New JMS 12 issue mini-series

[Jan]

According to CBR, JMS will be writing a new 12 issue mini-series due to begin in January 2008 called "The Twelve" which features:

"In broad strokes, the overriding story is about a dozen mystery men from the days of World War Two who find themselves suddenly thrust into the present, into a world where everyone they knew and cared about is dead, and the ideals they fought and bled for smash up against the reality of the world the survivors of that conflict built over the last six decades," Brevoort continued. "And then, somebody gets killed..."

Sounds fun. Hopefully we'll hear more about it at JMS's spotlight panel on Saturday.

Jan

[Lunan]

hmm. sounds interesting. what universe is it set in?

[Radhil]

Judging by the lack of name-dropping, I'd say this one, or something like it. You know, the usual, making it up as they go along universe.

[Lunan]

according to newsarama it will be 12 1940's heros that the nazi's captured and put in to cryosleep. it will be mainline marvel u. sounds interesting. next week they'll tell us who these heros will be

[Karachi Vyce]

I'm already cringing.

I have the bad suspicion that this is going to be used to give us more "Captain America Civil War syndrome".

You should know what I mean by that.

[Lunan]

I'm already cringing.

I have the bad suspicion that this is going to be used to give us more "Captain America Civil War syndrome".

You should know what I mean by that.

that is one thing i am afraid of too, but i'm hoping jms is just as sick of that as the rest of us. let cap be dead (and stay that way at least for awhile before the time warp, magical ressurection, transferance of mind to another body, clone, alien abduction of the body to reanimate, skrull, or unexplained return)

[Karachi Vyce]

that is one thing i am afraid of too, but i'm hoping jms is just as sick of that as the rest of us. let cap be dead (and stay that way at least for awhile before the time warp, magical ressurection, transferance of mind to another body, clone, alien abduction of the body to reanimate, skrull, or unexplained return)

Oh, no. No, no, you misunderstood me.

I meant something else entirely. Given that this is JMS, I'm afraid this is what we're going to get.

I'll let the Ace of Spades say it for me:

Captain America Dead, Killed By Marvel's Lefty Douche-Things:

Dead, killed by a sniper's bullet, in a ludicrous story-arc called "Civil War" intended to echo (and, of course, critique) life in Bu$h's Amerikkka under the Patriot Act.

He won't be missed. Comic book guys I know say that Marvel has seized on the character as a conveniently star-spangled propagandist for the left, putting faintly absurd anachronistic slogans from the 60's New Left in the mouth of a WWII-era patriot.

So really they killed him five years ago. Now they'll just give the desecrated corpse his proper burial.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Marvel -- The House of (Bad) Ideas.

[Jan]

I'm not sure I understand. You're quoting somebody who hasn't even read the comics to illustrate a point that has nothing to do with JMS but you're basing your fears on it?

That makes absolutely no sense, you know. But then I don't find it necessary to look at everything through politically tinted lenses either.

Jan

[Lunan]

i know your normally a "cup half empty" guy an di admit that civil war started well but went downhill VERY fast
and i admit marvel being based here in new york with mainly eastcoast writers does tend to have certain political leanings, and yes using cap that way could hav ebeen written 100 times better (take raknarok which i feel was very well done) especially if they DIDN'T use the red skull, thats totally sucked

now making tony stark the facist posterboy didn't bother me too much(never liked him anyway)

but you have to admit that some of the aftermath books were really well written and dealt with alot of greif. now the way some chars have been spun i'm not too thrilled with (for example i would have chosen to break the "good guys" and the "bad guys" diffrently mainly cause alot of it didn't fit established chars)

however the idea of taking ww2 heros who likely NOONE remebers and put them into 2007 has some very interesting things to do.
RACISM should be big. since it was ww2 and propaganda was at its height before the fall of berlin we should see some very indoctronated people who will also learn of cap's death and of the civil war(it has to play into this somewhat) and they will have to deal with cap siding agenst the goverment and perhaps we can see some moral ambiguity there.

