No, he was talking about Sleepwalker. You know, the character that Tom DeFalco referred to as "Sandman done right."

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=103632

Round 2.

My personal favorites are:

Q: Many people (like myself) consider Civil War as a great idea that was poorly executed. While, you may disagree with that statement, many of the issues people had with the series, like continuity between the series and crossovers, dialogue and characterizations, etc....seem like they fall firmly on the editor. What is the role of the editor in an event like this? If the editor is an active participant in the creation process, then what is the line between creator and editor?

TB: ...It may not all have worked for you, and you're entitled to your opinion--each reader takes whatever he wants from the work. But in my experience, placing order above storytelling is a recipe for mediocre comic books.

Q: ...Suddenly there are a TON of comics that are "must reads", Illuminati, Silent War, World War Hulk and suddenly I feel like it's the 90's again (sadly without a New Warriors or Speedball) and I am scrambling to buy a bunch of copies of books that inevitably will drain me of money and energy to coherently follow plot lines. So, are you going to have one event after another after another after another?

TB: Well, from my perspective, I have to say that I think it’s a good thing if what we’re doing is so interesting to you that you’re feeling compelled to check out more and more of our titles. That’s part of the job, after all—to enthrall you in the lives of the characters so well that you’ll sacrifice food, clothing and shelter in order to keep up with their adventures. So if you’re expecting me to say anything analogous to “Don’t worry, we’re going to be going back to doing boring comics that you don’t have to read really soon!” you can forget about it. Sorry.

CHA-CHING! Marvel right to the bank....

Q: Has MARVEL changed any policies regarding getting books out on time? Especially on big events. Since Civil War, Onslaught Reborn, Back in Black, etc. were shipping disasters I'm worried World War Hulk and upcoming events will fall prey to this trend.

TB: ...From the looks of things, the competition is taking a different tact on this issue, dropping in fill-in stories in the middle of multi-issue storylines, and resoliciting books with artistic changes on an almost weekly basis. It’s too early to tell for certain what effect that’s going to have on their sales (though I know where I’d put my money), but it’s a certainty that it has to be a bit demoralizing to their top talent, and injurious to the readership that’s most interested in those storylines—only time will tell if it’s more injurious than late-shipping those titles.


Wait, so they dont want to upset their creators, if they are doing the job too slow? Keith Giffen said it best during a Countdown interview:

"We're doing a weekly book! If we can do a weekly book and hit that point, then you can hit your point. You're doing a god-damned monthly."

Yeah, I think I'm drafting a letter to Marvel comics, telling them that it's obvious that according to their spokesman, Marvel does not want me as a reader anymore. I have the nerve to ask for meaningful long-term stories, books that are out on time, and continuity.

Comics readers used to turn over after 3-5 years, but those halcyon days ended 20 or more years ago.

Day 3 of Damage Contol:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=103725

Q: Do you believe if the mini series was well written and did its job that you would even have to be doing this?

TB: Yes, absolutely. I think that this would have been the case with any classic story you can point to, had the internet existed at that time it was produced. Heck, Stan would still be answering questions about changing the line-up in AVENGERS #16, Alan Moore would never get anything done while having to justify the ending of WATCHMEN to his online audience, Frank miller would still be taking crap for changing elements of Daredevil’s origin, and people would still be trying to make heads or tails out of SECRET WARS and CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. I think this is completely a by-product of the age we live in. With communication across the globe so easy and so affordable, anybody who didn’t like something can easily find like-minded fellow with which to converse. Also, let’s be very clear about something: I volunteered to do this, I wasn’t obligated to—it’s all part of the larger service-package I try to provide to Marvel’s readers.


Please done mention Watchmen & Crisis, when talking about CW...


3) Market saturation with both Marvel and DC's recent big events has been an ongoing issue for readers and fans. How does this factor in when launching new titles like OMEGA FLIGHT, NEW WARRIORS, THOR, MIGHTY AVENGERS, CHAMPIONS and SUB-MARINER? Is there a point as a company when you feel the need to say "enough is enough"?

TB: There’s always a concern and a question about “how much is too much”, and it’s one that we consider very carefully when undertaking any project. This is why, despite the outrage and protests of Alpha Flight fans, we’re starting OMEGA FLIGHT as a limited series rather than an ongoing, same as AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, same as SUB-MARINER. By the same token, as long as we can still look at the top ten or top twenty titles in the industry and find a JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA or a 52 or a whatever, that means that there’s still dollars available to us in the marketplace, and as a competitive entity, we’re going to make it as difficult as possible for you to spend your time and your money elsewhere

New Avengers renewed my interest in Marvel, and sadly CW spawning out of that has ruined it. Oh well, DC usually gets most of my $ anyway.

I just read CW 7, Frontline 11 and a few other tie ins this past week. After reading these, I just couldn't find any reason I would continue to spend my money on most Marvel books. Usually half my books are Marvel, so don't get me wrong, I mostly enjoy the books and characters. However, the "event" has become so important that good storytelling has left the building. I enjoyed Planet Hulk and for the most part that was a pretty self contained story. Why force us to by dozens of other books to make a buck? These guys are going to kill the golden goose once again.

Yay, it's the "let's blame the internet" defense!!!



Amen to that.



They always do. They'll never admit it, but it's because there's really no true creativity in the comics industry. It's always "find what people are buying now and duplicate it until they stop buying it" and "retell this story from a few years ago with a couple changes."

