RIP Len Wein

1979 - Marvel Novel Series #9: The Marvel Superheroes

Marvel Novel Series #9: THE MARVEL SUPERHEROES
Edited by Marv Wolfman & Len Wein
Pocket Books, September 1979
First Printing, $1.95 cover price
Cover by Dave Cockrum

Unfortunately this novel wasn't an actual team-up of all these Marvel heroes, but four stand-alone stories featuring The Hulk, Daredevil, The Avengers, and the X-Men.

Written by Jim Shooter, Len Wein, Mary Jo Duffy, and Kyle Christopher.

My SDCC 2016 Wrap-Up

It’s hard to believe that it was a week ago today that we flew out to San Diego for SDCC.

An emergency stop at a clinic for pink eye, horrible traffic getting to the airport, and a slow leak in a tire were the only issues plaguing us on our trip to the airport. The flight was on time and really felt cramped for the five hour flight. All our luggage arrived safely and we checked into the Sheraton Marina and head downtown on the free shuttle. That Yellow Line shuttle was amazing, allowing us to travel back and forth from the Convention in about 15 minutes.

Getting our badges was very streamlined and quick. After a quick bite to eat, we got into the Con for Preview Night, but found out that Art Adams’ sketch list was already closed. Met the lovely and talented Marjorie Liu, writer for Image’s Monstress. After a couple of hours exploring with our jaws wide open, we headed back to the hotel and decompressed at Quinn’s, which served a lot great local craft beer.

On Thursday, after a big breakfast at the hotel, we headed down for our first full day. We got into the panel and signing ticket line, but quickly gave up after an hour wait and the line not going anywhere. Snagged a great Shadow sketch from Howard Chaykin. Collected some autographs from Chuck Wendig, Mark Brooks, Len Wein, and William Gibson. Had a nice Italian dinner in the Gaslight district watching the cosplayers. Ended the evening on a rooftop patio with an amazing view of the city and had drinks next to Lucy Lawless and Ted Raimi.

Friday was a rather quiet day as I did a bit of shopping and then made my way over to NerdHQ for the Con Man panel. It was a great, intimate venue and the panel was a lot of fun. Got a few of my Master of Kung Fu issues signed by Paul Gulacy. We had a light dinner and enjoyed a bottle of the Star Trek Anniversary beer. We checked out the gaming area and played a few games of Shadows over Westminster where we chatted with the game’s designer. After a bit more cosplay watching along the Gaslight district, we called it a night.

Saturday was crazy, so I knew that I could get to the Con a bit later. I met author Jonathan Maberry who had edited an anthology I was a part of. When he asked me what story I had written, I totally blanked and couldn’t remember the title of my story (which was Dirt Man, about a grave golem terrorizing a small town). Had a great lunch at Smash burger. Got my ROM #1 SDCC Exclusive edition signed by the creative team. The crowds near the end of the day were insane. It took us over 20 minutes just to go from our shuttle bus drop-off area to the Gaslight district. After dinner, we headed back to the rooftop bar, but were turned away as it was an NBC exclusive party. 

On Sunday, after carefully backing my books and loot, we hit the show for our last day. Did a bit more shopping picking up an Enterprise Hallmark ornament and a Shopkins exclusive toy for my daughter. I picked up my lovely Punk Storm sketch by the talented Jae Lee, who turned out to be a big fan of my blog. We had a last dinner at a Kansas BBQ joint where scenes from Top Gun were filmed. Exhausted, we picked up our luggage and flew out on the red eye.

