CBR: Cup O' Joe - Mar 18, 2011

[CBR News]

Marvel's SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort is once again locked and loaded to speak directly to readers in an all-fan question installment of his weekly column focusing on "Fear Itself," comic violence and the Avengers line.


Full article here.

[tesh_karde]

I definitely prefer Tom over Joe and Axel as far as answering questions go. I feel like he answers honestly without any hype or spin.

On a side note, the Silver Surfer's nose is crazy long in that pic with beta ray bill in it.

[Maestro]

Ugh. I hate fan questions. They always ask the lamest things!!

[Expletive Deleted]

Ugh. I hate fan questions. They always ask the lamest things!!

You're welcome to ask better ones.

[Sabrewulf]

Holy crap. Was drunk when I posted that question. Sure as hell didn't expect to get it answered. Although not exactly the answer I was hoping for it was answered well and respectfully. So thank you Tom.

To go back to an earlier question. I have to say I don't agree with the reply to the team books question.

I think there are other reasons for a team book outside of concept.

The main one is creative team. A well written book is a well written book. It doesn't matter if it's just the Avengers of the UK or Canada there can't be enough well written team books for me.

If a book is written well enough the chracters will attract a fanbase. Thus making them a viable franchise.

I don't hink Young Allies was strong enough nor the Order. I thought MI13 was.

I would love to see a West Coast Avengers book by Mccan. That and Avengers Accademy would be the only Avengers book i picked up, geography aside.

Still I don't understand why we can have 3 Avengers book and not a team book based in Canada. Or even the Rangers.

I mean whats the point of New Avengers? What makes that more viable than Alpha Flight.

The other thing is books with a built in fan base. Okay call it nostalgia but there is a market there for New Warriors, Alpha Flight, West Coast Avenges, Power Pack, Defenders etc.... Just like there is for New Mutants.

Just because versions have failed in the past doesn't a well marketed solid creative team couldn't make these books work. Otherwise we are seriously just down to Avengers, FF and X-Men books.

That can't be good for the company.

Team books are alos good to highlight characters that can;t hold their own books and bring focus back to them. For that reason alone, new team books are worth testing out more than solo books. It allows you to gauge a characters popularity or even make them popular. Everyone has their favourite characters and a team book will attract all those fans more than a solo book would.

Plus I think X-Factor is a good indication of character interaction done right. It can create new dynamics between characters. Something that is missing from most of the higher selling team books IMHO.

Isn't that what made the X-books work for so long. Something that is sorely missing from most of them at the moment.

[Tekkaman Blade]

The Alpha Flight artwork was my favorite portion of this weeks edition. Dale Eaglesham's Snowbird looks wonderful.

[Dog]

If a book is written well enough the chracters will attract a fanbase. Thus making them a viable franchise.

I don't hink Young Allies was strong enough nor the Order. I thought MI13 was.

And yet...

[Rheged]

The Alpha Flight artwork was my favorite portion of this weeks edition. Dale Eaglesham's Snowbird looks wonderful.

It was cool to see ... but for some reason, I didn't connect that it was going to be a Fear Itself tie-in.

[Maestro]

I mean whats the point of New Avengers? What makes that more viable than Alpha Flight.

Americans don't like Canadians.

[West]

Thank you for the responce

[coconutphone]

Brevoort: I think we’ve perhaps given you something of the wrong impression about "Fear Itself," West. I actually spoke to this very point on our recent liveblogged call with the comics press about the event. "Fear Itself" doesn’t contain a lot of fantasy sequences of heroes confronting their own darkest nightmares or internal anguish or anything like that. It’s about the state of the world now, today, and about putting our characters within a vice of a situation, then increasing the pressure on them to see whether they’ll break, bend or endure. So if there’s a specific reason why referencing the Maestro in the case of the Hulk is applicable then I wouldn’t rule it out. But this isn’t going to be somebody like Nightmare going to all of our heroes and creating images or fantasies within their minds of all the stuff they’re afraid of. Rather, this is going to be the Marvel heroes having to cope with a world suddenly at war on a global scale. I’m glad you asked this, actually, as we’ve clearly not done a good enough job of getting this point across, so I’m happy for the opportunity to articulate it.

WTF? LOL That's exactly how all the early teases came across! Jeebus talk about a fail of promotion.

Also that whole explanation about being about the state of the world today and putting the heroes in a vice is just utter nonsense. Laughable really. What the hell does that even mean?

Staying far, far away from this event.

[Sabrewulf]

Also in response to your reply to my question you mentioned offering up a variety of alternative X-books. Tow of which you mention were Dark Avengers and Mighty Avengers, both written by Bendis.

I don't think anyone is asking for Busiek and Stern to have the main Avengers book but if there are two main Avengers books then they are the kid of creators we would like on one of them.

I don't mean as with Slott, give them the characters Bendis doesn't want to use. I mean get all creators in a room and work out which creators have best plans for certain characters.

For example what exactly is Bendis doing with Ms Marvel? She has been nothing but wallpaper since her main series ended. What about Hawkeye?

Still I thought Busiek and Stern did a great job with Hank x2, Wasp, Captain Marvel, Songbird, Captain America and Hawkeye.

I'd love to see Bendis run wild with the big three, Cage, Jewel, Spiderman The Thing, Dr Strange and Wolverine and let someone else run with the their pick of the rest.

Plus nobody can write the Wasp like Stern did.

[West]

WTF? LOL That's exactly how all the early teases came across! Jeebus talk about a fail of promotion.

Also that whole explanation about being about the state of the world today and putting the heroes in a vice is just utter nonsense. Laughable really. What the hell does that even mean?

Staying far, far away from this event.

I'm further intrigued at this though, despite this.

I'm willing to see where the event goes before bashing it as well

[Dog]

What about... Secret Avengers?

It doesn't sound like you're saying "Give me something different," but more like "Give me exactly what I want."

[coconutphone]

I'm further intrigued at this though, despite this.

I didn't think I could be less intrigued but here I am.