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dandoody

Name: Dan Doody

Bio: Hi, I'm from Seattle, where we hold nothing sacred except for the very sarcasm we use to mock the world. Welcome aboard, cheers.


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A few years ago, I attended a writer’s salon where two or three successful sitcom writers spent about 90 minutes…

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dandoody's Recent Comments
December 29, 2009 1:56 am Two omnibi—Captain Britain & Tomb of Dracula vol. 2
November 9, 2009 9:04 pm Gee DC, might have been better to release this three or four months ago when BLACKEST NIGHT was just beginning.
October 13, 2009 8:18 pm Please tell me all of this Archie Marriage Madness will be collected in a trade.  Suddenly, perhaps strangely, I now want to read all of this & I'm not sure I could track down the issues.
October 9, 2009 10:56 pm While I can't say I'm terribly excited for the animated adaptation, the original PLANET HULK story-line is very, very good. It helps to think of it as a stand alone Science-Fantasy adventure in the same vein as Edgar Rice Burrough's Martian Tales.  Unfortunately, PLANET HULK led to WORLD WAR HULK, which just never lived up to its potential, but isn't that par for the course for most sequels.
September 11, 2009 2:03 pm Looking back on the run of Incredible Hercules made me realize that for the most part the series' covers, discounting variants, have been a throwback to a time when the cover actually had something to do with the issue's content—not only capturing the title's mood but hinting at the narrative within.  Now if only this were a trend among other Marvel/DC titles … what a world that would be.
September 7, 2009 2:30 pm

@TheNextChampion, I understand what you're saying & I think I pretty much agree with you.  There's no doubt Alan Moore is a visionary in the field, but like so many other visionaries, all the acclaim he's received has made him a touch arrogant.  Whether anyone wants to argue if, in Moore's case, this arrogance is deserved or rises to an excessive level, that's an entirely different debate.

@Pompster, Publishing is filled with the corpses of dead author/publisher relationships. It's always difficult to gauge how a new project, even one that seems to be a sure fire hit like a Sandman reunion or Moore's Marvelman, will actually perform in the market.  With the low profit margins, Publishers are more often than not wary of putting out the big bucks to creatives.  Similar thing happened with Stephen King a few years ago when he left Viking for Scribner's.  That said, I'm with you; if you've got proven talent, best to keep them happy & in-house. 

August 26, 2009 3:20 am

@TheNextChampion: Yeah, I'd like to see more of supernatural characters in the MU too. At the moment, Marvel's supernatural characters seem to be floating around the periphery; Dracula appeared in the late, lamented Captain Britain, and the Legion of Monsters were the main protagonists in Marvel Zombies 4. I hope there's a reason behind all of these (seemingly unconnected) appearances.  A few years ago, no one seemed to care about the cosmic characters until Annihilation, which led to ongoing titles for Nova, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and, ultimately, the War of Kings mini.  More to the point, Jason Aaron's run on Ghost Rider has broaden the character's appeal and turn the series into a critical & commercial success. Both examples prove, if you get the right writer(s) with a fresh approach you can revitalize previously obscure characters, making them fun & interesting in unexpected ways.

August 25, 2009 8:01 pm

I got the impression, from something Bendis said on one of the Marvel panels at Emerald City Comicon, that Marvel was gearing up for an event featuring their supernatural/mystical characters, much in the same way that Annihilation showcased Marvel's cosmic characters.  Basically the words he used later appeared in New Avengers #54, which happened to be penciled by Billy Tan, when Daimon Hellstrom said, "Man, look around you … this is the end of days. All that madness you guys are involved in every single second of every single day.  It weakens the barriers between this dimension and the nones that would keep an a-hole like Dormammu away from us."

 

"Shadowlands," as a title, fits the supernatural characters better than the street-level ones.  And given the recent events in Ghost Rider, the fact that Marvel is releasing two new mystic/supernatural-themed books soon—"Strange" and "Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural"—and that JMS supposedly left Thor because he didn't want to be involved in the next big Marvel crossover, it does seem like some sort of supernatural apocalypse is on the Marvel U's horizon.

August 20, 2009 3:09 pm

I'd agree with @ohcaroline & @PraxJarvin, particularly in regards to the whole "One More Day—let's make Peter Parker single again without a divorce."  I always got the feeling too many Spidey writers (David Michelinie & JMS excepted) wanted to write the Spider-Man they grew up with—single, hapless, and never getting any breaks. Instead of viewing his marriage as a challenge to writing engaging story-lines, which included Mary Jane, too many Spider-man writers complained it was only an impediment that prevented them from telling classic Spidey tales.  In a way, I'll admit, they were right—many of the Brand New Day stories, which I've enjoyed for the most part, do have an atmosphere that harkens back to the classic era of Spider-man stories, say from the late 60s to the early 80s; however, I also feel many of the story elements are a bit of a re-tread, mutton dressed as lamb.  Come on, did we really need to have Peter living with Aunt May again at the beginning of Brand New Day?

My real fear is after all the gloss from the Brand New Day status quo is played out, we'll keep getting the same old Spider-man-can't-get-an-even-break-stories, Peter just being Peter, while his surrounding cast does grow and develop.  (Arguably, Harry Osborne & Flash Thompson have been the two best developed characters over BND.)  And if Peter doesn't get the same treatment, then Amazing Spider-man runs the risk of turning into late-era Peanuts—where Charles Schultz kept recycling every gag from the first 40 years of the strip, thinking it was still funny to anyone over the age of twelve.

August 17, 2009 7:14 pm While I'm sorry to see JMS go, maybe with his departure the book will get back to a monthly schedule.  And so long as Doom doesn't cry or make Wikipedia references, I'm excited to see where Gillen takes the series.