The Crew #1: Big Trouble in Little Mogadishu, Chapter One: Rhodey

[superboyprime]

"The Crew existed not for the direct shops but for the barber shops. For the bodegas. I suggested a Spanish edition published concurrently. Hip-Hop music in-packed with trades. I had a deal in principle with a major online distributor to pay for the CDs in exchange for including their catalog and content on the CD. Friends like Reginald Hudlin were willing to help get us connected with Vibe and XXL Magazines and explore joint ventures with Johnson Publishing. So far as I know, none of that was done. Marvel marketing lifted not one finger for The Crew, saw no potential in the series. Beyond Tom Brevoort’s office there was only an eye roll. Marvel Comics, run by an Hispanic EIC and a close friend of mine, turned blind eye and deaf ear to a rich opportunity. Latino and African American markets are worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. So far as I know, both majors have stupidly and arrogantly dismissed those markets, along with the multi-billion dollar Christian/Evangelical market, which virtually no major and precious few indys will touch—like they’re afraid of all that cash waiting to be collected. That’s money, lying all over the floor, and these guys are too lazy to pick it up." - Christopher Priest

Comments

[starwolf_oakley]

That was a line in the Robert DeNiro movie "Ronin."

"You're great in the locker room, pal, and your reflexes might die hard, but you're weak when you put your spikes on."

[beyondthefringe]

I find it interesting how much older Rhodey appears to be here than in his previous appearances...

He's honestly one of those characters, like USAgent, who never gets a stable status quo for long,because writers keep changing them to fit the situation. That's the problem with the replacement/knock-off characters--what do you do with them after the primary title-holder returns? What happens when Steve Rogers or Tony Stark or Thor Odinson reclaim their mantle... USAgent keeps getting shuffled from one government/military job to another, Rhodey keeps getting shuffled from one role to the next (usually as War Machine), Thunderstrike was killed off at the end of his solo run...

In recent years they've been better about allowing multiple heroes to just share the name, like with Miles Morales or Kate Bishop, and of course DC is okay with having as many Green Lanterns as necessary.

But I really hope that when Rhodey comes back from the dead this time, he gets a good status quo and sticks with it for a while.

[arilou_skiff]

Which is what made the introduction of the Alexander-Nova so weird. They easily could have just kept several Novas around, but they decided to kill off the Corps (Again...)

[thehood]

That had nothing to do with Sam Alexander, the Nova Corps was long dead by the time Sam was introduced.

Besides, the Nova Corps is back now.

[arilou_skiff]

Nah, Rider's last arc had them rebuilt, then Sam's introduction was literally him showing up saying the Corps was dead (again)

[thehood]

It happened before Sam showed up.

[zachbeacon]

Well, in fairness, DC's fixation with the worst Green Lantern means that that franchise has been "Hal Jordan and Friends" for over a decade and DC was neglecting legacy heroes in general after Flashpoint. They still have a better track record than Marvel though.

The new Ms. Marvel is the only derivative/legacy Marvel hero* I can think of that doesn't feel like she's expendable. She's a huge improvement over the original and is allowed to exist in her own niche. Everyone else seems like they're one cancelled comic away from being a crossover corpse.

*There was a time I'd have included She-Hulk but Marvel has really done a number on Jen.

[donnblake]

Serious question, from someone who hasn't read much of Mar-Vell or Ms. Marvel- does Carol Danvers count as a legacy hero herself?

[bruinsfan]

I think she's roughly analagous to Supergirl, except in her case she eclipsed the originating hero she was created as a distaff version of. But they were meant to exist concurrently, and did until Mar-Vell died.

[zachbeacon]

I wasn't around for Marv either but I always sort of saw him as the kind of character who was mostly famous for being dead. Unlike Bucky and Jason Todd he didn't get to come back and instead was followed by a number of legacy characters. Some like Genis and Phyla have a direct connection to him and the Skrull thought he WAS him. Carol only has slightly more of a connection than Spider-Man does to most of the Spider-Women and Monica really doesn't have any at all.

(Just as an aside, I really think Teddy should be Captain Marvel if only because he has more of a right to the title and "Hulkling" is a stupid name)

[arilou_skiff]

Eh, Carol at least started as a supporting character in his comic.

[scorntx]

-but I always sort of saw him as the kind of character who was mostly famous for being dead-

Well... he kind of is.
I mean, he was around from '67 to '82, but... how many of his stories besides The Death of Captain Marvel are considered big, or memorable? Really?
Because he was around for a good fifteen years.
How many of his stories have Marvel tried turning into adaptations? Or constantly rereleased claiming they were "epics"? Or even been referenced by other writers?
Fifteen years, you'd think there'd be something in there somewhere that the Busieks or Waids of the industry must know of.
But nope, apparently not.

And, while he has stayed dead for the last... gosh, thirty six years so far, you know that if a writer wanted to bring him back, really actually wanted to bring him back... they would.
'Cuz dying horribly is about the only major thing he did.

That and giving us Carol Danvers. And Hulkling.

[zachbeacon]

Eh, I prefer Genis and Phayla (and Monica but she doesn't really have anything to do with Marv)

I mostly see Teddy as Billy's less interesting boyfriend. Maybe taking his dad's title would fix it (and maybe it will get dropped immediately like the "King of Space" stuff).

I've actively disliked Carol since Busiek's Avengers and the Civil Wars haven't helped.

[thehood]

It wouldn't and Teddy is better off without that title. It didn't help his brother Genis. Carol is sticking with the Title anyway, especially since she will have a movie.

[bruinsfan]

I like to hope that Kate Bishop has proven herself a popular and valuable enough character to not be viewed as expendable by Marvel Editorial.

[scorntx]

Going by the last few years / decade, it seems as far as Marvel Editorial is concerned, there is no character that is not expendable.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, she's grown on me a lot but - given Marvel's treatment of Clint - I doubt Kate is safe.

[thehood]

She's treated as the more competent of the two, so she seems safe.

[arilou_skiff]

I don't think any character is "safe" except for maybe the top 5-10 ones. The other ones can get a longer or shorter stretch depending on if a writer is interested in pushing them.

[zachbeacon]

Well even then it wasn't that long ago that Marvel announced they were going to have a major character death every quarter.

Granted they seem to have walked that back and I'm seeing more resurections than deaths right now.

Most of those resurections are X-Men characters whose film rights are tied to Fox. Funny how that works.

[thehood]

Except Rhody had been around since before he put on the Iron Man armor.

[jlbarnett]

the comics companies don't reach out to those other markets because they're afraid of the cost if those things fail and they're afraid of reaching either direction will piss off the core audience and one of the sides they could reach out to

[locuatico]

And the argument to be have is: "how is that different from any other business?"

Those are the risks of trying to expand your market, rather than expect the market to come to you (Hell, I find Priest's idea of having a spanish edition potentially brilliant).
And currently we are seeing the problem with the big two's marketing strategy of expecting other markets come to them.

It's why DC made the "Zoom" and "ink" imprints for Graphic-novels: Graphic novels are easier to sell in libraries than individual issues, which is where the target audience is more likely to be.

[pyynk]

That first page is the widest disconnect I've seen between script and art in a while. Ol' Spence there has done a LOT of living in his 32 years I guess.

[zachbeacon]

He's got some city miles on him.

[wizardru]

I'd think that's more a coloring mistake, really. If his hair weren't white, he wouldn't look that old at all, IMHO.

[donnblake]

So Rhodey's habit of addressing women by the name of his hated ex... sure is a thing.