COMICS: JMS On The Modern Trend Of Big Events At Marvel

COMICS: JMS On The Modern Trend Of Big Events At Marvel

You're pretty famous when you can simply be known by your initials. And J. Michael Straczynski is certainly in that class at least in the comic book community. The author speaks on a familiar topic here at CBM.

News
By MarkJulian - Jul 28, 2012 04:07 PM EST
Filed Under: Marvel Comics

Speaking to Collider,JMS began the conversation talking about his beloved sci-fi space series, Bablyon 5 but talks quickly headed toward his run at Marvel, particularly on The Amazing Spider-Man and Thor.

On his 6-year Amazing Spider-Man run and disillusionment with Marvel "Big Events"---

JMS: I tried to call it ‘The Barely Adequate Spider-Man’, but that didn’t do so well. (laughs).... I was able to do all sorts of stuff I wanted to do [speaking on his work in television]. The problem with my tenure at Marvel is the fact that they started to get more and more event oriented.

I’m all for crossovers if they benefit the individual books. But it was feeling more and more like the individual characters were being bent towards the event in ways I didn’t think were appropriate. I mean to make Reed Richards a bad guy in Civil War… I just never bought into that. And that Captain America would surrender to a mob? I never bought into that. The more you have characters doing things that they wouldn’t do, because you want it for an event, I just had an increasingly hard time with that. And you can see why after a while, I pulled back from that. Which is why I hid in Thor. I said, ‘I’ll do this book but don’t touch me with the other events.’ It was a character that nobody wanted to write because nobody knew how do deal with him. They offered it to Mark Millar, who ran screaming into the night, they offered it to Neil Gaiman. I said, ‘I’ll write him.’ And my idea was, ‘leave me the [frick] alone.’ Just write this character.... And every [Thor issue] we did was in the top 10 every single month. There wasn’t much action. It was just the character story. ‘Great, I can finally be left alone.’ And then, ‘We’re doing Siege of Asgard.’ ‘[frick], really? No one wanted to touch this character two years ago, and now you want to make an event around him?’

I called [Marvel Publisher] Dan Buckley and said, ‘I heard what your plans are for this. Everything I’ve done, it’s going to be shot to hell.’ Similar to how Spider-Man was shot to hell with One More Day, which was Joe Quesada’s thing. And that’s when I said, ‘I just can’t do this anymore.’

Straczynski goes on to talk about how that's a fairly common phenomenon in not only comics but other creative mediums as well, such as television and film. In a quest to have totalitarian control of his creative vision in television, he went from writer, to story editor, to producer. And in comics, he's going the Image route theses days, launching Studio JMS in a setup that's similar to what Robert Kirkman has with his Skybound Entertainment. It appears that the writer has some big plans for his Image offshoot and definitely has some exciting projects in development with Starz and MTV to name a few. Agree or disagree with the sentiments above? Sound off in the comments section below.

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superotherside
superotherside - 7/28/2012, 5:14 PM
I agree. Hate the One More Day thing. They need to get back and concentrate on the characters. Events are fine, just do one a year.
StuckInPanels
StuckInPanels - 7/28/2012, 5:17 PM
oh JMS, why bother opening your mouth. Your run on Thor was great, but trying to keep him out of the Marvel Universe was a terrible idea. I never read your run Spider-man run but I did hear that it was the editors that did you in on making something great apparently. DC brought you in from the cold but you took two great characters and ran them into the ground as well.
Denn1s
Denn1s - 7/28/2012, 5:19 PM
he's right. he may be an asshole from time to time but he is right...
GoILL
GoILL - 7/28/2012, 5:22 PM
One More Day was terrible.
SoFresh
SoFresh - 7/28/2012, 5:24 PM
I agree, it´s starting to get really annoying, and I don´t have enough money to buy all comics to be aware of the full spectre of the events.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 7/28/2012, 5:29 PM
IMO Civil War was one of the rare cases in which some of the individual books benefited. I enjoyed Spider-man's story (before one more day). I liked the whole underground thing they did with New Avengers. The death of Steve and Bucky becoming Cap were great too. However, Siege was pretty lame, as was Fear Itself. Avengers vs X-men is ok, but they need to give it a rest until they can come up with something meaningful.
Mechagino
Mechagino - 7/28/2012, 5:34 PM
Loved his Thor Run but it's a shame he never got to complete it how he wanted too. He made me a big fan of Thor from his run alone.