This was my third visit to SDCC and each of them is special in their own way. I travelled with 3 other guys who had never been, and part of the fun was simply watching their shock and awe as they experience the enormity of SDCC. The Fan Expo we enjoy in Toronto is nowhere near the scale of SDCC. The venue and administration at SDCC is much better handled and has more of a professional feel to it. Also, San Diego genuinely embraces the Comic Con, with nearby hotel venues, theme restaurants, and an overwhelming amount of off-site activities. My only real complain was how all the lines for the signings were handled. Not a lot of the volunteers knew what was going on which spawned many different and confusing line-ups. The highlights of the show to me were meeting the creative team of Monstress and that beautiful Punk Storm sketch by Jae Lee.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) – Spoiler-Free Review

I went into this film with low expectations. In fact going to see it Thursday night was a last minute decision as I had pretty much written off seeing it. While I enjoyed the first two films, I disliked the third and wanted to like X-Men First Class, but couldn’t get over the continuity clashes. With that in mind, I tried to put that baggage aside and take it for what it was worth. And I really liked it.

As most of you probably know, the story is based on the Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (1980) “Days of Future Past” by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Singer managed a decent reinterpretation of that idea for the movie universe. At first, I didn’t like the substitution of Wolverine for Kitty as the X-Man who was sent back in time as it pulled away from one of the strengths of the Claremont/Byrne story. However, it worked really with the twist the movie put on the time travel. Building on that twist, the story forced several main characters to change instead of having an all-out, city-devastating slugfest.

Peter Dinklage was a cardboard cutout villain despite a solid performance; a bit more backstory to his character would have made a world of difference. As a nice tip of the hat, Chris Claremont and Len Wein made cameos in the film. I liked the future vision of the Sentinels as it reminded me of the Captain Britain nemesis, the Fury (http://marvel.wikia.com/Fury_(Earth-238))

The ending was pleasantly surprising and satisfying. The aftermath left the franchise in good shape with many possibilities for X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. While we didn’t see the full effects of the changes in the time stream, I’m sure that will be explored and exploited in the next film. I’m hopeful that they can move beyond Singer’s core cast of characters and focus on the broader X-Universe.

The Drawn Word Interviews Chris Claremont

From 2012, The Drawn Word interviews Chris Claremont:

 

John Byrne's inspiration for Kitty Pryde

A tip of the hat to the John Byrne Draws tumblr page:

johnbyrnedraws.tumblr.com where I discovered this story.

The Real Kitty Pryde is in the Middle.

The above photo and content below are taken from John Byrne’s website:  http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum

"I mentioned before that Kitty Pryde is the godmother of one of the teachers at my school over here. Last Christmas, my friend was heading back to Canada and told me that she would be visiting her Godmother over the holidays. I told her to get an autograph and after some conversations, we decided to go further. I phoned a comic book shop in Victoria, BC ( where my friend was visiting first) and told them I wanted two copies of X-Men 139. He was curious as to why I wanted two copies. When I told him that I was going to get them signed by Kitty Pryde and that her niece would be coming in to pick them up, he misunderstood and got quite excited. "

"You mean Kitty Pryde will be coming to my store?"

"When I explained it further, his enthusiasm waned somewhat but he said that he had a few nice copies around. When my friend went to the store to pick them up, he got quite excited again, as he assumed she was Kitty Pryde. Anyway, she got the comics and made her way to Calgary, where news of this signing opportunity spread. Soon her entire family wanted copies so she picked up a few more issues to be signed.
Below is a picture of my friend on the left, her brother on the right, and Kitty Pryde in the centre. Also shown is my scanned copy of the book."

"As most of you doubtless already know, it was nothing more than a casual remark that started this particular snowball rolling. By the start of the school year in 1973 I had already dropped out of Art College, but had dropped by on registration day to hook up with some pals I had not seen all summer. At that time I was introduced to Kitty, who was dating a former classmate. Hearing her name, I said it sounded like a good name for a superhero, and when my friend explained to her why I would say something odd like that (I was at that point actively pursuing a career in comics) she said “Feel free to use it!” At that precise moment, I don’t think either of us really thought I would ever actually have the chance to do so.

"SIDEBAR: Kitty has rebuilt those days in her own mind quite considerably, and tells stories of how I used to fill up my sketch pads with drawings of superheroes, doing this even in class when we were all supposed to be working on something else. The snag, of course, is that since I dropped out in early ‘73 and Kitty started at the College in late ‘73, we were never in the same class together! (Even had I not dropped out, I would have been a few years ahead of Kitty, having started in 1970, so, again, no way for us to have been in the same class.)

