(no subject)

[dewinged]

Cross-posted to x_force.

Okay, this was stuff I needed to really get out of my head. Non-comic readers can skip it, so I'm putting it behind an LJ-cut just to make sure I don't spam anyone about it.

.


On being fourteen and on the outside.

Okay, as a lot of comic readers know by now, especially since samy has been crowing about it in his own Livejournal as of late, there's the whole upcoming 6-8 issue LS of X-Force, with Fabian Nicieza on the writing privileges and Rob Liefeld on the art chores. Samy's got thw whole deal going: buy an issue of X-force, he'll pick up an issue of a comic of your choosing.

For the record, I asked him to get Fables out of DC's Vertigo line. I'm still going to recommend the first TPB, Legends in Exile, as an excellent place to begin.

Which means I've agreed to his deal. And I know I've posted on the subject of the upcoming X-Force before, to a lot of comments. Mostly 'Why, God, why? Kyle, you know better than to support anything Liefeld does!' And so on and so forth.

And I do know better. If anyone knows better, it's usually me.

But I'm doing it anyway. I'm going to tell my story to explain why.

Honestly? I started reading/picking up comics when I was ten. And, since all I had to go on was the local convenience stores to get comics from, most of what I had was haphazard at best. A series here or there, a few I gravitated to quickly, such as Power Pack. The X-books? Back then it was Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants. And I knew then a lot was going on, so I'd pick up the occasional issue and feel hopelessly lost, since I didn't have a real idea of the continuity involved.

I remembered picking up the Fall of the Mutants issues, to try and get into it. X-Factor didn't grab me back then. Uncanny was when the world believed them dead and they went to Austrailia, which didn't sit well with my pre-teen brain at all. And New Mutants. Fall of the Mutants? That was when Doug Ramsey was killed. I am not sure why I didn't pick it up post-Fall; maybe the store didn't get the following issues, or I just didn't catch on, I dunno.

There were other things I ended up getting for one reason or another as I kept going. X-Terminators during the Inferno saga, for one. This is where I was first intro'd to Rusty, Skids, Rictor, and Boom-Boom, and I got a kick out of them. The New Mutants showed up there as well, with some folks I didn't quite recognize (that pale Gosamyr alien thingy woman), and not quite understanding what had gone on before. Again. I know I don't have the issues after that, because I remember reading the Inferno NM issues in the Inferno TPB from a few years back.

The next time I encountered New New Mutants was a few months down the road. This time, they were in Asgard for the second time, Dani was one of the Valkyries controlled by Hela to try and kill Odin, and the NMs were scattered all over the Asgardian Realm trying to stop her. I found one issue, and started snagging the rest after that. I was getting a kick out of the characters, the story, even the semi-cartoonish art.

Hey, I was fourteen. A little compassion, y'know?

So, anyway, I'm all over this story, and finally, finally started getting into an X-book and was feeling comfortable with it. Then came #86. New Mutants #86. Where they were hyping their hot new artist, Rob Liefeld.

And I hated it. The art was hideous. Rusty Collins was what, 19-20 years old? With that many wrinkles on his face, he looked eighty. Nothing looked right: faces were distorted, they stood around in poses that made me think they were constipated, and it was entirely illegible.

I decided to stop reading it, then and there. I mean, seriously, I figured with art that bad, everyone would stop reading the book.

Fast forward about three months, still when I'm fourteen. I'm down in Daytona Beach for a week, staying at my sister's when she lived down there. She found a local comic shop for me, since I was getting over being sick from just a little too much sun (no, not fun. Not fun at all.) There wasn't much in the store, so I decided to ask the guy, some adult in his twenties at the time, what I should take a look at.

"You see New Mutants," he asks.

"No way," I answered. "That artist sucks."

"Are you kidding? He's great."

"No he's not," I said. "It's ugly."

I forgot if we talked after that. But I remember this guy like twice my age looking at me like I suddenly sprouted a second head. I thought I had landed in some freak zone. I mean, wasn't bad art that obvious? Was I the only one who saw how crappy it was?

What I'd find out over the next few months, after my vacation to my sister's, was that yes, I was.

A local comic store had opened up close to the house, and that was the word on everyone's lips. I just kept my voice down, and didn't say anything. Anytime I spoke aout against him, they'd look at me like I was stupid. And I'm not. Fourteen-fifteen years old at the time, yes, but I was far from Stupid.

(Note: I bet if I found that same comic shop employee, fourteen-fifteen years later, and asked him what he thought of Liefeld, he'd say 'Oh, man, I always hated his art. It's so bad.' And then I could smack him around a LOT for being a total hypocrite. Bah, I say.)

