From: cl2g+@andrew.cmu.edu (Charles Anthony Leone)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: Ex-Marvel Stuff
Date: 6 Apr 92 07:51:43 GMT
Organization: Senior, Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

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>Does anyone have any truth behind the rumor that Jim Lee, Wilce
>Portassio and Rob Lefield have been 'released' by Marvel?

We AND Marvel could only be so lucky.

Don't tease me with these ideas...  I would LOVE to see Liefield, Lee,
McFarlane, Larsen and others NEVER touch another Marvel character.
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Hey, Jim Lee is cool. He just has a weak scripter.

I agree that Liefeld and Larsen are dangerous, but I will buy Wildcats,
Youngblood, Spawn, The Dragon, and whatever Whilce is doing for a month
or two just to say "Fuck you" to the Marvel Editorial staff.

THEY'RE  the ones who really shouldn't touch characters. Tom DeFalco
even admits in the latest FF letters page that he's forcing the line
back to the 60's except for "little-boy" titles because, and I quote,

	"There are some times that imagination must give way to tradition."

In other words, the whole reason for it is that he liked the Silver age
and wants it back. People keep telling me what a sweet guy he is, but I
called him once and he's a shark. He doesn't care about progress or
development; in his eyes everything except Thor and FF is wrong and
should be retro-60'sed (whew) but he won't retro anything that sells
well.

DeFalco may have something to do with Namor being amnesiac again and
wandering the world, but I haven't seen John Byrne since July of last
summer so I can't confirm that.

DeFalco and Mark Gruenwald were behind the "Lyja" story in FF that
violates some 15 years of continuity, yet Gruenwald has always been a
Marvel historian. DeFalco said that Alicia belongs with Ben, no ifs ands
or buts. Sue should be weak and Johnny a hothead, he says, and Reed has
all brains and no emotions. Finally, Doctor Doom has always been a
tin-plated madman and that's the way he should always be, says Terrible
Tom, so he and Gruenwald booted Walt Simonson. Walt had big plans for
Doom that DeFalco and Ralph Machhio could not accept, and in the wake of
all the shit thay gave him Walt stopped sending in stories one day.

Except for the Hulk and MAYBE the New X-men book, I wish Marvel nothing
but stock failure, lack of employment, shoddy reviews, production
problems, curses, deaths, sicknesses, and woe... UNTIL all of the
current editors are replaced.

Peter David may not be happy with this, but I dream of Marvel collapsing
and being bought out by someone who cares for the people who have grown
up reading their comics, not just the poor little kids who read them
now. How can they grow up with books that have nothing to teach them?

*

If it were me (Yes, this is a dream too. Before you flame, consider that
this is just my opinion), I'd assign the Marvel Frontiers to the
following creators:

0. A graphic novel  or miniseries in which someone like Doctor Strange,
using the Gem of Infinite Realities, removes the garbage from the Marvel
Universe. Or, someone messes it up worse and it gets fixed piece by
piece. If it's a miniseries, it can coincide with the following.

1. The Amazing Spider-Man
	By Michelinie, Bagley, and Emberlin. RARE GUEST STARS. This is
primarily a Spider-Man title. Also, NO REPEATS OF VENOM OR CARDIAC
WITHIN 2 YEARS OF EACH OTHER.

2. Spider-Man
	Web and Spectacular get cancelled. This one remains as a rotating
creator title, and this one gets more guest stars.

3. Thor, The God Of Thunder
	The Mighty Thor is cancelled. Walt Simonson writes and pencils, Terry
Austin inks. God of Thunder begins with issue #383.

4. Fantastic Five
	Fantastic Four is cancelled. F5 begins with issue #355. The team is
still the Fantastic Four though; the "Five" in the title actually refers
to Doctor Doom. I write and ink, with pencils by Jeff Johnson.

5. X-Force
	Cable, Warpath, Feral, and Shatterstar die. The MLF remains but Rusty
Collins and Skids die. Doug and Warlock are "unkilled" while Karma and
Rictor die in their places. Gideon and his crew are killed. The new team
is Cannonball, Boom Boom, Cypher (now a mage from reading all those
books in Asgard), and Warlock. They rejoin the Xavier school while
Sunspot becomes their arch-enemy. Cable is revealed to be Stryfe's
clone, but Stryfe lives and later becomes Ahab in some futures. Stryfe
is not Nathan Summers, but Mr. Sinister is.
	I don't care who draws this one, but it needs a good writer.

6. X-Men, Uncanny X-Men
	The one who betrays the X-Men is BISHOP. The team is saved, though, by
actions of Gambit. Also, we see a catfight between Jean and Betsy (over
Scott) and Scott is no longer portrayed as a "jerk" all the time. He
stops the fight. Through Gambit, Rogue discovers that she CAN control
her powers ever since Magneto fixed her up in Uncanny 269. Gambit knew
this from teh time the team "joined" Magneto. AND, Magneto is not dead.
Doctor Doom rescued him from Asteroid M and is healing him magically. 
	Written by Byrne, art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams/ Whilce Portacio
and Art Thibert.

7. X-Factor, Excalibur
	Two books that are great just as they are.

8. The Invincible Iron Man
	Iron Man is cancelled, this one begins with issue #251. Written by
David Michelinie, drawn by Bob Layton. Tony has no back problems.

9. Captain America
	The book stays, but Gruenwald goes. Story by Eric Raymont, art by the
current team.

10. Avengers Titles
	The Avengers get royally wasted in the intro series, and both AV and
AWC are cancelled. Black Knight, Captain Marvel, Vision, Hawkeye, Wonder
Man, Scarlet Witch, and Mockingbird all die. Hercules returns to
Olympus. Crystal returns to the Moon.

11. Namor
	Still by Byrne and Jae Lee, but the wandering is resolved. namorita
becomes a permanent character here; the other New Warriors are all
killed by Dr. Doom and their book is cancelled.

12. Doctor Strange
	I haven't read this in a while, but it should be saved. Story by Roger
Stern, art by Ron Lim and Mike Mignola.

13. The Silver Surfer
	The only cosmic title: Starlin, Lim, and Christopher. All Thanos,
Warlock, etc. activities occur here. 

14. Conan, Groo
	We gotta keep these. BUT, Groo goes back to standard size and price
like it was before.

15. Hulks

	Two more books that are great the way they are.

16. The Graveyard
	Guardians of the Galaxy, New Warriors, Wonderman, Infinity watch, Moon
Knight, Ghost Rider, all 2099 titles, Web of Spiderman, Spectacular
Spiderman, Marvel Tales, Avengers, Avengers West Coast, all Punisher
titles, Darkhawk, NFL SuperPro, Daredevil, and everything else not
addressed here.



Recall, this is MY dream. Then again, if I had the money to publish my
own comics then I'd probably pump it all into Zodius.

________________
Tony L.

8^\)
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