X-Factor: Forever and Excalibur

[suzene]

Fresh off the presses at CBR: Louise Simonson is slated to do a five-issue X-Factor: Forever limited series.

This surprises me, but not in a bad way. Between this and Claremont's New Mutants: Forever coming up, I wonder if it's an indication of X-Men: Forever selling better than expected. I do like What Ifs when they're not blatant "This is why our way was better, STFU" responses to recent storylines, and if this leads to, oh say, Alan Davis drawing and writing an Excalibur: Forever limited, then Marvel may be getting some money out of me. Sadly, I don't think there's any way in the world we would ever get John Byrne on an Alpha Flight: Forever. *sigh*

Thoughts? Wishlists?


Title: Excalibur #6 (Marvel, 1989, 24 pages)
Creators: Chris Claremont (writing), Alan Davis (pencils), and Paul Neary (inks)
Availability: Available in trade

I miss the unapologetic weirdness of the old Excalibur books, but I miss their supporting cast even more. I don't suppose Dai Thomas showed up in any of Cornell's recent books? I heard tell that Alistaire showed up a few times, at least.

Anyway, have some lead-in to the Cross-Time Caper.

Comments

[mugiwara]

I demand X-Force Forever by Rob Liefeld!

No, really, what I would like to see is Academy X Forever by Weir & Defilippis.

[suzene]

...that never even crossed my mind, and I'm a bad person for it.

[foxhack]

I demand X-Force Forever by Rob Liefeld!

MAY JOE QUESADA NEVER HEAR YOUR DEMANDS.

[long_silence]

Would Liefield "fix" Shatterstar and Rictor so that they're in a non-gay relationship?

[foxhack]

At this point I don't care.

It's the art that worries me T_T

[colonel_green]

I was surprised to here about this. But with Simonson back at Marvel for the moment (what was she doing for most of the 00s, anyway? I lost track of her after her period on the Superman books ended in the late 90s), maybe she pitched this and they decided to see what came of it (in my mind, I imagine that Marvel's publishing division sets aside a certain amount of money every year for "stuff we know won't sell well, but feel like doing anyway").

[crabby_lioness]

She did a couple of delightful Thor stories for MA Superheroes.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Love how they're not even trying to pretend to move forward with the X-Men anymore. Joe Q maimed their best brand and no one seems to care.

[angelophile]

Curious. I'm surprised by this, because X-men Forever's sales have been declining quite rapidly and are now down at cancellation zone levels. However, that said, it's a 4 dollar title, coming out twice a month, so the profit margin must be fairly healthy on it and perhaps it's also doing well in trades.

Either way, another couple of limited series spinning from it, although effectively they're the same idea but not the same continuity, supposedly, is presumably tapping into a niche for Marvel. Bring it on, I say.

[angelophile]

Oh, and yes, Dai Thomas had a brief cameo in the Wisdom miniseries by Cornell, in the issue with Shang-Chi vs the Welsh Dragon.

[suzene]

Many thanks! To Amazon!

[crabby_lioness]

OMFG WEZIEE'S BACK! All is right with the world!

*ahem* That is all.

[stig]

Interesting that Alistaire Stuart was basically all the elements of Ten, years before Doctor Who was even revived. In Cornell's MI:13, he seemed to be more a sort of middle-aged, spritely Brigadier. Even has the right surname.

[suzene]

His sister had the name and the title right from the go; I always assumed she was supposed to be a tip of the hat to the Who-verse Brigadier.

[iambickilometer]

Considering her organisation name - "WHO" - I'd say that's a fairly reasonable assumption.

[greenmask]

Well, this was twenty years ago now.

[jlbarnett]

I'm not a Who fan but the character even looks like him.

[koschei]

Alistaire got badly fucked up by evil secret agents types a couple of times during the years and his sister was fridged, which can sort of change a person.

[lamashtar]

All I remember from X-Factor is the ruining of Cyclops' honor and bitchification of one of my favorite human cast members. I'm not excited. :(

[suzene]

I was never much into X-Factor and, so far as I'm concerned, Simonson is the writer who killed off Doug Ramsey in a fairly weak storyline. I'm just kind of hoping this continues until they hit on a writer/era combo I do remember fondly. I'm already on the fence about New Mutants: Forever.

