New Brevoort Formspring
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Does Tom Brevoort seriously think 'standing for something' is the same thing as publishing radical left-wing propaganda?
Anonymous
Why don’t you ask Tom?
But I would think that it would be a matter of belief, wouldn’t you? Do you believe that the editors you are accusing of “publishing radical left-wing propaganda” are doing so as part of some vast conspiracy, just following the orders of their left-wing corporate (WHAT???) masters? Or do you think it’s more likely that they are promoting ideals that they believe in and stand for?
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How does one become a Marvel editor? You guys could use some new blood. Anonymous
Best way to get hired is to insult the company until they realize how much better you are than them and give all power to you.
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What golden age do these angry anonymous dudes want to go back to? Marvel was founded on left-leaning stories and Modern Marvel was launched by the obviously progressive commentary of Civil War. If they weren't offended then, it's because they were either 1) too young to understand, or 2) were better readers able to enjoy stories that weren't 100% aligned with their own views.
The culture across the board has been really divisive and angry at all levels in recent times. People are a lot less willing to agree to disagree, to live and let live, or to just relax and let things go. And that’s on all sides, even for my own part, I find myself with the desire to be able to make simple proclamations rather than nuance–”All people who think X are jerks!” But I know it’s not true, and I try to temper that part of myself as much as possible.
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So you're saying there's no cure for the SJW cancer infecting Marvel? Better to just let it die? Anonymous
So you don’t want to be our editor in chief?
Dang.
When will you stop making your heroes stand for something?
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Wait, you guys changed the Scarlet Spider costume over everyone reacting negatively, but have double downed on Secret Empire given even worse reactions? Anonymous
Do me a favor–check the editor credits on Secret Empire. OK, now check the editor credits on Scarlet Spider.
You will note that not only are neither of those people me, they are also not the same person.
Now that I think of it, though…since when is one not allowed to do different things when faced with similar circumstances? Yeah–you bow when you meet the queen, but you don’t bow when you meet every person. Sure, you shout when you are in a crowd at a sporting event, but you don’t shout in a crowd at the ballet. Sure you make hamburgers for dinner ONE night, but not EVERY night.
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Hey Jordan, no one in the industry seems to want to answer this question: Why is the Diamond chart wrong when pointing out low sales, but something to be looked at when talking about high sales? Spencer was (incorrectly) pointing to it about Secret Empire selling so high on the April charts. Whats the deal? Anonymous
Well, I don’t know EXACTLY what you are referring to…but I think the answer to your question is all about context.
When you say “Why is the Diamond chart wrong when pointing out low sales” I am guessing you are talking about a time when someone says “Such and such book sold so low, therefore it should be cancelled”? And likely someone said something like “That’s not the whole story, there are a lot of factors involved in these things beyond direct market sales.” And that’s true.
But that does not mean that Direct Market sales are completely UNimportant. If things sell well in the direct market that is still something to crow about.
It’s like “Howcome when you got an D in that class you said ‘Well, my GPA is still good,’ but then when you got an A you were celebrating?” Because the overall goal is the GPA, but each individual good grade contributes to that.
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If you are implying everyone who has been writing Spider-Man agrees with your interpretation, that simply not true. Admittedly, I can see why you, an actual person working in the industry, has hard time taking some guy on internet saying you and your coworkers are wrong seriously-but it's a fact that it's not just fans who think this. I ask you: Why are all the writers and fans who believe Spidey is about responsibility wrong? How is he about youth anymore than any character who started young?
Ok, there are a lot of things to unpack in your question here. I will try to do my best to answer them as I can.
First off, and importantly so, I don’t edit the Spider-Man books. I have worked on a few odd Spidey books over the years, most of which were not in continuity. I do co-edit Spider-Man/Deadpool, but mostly because I am the Deadpool editor. I am, however, a lifelong Spider-Man fan who cares as passionately about Peter Parker and his life as any fan on here, I guarantee you that.
Naturally, not every person who worked on Spider-Man over the years agrees on every aspect of Spider-Man. If they did, things would have gone a lot more smoothly than they did, and there wouldn’t be so many bad stories–some of which exist purely to undo previous stories.
You’re setting up a false dichotomy in what the book is about. When I have said in the past that Spider-Man is about “youth” it’s not the word “youth” that is the important part. I am very much a “spirit of the law” not a “letter of the law” guy. To me, being about Youth and being about Responsibility are not in opposition, they are two sides of the same coin. It’s also about doing what’s right even when it costs you. It’s also about growing up, coming of age, and “adulting” as another commenter replied. To me, those are all part of one big thing. And there’s room for all of those things in Spider-Man, because he is resilient.
But there is a reason that every time a new “version” of Spider-Man comes out, they make him as young as possible–High School or College age. They don’t start from scratch as a 25 year old guy. and I don’t think that is just because that is where he started in the comics. It’s because at that age is where his central message is easiest to tell stories about.
