The iFanboy Letter Column – 05.13.2011

Friday means many things to many people. For some, Friday means we just stop. For others, it is time to go. For others still, there are various pauses, punctuated by movement.

At iFanboy, Friday means it’s letter column time.

You write. We answer. Very simple.

As always, if you want to have your e-mail read on the any of our shows or answered here, keep them coming — contact@ifanboy.com

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Long time listener, first time caller. I’ll keep this short: Why has Marvel been so kill-happy? Think about it, in the first 4 months, we “lost” Nightcrawler, the Human Torch, and Spider-Man. Is it really just a matter of boosting sales, or is it something more nefarious?

Alex B. (KidKaboom)

While it certainly seems like its a stunt to drive more sales or sometimes even as nefarious as a creator having a vendetta against a certain character, after speaking to several creators who have killed off characters, I’m pretty sure that in this day and age, a character death is done for one reason alone: to help the story.

Now, does it help sales? Absolutely. As evidenced with Fantastic Four recently when they killed off The Human Torch, it became a media event and sales on the book rose dramatically, helping to launch the new #1 issue of FF. But Jonathan Hickman is a smart guy, and he’s telling a story that he’s planned out from the beginning. I would be extremely surprised if he hadn’t planned Johnny Storm’s death from day one, as opposed to Marvel execs coming to him and suggesting a death to help boost. sales. As for Nightcrawler’s death, I was just as upset as any X-Men fan was when he died, but after talking to folks who worked on that story, his death (and the moment in the “Second Coming” storyline that it took place in) was crucial to the story to show that there was a cost to what the X-Men were doing. That the stakes were high and very much real. And the thing about character deaths is that they’re an event that the other characters have to deal with and react to. A character death can be a launch pad for numerous stories as each of the characters deal with the loss and the ramifications.

I don’t blame you at all for being suspicious though of the character death. It’s not like comics hasn’t been guilty of hyping a death in comics over the past 20 years, ranging from Superman in the early 1990s to Captain America a few years ago. And like all comics fans know, no death is permanent. And the sales boost is evident, but the thing is, it has to serve the story. We’ve seen character deaths come out of nowhere, purely to make an event out of it and have it fall flat on it’s face. The story is what has to keep it in check. Marvel Comics isn’t the only one who uses this story tactic either. DC Comics will drop a death when it serves a story as seen with the Blue Beetle, Martian Manhunter and many other characters.

So while it seems like they’re kill happy, I really don’t think they are. The creators and editors behind the comics take the characters very seriously and wouldn’t just go about killing them just for the shock value. Well, most of the time at least.

Ron Richards

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In 25 years when the iFanboy: the next generation is podcasting, who do you think will be remembered as the most important writer from this time, Brian Michael Bendis or Geoff Johns?

Chris from New Orleans, Louisiana

It’s a twist on the classic “who will win?!” comic book trope! I think your premise is slightly flawed in a couple of ways. For one thing, in 25 years, who knows if people will look back on the superhero centric story as the most important thing in comics? Chances are, the folks doing mainstream comics will be the ones remembered, but part of me thinks it can’t continue like this forever. But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. Additionally, your binary question also assumes that there’s no one else in consideration. I think that if you left anyone out, it would be Grant Morrison, who, while not the same kind of writer as Bendis or Johns, is right up there in the upper tier of modern comic book writers. Others could make similar claims for Robert Kirkman, or even Mark Millar. It’s really hard to say. I would say that Alan Moore was the most important comic book writer of the ’80s, but even though we could go back and look at Miracleman and Swamp Thing, I don’t know if that was more of a small cult hit at the time. Maybe in 25 years, people will look back at this as Jonathan Hickman’s golden age, or the start of Nick Spencer’s amazing career.

