CBR: Reviving Mark Waid's Red Skull

[CBR News]

In October, Marvel Comics will release the original version of "Captain America" #14 by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert. The writer told CBR why the Red Skull story never saw print and what it means to his career.


Full article here.

[.c.h.r.i.s.]

I remember that still being a really good issue. I loved the art, and the style of it. The story itself was still good. I had no idea it had been edited. I'm really looking forward to seeing the original uncut version.

[Corey W]

Waid's Cap work was really good. I am surprised to hear that he had so much trouble with editorial.

[StoneGold]

Waid's Cap work was really good. I am surprised to hear that he had so much trouble with editorial.

Waid's a great writer, but "he had so much trouble with editorial" is something that could be attributed to several of the books he has written on. While I by no means claim to know the reasons why, Cap was neither the first nor last book he suddenly departed from.

[eh_ver]

yeah, I remember buying it because I liked the art and had, of course, heard good things about waid's second run. i liked it, even after i heard it had been man-handled. i'm curious as to who re-wrote it, as they did a good job for such a stylized and controversial comic, which waid himself just said could easily fail. so, i guess, my hat's off to who-ever did the eleventh hour re-write.

[Alex6166]

I remember this. I loved Waid's Cap run... both of 'em. IT kind of got interrupted for a year or so.

[Corey W]

Waid's a great writer, but "he had so much trouble with editorial" is something that could be attributed to several of the books he has written on. While I by no means claim to know the reasons why, Cap was neither the first nor last book he suddenly departed from.

Didn't know that, interesting. I am never up on the office politics.

[StoneGold]

Didn't know that, interesting. I am never up on the office politics.

Not even really office politics. Just Waid's been on a number of books where all of a sudden, he wasn't anymore. Like I said, I don't claim to know the reasons why, or even if there is any connection between them at all, but Cap wasn't the first time, or the last.


Although I think the last time might have been the wackiness with Fantastic Four, where he was off the book, and then he wasn't.

[SpideyCzar]

Nice addition to a Hardcover, I wish Marvel would include more extras with their Premiere Hardcover's. Looking forward to getting this!!!

[Kurt Busiek]

Another example of it is that we had we had Kang show up in that first issue, and Kang was a subplot player in the entire first year. But then by the time we got ready to play the Kang card, we were told "Oh no, Kurt Busiek is getting ready to use Kang over in 'Avengers Forever,' so you've got to use someone else."

To add wackiness to injury --

In that specific case, when I'd decided to use Kang in AVENGERS FOREVER, I'd done so in consultation with Mark (among other things, Mark was the guy who suggested I get my Avengers roster by pulling Avengers from different time periods), and told him, "Look, I know you've got Kang plans of your own, but our story jumps around in time so much it won't be a problem. You can use him, I'll use him, and we'll even throw a nod in to each other's story partway through." So we were each aware the other guy was using Kang and had plans for the stories to work together, not conflict.

And then they told Mark he couldn't use Kang without ever checking with me or Brevoort. They thought they were doing us a favor, but what they were doing was "solving" a problem that didn't exist, and messing up Mark over a story he'd actually done me a favor on.

It baffled me then, it baffles me now.

kdb

[chastmastr]

Crap. I'm glad it's seeing print, but I'd have preferred it to come out separately as a "From the Marvel Vault" one-shot or something first. When you have the original issues already...

[Michael P]

Chickening out at the last minute like that was a real dick move. Bad form, nameless '90s Marvel editor.

[LordEd1976]

To add wackiness to injury --

In that specific case, when I'd decided to use Kang in AVENGERS FOREVER, I'd done so in consultation with Mark (among other things, Mark was the guy who suggested I get my Avengers roster by pulling Avengers from different time periods), and told him, "Look, I know you've got Kang plans of your own, but our story jumps around in time so much it won't be a problem. You can use him, I'll use him, and we'll even throw a nod in to each other's story partway through." So we were each aware the other guy was using Kang and had plans for the stories to work together, not conflict.

And then they told Mark he couldn't use Kang without ever checking with me or Brevoort. They thought they were doing us a favor, but what they were doing was "solving" a problem that didn't exist, and messing up Mark over a story he'd actually done me a favor on.

It baffled me then, it baffles me now.

kdb

wow. Thats like breaking up a fight on the school playground when it was really just a game of jacks

[Augusto]

They should put this in Marvel Digital. It's hard for me to buy a hardcover :(

[Darth Tigris]

To add wackiness to injury --

In that specific case, when I'd decided to use Kang in AVENGERS FOREVER, I'd done so in consultation with Mark (among other things, Mark was the guy who suggested I get my Avengers roster by pulling Avengers from different time periods), and told him, "Look, I know you've got Kang plans of your own, but our story jumps around in time so much it won't be a problem. You can use him, I'll use him, and we'll even throw a nod in to each other's story partway through." So we were each aware the other guy was using Kang and had plans for the stories to work together, not conflict.

And then they told Mark he couldn't use Kang without ever checking with me or Brevoort. They thought they were doing us a favor, but what they were doing was "solving" a problem that didn't exist, and messing up Mark over a story he'd actually done me a favor on.

It baffled me then, it baffles me now.

kdb

For some reason I had mistakenly thought Mark was referring to the Kang Dynasty storyline when originally reading it, but considering it was Avengers Forever and the TYPE of story that was ... yeah, I agree, it's confounding.

Of course now I'm trying to see how the Cap storyline would've played out with Kang instead of the villain that he did use (he kept it secret so I'll do the same). That following issue drawn by Lee Weeks is still one of the definite Cap stories to me and the villain that he chose worked quite well all things considered.