On caving and buying the Original X-Force.

It was a few months before July, 1991, which would be close to my sixteenth birthday, when I first came across what would end up becoming the lineup for X-force. In the ensuing years, I had been shuffling around for stuff to read, picking up things here and there to see what caught my attention. Note that this was a time when a book really had to be in the crapper for it to be cancelled, Power Pack under Higgins/Morgan ending and it being a mercy killing. It was a time where there were new books, new people, and I didn't worry about anything I read not being there. Not like now, where it's a week-to-week worry session to see what book is taken away from me this time. Another rant for another time, mind.

Anyway...The Official Handbook, '89 Update brought my attention to one character: Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy. So when, in 1990, that team was given their own book, I was all over it. And by extention, it went to the younger Vance Astrovik, Marvel Boy/Justice, in what would become one of my comic passions: New Warriors. (I'm not getting into that here, since it's not quite relevant, even though it is part of my motivation for all of this.)

The New Warriors had teamed up with the then-New Mutants as part of the Kings of Pain crossover, happening in their respective annuals at the time. And as I saw the team, I didn't recognize any of them. Save for Sam and Boom-Boom, but the rest were new faces, and they never explained what happened to the rest of them. These weren't the New Mutants.

And, since it was 'The Rob' as the local talk became where I lived, I had to hear about it more and more as 1991 went by. The book was changing, being relaunched as X-force, yadda yadda yadda...

I think I just caved, or snapped, or something. Despite my loathing for the artist, I bought the stupid book anyway. It was a #1 issue, and it had at least one character I liked (Sam) and...gah, it was ugly. A lot of exploitative storylines, imcomprehensible art, characters I couldn't really care about. But one thing caught me. It would be the hook for me, really. After the obligatory unrealistic fight scene, Sam and Tabitha were talking in the kitchen. Tabitha said this new team scared her, and how it wasn't like their old friends, how it all seemed unfamiliar. Sam admitted he felt the same, but made a promise to stick it out with her, since they were the only links to their pasts they had left at the time.

You know? I felt the same exact way. I related to that. And...I think that small vingette was the reason I stuck around with it, despite the bleeding-eye artwork.

I wonder, looking back at it all now, if I am merely rationalizing my choices such as this. Honestly? I have no idea. It feels like a lifetime ago, and while I remember it nearly perfectly, I can't fathom when went through the mind of my younger self. But I won't lie about not reading it.

On my personal Golden Age.

I know there was a delay, somewhere. See, I've been trying to map out the timeline in my head, and the AoA didn't happen until my Sophomore year of college, which would have been late 94-early 95. The last X-Force issue before the AoA crossover was 43, which makes it 3 years, 7 months. Which doesn't quite mesh with an exact schedule. I'm almost positive that there was a delay in one of the early X-Force issues, due to the art.

But, all in all? X-force #1 became a top selling comic, with numbers that would be unheard of now. And it kept going on, and things, as I noticed them, started to change. I kept on for my own reasons, noticing the storyline of Sam being possibly immortal, a reason for Cable to even be there...and other things. Rob's run on X-Force didn't last long: He went with other hot artists to form Image comics, which we all know how that affected the industry during the 90s, the after effects still being felt today.

Rob's run on X-force lasted what, 9-10 issues at most? And one of those was mostly a fill-in by Mike Mignola, now of Hellboy fame. After that, it became Fabian Nicieza (then, of New Warriors fame), on the sole writing chores.

It changed. Hell, one of the first things I remembered was Sam's immortality being explained, Domino revealed as being replaced by Copycat under Tolliver's orders, and Rictor joining with SHIELD to take Cable down. And Cable vanished, Rictor signed back on with his friends, Siryn was included more in the book. And X-Cutioners Song happened. The first time that the X-Force folks encountered the X-Men since beginning of the book. Still not a big fan of crossovers, but I did read all of it. Rahne kissing Julio, Lila and Tabitha verbally sparring over Sam, Jubilee razzing X-Force through a force-prison in the Danger Room...

I'm rambling again. It came to a head post-X-Cutioner's Song. X-force 19. Sam gathered the X-Force folks, and basically told Xavier 'We can take care of ourselves! Both you and Magneto are right, Professor.' Lila gave up her claim on Sam, to Tabitha-now-Boomer. X-Force, with that issue, finally started to breathe. It had a life of its own, and I was swept away by all of it.

