Marvel draws a blank
In a gimmick reminiscent of Time Magazine naming the second person singular "You" as Person of the Year for 2006 using a reflective cover, thus skirting any responsibility for actually choosing a Person of the Year, Marvel has decided to give its usual cover artists a break by putting out a blank cover for its first edition of Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America.
They’re technically calling this a "sketch cover," suggesting that "fans will have the opportunity to get an original sketch on the cover, get it signed by top Marvel creators, or perhaps even draw their own alternate cover! How’s that for one of a kind?"
While the gimmick is sure to be a hit with that portion of readers which attends conventions and patiently waits in queues for sketches, as well as with some aspiring professionals, I’m not sure the artist who might have made a couple hundred bucks illustrating that cover is very appreciative of the lost income.
(Note: When DC Comics published a blank cover on Wasteland, the artist never received payment.)
(Note: When DC Comics published a blank cover on Wasteland, the artist never received payment.)Let it go, Mike. Just let it go.
Argh! Does anybody, including Mike Baron, Lee Oaks and Mike Gold, does ANYBODY besides ME read Black Ice? Nobody else is commenting. Nobody else seems to be paying attention to the story.Black Ice #18, Page 82. Neil clubs the "that thug" (the spy who tried to kill him) to death, while the Wizard kicks at the thug. Now, 10 pages later, just a few days and Neil is saying, "We killed him?" As if it wasn't obvious at the time. Has Neil lost touch his mind like the Wizard feared? Neil clubbed him to death! I could tell the guy was dead by the way his brains were smeared on the floor and nobody was rushing to get him medical aid. The thug was DEAD! Why is Neil confused about this? Neil KILLED the thug with a club. Black Ice #18, Page 83: Wizard: "It's hard work…*GASP*…to kill… a person…"Neil: "What … will we do … with the body …?"The THUG is DEAD! NEIL KILLED HIM! NEIL KNOWS HE KILLED HIM!Maybe Neil's confused because the Wizard is now insisting that the Wizard somehow killed the spy with a ROCK. Page 82, unless there is a ROCK in the Wizard's boot, then the spy was kicked and clubbed to death. NO ROCK! There was NO ROCK. For the Wizard to be claiming that he killed the thug with a rock means he thinks Neil is an IDIOT with NO memory. Or maybe Mike Baron, Lee Oaks and Mike Gold think that the READERS are IDIOTS who can't turn back ten pages and see how things happened!This isn't fantasy/science fiction. This is nonsense. This is Alice in Wonderland, worse this Pamela Ewing's Dream. Let's show something and then pretend it happened a different way or just didn't happen at all. More than anything, this is just terrible editing. Somebody is texting on their iPhone (busy doing other things, just not paying attention) while Black Ice runs off the rails.Am I being too critical? Is there some subtle nuance to the writing that I'm missing? Is the Wizard offering up an alternate version of history because he can see that Neil is in total denial about killing someone? It doesn't read that way to me. It reads like this story is being dished out like so much chipped beef on toast, SOS. Yuck.I'm not looking for a "No-Prize" here. I'm not trying to pounce on small inconsistencies in continuity. Neil KILLING somebody seems like a BIG plot point. Having two characters not remember details of that event just a short time later seems bizarre. More bizarre than six-legged, junkie weasels that power airplanes; that's a story element that, in comparison, I can easily accept.