then there are customs for them women are child bearers home cooks and stay there to do as the man says(yes thats a very oversimplification)
so todays sexual mores, clothing styles, customs, education level are all going to come into play

then there is todays technology, how well do you thing someone grabed from 1942ish will deal with an ipod let alone the advanced tech that shield has in the marvel u
are any of these heros early mutants? if so were they depowered? how well would someone with superpowers fghting a war deal with comign to 60 plus years later dealing with todays world AND having lost thier power?

and of course are they all american heros ww2 was fought not just with americans (even if we did win the war, and yes i know thats an over simplification too)
how would a russian hero deal with no soviet union with the empire that calls itself comunist in china?
how about a hero from a country that no longer exists in europe(not counting soviet russia) i forget which countries died in that war but if i recall correctly a few never came out of it
how about a jewish one, want to talk about surviors guilt

and these are just issues off the top of my head at 1am. lets at least wait till the first issue before we judge. ok?

[Jan]

Artist Chris Weston talks about illustrating "The Twelve".

And Newsarama has comments from JMS. I rather like this:

"To a certain degree, the question is what constitutes a hero today, yesterday, and what's the point of intersection between those two," said JMS. "Where does social tolerance become license and where does preference become prejudice? Was the past all it was cracked up to be, and is the future what it was meant to be...and if not, why?"

Jan

[frulad]

lets at least wait till the first issue before we judge. ok?

Well, where's the fun in that?

[Karachi Vyce]

That makes absolutely no sense, you know. But then I don't find it necessary to look at everything through politically tinted lenses either.

Jan

Have you read anything about Mark Millar's political views.

Mark Millar, who wrote Civil War, which ultimately gave us Captain America-as-propaganda-tool, followed by Captain-America-as-martyr.

Millar specifically wrote Civil War to be everything that was stated in the paragraph I quoted. He LITERALLY meant it to be a critique of "Bu$h's Amerikkka". He refers to the Bush Administration as a "junta" for Christ's sakes. It's hard not to look at it through anything BUT politically-tinted lenses, since that's exactly what it literally was. That was his LITERAL intent.

Given that JMS shares many of the same nauseatingly stupid political views, I expect more ham-fisted political nonsense rather than good storytelling.

Edit: some reference regarding Millar. From an interview he did four years ago, regarding the comic he wrote "Superman: Red Son", which was, unsurprisingly, also one big slam on the current adminstration:

I was fortunate enough to have pitched this idea in a period when America still believed in freedom of speech. This isn’t a slight at the publishers in any way because they gave me no resistance whatsoever, but it’s clear that something like this would be a harder sell in the perpetual state of war and fear that’s been engineered in the States by the un-elected junta sitting in the Oval Office…

Like the Bush administration, Superman absolutely believes he’s doing the right thing when he steamrollers over all these weaker states and enforces a global ideology on the human population. However, we as the reader get nervous at the blurred lines between his utopia and the totalitarian state we see in the book, and which we seem to be heading for in real life as the US constitution is torn up before our eyes.

The idiotic bullshit rhetoric there is so fucking thick I'd need a chainsaw to make a dent in it. Sounds like Millar is a heavy duty sufferer of BDS.

Which is his own personal cross to bear, just don't infect my funny books with your ridiculous nonsense.

[David Panzer]

A maybe for me. I do have to say that Erik Larsen's next project really has my interest.

If writers put their political views in a story they write, I don't see the problem as long as the story is good. But my interest in the day-to-day actions of the guys in capes took a nose-dive with the Clone Saga and other horrors of the 90s- Death, Funeral, and Rebirth of Superman, Knightfall, the god-awful Image comics (except for The Maxx, Savage Dragon, Rising Stars and Bone), the gimmick covers, and some other things that I'd rather not remember. So if Marvel wants to have a hero story with a political message, oh well. It's not like the administration would care anyway. Criticism of one's leaders is always to be expected

[Jan]

Newsarama is doing a 12 days of The Twelve series on this mini. Seems to be focusing on the art.

Jan

[Jan]

Here's an article about The Twelve with some quotes from JMS. I'm starting to look forward to this a lot.

Jan