thing about the disconnect between Final Crisis and Countdown...

"GM: The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments."

Call me crazy, but I interpret a major part of this interview as Morrison washing his hands of Countdown, saying he doesn't care what happened in it, and giving a big middle finger to all the fans who spent well over $150 to read Countdown as a lead in to his Final Crisis. So the responsibility falls on Morrison for only caring about what happened in his seven issues, and then on Dan DiDio and the editorial staff for giving Morrison free reign and not making sure Countdown and the rest of the DCU fell in line.

This is not the way to build an orderly, cohesive universe. This is the way to make the "C" in "DC" stand for clusterfuck.

Time to refine DC

To say that DC hasn't been "new reader friendly" would not be an unfair statement. Since the countdown to Infinite Crisis started back in 2005, there have been few "jumping on points" for those not quite familiar with the DCU. One Year Later's novelty depended on you knowing what had been before and therefore familiar with the references to how things had changed over the missing year. Before and past that point has been crossover, crossover, crossover. DC's plan seems to be to get readers to buy as many obscure titles as possible. The punishment for not doing so? You miss an important chuck of any ongoing story.

But last week, I saw a vision of hope for DC in the form of Trinity. I don't read reviews outside of Paul O'Brien's X-Axis, so I have no idea what the fanboys are saying about it, but I really enjoyed the first issue. New readers might be able to as well - all you need to know is who Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman are, that they are close friends, and that Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are the secret identities of Superman and Batman. Everything else is explained. It's pretty easy to assume that anyone interested in a DC comic will know these simple matters.

This is what DC needs - a point to take a break and let the universe catch its breath. Give a couple months without the crossovers, the mega-events and the endless tie-in mini-series and let the characters redefine themselves. As it is now, it's hard to tell what's going on with whom, as the characters are jumping around event to event at every turn - and with two consecutive weekly mini-series wrapped up, there have been a lot of places to jump.

Marvel's starting to show signs of this as well by linking Civil War to Secret Invasion, but I'll hold my judgment until after the event ends. More refined, the X-Men have been going full-tilt since Endangered Species started, but with Uncanny #500, the book hits its defining issue and moves forward.

But DC needs to do something badly after Final Crisis that lets the DCU become more reader-friendly. It's the entire reason Crisis on Infinite Earths was done to begin with.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds announced

Geoff Johns 3 Legion story has been something that he's been talking about vaguely for quite a while. Since the current Action Comics Legion story was first being talked about. I had always just assumed that it would be an Action Comics story, but that assumption was destroyed yesterday when Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds was announced.

I can hear the groans from here. Why is DC having one mini-series tie-in to another? Honestly, that is just the way things are. A company has an event, there are going to be extra books that tie-in to it. This is not something unique to DC. If it was, then you would not have had Civil War: Frontline, World War Hulk: X-Men, etc. Tie-ins are not necessarily a bad thing, so long as they remain only tie-ins. It is when a tie-in becomes an essential part of the story that there is trouble.

A tie-in should be supplemental to the main st experience, Marvel has done a decent job with this. DC, not so much. In the lead up to Infinite Crisis, DC had 4 mini-series going on. ory. From myOnce Infinite Crisis started, each of the minis had one special. These specials turned out to be necessary parts to fully understand Infinite Crisis, especially the Villains United special. DC appeared to have learned their lesson with the 52 tie-in, World War 3. While this event was a tie-in, and represented in 52, you did not need to read one in order to read the other. Unfortunately, DC showed they had not learned anything with the Countdown family of titles. But that is for another entry.

Too make a long story short, (too late) there is a way to write a successful tie-in, even if it is going to be a big event on its own. From interviews that I have read with Grant Morrison about Final Crisis, and Geoff Johns about Legion of 3 Worlds, it seems that they understand how to be successful. Grant has said that you do not need to read anything else, to understand Final Crisis. Geoff has said that while there is a launching point within Final Crisis, you do not need to read it to read his Legion story, and vice versa. So long as they stick to this plan, then things should go well.

Ten Reasons "One More Day" Is the Worst Spider-Man Story Ever

#1 - Continuity, Shmontinuity

The biggest thing wrong with "One More Day" is that it throws at least twenty years of Spider-Man continuity out the window. Ask Joe Quesada or even Dan Slott and they'll tell you that it doesn't. That every story is still completely intact. That it all still happened, only people remember it differently. Well, that argument falls apart after examining a couple of the key new developments of "Brand New Day". Even accepting the memory change, things simply could not have happened exactly as the last twenty years worth of Spider-Man comics says they did and still arrived at "Brand New Day."

First off, Spidey's organic web shooters. After mutating into a giant spider, he managed to revert to human form but retained the ability to shoot webs without the aid of his mechanical shooters. If that all still happened exactly the same way, then why does Spider-Man need the web shooters again? Does he still have the organic webbing ability, he just doesn't remember he has it? Or does he not have it anymore, which would mean that the story in which he got the ability never took place?

Harry Osbourne. Is he back from the dead or did he never die? Or did he die and people just don't remember that he died so the Harry walking around now is simply a figment of everyone's imagination?

What about all the people who knew Spider-Man's secret identity, even those who learned it before Civil War? How can those characters still have the same relationship with Spidey when they suddenly forget who he is? (Side Rant: And aren't people like Dr. Strange and Charles Xavier going to question why they suddenly had one particular memory erased? It's not as if they never knew, as the first issue of "Brand New Day' states that Spider-Man did in fact unmask during the Civil War, but now for some reason no one remembers his name or what his face looks like. They seriously aren't going to try to get to the bottom of that?)