"Anyway — years went by, I got work at Marvel, and eventually there came that fateful day when Chris Claremont and I were thinking about building a second team of younger X-Men, who could fulfill Shooter’s demand that we return to portraying the characters as STUDENTS (even tho this was something Stan and Jack had abandoned before the book was much more than a year old!). I’d doodled up a potential first member of this new team, and Chris, still smarting from being forced to kill Thunderbird (Chris was scripting over plots by Len Wein, so the “deed was done” when Chris arrived on the book) said “Whatever her powers, let’s call her ‘Thunderbird’!” I didn’t think this was a good idea, since I try to follow the Stan Lee approach of having names and powers and, as often as possible, the LOOK of the character intertwined, and there was nothing “thunderbirdy” in the slightly built little girl I had drawn. That DID get me thinking about bird names, tho, and one of the names I jotted down on the page, next to that first drawing, was “Kittyhawk”. This reminded me of Kitty Pryde, and I realized I had found a place to use the name.

"Later, thru a mutual friend, I sent Kitty a page of original art with the character on it, and I think also at least one of the comics. She expressed delight, and we all thought that was the end of it. Especially since the fan reaction to the arrival of Kitty in the book was almost universally negative.

"I left the title not too long after, (mostly because I did not like how Chris was handling the characters, especially Kitty), and whatever it was Chris was doing somehow turned around the fan response, and Kitty became an enormously popular character. And something of an annoyance for the real Kitty.

"Altho, must say, she fared a lot better than Gary Cody! I put him in ALPHA FLIGHT, and not only did later writers and artists change him to look like ME, they made him a villain and killed him off!!

1982 - San Diego Comic Con

Photos by Alan Light.

Marv Wolfman

Jack Kirby

Len Wein

Frank Miller

Max Allan Collins and Frank Miller

1983 - JLA/Avengers Crossover (also known as the Team-Up Controversy)

With the Superman and Spider-man crossover sequel and the Batman vs The Incredible Hulk Special all reaping significant commercial success, DC and Marvel decided to green light the next two crossover specials: Justice League of America and the Avengers, and the New Teen Titans and the X-Men.

Dick Giordano headed DC Comics editorially as did Jim Shooter on the Marvel Comics side. Already juggling a heavy workload, George Perez bowed out from the New Teen Titans and X-Men crossover to do the JLA and Avengers. Gerry Conway was asked to plot the epic story with Roy Thomas providing the script. The crossover special was scheduled for the summer of 1983.

Gerry Conway, who had written both the Avengers and the JLA, had come up with the basic plot he hoped balanced both companies’ characters and interests (grabbed from Back Issue #1):

“DC’s Lord of Time and Marvel’s Kang the Conqueror “coveted an infinitely powerful stone that was backtracking through the time stream. Kang and the Lord manipulated the members of the Avengers and the Justice League into combat in different ears, with the acquisition of the gemstone as the catalyst for each battle. Those clashes pitted heroes with similar powers against each other - Batman vs. Captain America, Superman vs. Thor, Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye, Martian Manhunter vs. She-Hulk, Atom vs. Ant-Man, the Flash vs. Quicksilver, you get the idea - affording each publisher’s heroes equal time.”

Jim Shooter rejected Conway’s general plot on February 25th (as detailed in Marvel Age #19, October 1984):

“I’m afraid that the first try at the Avengers/JLA plot isn’t acceptable, or even close. The problems are many, but there’s no point in listing them and getting bogged down in details because the whole things just doesn’t make sense. Why is any of this stuff happening (other than because the writer says it is) and why are all these people doing strange things? I find very few solid reasons or motives for the actions of the characters.”

When Jim Shooter learned that Perez had started to draw the issue, Jim Shooter sent Dick Giordano the following letter on May 18^th, 1983:

“Around February 25, I received a copy of the proposed story plot. I read it, found it entirely unusable, and sent you a letter to that effect, a copy of which is attached. Shortly, afterward, we spoke on the phone and you agreed that the proposed plot was not acceptable, and that a revised plot would be forthcoming. At the end of our conversation, anticipating the possibility of a missed communication on a project this complex, I stated that nothing should be considered approved by Marvel until you received approval in writing from me. I gathered that you understood and agreed.

