What was behind the cancellation of Victor Von Doom from Marvel? Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool ran a story on Friday afternoon that he later withdrew, citing “two very adamant but contradictory sides” arguing over its validity to the point where he didn’t feel happy keeping the original up, but Kevin Huxford has a screengrabbed copy on his blog. The upshot of the original version of the story? Sources at Marvel said that artist Becky Cloonan didn’t complete a page of the project beyond the solicitation covers for the first two issues.
That’s a pretty hefty accusation to throw out there, especially when there are other sources who say that art for the first issue had been entirely completed; even with the explanation that Cloonan had personal problems at the time, it’s an incredibly damaging thing to be out there about her professionalism, even if it is true (I admit to having doubts about that, to be honest, mostly along the lines of “If true, why not reschedule the series instead of cancel it outright?”). In his blog post, Huxford asks why people were upset at Johnston for his story, and not the Marvel source:
Really…even if true…they wanted so badly to take the heat off of Marvel’s decision to cancel by taking a swing at the professional of a freelancer that, by their own explanation, seemed to be going through some trying times?
All of this goes through my mind as I saw Tom Brevoort address the issue on his Formspring:
There were problems with getting the work completed on time, and given that it was a pedigree project that likely wasn’t going to do huge numbers, I didn’t want to have to sausage it up among multiple creators in order to make the ship dates. Better, in my judgment, not to do it in the first place.
Again, I wonder why rescheduling it didn’t seem to be an option – It’s not like it takes place in current continuity, so rescheduling wouldn’t seem to foul up any other books – but, again, the blame is again being laid firmly on the work not being finished on schedule. Am I being that naive in thinking that this doesn’t really make sense?
November 7th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
It’s kind of fascinating that so many creators went ape sh!t on Johnston on Twitter when he posted the original story, and even after he removed it, yet I haven’t seen any comments now that Breevort has implied exactly what Johnston posted.
November 7th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Probably because Brevoort is (at least in theory) a reliable source. I share Graeme’s skepticism, though.
November 7th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Reliable source or not – doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. Not defending Johnston (at ALL!) but it appears there was smoke & while maybe not a full-scale barn-burner – it appears there was a bonfire nonetheless.
November 8th, 2011 at 8:33 am
The creative community was quick to get in Johnston’s face about what he posted- based on inside info from Marvel- and now it looks like Brevoort has (atleast partially) confirmed the story. The “it was late and didn’t seem worth it” angle seems likely, if not petty. VVDoom and IRON MAN 2.0 make TWO canceled books from Nick Spencer- is Marvel pissed that he’s doing more post-exclusive work with DC on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?
November 8th, 2011 at 10:51 am
@LanceYeah, that’s what I was thinking… but then, the same question can be raised by the cancellation of all of Fred van Lente’s books.
November 11th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
In response to some of the comments: There’s a marked difference between “trouble getting it completed on time” and saying that, after the third issue has been solicited, they still hadn’t seen a single page from the artist.
Everyone throws out that “I’m not trying to defend _____” caveat, but when you obscure the facts so readily, it kinda contradicts that notion.
Thanks for the link, Graeme, and your healthy skepticisim!