By Miles Baker and Owen Craig
Miles:
Yay. SWORD is back. I love the Sentient World Observation and Response Department. Though, this now shows that Agent Brand is alive. Marvel is really into spoiling the end of Astonishing X-men, eh?- Wow. Yu really only knows how to draw one face, huh. No wonder he’s such a fast artist, he doesn’t waste any time thinking about other faces.
- Ow. Spider-woman’s boobs are pointy.
- Ha. Luke Cage’s “Nah, I’m openin’ it” is pretty hilarious. Too bad he’s most likely a Skrull — he triggers the attack and there is a panel of him with no eyeballs.
- Fuck. That’s a lot of potential continuity they are fucking with. I hope it’s a double bluff. But I remember when I thought “One More Day” was going to be a double bluff.
Owen:
- Cloak! Awesome! Oh, he’s gone.
- I want to see Hawkeye using arrows again.
- Huh. Spider-Woman has really pointy breasts.
- I guess everyone always crash-lands in the Savage Land. I wonder if there’s a reason for that…other than the dinosaurs.
- Three (or more?) skrull reveals in one issue? They’re really stepping up the pacing in this year’s crossover. I hope that continues.
Miles, regarding thought A: I think Marvel can’t afford to hold up their entire comic production line so that Joss Whedon and John Cassaday can take another four months to put out one single issue. Comic companies need to learn that artists/writers who can’t put out a monthly book shouldn’t be put on a monthly schedule.
Also, Lenil Francis Yu is a goddamn terrible artist. I have no idea why Bendis has such a man-crush on him. His art is sloppy, messy, and has so much cross hatching that everyone looks like they’re 80 years old, and made of grainy wood.
You are right. Marvel does need to move forward. It’s just unfortunate that it comes at the expense of one of their highest profile books.
I’m of two minds about the monthly schedule. On one hand, it sucks when books don’t come out on time. But on the other, it sucks when you have fill-in artists who aren’t very good. For me, it’s all about the creative team and loving Cassaday to death. I think that a lot of books should experiment with different shipping schedules. For things like Y: The Last Man or Astonishing X-Men I’m okay to let the creators finish their vision. However, things like Secret Invasion should have a shorter shipping cycle. There’s no way you can keep fans hyped about an event for 8 plus months.
And I will never understand Marvel’s and Bendis’ man-crush on Yu either.