“Some time later, I received a call from Len Wein who wanted to discuss my objections to the plot and work out possible solutions. We discussed a few of the flaws in the plot in some detail, but largely we spoke only in broad generalities. At the end of our conversation, Len asked if I felt comfortable enough with our mutual understanding of the revisions being made to allow work to begin on the art. I said no, emphatically, and insisted upon seeing a written out revised plot. I felt that our discussion had been too general to grant plot approval.

“Yesterday, I heard from various sources that George Perez had begun penciling the story, though I still hadn’t received a revised plot. I called you immediately...

“I will be glad to look at copies of the twenty pages that you say George has drawn, along with a revised plot. Possibly the pages will be useable or salvageable...

“Again, no work on this project is to be considered approved until you receive approval in writing from me.”

Giordano then provided Shooter with a copy of the revised plot, to which Shooter replied, dated May 20:

“What we have here is substantially the same plot that I rejected before with a few little touch-ups. As I stated in my first letter, this thing has major problems. It doesn’t make sense. It’s going to have to be written almost from scratch. Sorry.”

In the DC Comics’ “Meanwhile...” column from January 1985, entitled “Justice League of America vs. The Avengers: The Death of a Dream”, Giordano offered a rebuttal of Marvel Age #19 which he termed was “Marvel’s version of the events behind the JLA/Avengers team-up controversy”. Also, he pointed out that he was “mildly curious as to why no one is willing to take credit for the writing the Marvel Age article. (...) You’ll notice my byline at the top of this column, so at least you’ll know who is responsible for all that is printed here.”

 

Dick Giordano wanted the deleted parts of his letter to Jim Shooter of May 26^th published, which had been selectively edited for the article in Marvel Age #19. However, this version in the Meanwhile column wasn’t complete either. I present the Frankenstein, patchwork version of the letter for your consideration. The sections in normal text are taken from the Meanwhile article, which the sections in italics are from Marvel Age #19.

“The contract stipulates for example, that each company should appoint a staff editor to each project,... In this case, the editors so appointed were Len Wein (Dc) and Mark Gruenwald (Marvel) ... When the plot was delivered, you decided to become personally involved (counter to our previous team-up experiences) and forced my involvement at a hands-on editorial level.

“You had some problems with the plot. The motivation for the events was weak. I agreed with you and we set about to fix the plot. When we thought we had it de-bugged, Len called you with an outline of the changes, to which you responded positively, saving you felt the changes would work. Len reported that conversation to me with the request from you that a new written plot be submitted. I thought this request to be logical but largely a formality and ordered George Perez to start drawing before the new plot was typed. In doing so, I had no intention of ignoring your wishes. I understand your conversation with Len to be a tacit approval of our modifications and desired only to keep the project moving. I have since apologized to you for this seeming breach of protocol and trust that this unintentional mistake is note one of the reasons for your rejection.

“Yes, there still remain some questions left unanswered in the plot, but no more or less than are left unanswered in most plots. More often than not, these questions are resolved while the work is in progress and I’m sure that you’ll agree the levels of skill possessed by George Perez, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and myself are sufficient to resolve these plot “holes” to everyone’s satisfaction, and I would surely submit the material in its subsequent more finished stages and welcome your input at that time.

“Incidentally, I’m sure that you recognize the difficulty in producing a script that is truly wonderful given the extreme limitations inherent in a team-up venture of this kind; everything and everyone must be left just as we found them and all events and actions must end in a tie. There were plot weaknesses in Chris’ X-Men/Teen Titans last year, but everyone who bought the book (all those people!) seemed not to care. I didn’t

“Finally (and at a more practical level), if you insist on starting all over, we will have to name a new creative team as previous commitments will force the withdrawal of all the current team members ... Further, I must then insist that you supply a detailed, written list of changes requested.