Now I can't speak as a Wonder Woman fan as I've only read his stuff of her so far, but the first half was okay but nothing special. Volume two however got gradually better and better and I like it.
SirGeneralGreatness
SirGeneralGreatness - 7/28/2012, 5:40 PM
Oh the guy who made Babylon 5....
StuckInPanels
StuckInPanels - 7/28/2012, 5:40 PM
I think with the end of AVX we may see them slowing down on event comics and focus on telling stories. Everything Marvel has done up to now has been essential and shows that the company is always evolving rather than sticking to the Status quo that DC has stuck with. Characters do change drastically in the Marvel universe, Loki has been a kid since the end of Siege and even with the Avengers movie they kept him as kid and not returning him back to normal. Whereas DC no changes or evolves. Dick Grayson was meant to be the true successor to the Batman legacy, but it wasn't going to last because people cared only about Bruce Wayne being Batman. Marvel has a plan, to me this was all planned out probably years ago, right around when Secret Invasion was going on. Their methodology is about destruction and rebuilding. It all started with Civil War which split the heroes, then Secret Invasion divided the world, Siege united them, Fear Itself tested them, and now AVX pushes them, what will the next event be? perhaps the Ultron War, which will be awesome to be sure.
elessarundomiel2382
elessarundomiel2382 - 7/28/2012, 6:04 PM
unless the event makes sense.....some events may lead into another. If u think about the MCU as a whole, how can there not be an event?? People are always starting shiite
FlixMentallo21
FlixMentallo21 - 7/28/2012, 6:05 PM
@superotherside
How about something even better--events with an Olympics-style timeframe: EVERY FOUR YEARS. THAT would be so much better.
hulagan
hulagan - 7/28/2012, 6:25 PM
I stopped following the big events when i realized that nothing ever REALLY changes. at the end of each event things were always kind of reset. all the big charactes that died came back and all of the minor characters that died didnt because nobody really cared about them anyway. "cough" black goliath "cough"
longbowhunter
longbowhunter - 7/28/2012, 6:28 PM
JMS actually made me like Thor. His run was great. I would liked to have seen Neil Gaiman tackle the character though.
beane2099
beane2099 - 7/28/2012, 6:58 PM
Marvel isn't going to stop with the events. They sell too well. Fear Itself was originally pitched as something happening between the Thor and Cap books. But the big wigs said "Well this sounds like an event." In defense of FI, it had a great start but then it went hollow cause it was just a big ad for other books. The Marvel big wigs joke about event fatigue and they have a right to. People say they're tired of events, but the dollars say otherwise. Rest assured, there will be another event(s) next year. And this one will be "organic to the story they want to tell" too. Everything will have lead to this event which will of course set the stage for Marvel characters going forward. And you can bet nothing will be the same after [Insert Event Name Here]... until it is. Oh well.
Simonsonrules
Simonsonrules - 7/28/2012, 7:01 PM
I completely agree with JMS, but Marvel has been doing this for almost 30 years now and won't stop any time soon. It was really disappointing, however, when lame Norman Osborne showed up in Thor 600, which had an amazing story otherwise, and Thor had to contend with the Green Goblin and Venom amid what was otherwise completely epic storytelling. And although I enjoyed Siege to some extent, the success of the story largely traded upon JMS's terrific Thor run. And after that, Fraction showed up, and with him all of the bad storytelling that entails.
Simonsonrules
Simonsonrules - 7/28/2012, 7:03 PM
But I'd add that JMS comes across as a real prick.
RobbieDigital
RobbieDigital - 7/28/2012, 7:35 PM
I give him props for sticking to his guns.......and not just writing whatever.
DTor91
DTor91 - 7/28/2012, 7:37 PM
Say what you will about JMS, but in this case he's absolutely right. This is exactly the reason why I stopped reading Marvel. Marvel used to their events every few years, and that's it's gotten to the point where, it's not even just an annual thing anymore. You might get two events in one year. Since 2004-05, there has been Civil War, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Siege, Fear Itself, AvX, and periods like Dark Reign and Heroic Age. On top of that there was all of the mini-events the X-Men went through and the ones in the cosmic side. All in all, very few of these events were any good.
Darkknight23
Darkknight23 - 7/28/2012, 8:15 PM
Since everything seems to be geared to reflect the Marvel Cinema universe, maybe these events will slow up.
Tevii
Tevii - 7/28/2012, 8:27 PM
JMS is the man... and he is absolutely right. Im glad he speaks up
smgmayhem
smgmayhem - 7/28/2012, 8:43 PM
I say leave the cross overs to the Marvel Cinematic Universe... And everything else will be okay :)
smgmayhem
smgmayhem - 7/28/2012, 8:46 PM
I mean to speak realisticaly. The writers for the movies are paving the way for new stories to be incorporated into the comics. I think it goes both ways. But at least give the writer the opportunity to write the cross over.
Shadowelfz
Shadowelfz - 7/28/2012, 8:54 PM
Can't agree more with him on this stuf. I've been saying it for years. The idea of civil war was good in principle but, like he said, they changed too many people in ways they shouldnt. Cap, Iron Man, Reed Richards and especially Bishop and Spidey were changed in unforgivable ways. [frick] Civil War... and that was the only crossover event that was decent.

