Mindy Newell’s Year-End Bests And Worsts

Mindy Newell

These days Mindy Newell knows that if she could do it all over again she’d have gone to college for screenwriting and film editing. Instead she became a nurse to please her parents and pleasing your parents was what it was all about for nice Jewish girls who graduated from high school in 1971. But the creative larva was in her soul, and when the cocoon broke and the butterfly emerged, it flew to DC’s New Talent Showcase program. Under the auspices of legendary editors Karen Berger, Len Wein, Julius Schwartz, Paul Levitz, and ComicMix’s own Robert Greenberger, Mindy learned the craft and art of writing comics, including Tales Of The Legion, V, Legionnaires 3, Amethyst, Lois Lane: When It Rains God Is Crying, and numerous other comics, including a Superman story based on a dream Mindy had as a child. She also worked on Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! and other independent comics. All this time Mindy continued to work as a nurse while being a single mom to her daughter Alixandra, until the late and dear Mark Gruenwald hired her as an assistant editor at Marvel, while writing stories of the Black Widow and Daredevil. She edited NFL Pro Action, a licensed kid’s magazine about football with the NFL until Marvel imploded in 1996. Returning to full-time nursing, she she also co-wrote a story for 2000 A.D. with her then-husband, British artist John Higgins. A few years ago Mike Gold called and asked her to join the team of columnists here at ComicMix, where her topics freely range from comics to pop culture to politics; she even wrote a piece about the great American thoroughbred Secretariat, which caused editor Mike to tell her that she had won the prize for the most off-topic column ever written ComicMix.

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6 Responses

  1. Jonathan says:

    Just a tiny correction. It’s Jessica Drew not Jessica Jones. Jessica Drew is Spider-Woman, Jessica Jones was Jewel and Knightress (now she just goes by her name as she’s more a mother than Superhero).

  2. George Haberberger says:

    Mindy, did you watch the season finale of Homeland? I was a bit disappointed after the rest of the season had been so great.
    SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO CARE.

    Bringing Carrie’s mother back seemed desperate and unnecessary. It was a hard u-turn from political intrigue to soap opera.

    Dar Adal’s deal with Haqqani to take him off the kill list in return for not releasing the tape of Saul’s capture and trade for terrorists was a betrayal of everything Saul wanted. I can’t believe he would go along with it just to become CIA director again. Saul essentially traded all those lives lost at the embassy to get his job back. Besides, Haqqani will use that tape to keep the CIA on a leash. It made no sense.

    • Mindy Newell says:

      Well, I know that the final episode was meant as a tribute to James Rebhorn,the actor who played Carrie’s father, who died in March of this year, George.

      SPOILERS AHEAD:

      As to Carrie’s mom…yeah, I think they went a bit overboard with her, but I think the point was to show that Carrie had been wrong about her presumptions that someone who has bi-polar disorder can’t have long-term, satisfying relationships with a lover (including marriage) by having “Mom” explain that it was SHE who had trouble in the relationship, not Carrie’s Dad.

      And this also ties into to Saul’s apparent “defection.” Carrie is presuming that Saul, who has always represented to her that you can be true to your ethics, beliefs, and creeds in as dirty a business as the spy game…well, that he’s just another one corrupted by the “games” they play…

      But I don’t believe Saul has really “defected.” First of all, it would be totally out of character for him–the writers have spent the last 4 seasons building his character–and I think a lot of viewers would rebel against this….

      I think he’s doing everything he can to get back to the seat of power as the CIA Director so that he can suss out exactly what Dar Adal is up to and hone in on Haqqani. PLUS…everyone seems to be forgetting that in the video, Saul was a prisoner. He never said a word against himself or the United States–in fact, his mouth was gagged. And there are too many witnesses to testify that Saul at first refused to be traded, that he only relented because Carrie begged him to….so I don’t think that video is much of a problem. Remember the Naval hostages taken by North Korea…and the famous picture showing them smiling, but each flipping the bird at their captors?

      Remember what I wrote in the post….this season was more like 24 in its cliffhangers, etc., but unlike 24, Homeland is also about the emotional and psychological costs. Going along with Dar Adal will be costing Saul in many things.

      Let me know what you think of my theory(s).

  3. George Haberberger says:

    I don’t think Saul has defected either but he has become part of a scenario he has a choice about. Dealing with Haqqani after he killed dozens of people at the embassy should be a deal-breaker. And although the tape does show Saul as having no choice about the prisoner exchange, the optics are still bad. Haqqani will definitely release that video if for no other reason that self-aggrandizement.

    I don’t understand what Dar Adal gets out of dealing with Haqqani or how he even got into the compound where Haqqani was when Quinn planned to kill him.