I also doubt it's a coincidence that DC praises artists after Marvel essentially insults them.
They certainly put an emphasis.
But a line like this takes time to create and if you look at the talent, DC had already planned this as a artist centric line to begin with. The writing talent is nowhere near the artistic talent in the line ups.
Yeah, I agree with you there, it's just funny that Didio's statement seems to be the exact opposite of the controversial Alonso one.
"What excites me most is that this series of books takes full advantage of the talent and vision of the creative team,Comics are a visual medium and with these titles, the artists are working hand in hand with the writers in shaping the look and direction of their characters. In reaffirming the craft of making comics, we’ve brought together a master class of talent, led by Greg Capullo, Andy Kubert, Jim Lee and John Romita Jr., to help set the style, tone and visual direction for these books. With these four industry giants taking the lead, I feel we can bring the power and energy expected from superhero storytelling back to the page.”-Didio
"There are fewer artists that impact sales than there are writers, Alonso said, and they’re harder to promote. “It’s harder to pop artists these days,” he said. “There is no apparatus out there. There is no Wizard Magazine out there that told you who the hot top 10 were. We don’t have that anymore. We can hype our artists all we want, but I don’t know if we know how many artists, besides maybe McNiven and Coipel, absolutely move the needle on anything to be drawn."-Alonso
It seems like that statement really wanted to say, "no, artists ARE important!!"
I honestly don't see what's so controversial about Alonso's statement. It's probably much more closer ti being fact than fiction. I feel that artist are just as important as the writers. You usually need both aspects to be great for a book to really be seen as a classic. There are exceptions of course. Yet it does seem like artist don't get as much attention as they once did, say compared to their peak in the 90s. They kind of had a slight resurgence in the mid 2000s, but even that couldn't compare to the 90s. The reference to Wizard Magazine really was spot on. You would think that comic web portals like ComicVine would have filled that void by having yearly ranks, or even their own Comic Awards to instill excitement around deciding who the best of the best is every year, or even every quarter. Best writer, best penciler/inker duo, best letterer, best artist team run, best editor for bringing/keeping the talent together, etc. I think that would build much more excitement and awareness around the creators. The industry needs to find a way to better promote the talent pool as a whole (both the veteran stalwarts and the fresh mostly/completely unknown upstarts) to more appropriately market the comic/graphic novel medium as being as great as it truly is, especially now that popular culture has embraced it as a awesome source for new entertainment ideas.
You know, I never thought that I'd see myself liking the DC comics over the Marvel comics, yet here we are! DC has stepped it's game up for years now, while the creativity at Marvel is just crap! It's funny how DC's books get better and their movies just suck, whereas Marve is the opposite - books are crap now and movies/shows are pretty darn good.
Anyway, with this storyline I like the artwork and the thought of two great characters teaming up (a top detective and a great forensic scientist) who I'm sure could solve any crime when you put them two on the case. Plus, I personally like the idea of bringing in the Watchmen characters to this universe. If it's done right and those characters don't lose their no-nonsense edge from their own universe, you can get a lot of conflicting moral codes from both universes heroes. Also, it would be great to see a bunch of new villains who are from the Watchmen universe that more realistically evil in their endeavors. No big speeches about what they are going to do...they just do evil and keep the heroes guessing on what's coming next!
The original Ray, designed by art extraordinaire Joe Quesada, had such a cool character design, and that original mini series was a good read. Nice to see that they are going back to that look and that character who I think can be an awesome character if handled properly.
Mods should do something about some of the hateful content in this thread about Hilary. One thing is to not like a person, but it's another thing to make really tasteless comments about someone you don't like.
She's a KNOWN blatant liar who the FBI decided not to press criminal charges against for doing something that any other government personnel would have been prosecuted for or at the very least been fired for doing. With all this known by the public and the media, she is still in running to become the next president simply due to popularity. It's facts like this that cause people to lash out at a tribute to such a person. I love the fact that a woman is finally getting a chance to become the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. However, it saddens me that it comes at the cost of it being a woman who I feel just doesn't deserve that honor. Obviously many others here feel the same and are passionate about showing their disdain for such a bad decision by Valiant.
Marvel has officially jumped the shark. Why not just make new characters...
THANK YOU! Why not make this 15 year old reverse engineering prodigy develop into a completely new armored heroine? Why does she have to REPLACE Iron Man? Geez, give the young woman her completely own alter ego identity.
I can never get enough of iconic greats such as Stephen Platt (Splatt is his signature which is a mix of his first initial and last name) & Jim Lee...those covers are just awesome. The Terry Dodson cover shows just how iconic Terry's artwork can be sometimes. Love the Frank Cho, yet it feels a bit too bland. Now Emanuela Lupacchino's variant is just amazing...it causes me to look at the Flintstones in a whole new light.
Well...YES...kind of. Though, a better way of putting it is, Wolverine should always be Logan, Spider-man should always be Peter Parker. When a particular character makes the alter ego iconic, they should never be greatly altered with other characters taking up the alter ego. At least not on a permanent basis and most definitely not more than once. However, if a character practically fades into oblivion, then it makes more sense to make such a move. Great examples of this would be the Human Torch. Toro was a character from like 10 to 20 years prior to Johnny Storm who faded into the unknown for most readers by the time Storm hit the scene (granted there is some speculation here since I wasn't alive back then, lol). A character like Ghost Rider I wouldn't count based on how the story of Ghost Rider works. It's a supernatural being who possesses the body of people, thus anyone could be Ghost Rider. It's been this way since John Blaze. However, the Ghost Rider before Blaze would count, since this was a completely different character with a completely different story. Yet again, that character faded well into oblivion by the time Blaze came around. Peter Parker is ICONIC, Logan is ICONIC. If you kill them off, let their alter ego fade into oblivion before you just go and give them a new face. It's happened so much with Spider-man it's basically a joke to me whenever it happens now. With Wolverine, I give it a pass since this is the 1st time, yet only if this turns out to be a temporary thing. Let X23 do her own thing under her own alter ego. This is where the big two have gone wrong so often...trivializing the iconic status of their top characters making the alter ego more important than the actual character just to drum up fake hype and temporarily inflate book sales by keeping the book title the same when it's based on the alter ego yet the character is completely different. 007 has always been James Bond. It's not about just being 007...it's about James Bond BEING 007. I look at actors and actresses the same way. When Jamie Foxx dies (that being he alter ego name) another actor isn't going to immediately pop up and claim that they are the new Jamie Foxx. That would just be plain stupid and ridiculous. Same goes for 2Pac, Marilyn Monroe, Hulk Hogan, Michael Keaton, Katy Perry, The Rock, or Elvis Costello. It's not just about the alter ego, but the character (or person for real world examples) behind the alter ego because they are what made the alter ego ICONIC. Just my opinion.
Damn...even the great x-titles have taken a major nose dive over the years. Who would have thought that Marvel would completely tarnish the greatest that was Spider-man and the X-universe. Oh well, at least their X-Men movies have improved over the last 3 to 5 years. That'll keep me somewhat loyal a bit longer, because the books have mos def lost me for the time being.
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