Yes, you have responsibility for your entire life, not just when you are young. But when you’re young, it’s easier to forgive your mistakes as a learning experience. If you want to read stories about an adult making bad decisions, constantly screwing up his life and failing to learn the right lessons…well, good news! We publish that book, too, it’s called Deadpool, and I actually DO edit that one.
Back to your point that not everyone who worked on Spider-Man agrees that youth is an important component of his story, that’s fine. But it has been pretty widely agreed by most creators and editors who worked on Spider-Man since the marriage that it was a bad idea for the character. They tried SO MANY TIMES over the years to get rid of the marriage. That’s why the Clone Saga started! Then there was Mary Jane dying on a plane! Then the separation when she was in LA! They really wanted it out of there.
And look…I GET IT. Guess what–when I started reading Spider-Man…when I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE SERIES AND ITS CHARACTERS…when, and I’ve said this before, when the book SHAPED ME FUNDAMENTALLY to a degree where I would say it served as my RELIGION…when all that happened? Spidey was MARRIED TO MJ. And when I read those late 90s/early 2000s stories trying to break them up? I was OUTRAGED. I was invested in their marriage! I cared about Peter and I cared about MJ, and it was TOTALLY LAME to just pretend they were never married, like they tried to do for a while there during the Mackie and JMS runs.
For me, though, the changeover happened when I read Kurt Busiek explain why the marriage was bad for Peter as a character, and it all clicked. I stopped viewing the issue as something happening to people that I knew and cared about and started seeing it as story decisions made in a story I cared about. And I saw that yeah…it really would have bee better for the story if they had never been married.
But you know what? It’s fine if you don’t see it that way. I ended up a comic book editor. Most readers, hopefully, will not…and as such have no NEED to look at the stories that way. They can just read them and decide if they liked them or not. And that is totally great.
So if you don’t like unmarried Peter, I am sorry. But the good news is, you can read Renew Your Vows, you can read old stories from before OMD, you can read old Spider-Girl comics…and if the bulk of the fans agree with you, then who knows? Maybe he will be married again in the main series. I don’t think that is likely to happen…but anything is possible.
And just to quickly cover some of the other arguments other people have sent at me that I have not replied to…I actually think Clark and Lois being married is EVEN WORSE for Superman that Spidey’s marriage was for him. I think it completely changed who Superman is irrevocably, and that bums me out because I preferred the old version–the way he is in the Silver-Age or in All-Star Superman. Meanwhile, the marriage DID NOT ruin Fantastic Four…because Reed and Sue already played the role of “mother and father” in that series before the wedding. And the marriage did not ruin Deadpool because that was just another thing for him to screw up badly.
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I write articles for my local comic store. We were going to post an article on “Secret Empire”, but due to some genuine discomfort about certain aspects we made the decision to not post it this time. I think the premise and story are very interesting and just wanted to share the unused article with you. It’s clearly going to be an uphill battle for you guys, this time, but hopefully it will all be worth it.
Who’s Afraid of the SECRET EMPIRE? – Chaos McKenzie
So there’s been a ton of controversy lately centered on Nick Spencer’s run of two corresponding Captain America titles. The controversy being the juxtaposition of a champion of liberty, transformed into a figure of fascism, flying in the face of what many feel the character stands for. I do not want to piss upon those fans feelings, I understand them, I get the rage, but like an avalanche begun by a tiny pebble knocked loose on a mountain summit that roles down, gathering steam, and becoming uncontrollable – I personally feel the controversy has lost any sense of control and the only real victim is the type of story that is going live long beyond the strife.
So yes, Nick Spencer is not writing a story about Captain America fighting the tides of fascism, which are quickly becoming a dominant force in real world politics once again; Spencer is instead using Captain America to paint a very realistic portrayal of current social and political climates. People currently, especially in America, feel their country has been subverted, and depending on whom you ask the cause of that subversion differs greatly. But it is a fact that the Marvel Universe has always attempted to represent the real world within their fantastical reality, and it is a fact now that Nick Spencer’s story heavily reflects things happening in politics right now. I get that some people don’t want that. That things have gotten so bad in the world lately that we need our escapism more than ever, but I for one am extremely excited for the story to unfold fully. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Captain Americawon’t be back to safe and normal status by the end of Secret Empire, and in the meantime we get a sci-fi/fantasy/adventure story that parallels the fears of people in today’s climate. Plus I really feel Spencer has earned a lot of trust with his Image books Morning Glories and The Fix (new volume out now!!)
In the Sam Wilson title, we see the fight for American ideals that have been presented to us on television and in films for decades. An ideal that in today’s climate doesn’t seem as realistic or believable as it once was. Then in Steve Rogers’ title, we watch as those ideals are perverted and twisted in accordance to the whims of an evil cosmic power with the mood swings of a child. One needs to remember through all of this, that fascists see themselves as the right, the just, like any truly brilliant villain they do not see themselves as villains. Surely by the end, as Cap struggles through the everything that is pure anathema and contrary to his character, he will come out of it even stronger, more defined, and recast in the ideals that make him a legend. It’s all very tense and amazing stuff, but I get how, to many, it’s a hard sell. So let’s try looking at it from a different angle – the source material.