I could go on for hours about the issues from that point leading up to X-force #43. I could say how shocked I was at the revelation Feral was a psychotic killer, and how Thornn was the 'good one,' and how Feral defected to the MLF at the worst possible time. I could expound on the mystery of Reignfire, Roberto's disappearance, or how I was pretty damn sure I knew who Locus was. Heck, even some of the MLF types became sympathetic, given real names and motivations. Tempo's reluctance to go too far, Rusty and Skids' constant allegiance changes, and their new mwmber who sounded like Dani, looked like Dani, could suddenly fire psyche-stomping arrows...not like Dani, but wore a mask. I felt for the old New Mutants then: what changed their friend so drastically?

I saw Shatterstar and Rictor develop a close friendship. I melted when Tabitha said Those Three Words to Sam while they were on the Guthrie Famr's back forty. I hurt with James as he tried to reach out to an alcoholic Theresa Cassidy, who was angry at feeling abandoned. They moved to New York, Tabitha grew up, everyone had a direction. I saw the introduction of Paige Guthrie as a mutant herself, facing down the Gamesmaster on her own, with the lives of the New Warriors and X-Force in the balance. Hell, I wasn't even mad when Cable, now with an actual personality, came back to work with them, folling Sam's lead.

Then came #43. See, my top book was always, always New Warriors, and by this time X-Force was a close second. With #43, X-Force took a slight lead in my mind. Danielle Moonstar had returned, revealing she was working for SHIELD, infiltrating the MLF to bring Reignfire down.

And Reignfire...was Roberto DaCosta. I knew it, but the last page of that issue was THE thrill for me. I knew it was coming, and this was going to be the biggest, baddest, most emotional, best comic battle I'd ever seen first-hand. An overarcing storyline, coming to a head, and I couldn't wait to see how it came out! Who'd live, who'd die, how did this happen...?

But first, we had to get past a 4-month break because Marvel editorial, in their efforts to rake in money hand over fist, decided to change the X-book formats for a bit because of a new world storyline, due to a ripple in time: The Age of Apocalypse.

And this is where the trouble started.

On 'Bold New Directions!' or 'Ow, there's this sharp, stabbing pain in my back!'

The AoA lasted four months. And since I didn't have a huge gaping amount of Internet Knowledge back then, I knew little of the news that was going on. I didn't find out about the creative changes until right before the regular X-books started back up, with X-force #44.

See, in the four months between #43 and #44...Fabian Nicieza was fired from the book, since Editorial didn't like the direction he had for the team. The artist, Tony Daniels, went on to other things after being released. They advertised it as 'A bold new creative team! A bold New Direction!'

Which, for comic readers, universally translates to 'We're going to change the creative team and totally ignore every last thing that happened in the preceeding issues, suckers!' (q.v. Abnett/Lanning/Copiel, Legion of the Damned. Again, a while other rant.)

The new creative team...let's start with the artist. Adam Pollina. You know, with seeing his work, I realize that to really break into comics, potential creators have to have pictures of the higher-ups at comics companies in embarassing/compromising positions in order to use as blackmail to get work on a book (q.v Tan Eng Huat). Because, well, it's the only possible reason I can see for some people being let near comics at all. The art was Ugly with a capital UG. My first thought 'Why does Shatterstar have a snake...no, wait, that's his ponytail.' And the purple-yellow costumes...need we go there? Seriously? It was bad. Going from a legible style to...that.

Oddly enough, I looked online about this Pollina guy, and all of fandom was singing his praises. Much like they obediently sang for some guy named Rob about 4-5 years before that issue...

Again, I was the only one who noticed.

It's also why I have such a wicked little backlash against the fandom entity as a whole: I lack that trust.

Then, there's the writer: Joseph (Jeph) Loeb III. You know, I still hear his name now. He's a pretty hot property with DC, what with his work on Batman, and some Superman stuff. And for all I know, it might be very good stuff he's doing with those characters, in those books. But I will never touch anything he's written, because of the atrocities he committed on X-Force back after the AoA. He brought in a now-mental-defect Caliban, brought X-Force back to the Mansion, made them 'Junior x-Men' and apparently made them forget all their competent skills, broke up Sam and tabitha, threw Rictor out...

Oh, and remember that cliffhanger? The one with Roberto being Reignfire? Did I mention that Loeb had absolutely no explination for what happened with that? None? The X-books started two weeks after they left off...on a cliffhanger I was waiting for for a year. You'd think the editors would have realized the regular readers of the book would have noticed that little detail. See what happens when you put the guy who wrote 'Teen Wolf, Too' as the writer on a comic?

