Triple Helix #3

[superboyprime]

"[DC] gave DOOM PATROL far more promotion than Marvel had given X-MEN - THE HIDDEN YEARS. The problem lay in the retailers who flat out refused to order the book for their customers who asked for it. Retailers who were Grant Morrison fans and insisted that only his DOOM PATROL was allowable."

"You know the fan typified by the Comic Shop Guy on THE SIMPSONS thinks Morrison bestrides the universe as a god. Much of today's talent pool is drawn from that kind of mindset. And, of course, those who do it for the money, declaring themselves 'trapped' by superheroes. Boo hoo." - John Byrne

Comments

[jlbarnett]

oh, please. No business man does that

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

John Byrne translation: It's never my fault!

[an_idol_mind]

Wait...who writes comics for the money?

[drtechnobabel]

Silly an_idol_mind, don't you know that a comic book writer's life is one in the fast lane? There's endless nights of partying and jetsetting to all the scenic convention cities. You have squealing fangirls (or fanboys, if that's your thing) lining up in front of your four-story mansion that will drop their pants at a mere mention of autographing their first edition issue. And of course, you get to be driven everywhere in your solid-gold limousine as you do lines of coke in the back on top of your piles of money. Who WOULDN'T want that life?

[drtechnobabel]

I'm genuinely conflicted about what to think of this series. On the one hand, I agree with Byrne's idea that younger kids need more comics that aren't as dark and mature as a lot of mainstream comics today, and taking cues from Marvel's Silver Age comics is admittedly a pretty good place to start if that is your intention. On the other hand, I can easily identify pretty much everything Byrne has ripped off in this (since he's not even trying to hide the fact that he's done so), and almost everything Byrne says comes off as bitter and egotistical.

[freezer]

If you wrote it in the first place, it's not "ripping off", it's "recycling."

[drtechnobabel]

Dear God, I still remember Byrne's quote from the Trio post that basically said that comic writers have every right to recycle entire plots wholesale (even if it's from another company entirely) and that if you complain, you're too old for comics. As far as I know, he was being serious. Are we sure he's not the one 'doing it for the money' at this point?

[starwolf_oakley]

Is John Byrne actually right about something? Wow.

OF course, when it comes to certain comic creators, you get the feeling they hate the publishers for selling superhero comics, the audience for buying superhero comics, and themselves for writing superhero comics.
cough-Mark Millar-unconvincing cough

[lilacsigil]

I'd be more convinced if this comic wasn't made entirely of expy characters and needed some proof-reading. Also, nice to see the actual pregnant woman getting choices in what is done to her body and her foetus. Good work there.

[drtechnobabel]

To be fair, from what we see on-panel it seems like whatever problem there was with the pregnancy hit almost immediately and incapacitated her with massive amounts of pain. Considering the background in those flashback panels seem to all take place in the same area, my guess is that the entire sequence is taking place within the course of a couple minutes or so, and the narration implies that Dr. Daddy was more or less pressured by Aslan into making that major choice for her on the spot. Seeing your 9-month pregnant wife in massive agony and knowing that not only her life, but the life of your unborn child is on the line can seriously cloud your judgement.

Granted, Byrne probably put way less thought into that scene than either of us did, and simply used the pregnant lady as a plot device to give Dr. Daddy an excuse to want to kill Triple Helix. It's hard to feel offended at the lack of choice the mom gets when she's not even really a character, but a plot device. Of course, the fact that she is only a plot device is a problem in and of itself, since as far as I know this is the first and last we will ever hear of her.

[lilacsigil]

Indeed, and if it was a one-off in comics (or in media in general) I probably would have gone for that interpretation: sometimes there is a medical emergency and someone has to make an hasty decision. But it's so hackneyed at this point that, with Byrne claiming to be a good and original writer, it's downright offensive.

[mrstatham]

John Byrne once again bleating, I see; It's clearly not enough that he HAD his heyday, got to massively revamp a character, did pretty decent runs on several of the biggest characters the Big Two have to offer, but yeah, blame Morrison because the fans are increasingly disinterested in your style of storytelling and have moved on. Oh, and you blatantly have no ideas left in you.

I've never seen such hypocrisy in a quote from a creator, because that is the biggest fucking load coming from a man who got to at least attempt a revamp of Spider-Man AND the X-Men, and also revamped Superman to suit HIM previously. When he complains about the attitude of the average fan and Morrison, what I actually read is 'WHY ISN'T THAT MEEEEEEE?' while the baby-Mario-crying-noise from Yoshi's Island plays.

I sincerely doubt anyone actually refused to stock his Doom Patrol, given I think the most recent revamp prior to the reboot did respectably - more like the book just sucked.

[kamino_neko]

Not related to the story itself, or my eye-rolling over Byrne's commentary...

Is that cover from an alternate universe populated by giraffe-people? What is with the necks? The proportions within the book itself seem normal, and...mostly consistent (still hardly Byrne's best work, but not bad), that cover though...jeez.

[ablackraptor]

I fail to understand his logic for why X-Men Hidden Years failed.
So, Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol was popular with retailers, he honestly thinks that they'd opt to not order his X-Men book, for what, so it doesn't compete with Grant's book? How does that work? For it to really effect his sales, it'd need a large number of retailers to be terrible businessmen, which I really doubt (not that they can't be idiots, but I doubt enough were to effect his sales too much). Not to mention, why would they all single his title out? Its not like those were the only books out at the time, there's plenty others the retailers could have refused to stock if they did.

I mean, seriously, that's just really messed up logic.

[jlbarnett]

no, Byrne did a Doom Patrol relaunch after the Hidden Years. He's claiming because his Doom Patrol wasn't Morrison's Doom Patrol people wouldn't stock it despite fans asking for it

[ablackraptor]

Oh, right; I got confused as to what he meant when he was comparing the two and then brought up Morrison's Doom Patrol.

Still stupid logic though.

[silicondream]

So retailers didn't want to back John Byrne's Doom Patrol because they were committed to Grant Morrison's run, which ended over a decade previously? And was followed up by runs from at least two creative teams before Byrne got there? This seems improbable.

[matrix_dragon]

Maybe it was because I saw the Narnia movies again recently, but 'Aslan betrayed me!' is far more amusing then it should be.