However, if we’re operating on the idea that your question is the way it will be perceived, one way or the other, let’s look at it. The immediate thing I think of is that the next year is going to be very, very telling for both creators. In terms of comics, so far, Bendis has had a longer track record, and put out more material. If you were to ask me based only on what has happened so far, up to today, I’d give the nod to Bendis, solely for the variety in his work. He’s done several genres, both company and creator owned, and he’s had successes in all those areas. There were some failures, but overall, the range of his comic book writing (and drawing) career is much more varied than Geoff Johns. I think Brian Bendis has a much more clear voice as well. His books feel like they’re his books. It really depends on what you consider good writing if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s subjective.

When it comes to Geoff Johns, he’s really only experienced success in mainstream superhero comics, a field in which is he is unsurpassed. He understands, perhaps better than anyone, exactly what things need to be done in a superhero comic to make readers happy. It may not even seem so at first, but he always gets there. He can break down the essence of what’s important about these characters better than anyone. We haven’t seen him do creator owned work, and haven’t seem him do much outside his comfort zone. He’s had a couple of big, big hits, and was rewarded for it, getting an executive position at DC comics, as Chief Creative Officer.

The next year will really matter in the overall tale of the tape for these two guys. Johns has a lot riding on Flashpoint and the Green Lantern movie. The success or failure of those projects will greatly determine what happens after. As far as Bendis, his future outside of comics might depend on what happens with the Powers TV show, and the adaptation of Jessica Jones. I don’t know what the next step in comics is for him, except a renewed focus on his creator owned properties. He’s accomplished everything at Marvel there is to accomplish, from a traditional standpoint. If Powers achieves The Walking Dead level TV success, then his place is history will be cemented.

It will be an interesting year for both of these guys, to say the least.

Josh Flanagan

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Are there any Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, JLA, and Legion of Super-Heroes titles that are just as good in art and writing as say Justice League animated series, for example?

Karl from London, England, UK

This is a really difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that comparing superhero comics to superhero cartoons is kind of like comparing apples to oranges. They’re both mostly spherical, they’re both fruit, but at the end of the day, when you bite into each one, you’ve got two completely different taste explosions going on in your mouth. “But Conor,” you say, “they’re both stories about superheroes, often the same superheroes!” To which I would say, you’re right. At their heart they are both the same. But it’s what shapes those stories, and it’s which masters those stories serve, that set them apart.

Cartoons tend to have it a bit easier than the comics. They are not weighed down by decades of continuity. They are not interconnected with 50 other cartoons taking place in the same world. And they don’t have fans ready to pounce on any mistakes, real or perceived, in said continuity or interconnectedness. As a result, superhero cartoons — like Justice League and Justice League Unlimited — have the benefit of freedom and focus. They can just tell the stories they want to tell how they want to tell them (within reason and with network approval). And it has worked out well for the DC cartoons. There hasn’t been a Justice League story published in the last ten years that has made me care about those characters more than the cartoon did.

Does that mean there aren’t good comic book titles? No, of course not. But when you start getting into the “as good as” comparison game it gets tricky because it’s not a straight up comparison.

Right now, Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting’s FF is better than any other Fantastic Four Future Foundation story that I’ve ever read. When Chris Claremont and John Byrne did Uncanny X-Men it changed the industry and decades later, Grant Morrison turned the X-Men on their heads and told probably the best modern day X-Men stories. We are in a golden age for Avengers stories right now, from Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s back-to-basics run to Brian Michael Bendis’ epic years long stories that have placed the various Avengers as the most important books in all of comics. I would put Grant Morrison’s JLA stories up there with the best comic books of The Modern Age, and the title has still not recovered from his leaving it over ten years ago. The Legion of Super-Heroes… I can’t really speak to as I don’t read those titles.

Justice League is a great cartoon. The comics that I listed above are great comics. Are they as good as the cartoon? In some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. In terms of pure storytelling, the cartoon is usually going to have the edge because it’s less encumbered, but then it can’t match the sprawling, all encompassing nature of the comics. If you’re looking for a comic book, featuring the characters that you listed, that is specifically written like the Justice League cartoon, i.e. on its own with a laser-like focus on the story and the characters, then you’re probably going to be out of luck. But if you’re looking for high quality superhero stories then there’s enough out there to keep you busy for years.

Conor Kilpatrick