AVX is just plain horrible, as well as scism. I blame hacks like Kieron Gillan and Jason Aaron for ruining the X-Men.
ShadowOfTheWeb
ShadowOfTheWeb - 7/28/2012, 9:00 PM
JMS writes some fantastic stories. I agree, character should always be the priority
MisterBabadook
MisterBabadook - 7/28/2012, 10:42 PM
Big fan of his Superman: Earth One. Straight up movie storyboard.

I agree with the crossovers sentiment!
DTor91
DTor91 - 7/28/2012, 10:45 PM
@cipher

Yeah man, the only good thing to come out of Fear Itself was the Captain America one-shot that dealt with the aftermath of Bucky's second "death," but anything Brubaker touches is gold. Wanted to like the Thor one-shot since my teacher drew it, the story was pretty boring though.
xcrementus
xcrementus - 7/28/2012, 11:08 PM
last I checked, Quesada was FORCED to rewrite the last issue/s of One More Day, cus JMS wasn't writing the story that EVERYBODY had previously agreed to.
With Brand New Day around the corner, and writers/editors bickering with each other, Quesada had to come in and forcefully correct the story, cus the first 2 issues had been basically wasted, and barely addressed any of the plot points that people were relying on. Also JMS's script made 80% of Spidey's history instantly erased.
JMS was willing to screw up the entire editorial plan of Brand New Day (which was already working welll into the next few months), just to write the story he wanted (which would result in...Goblin not killing Gwen, and Harry still dating MJ).
What a jerk. No wonder Slott hates his guts, Slott busted his butt off on the Brand New Day gig.
xcrementus
xcrementus - 7/28/2012, 11:12 PM
As a result of that, One Moment In Time was forced to come later, leaving everybody still confused about the status quo which SHOULD have been properly explained in the initial plan.

No wonder there was so much stepping around the elephant in the room in that first year, they had to delete anything relating from O.M.I.T. Cus of this douche.

SLott knows how to share his toys. Go do some creator owned stuff if you wanna be left alone, that's what Millar does.
niknik
niknik - 7/28/2012, 11:22 PM
The man is absolutely correct. All they care about are sales figures now and the only way they can come up with to get them is by constantly having big crossover events, "killing" off a character (which doesnt mean squat anymore), and renumbering a series with a BIG "FIRST ISSUE". Thats it. They lose all sense of who these characters are and how they should act, and they dont even bother to keep continuity between titles any more. It's just sloppy, lazy, business from the publishers and editors and cheap, lousy writers and artists to increase profit margins. At 4 bucks a book sooner or later people are going to say "no more".
DTor91
DTor91 - 7/29/2012, 12:25 AM
@niknik

That very last point is a major factor on why I've dropped all Marvel titles. The last one I was picking up was $2.99 however. Winter Soldier, very good read, and has nothing to do with anything going on outside of the title.
Harris1
Harris1 - 7/29/2012, 12:36 AM
Yeah the whole Civil War mini was contrived and strained. Millar wrote so many of the characters in uncharacteristic ways. He butchered Cap and Iron Man. He made Tony into a douche. And he made Cap into a reactioary force who lacked the true balance the sentinel of Liberty had always protrayed. Cap is still not the Cap he was before Civil War. Cap used to take everything into consideration and give a balanced accessment of any argument or battle. He doesn't do that anymore. Tony become a government stooge who spied on his friends and trusted no one. No longer was he the rebellious Man of Iron. This guy turned on his friends and then they just accept him back, like nothing happened. It was just silly. And they totally [frick]ed up Spidey. They wrote spidey into such a bad hole in Civil War that they had to pull Brand New Day out of their collective asses to try and fix it. They failed miserable and Spidey's continutity is [frick]ed because of this. Marvel needs a new EIC period.
Harris1
Harris1 - 7/29/2012, 12:46 AM
I agree with JMS here. He's a damn good writer and understands story and character development. Queseda and a lot of these other guys don't get that. JMS made Thor badass and Marvel [frick]s up everything JMS was doing with the stupid Seige storyline. Civil War and every event that has come after it was weak as hell with stupid consequences that came out of badly written stories with no real place to go. Fear Itself was down right terrible and served no purpose what so ever, but to get folks into comic stores to buy trivel.
xcrementus
xcrementus - 7/29/2012, 3:47 AM
you all might wanna read this:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&old=1&id=12664


One More Day could've worked out pretty neat, but JMS dropped the ball, and made others pick up the slack.
EarOne
EarOne - 7/29/2012, 4:33 AM
i dunno what everyone's beef with JMS, cuz..i like his Thor run, Supreme Power series. but, i'm learning there're more people in the industry who hate his guts.

but, i agree, event stories tend to screw the solo book writers, like the late Dwayne McDuffie, at DC.

and on Civil War..it does have its flaws, but i still say it's a darn good concept. Thor's robot/cloning's still LAME-O though..and just way too far-fetched.

Siege's rather disappointing. as Secret Invasion. Fear Itself's okay, but not too necessary.

i'm still waiting for a TRUE huge event involving all from the Avengers, X-Men AND Fantastic Four..just like Ultimate Power.
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