“The storyline makes sense to me and everyone else here and our contract stipulates that ‘Marvel and DC shall jointly agree on mutually acceptable modifications’ and I can hardly agree with your modification if I don’t know what they are.

“Perhaps we should jut put this back in the hands of Mark and Len and George and Roy and trust that these seasoned pros, three of whom have worked well for both companies, won’t embarrass themselves or Dc and Marvel. Whichever way you choose to go, I respectfully request that you respond as quickly as possible. TIMES A WASTIN’!

“Warmest Personal Regards,

Dirk Giordano

Vice President - Executive Editor”

Jim Shooter then provided Giordano with a list of his specific issues with the plot in a letter dated on June 15. Giordano then passed them along to Roy Thomas who rewrote the plot and delivered it to DC on July 28^thand a copy hand-delivered to Marvel Comics.

No further correspondence was heard from Marvel, not even an acknowledgement of the rewritten plot. Giordano met Shooter at the San Diego Comic Con that summer on August 4^th and Shooter had the draft, but hadn’t read it. This contradicts what was said in the Marvel Age article, which said that had Giordano given Shooter a copy at that Con. Shooter refused to approve the new plot over the Con weekend as he wanted Mark Gruenwald and Roger Stern to review it.

By August 22, Giordano had received no approval or rejection from Shooter. A frustrated George Perez pulled himself off the project.

However, Shooter had sent a follow-up letter dated September 28^th:

“These are the problems with the latest version of the Avengers/JLA plot:

- Ant Man should not be included. He isn’t an Avenger and would not be involved.

- Quicksilver must come from Attilan, where he lives, which is on the moon.

- Thor’s hammer cannot follow a trail through time. He lost all such abilities a while back.

- Hawkeye is married now, a fact which should be mentioned in the scene with Black Canary.

- vision has demonstrated emotions - he should not be affected by the Shiva Egg because he is non-biological, not non-emotional

- A Quicksilver/Flash race is ludicrous since Flash run at light speed and Quicksilver can’t even manage the speed of sound. Perhaps Flash should race Captain Marvel who can attain the speed of light in her energy form.

- Quicksilver would also be unable to help Flash energize the makeshift cosmic treadmill in any physical way.

- Firestorm and Captain Marvel are probably not evenly matched as mentioned since Firestorm controls nuclear energy and CM can become any energy, including nuclear.

“There are other small glitches, but they can be covered in dialogue. They don’t affect the pictures.

‘Presuming that you correct these minor problems, the only thing remaining to be settled before the plot is given to an artist is the selection of the artist. Don Heck, who you said was under consideration, is alright with us. If he’s the man you want go ahead and start. If you wish to propose someone else, we’ll be glad to listen.”

It wasn’t hard to see why Perez would draw the conclusion that Jim Shooter didn’t want this crossover with him, especially finally approving the story after Perez had taken himself off the project. He had the following to say in a British fanzine, Chain Reaction, on September 30th

“I do not want this taken wrongly because I am a fan of Don Heck’s work. But Shooter knows full well that Heck will never sell the book, not because of any inferiority in Don’s work, it’s just that he is not a fan favorite and with a fan book this is definitely important. He is doing everything in his power to sabotage this ...

“I am not going to let Jim Shooter get away with this, and I’m going to use every available means to let people know what Jim’s done. If people don’t believe what I say, at least I’ve gotten it out of my system.”

Shooter in the Marvel Age article vehemently denies stalling the project to remove Perez from the book.

Sadly for the fans, Marvel and DC let the project die, each pointing the finger at each other, claiming that they were waiting on the other party.

Michael Eury in his article on the JLA/Avengers crossover in Back Issue #1, presented his conclusions:

“If I must assign blame as to why this greatest of stories was never told, the culprit is: A clash of editorial styles. These two editorial camps were incompatible.”

References: 

• Back Issue #1, October 2003, TwoMorrows Publishing
• Marvel Age #19, October 1984, Marvel Comics
• Meanwhile, January 1985, DC Comics