JMS and Amazing Spider-Man?

[Jan]

I read in somebody's blog recently that it was reported in (I think) Wizard magazine that JMS will be leaving Spidey sometime in 2007. Anybody have that magazine who can give us any more details?

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I read in somebody's blog recently that it was reported in (I think) Wizard magazine that JMS will be leaving Spidey sometime in 2007. Anybody have that magazine who can give us any more details?

Jan

I read similar in an article on newsarama, it was a brief mention though. I really really reallllly hope this isn't true. : /

[Jan]

Found this as part of Joe Quesada's weekly Q&A:

Q: Stormbreaker 05-09-2007 10:30 PM

This may seem like a random question, but bear with me. JMS's run on Amazing Spider-Man is slowly coming to an end, and during his tenure, there have been many controversial stories. I want to ask a question about what's possibly the most controversial of these stories: ôSins Pastö.

In my humble opinion, I thought it was simply wonderful. I can't say much more than that, but here's my question. How do you feel about the story and its effects now that's it's been out there for several years and how do you respond to the criticism (both positive and negative, neither of which I shall list here but I have heard plenty) that has been received in response to the arc

JQ: Stormbreaker, I love that story. I have seen how power has corrupted and changed so many people; I have also seen how it has seduced even the most earnest of folk. To me, the story had such an element of the plausible that it struck a chord with everyone. I think the reason it did is because in most peopleÆs heart of hearts, they do know that itÆs possible, that something like that happening isnÆt beyond the realm of possibility and that in itself is disconcerting because we all want to believe the world is better than that, that everything is either black or white. But hey, thatÆs just me.

And since you asked, here's JMS.

J. Michael Straczynski: When Joe Q. first came to me about writing Spider-Man, the book was in the cellar, selling about 35,000 copies per month on a good day. It needed to have somebody put the paddles to its chest and hit the red button. To that end, I told Joe that in order to bring this baby up to where it needs and deserved to be, I was going to have to take some chances in the storytelling. I said right up front that as much as this may succeed, from time to time it's going to fail. That is as inevitable as the sunrise. Taking a chance means embracing the possibility of falling on your face. Otherwise you're not really taking a chance, you're playing it safe. And only the eyes of the audience, and the sales of the book, can really determine success or failure.

Some folks, like yourself, loved ôSins Pastö. Some hate it with the heat of a thousand fiery suns. Them's the breaks. The larger question is - does any book work more than it fails? If so, if more people like it than don't, then you're doing something right. If not, not. That the sales have rarely dipped below a point below triple what they were when I came on board is telling. That the book has for over a year now been selling consistently over 100 thousand copies per issue - currently close to 150K - is even more telling.

But win or lose, the point is to take the chance of being unpopular in one story if that means sometimes finding something else that does work, and work well. I've always been prepared to take that chance, and always will be, because the result of not taking those chances is too terrible to consider. Playing it safe is suicide. As Theodore Roosevelt once noted,


ôIt is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.ö

'Nuff said.

jms

[Karachi Vyce]

Dear Joe:

"Sins Past" was shit. You know this. Quit trying to excuse it.

BTW, cancelled my AMS sub cause of you.

Your pal,

Vyce.

[David Panzer]

But it was better than the Clone Saga

[Jan]

Dear Joe:

"Sins Past" was shit. You know this. Quit trying to excuse it.

BTW, cancelled my AMS sub cause of you.

Your pal,

Vyce.

Dear Vyce,

JMS doesn't read here. He doesn't post here. If you actually want him to see what you think, post to the moderated newsgroup.

Now, the question is, would you have thought it was shit if the twin's father was Peter as JMS wanted? Because it was your good buddy Joe Quesada who wanted it to be Norman Osborn (Osborne? I can never remember which spelling it is).

Jan

[Lunan]

Dear Vyce,

JMS doesn't read here. He doesn't post here. If you actually want him to see what you think, post to the moderated newsgroup.

Now, the question is, would you have thought it was shit if the twin's father was Peter as JMS wanted? Because it was your good buddy Joe Quesada who wanted it to be Norman Osborn (Osborne? I can never remember which spelling it is).

Jan

i happened to like the sins past story quite alot, i think it would have been better if peter had been the father (alot more to play with there) after all teenagers have to discover sex for themselves at somepoint and the geeky ones often seem to get there at about that age (age peter and gwen were)

for sins past i think the thing is that gwen is the 400lbs gorilla along with ben paker sitting in the background at all times for pete.
(oh and i dare you to find even 5 stories from the 10 years before joe started writing spidey that are "good") off the top of my head. zero come to mind

[Karachi Vyce]

Dear Vyce,

JMS doesn't read here. He doesn't post here.