[crabby_lioness]

Cypher was dog meat from the day they brought him in. I was in high school and I could tell that.

[suzene]

How nice for you.

[crabby_lioness]

What part of "introducing a child character in order to kill him off" do you define as "nice"? I didn't like it then and I don't like it now (gazes sternly at RTD).

However, I forgive the rest of Weezie's New Mutants run, and her creation of Longshot and Power Pack, were such exemplary works that I try to put that bit out of my mind.

[suzene]

I don't believe Cypher was introduced just to be killed off, as Claremont had ample time to do so during his time on the book and during Doug's early X-Men appearances, but managed to instead produce some interesting stories. Simonson's use of Cypher was uninspired at best, and, whatever her intentions, his death read like a frustrated writer getting rid of a character she couldn't get her head around in the cheapest way possible.

[tsunamiwombat]

Are we referring to his affair with the Skank?

[lamashtar]

If by that you mean Jean Grey, yes. I liked Madelyne. I liked Jean and Scott in their back issues, and I've enjoyed them since, but it was a rotten storyline that tainted his character. If Jean had to come back, she could've been brought back as a new person who wasn't in love with Scott anymore. It seems like her only characterization is Phoenix-madness and Scott-love these days. Its gotten to the point where I want her to come back and be completely turned off by his new persona--Cyclops running an assassination squad with Emma Frost? That'd do it. They need a looooong character arc apart to rebuild them both.

[iambickilometer]

Oh, Excalibur. I miss my British mutants so. My god, if Alan Davis did an Excalibur: Forever limited, I would probably expire of happy. It would be almost as good as getting more Captain Britain & MI-13.

[koschei]

It would be BETTER.

[ian_karkull]

I'm sorry, but all this Forever nonsense seems like nothing but shameless pandering to aging fanboys and -girls who whine about the golden days of yore. It's everything I hate about about comics and the X-Men in particular.

[angelophile]

Or it's a niche comic to please old fans without meaning that the ongoing titles constantly have to be jumping backwards to old status quos instead of moving forwards. If only someone had thought of Amazing Spider-man Forever earlier.

My view - Don't like it? Don't read it. But it's harsh to wish it out of existence just because you don't like it. Equally harsh to describe those people who do like it in those terms.

[ian_karkull]

I never said I wished these books didn't exist though. I just feel they embody some of the worst aspects of our little fandom by being purposefully revisionistic and nostalgic, I dislike the general idea of "let's pretend the last 20 years never happened! It'll make you feel young again!"
I'd be all for it if this made way for a little mor creative freedom in the main titles, but this is the X-Men we're talking about.

[arbre_rieur]

Whereas as I see the negative attitude that crops up against this sort of thing from time to time to embody just how backwards mainstream superhero fandom is. Because if this sort of thing -- the original creators returning to tell the story as they meant to -- happened anywhere else, there's no question that it would be hailed as a Good Thing. Even if you look at mainstream superhero comics' nearest neighbor, creator-owned stuff... if, for whatever reason, Mike Mignola had to hand control of Hellboy to another writer, and much later finally got the chance to continue where he left off with the character, people would see that as a good thing. Or what if Brian Vaughan had to give Ex Machina over to another and then got a chance to return? Or, moving over to other media, what if Jasper Fforde lost control of the Thursday Next series somehow, and some other person started writing it? If Fforde got a chance to return one day, continuing where he left, you can bet the fans'd be happy. What if something like this happened with JK Rowling and the Harry Potter books?

But no, in the world of the Big Two's superhero comics, where the actual creators are next to nothing in comparison to the all-important grand tapestry of the Canon, this sort of thing gets viewed as "pandering."

[phosfate]

Thoughts? Wishlists?

Make it not happen?

[koschei]

Also: Moira and Callisto are so doing each other.

[suzene]

Lesbian subtext? Out of Chris Claremont? Surely you jest! ;)

[koschei]

I didn't even know who CC was when I read that issue, but My God was it obvious they were at the very least fuckbuddies (Nazi lesbians: a surprisingly popular -- if oxymoronic -- niche genre)