1.: Robert Weinberg deserves an apology.
I never meant to dictate my plots to him. So my first step this weekend is calling him, or even better, meeting him over dinner (I pay out of my own pocket, of course).
I apologize for the misunderstanding. And I try to figure out what I can do to amend things. The creative team of Robert and Adrian (and Marko) is really important to me. They were my first choice, because I think that they are the best creators for this book right now.
I guess at this time it's too late to cancel the "Rise of the Defenders" tie-ins. But I want to make sure that he's free to come up with what he wants (within reasonable terms. Flattening Wolverine with a whale is out of the question) after those two issues. Since Adrian will probably need one other fill-in issue this year, I will listen to Robert when picking that artist.
While Arthur Suydam's variant cover for #500 has already been approved by marketing, I haven't told Arthur what I want (I was thinking about Nightcrawler burning in hell, but I haven't told him yet). I'd appreciate Robert's input on this.
If he's really uncomfortable with me editing the book, I will offer to hand it to another editor. If he wants to step down from the book, I could understand. But if he gives me one more chance, I'll try to do my job better.
2.: Sort out the Wizard scheduling mess.
I got the impression that the relationship between the X-Men office and Wizard (especially Ben Morse) worked perfectly. But now, issue 489 of UNCANNY X-MEN has already shipped, Ed Brubaker's first issue of WOLVERINE will probably ship on Monday, and yet Wizard hasn't run the First Look articles yet. I'll take full responsibility for this. And I'll obviously have to do something. The only thing I can offer at this point is exclusive material about BALANCE OF POWER. But I want to make sure that the timing is better than last time.
3.: The reemergence of the Marvel/DC crossovers.
Provided that UNCANNY X-MEN stays in my office (see point 1), I'd love to do an UNCANNY X-MEN/Justice League of America crossover. Sean, could you contact the appropriate editors down the street and negotiate the terms? Who will publish this thing? Who will appoint the creative team?
Another thing that we owe the fans is the DAREDEVIL/Batman crossover by Bendis and Maleev. Daredevil is in Warren Simons' office, so the three of us probably won't have anything to do with this. But still, this should be done.
4.: CLOAK & DAGGER: DETOX
I don't want to fall into the same trap I did with UNCANNY X-MEN, so I'll scrap the whole plot. Still, I'd love to put something like this on the stands. Sean, could you ask the current MAX editor (Stuart Moore? Nick Lowe? It's been a while since I last bought a MAX comic) what it would take to get this running?
5.: BALANCE OF POWER
Again, we have come up with most of the plot for tis thing. If we get Joe Straczynski for this, how can we know that he won't complain about us dictating the book for him? Should we start from scratch and take vague description and vacant solicitations for granted? But if we do, how can we make sure that this sells?
Darn, I should have interned at Marvel before volunteering for this thing...
7 comments:
Still no answer? I'll go to bed then.
Mike, I think we should all relax a little bit on the whole "dictating plots" criticism we received, in simulated rumour format, from Rich Johnston. There's no way for this game to work if we're not dictating plot. Sure, we should point out that we have a give and take with the writers, working together to create the stories, but we can't expect Tom, in addition to everything else he's doing, to come up with all our plots for the sim writers. Granted, you should probably apologize to Robert for his perceived sidelining of the X-Men or whatever, and maybe point out that you're always seeking his story input, but I wouldn't take too much of that element of Rich's post to heart. Cause last round Tom pestered Steve and Hugh until they STARTED providing detailed plot points. It's a necessary element of the sim.
If I'm wrong, this here could wind up being the worst advice anybody ever gave anybody.
Well, it's not just the Lying in the Gutters post. Tom mentioned editors dictating the plots and Robert Weinberg's uncomfortability (is that even a word?) at least once before. And the fans who post feedback at the blog seem to concur.
But I should really go to bed now.
Apologies, been out most of the night, will catch up at length on Saturday.
Don't misconstrue lack of feedback as inattention or disinterest.
Still jacked as all get go, but real life gets in the way every now and then.
Mike,
I'm not 100% certain how the timetable works in these things, so until Tom says otherwise, either assume Wizard covered X-Men one month and then followed up with the Michael Turner cover and Brubaker interview the next :)
-Ben
Cause last round Tom pestered Steve and Hugh until they STARTED providing detailed plot points.
Well, yes and no. In real life, it was Steve and Hugh that came up with the detailed plot points. But in the simulation, it was mostly the writers that had come up with the plot details. I'm a bit short on time to double-check this (although you guys posted links to the first sim in an earlier post, so you can look it up if you want), but I think in one entry, either Steve or Hugh had said, "Ed has just told me some great ideas he's come up with for Captain America!" or something to that effect.
This is a great postt thanks
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