I know all of these things.

I was being a smartass. Writing a hypothetical letter to JMS. Like so:

Dear JMS,

Please don't fuck up Thor while you're at it.

Your friend in Christ,

Vyce

Now, the question is, would you have thought it was shit if the twin's father was Peter as JMS wanted? Because it was your good buddy Joe Quesada who wanted it to be Norman Osborn (Osborne? I can never remember which spelling it is).

The father being Peter would have made more sense.

But still been shit. "Sins Past" was not a story that EVER needed to be told, and in its true mark upon the mythos, it has done NOTHING to make any of the characters any better, only worse. So ultimately, it was a pointless, worthless story that only served to damage long-established characters. Forgive me if I don't provide the polite golf-claps for JMS for writing it.

Not surprising that Quesada intersected to make the story even more nonsensical than it already would have been. Through Civil War he's shown just how inept he can be as EIC.

[David Panzer]

The Clone Saga did more to damage the Spidey mythos than Sins Past could ever claim to have.

I forget what issue specifically revealed that the Spider-man fans had been reading for the past 17-19 years since the original Clone Saga in the 70s, was actually the Spider-Clone, the series almost tanked. And then to resolve it, they came up with the genius idea of having the Green Goblin as the mastermind behind the entire clusterfuck of a story. Even though his glider STABBED HIM IN THE FUCKING HEART after Gwen Stacy died.

So how did Sins Past damage anything?

[Lunan]

So how did Sins Past damage anything?

as far as i can tell it added 2 very interesting charicters who could go thru the whole not quite a goodguy/not quite a bad guy thing

oh but then other writers took it and pete went to paris and the other one ended up washing out somewhere, oh and norman osborne left them gliders and masks(that sucked) and then a bad drug addict story, and when jms wasn't writing it it sucked. after sins past they should have left the twins alone for a year or so not jumped right on the bandwagon with them

[frulad]

Not to downplay what JMS has done for the series (both positive and negative), but couldn't the upswing (no pun intended) in the series' circulation be in part due to two* very successful Spider-Man movies that have hit theaters since he took over the writing reigns?


* I think we can all agree the new one is crap.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I think that is probably fair frulad but, whilst that in itself would explain spikes in readership, the writing would have to keep those new readers interested in staying with the book, otherwise they would remain just spikes.

[Jan]

I agree with Garibaldi's Hair. To maintain consistantly high sales, the writing has to be there.

* I think we can all agree the new one is crap.

No, I think we can all agree that it wasn't to your taste. That's all.

Jan
who isn't fond of being informed how she thinks.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

[QUOTE=frulad;38514]Not to downplay what JMS has done for the series (both positive and negative), but couldn't the upswing (no pun intended) in the series' circulation be in part due to two* very successful Spider-Man movies that have hit theaters since he took over the writing reigns?
[QUOTE]


JMS came on before the first Spidey movie came out, to my knowledge, and sales spiked up immediately. They've remained steadily much higher since that point. Marvel has stated several times that they're kind of shocked at how the movies don't seem to increase interest in their main lines. That said, marvel does put out specials that make their way into circulation in B&N and Borders around movie times that do drastically pick up because of the movie. Comic fans are comic fans. Movies don't really change it so much.

That said, I enjoyed Sins Past for the most part. It took a lot of good turns and was very interesting to say the least! I know that a lot of people are pissed off by the characterization of Gwen. But I thought JMS has done pretty well with the series. Only things I don't like of his are where he is forced into the MEGASTORYARCOFTHEYEAR!!! stuff where the stories are very forced into whatever civil war whatever comes out at that time. They just bore me.

I think JMS is at his best comic wise when he creates new villans and new stories. I think the totem arc was phenomenal, and I miss it with all the stuff that's been going on. Ezekiel was a great character who I wish would have stuck around. As was Morlun.

I think Thor will work nicely for JMS becuase he'll be able to tell stories outside of the main universe (asgard) a lot of times and won't be shoved into the "what happens in the day to day of this arc?!" nonsense.

FF had a lot of potential at the beginning that got withered away by Civil War also.

[Lunan]

I agree with Garibaldi's Hair. To maintain consistantly high sales, the writing has to be there.


No, I think we can all agree that it wasn't to your taste. That's all.

Jan
who isn't fond of being informed how she thinks.

i beleave the quote is "if i want your opinion i'll tell you what it is"