Look at how they damn near killed the Spider-books and the mutant books when you had Spider-Man and Woverine guest starring in every damned book. Or how they suddenly jumped on the enhancement cover bandwagon.

The more I read of his responses, the more I wanna jam Clor's hammer down his fucking throat..

That is one casualty of this event. New Avengers was Marvel's JLA again. It felt like an important book and it was pretty damn good. Great art, writing, and exciting stories. That book was just starting to get into its groove before the whole dynamic of the title was killed. I'm still looking forward to trying both of the titles out and hope they can retain what made New Avengers so good.

Wash, rinse, repeat...

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=103831

Q: Civil War has gotten a lot of main-stream attention; do you think this is a good place for new readers to start reading?

TB: Sure, absolutely. As I’ve said before, the e-mails and letters I’ve received from new readers who heard about CIVIL WAR and climbed on board have overall been very positive. Civilians have an easier time getting into the story in CIVIL WAR in that it wears its political metaphors on its sleeve, which makes it easy for a newbie to understand and relate to. Also, by and large, in the responses I read, most of the new readers tend to side with Iron Man and Pro-Registration. Not having any personal attachment to any of the characters, they quite easily click to the fact that masked superhumans would be scary as all get-out in real life, and they totally understand the drive to have them registered and operating under some form of oversight.

Civilians? Are we now as readers, registered or something?



Q: I think everyone knew that Civil War would be divisive, but are you surprised just how badly some people have taken it?

TB: Not really—it’s just fresher at the moment, that’s all. But people were just as vocal about HOUSE OF M as well, and about NEW AVENGERS and AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED, and those worked out fine in the long run as well. If the sales had plummeted through the floor at some point during the series, then I would have been worried.

As long as it makes money...

I think this thoughtful post sums it up best:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost....5&postcount=32

I really hate you for pointing this whole drama out. If not for you, I wouldn't have known this existed and would've been content with having bent over and grabbed my ankles for 7 beautifully drawn (for the most part) issues with a terrible, inconsistent story from a normally reliable writer.

Kinda like the person that tells a joke and then proceeds to attempt to explain the punchline, Brevoort really should stop attempting to explain this clusterfuck.

Not to stick up for Sleepwalker or anything, but DeFalco actually refered to Sleepwalker as "Sandman done the Marvel way," which is a little closer to accurate.

I know what you mean, I guess I'm sharing the pain. That ending just ruined it for me. But yeah, if the story worked, Brevoort wouldn't have to be explaining everything for days now. The story would hold up on its own.

I don't know what the hell you guys were expecting but I loved it.

i liked Civil War, but World War Hulk is going to chew it up and spit it out I think. Hulk will smash.

Speculators start your engine, this has the makings of being a quick buy & sell for profit issue (spoiler for this week's books behind tag)



Now we know it's not permanent, but it's a title that retailers order very little of because of low sales, and this event obviously wasn't hyped... so retailers didn't have a chance to increase their order.

Thanks for that info, MovieExchange. That is like one of my few remaining titles that I really didn't want to drop, but considering what is happening, and how it's going to be very hard to know what the hell is going on without having read much of the other CW titles, or the various other tie-ins which will result from this, I may have to accept my defeat and finally drop it. We'll see how it goes.

Regardless, why would you bother? Sandman was on another level of storytelling. What in god's name was Marvel going to bring to it? Crossovers?

Nah, they'll bring back that other nutcase to wear the costume for a while. Then we'll have 4 new versions. Then we'll have a clone. Finally we'll find out that it was one of Tony Stark's androids that was killed.

Like I said, though, we know the change isn't permanent, and the original will be back within a year. Especially with Brevoort's recent comments about undoing major events.

On a side note, the owner of my LCBS got in about fifty, having scaled his order down because it was post-Civil War, but still ordering more than he normally would have. He tried to get a re-order, but of course everyone is sold out. He's put a limit of one per customer, and still figures to be sold out by the end of the day.

While the 2 covers are shipped in equal numbers, everyone figures that the cover by Epting will fetch a higher price.

The specific event itself wasn't hyped, but the Marvel camp has been saying for a while now that 'something' earth-shattering was happening this issue and has been pushing retailers to order stacks of copies. I picked up my copy around noon and it was the last one on the shelf, although there was a small stack of them near the register too.

Yeah, but they say that about every single book.

Civil War was supposed to be "earth-shattering" too...

I just finished reading DC's Kingdom Come. Didn't anyone notice that Civil War is just Marvel's version of Kingdom Come? There are too many similarities but the main plot of heroes vs heroes, registration and control of metahumans, metahumans prison, new heroes blowing up villians without consideration of human casualties, flag characters standing up againts government.

I knew that Marvel's plot wasn't original but after reading KC, Civil War feels like a rip-off.

Well, I'll give credit to Marvel in that they had the guts to make this part of the "real" Marvel universe and not some elseworlds or future. I didn't like Civil War and it's implications, but it did have an impact on the Marvel Universe as a whole, even if it'll eventually be retconned and forgotten.

There was a plan for DC that KC was going to be the actual real future. The Kingdom was suppose to hammer it out how the current DC universe turns to KC one. But they felt it would be too limiting, much like what Marvel is facing right now because of Civil War.