Three issues in, because I tried...I dropped the book. Now, before, I've read an issoe or two of a comic and stopped getting it, deciding it's not my cup of tea. X-Force, as of #46, was the first time I ever consciously dropped a comic book I was collecting for a long period of time. And for a book that, a scant four months ago, was at the top of it's game and my pull list...it was crushing. AllI saw was that this was how loyal fans are cared for. Loyalty to a book was repaid by having it turned to sub-standard drek right before your eyes.

I never spoke up about it much back then. No one besides me seemed to care.

It didn't hit me til last year, and last month, that people...that maybe I wasn't so solitary in my fandom after all.

On the New Marvel and the upcoming Limited Series, or 'Here's my soul. Do you take checks?'

Time moved on, and so did comics. Comics came and went (with a lot more in the 'went' column than the 'came,' but that's a rant for another time), characters came and went (again, for another time), which usually was indicative of an era of constant uncertain change and flux in comics, post AoA, or more specifically, post-Onslaught. The fate of books were uncertain, power plays by editors played favorites, with talent rising and falling seemingly at random.

The X-books, usually due to product placement, mostly endured. Different directions were tried, and tried again, revamps were all around, pretty much hitting the Morrison era on New X-Men (Yet again, another rant for another time when I can put my thoughts down on that run without it ending up as incoherent rage.) Mostly, sales have been dropping. Numbers common in 1991 are mere myths and legends in 2004.

Marvel's changing again. People can speculate on all the reasons why, but it is changing. Old creators returning, new styles coming to the fore.

And one announcement of an X-Force Limited Series. Rob Liefeld as the artist. Which drew the immediate disgusted 'Ugh' from me.

And Fabian Nicieza as the writer. The same writer who gave me all those wonderful stories back then. New warriors, X-Force, even his recent run on Thunderbolts, once he hit his stride, was working until Editorial pulled an X-Force on him and smacked the fans of that book in the face.

There's my selling point. Those stories...that's why I'm doing this.

Back in the day, #19-#43 of X-Force...that was my book. That was one of the ones I looked forward to most, before it got taken away for no discernable reason. It was my book...

And. I. Want. It. Back.

samy's rationale matches mine. Let's look at Liefeld for a sec. His New Mutants/X-Force run? That's the longest run he's ever done on a book as far as I know. He went to image, and it took Months between issues. Heroes Reborn Captain America? Didn't he do like 2 issues before he left and they had to bring in a fill-in artist? Didn't he have some book he was touting at the SD Comic-Con last year? How many issues did he do? One. He has a credit for being constantly late, inconsistent, and I don't think he's ever finished a promised project in any length of time before the editors called in a sub after getting sick of him.

The idea: Sure, I can suffer through Rob for a few issues of the LS (have someone read it to me, close my eyes and pretend it's Phil Jiminez doing the art: that's the true plan). Because as per the law of Diminishing Returns, he'll eventually Go Away early on. And with some other decent artist, we'll have Nicieza's X-Force back. We'll have Sam written by the only guy who I believe can write a more competent Sam than Claremont is doing (Say what you want about X-Treme X-Men: Claremont's Sam Rocks My World. A true grown-up, and the ideal X-Man).

We can have it all back. That's why I'm buying this. Because there's a little part of me, that's nineteen all over again...and that part of me believes we can have it all back, one day. The way it was, the way it should have been. Ours.

There. I'm about to go to lunch at work. So this is pretty much over. My story, my reasons, my wish that others see it as I do. And believe.

Coda.

My other motivation for this. See, this Limited Series thing has happened twice with New Marvel. One is Avengers/Thunderbolts, written by Fabian, which is Editorial's apology to loyal fans for Thunderbolts #76-#81. Now, the Fabian-written X-Force.

I can see patterns, a lot of the time. What fits together, how it fits. Add to this the new Alpha Flight series. Besides showing exactly why Scott Lobdell needs to find a new career, it says something...

Two Fabian series getting revamped, and if it sells well enough, maybe becoming ongoing series. We're missing one, kids.

And if he is given New Warriors back? Samy's deal will become mine. I'll make the offer for folks to buy that book, and I'll buy one in return.

Because, well...I need to believe in something. Doesn't everyone?

Comments

[infinitepryde.livejournal.com]

I may actually buy the X-Force LS.

I quit reading New Mutants with X-Force #3. I quit reading the X-books when Claremont left - because his replacements were universally worse. I haven't bought a Marvel comic when it came out since '93 or so.

But I may actually buy the X-Force LS. Partially because you just convinced me that there's a possibility the whole deal can be pulled off.