A recent statement from J. Michael Straczynski about the rather infamous “One More Day” storyline has been getting a lot of reaction lately.
Greg from Greg’s Blog of Clue-by-Fours is impressed by the statement.
Very honest, and very classy. He states his opinion without bashing his bosses. Personally, my disagreements with certain creative decisions aside, I have nothing but the utmost respect for both JMS and Joe Quesada. I think “One More Day” is bullshit, but when it comes right down to it, I think actual living, breathing human beings are more worthy of respect than fictional characters. There is nothing wrong with criticism. I do it all the time, but the venom which is thrown at some of these people just bewilders me sometimes. Personally, I despised Grant Morrison’s take on Magneto, but I never called for his head.
Stephen Gerding of Kung Fu Rodeo is decidedly unimpressed:
I think this sounds a lot like a mixture of sour grapes with a healthy dose of “too little too late” thrown in for added flavor. Frankly, this explanation doesn’t wash considering that JMS is supposed to have a “no real editing” clause in his Marvel contract. I can buy Quesada overruling a few decisions from before from his EiC seat, but I don’t buy for a minute that he’s the one orchestrating all of the story points in OMD with JMS acting solely as script monkey. More likely, JMS and Joey da Q both hammered out the entire thing, top to bottom, and managed to convince themselves that they created an epic storyline. When fans finally got a whiff of their brew and started turning on them, going as far as to claim loudly that the freaking Clone Saga was never as horrible as OMD, JMS made the first move and threw Marvel under the bus.
Livejournalist Kali921 takes JMS’s post as validation:
That’s right. The WRITER of One More Day HATES IT. He’s so blatant about it that he posted it on his own damn website.
The same writer who brought us the craptastic piece of incomprehensible bullshit known as The Other. Now, you know that when the dude that wrote The Other, as well as the execrable storyline where Gwen Stacy had kids by Norman Osborn, tells you that your story sucks?
IT SUCKS.
Are we clear on this now?
So what do you think?
December 8th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I find it a little odd that JMS would say that publickly before the story is even done. I generally believe in the “keep family business in the family” ethic. A year or two later isn’t so bad, Will Smith waited about that long before apologising for Wild Wild West.
As for the statements themselves, I agree with Greg’s blog post. We, the readers, don’t have to like the story, but there’s no need to go overboard. Stephen Gerding is just making up his own version of history devoid of any facts about what actually happened at Marvel. That doesn’t help anything. I acknowledge his right to dislike the story, but it doesn’t help to accuse people of lying and play guessing games about how the story was written.
December 8th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Putting the OMD thing aside, Greg’s comment is the one I wish I’ve seen from so many other bloggers/message boarders. Comic fans (and fans of anything in general) sometimes forget in their unleashed attacks on creators or editors about their treatment to fictional characters, that they’re talking about human beings.
December 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
If people are so worked up about OMD then they should just NOT buy it.
December 8th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
For Joe to complain about OMD is too little too late. The unmasking of Spider-Man in Civil War changed the character a lot more than even OMD does. After Civil War he wasn’t Spider-Man any more. He was just a character named Spider-Man as he no longer had a dual identity and might as well not have worn a mask at all.
December 8th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
“Comic fans (and fans of anything in general) sometimes forget in their unleashed attacks on creators or editors about their treatment to fictional characters, that they’re talking about human beings.”
One of the two human being involved in this story responded to criticisms of his 9/11 issue of Amazing Spider-Man by calling his readers “basement-dwellers,”* and compared to what his Editor-in-Chief has said about his own customers, that’s pretty tame, so if we’re going to be expected to remember that “we’re talking about human beings,” then they need to do the same.
*Oh, and Straczynski? I hated your 9/11 issue, too, but I’m not a “basement-dweller,” because while you were berating the patriotism and lack of concern for the 9/11 dead among your critics, I was on an aircraft carrier heading out to drop bombs on the jackholes who actually attacked America.
December 8th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I think OMD is brilliant and I can’t wait for the stories that come after. I am actually disappointed to hear that JMS isn’t a fan.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
So Kirk, you were bombing Saudi Arabia or did you find Osama’s house?
AE.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I think it’s goddamn sad that so many people can’t understand what Usenet is or how JMSnews works.
Anyway, posting things like this to Usenet while a project is in production is really nothing new for JMS– he posts what he thinks about everything he works on while he works on it. I do find it unusual he’s posting to the marvel.universe group where he tends to be persona non grata.
December 9th, 2007 at 2:19 am
“So Kirk, you were bombing Saudi Arabia or did you find Osama’s house?
AE. ”
Thanks for saving me from being the one to sidetrack the discussion. If the guy says it was Iraq, then he really needs to be slapped. Anyone that stupid does their country a disservice by enlisting, as he drags the intelligence of those around him down as well.
Which…back on track…I haven’t even read OMD. Knew the premise and decided I wasn’t interested. If JMS is being forced pretty much to write this, that sucks…but that he’d come out before the arc even wraps to say, “don’t blame me folks…I screamed to anyone that would listen that you guys deserved a better story,” shows a lack of ethics and professionalism that sucks even more.
December 9th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I think ANYONE who brings politics up and further sidetracks the topic needs to be slapped, but that’s just me.
December 9th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Well, I for one can’t think of a single reason I shouldn’t listen to every single thought, opinion and utterance of someone identified only as ‘livejournalist Kali921′.
December 9th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
“If the guy says it was Iraq, then he really needs to be slapped. Anyone that stupid does their country a disservice by enlisting, as he drags the intelligence of those around him down as well.”
For the record, I don’t think it was Iraq. Granted, I was in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but before that, I was also in Operation Enduring Freedom, which some of you might have heard of. I was on board USS Theodore Roosevelt, and Matt Brady was actually nice enough to do a little write-up of all the comics companies who sent free stuff to our ship.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Let’s watch the personal insults … no one needs to be slapped here.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:53 am
That’s right, everyone. K-Box was invovled in Operation Enduring Freedom AND Operation Iraqi Freedom, which means his opinions about Spider-man comic books count way more than yours!
Oh yeah, and remember everyone
War is Peace! Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength!
Don’t worry K-Box, ingnore these other morons. You and I both know that we have ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Sorry. Even phrased as an if/then statement, I shouldn’t have said something like that in the comment section here.
Kirk, I’m glad to hear that…regardless of where you might have been at the time…you were referring to Afghanistan. I’m just a little frustrated that some people are still duped into believing Iraq had direct involvement in 9/11…but that isn’t something that needed to be expressed here.
December 10th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I’m confused as to how you drop bombs on the people who “actually attacked America” when they all died as soon as the planes hit the buildings.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Get your crappy politics discussion outta my Blog talkback! thank you.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
“K-Box was invovled in Operation Enduring Freedom AND Operation Iraqi Freedom, which means his opinions about Spider-man comic books count way more than yours!”
No, it just makes them more valid than Straczynski’s.
Especially when, you know, he explicitly asserted that everyone who hated his 9/11 issue was a “basement-dweller,” at a time in my life when a) I hated it too, but b) I was not a “basement dweller,” because I was an “aircraft carrier dweller.”
Which makes Straczynski’s blanket insult of all of his critics provably incorrect, which was all I was really trying to get at in the first place.
And Kevin Johns? I left the military, at least in part, because my politics are way more leftist than yours, and unlike Enduring Freedom, which I thought was right, I had serious problems with Iraqi Freedom, which I thought was wrong.
So, you trying to paint me as a neo-conservative sheeple? FAIL, idiot.
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