Nick Spencer’s exploration of Hydra, as a fascist organization that truly believes it is in the right, doing good, all finds its beginnings in Jonathon Hickman’s Secret Warriors run. This was Hickman’s first series at Marvel, originally publicized as a co-production with Brian Michael Bendis, but Hickman took it in so many different directions that it became a beast completely unique to him. Madam Hydra, Hive, the Kraken, and the philosophical groundwork for this version of Hydra all come from Hickman’s run. Secret Warriors is the underdog of Hickman’s Marvel work after the epic of Fantastic Four and the build up to Secret War. To anyone feeling dirty about the current status of Captain America, I highly recommend checking out Hickman’s Secret Warriors, to get a better sense of the waters Spencer is churning up for his turn at the big event wheel. And remember this is just one more hurdle in a life of Herculean struggles for Steve Rogers, who will no doubt be on the side of truth and justice again, before too long.
To review – there’s no doubt Cap will be back to normal, sooner rather than later, but in the meantime I feel that Secret Empire deserves a much closer look than its getting. Consider how rewarding it will be to see the cracks of fascism rise among the plots of a mind-wiped idealist, to eventually see the evil topple of its own hubris. Without a doubt, I think Secret Empire will be considered a classic once all the dust from the controversy settles, especially as a parallel to the terrors of Trump-ism.
There are multiple volumes of Sam Wilson: Captain America, and the second volume of Captain American: Steve Rogers just came out. Secret Empire is just getting started, and is on the stands now. A new printing of Jonathon Hickman’s Secret Warriors was just collected and is still available.
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Shouting at the Wind on Secret Empire
I’m having a hard time even getting people who are vehemently opposed to Secret Empire to even engage me. It really does feel like I’m shouting at the wind, or maybe being an apologist, but this is all extremely clear to me as a long-time comics reader.
I was someone who (as an opinionated 21 year old) was absolutely furious and reviled by Ultimate Captain America when he first showed up. That and the “evil Jack Kirby” from Millar’s Authority were the two things I was upset about the most in comics from that era. I’m also Jewish (whether that matters or not in this current situation, but I am throwing it out there). The current story doesn’t bother me in the least and it thoroughly bothers a lot of other people whose opinion I regard. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to just where the distinction lies. I think a lot of it is that Millar’s Ultimate Cap was meant to supersede the traditional one, a new more relevant representational Cap for a new time, one that generally called into question the relevance and worth of the original, that tried to discard it. It might be how lauded and successful Ultimates was. It might have been how Ultimate Cap represented Millar’s then view of America as opposed to the everlasting ideal of the American Dream. I think it’s the difference between a new paradigm/updating and just a story, which is what Secret Empire is.
I don’t follow Nick Spencer on Twitter, but I’ve read my share of interviews and it’s obvious that the intent is wildly different. Secret Empire Cap is meant to explore what happens if idealism goes wrong. It’s meant to reaffirm the things that Cap stands for by presenting a villainous version of the character with some of the same elements but sent down a different path and how that can change a person. It’s to create a traditional Marvel villain (like Doom or Magneto) “with a point,” one who sees himself as the hero in his own story. It’s about showing how that person can still be ultimately wrong. It’s also to examine some negative and dangerous current trends in America, but not in that same sort of deconstructionist, openly gleeful, somewhat exploitative way that Ultimate Captain America did. Nothing in Ultimate Captain America was supposed to affirm what 616 Steve stood for. Millar was trying to tear that all down as bullshit and hypocrisy instead. So far, I think the point of Secret Empire is exactly the opposite. It’s much more of cautionary tale and I’m pretty sure much like with the end of AzBats or Spider-Ock, the core of the character is going to be shown as superior in just about every way to the Secret Empire version by the end of this.
Look, Gruenwald’s Cap is basically where I got my moral code from as a kid. Steve is hugely important to me as a fictional entity, but this is just a story and one that’s meant to reaffirm what’s most important about Captain America by taking a few elements away and showing the difference, by showing that it took all of the elements to make him into the hugely admirable character we all regard so highly, one that is more relevant than ever. I’m honestly having a hard time seeing this as anything else, and I’m not sure how people well versed with comics and well-experienced in reading them don’t pick up on that. I think the execution is more than solid enough to present it as such and it’s much more of a willful leap to see all of this as something else from the text itself and the interviews surrounding it.
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Hey Brian, is Infamous Iron Man on-going or is it a finite series? I find it hard to "Maleev" it's on-going... Though, I'm really enjoying it!
it WAS ongoing until you dropped that terrible fucking joke on us :)
it actually is a finite series,. it always was. not mini or max but finite. how finite I was not sure as the story kept finding new surprises for me.
but there is a beginning middle and end to this story. its a doozy.
