No sign yet of Marvel keeping it's commitment to relaunch the Crossgen Universe, which is a major disappointment for me. I've been rereading The Path lately, in which Ron Marz does an excellent job of mixing awesome cosmic power with a story reflective of feudal Japan.
A while back (a loooooooong while) somebody answered my commentary regarding the X-Universe and how disappointing it was that it had become so convoluted that it wasn't worth following anymore. One of the reasons this reader gave for the state of the X titles was a gentleman named Matt Fraction. At the time I didn't have anything to offer in response, because I didn't know Fraction's work. I recently started reading his work on Iron Man, and I have to say that it seems really unlikely that he was the cause of any disappointment on the X books. The man can write. More likely the books with the reputation of being the most over-edited books Marvel produces suffered from exactly that; over-editing. When is Marvel going to learn to just let the writers write?
Somebody once told me that Mark Waid's epically short time on the X books was due to the editorial interference. I'd love to know if that's a fact, because if the truth is anything like the rumors and somebody high up at Marvel hasn't put a stop to it.....that's a major case of mismanagement.
Did everyone watch the Walking Dead last week?
The show sprouted a question by Cam, who wanted to know what I thought of the series. In the moment, my reflection on it was that it was a constant stream of bleakness that offered little hope or reason to hang around, other than to get another healthy dose of the macabre fate that awaits survivors. Through the discussion though, I think I decided that I would revisit the series and blog about it as I read. Maybe if I spend more time thinking about what I'm reading I'll find something in that series to entertain me.
But I'm not holding my breath.
1 comment:
I want to stress that at the start of the series I felt that Kirkman's goal was simply to continually surprise and horrify the readers. I felt this sometimes conflicted with character development/consistency.
However, it's worth hanging in for two reasons: (1) the first big plot point is so unbelievably epic that you have to check it out. Also, it's unnecessary for me to give any plot spoilers away here. You'll know what I'm talking about when you come to it; and (2) the series is in a really interesting spot. it's as thought Kirkman got over the thrill of having zombies roaming everywhere. Sure they're still around, but maybe a bit of the novelty has worn off, and (it seems) as though he's moving towards building some semblance of a society.
If you found the first bunch of issues to be a depressing slog... well, don't expect that to change for some time.
Post a Comment