Those are only a few examples. There are many more continuity questions raised by "One More Day" and the resulting "Brand New Day". What parts of Spider-Man's history have been changed? What parts are the same? The story opens up that last twenty years of continuity and allows any writer to go in and change anything they see fit and simply point to "One More Day" when a fan asks for an explanation. I didn't like it when DC did it with Infinite Crisis and I certainly don't like it when it happens to my favorite character.

Trinity

Over the weekend, DC officially announced that Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley would be working on a new weekly title called "Trinity," and this book would feature the big 3 of DC: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The first 12 pages of each issue would be done by Busiek and Bagley, and the last 10 pages done by other creative teams, and will somehow tie into the story. Here are some of my opinions on questions that might be coming to mind.

Why put Superman and Batman in another book? This brings up the complaint of over-saturization. Superman is currently an active member in 4 books, and Batman is regularly active in 4-7 books. Add that Wonder Woman is in 2 books, and that does bring up the question, 'why do we need these characters in another book.?' The answer to that is, 'why not?' Why not put characters in another book if someone has what is believed to be a good story to tell? Someone with a good story to tell should not be told no, based on how many books are already out. Would you have told Jeph Loeb not to do The Long Halloween because there were already enough books with Batman in them?

Where does this fit in continuity? Right now, who cares? People care way too much about continuity. The more important thing is the quality of the story. I would rather read a good story that I have no idea how it fits into the rest of the universe, than a bad story that I know where it fits in. Just enjoy the story.

Why another weekly title? This, I do not really have an answer for. It all depends on the quality and purpose of the backup stories. If the backup stories are poor, and pointless, then the case can be made that this book could really be a bi-weekly book, with just Busiek and Bagley's work. However, that is a judgment that cannot, and should not be made until after the book launches in June.

I am sure there are more questions running through people's minds, but those are the one's that I can think of at the moment. In summary, everything depends on the quality of the book. If it is a good book, people will enjoy it, and not question the frivilous details about it. If it is a bad book, then questions and doubts will flow forth. People will pay for a good story, regardless if it comes out every week, or every couple of months. Sure, they may complain, but the book will still be bought.

Counting Down What's Left of My Patience

A little over eight months ago a friend convinced me to start reading 52, DC's weekly series that was supposed to chronicle what happed between Infinite Crisis and the One Year Later story jump. Issue #41 had just come out, so I sat down with a huge stack of books in front of me and cracked open issue #1. About three days later I was caught up and in love with the story. Now, I've never been a big DC fan but the story arcs contained in 52, particularly that of Booster Gold, enthralled me. I bought the last eleven issues of 52 myself and they didn't disappoint. That's why when DC announced that another weekly series, Countdown, would begin immediately following 52 I was excited. Here was a series where I could get in on the ground floor and if it was going to be anything like 52 I was in for a treat.

Fast forward twenty-one weeks and I'm still waiting for my treat. The first few issues of Countdown were interesting enough but the book has been spinning its wheels ever since. Here's what's happened in some of the storylines:

-Mary Marvel gets Black Adam's powers then starts to get bitchier by the week. She seeks help from Zatanna but thinks she's trying to steal her powers. The two fight and Mary takes off. She then accepts the help of Klarion the Witch Boy, who actually was trying to steal her powers. The two fight and Mary takes off. Now she's working with Eclipso and one can only wonder how that will turn out.

-Piper and Trickster were on the run because they weren't trusted by the rest of the Rogues, then they were on the run because they were accused of killing The Flash (Bart Allen). Now they're on the run because they escaped after The Flash (Wally West) caught them. They don't like each other and they're chained together. Hilarity ensues.

-Jimmy Olsen is somehow exhibiting random super powers. He can't control them and doesn't know how he got them or why he has them.

-Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and Bob the Monitor went searching first the Palmerverse (the microscopic civilization that exists all around us discovered by former The Atom, Ray Palmer) then the multiverse for Ray Palmer, who's been missing since the end of Infinite Crisis. Each week they seem to be on the trail only for someone to tell them that Palmer was here but he's gone now. Sorry Mario, but your princess is in another castle.

-There's supposedly a "great disaster" coming and absolutely no clues have been provided as to what it could be.

Now all those things, at their core, are interesting enough ideas. And if all these things were going on in, let's say, week ten that'd be fine. But this is week twenty-one. One more month and the series will already be half way over. We're still no better off at understanding what any of these stories mean, where they're headed, and how they're related to each other than when the book started. The series is progressing at a snail's pace. It's as if they know they don't have enough story to fill out fifty-two issues and they're producing filler. What this reeks of, I hate to say it, is DC wanting to cash in on the success of 52 with another weekly series. And that's a sound marketing strategy, so more power to them. But the readers will only continue to shell out the extra three bucks as week as long as you continue to produce a good product.

And that's what the point of this entry is, me deciding if I want to continue shelling out that extra three bucks as week as long as Countdown's going nowhere fast. And here's what I've come up with: DC, you've got me until week twenty-six. Four more issues. That's the exact half way point of the series. If there hasn't been at least one major development by then, I'm done. No more for me, thank you. The book's not bad, it's just not interesting. As I said I'm not a big DC fan, and maybe that's part of it, but I'd like to read more. So come on...give me a reason to keep reading Countdown.