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Monday, April 07, 2008

Fraction and Brubaker Off Of Iron Fist, Johns Off Of Booster Gold




Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are set to leave The Immortal Iron Fist after issue #16, and Geoff Johns will be leaving Booster Gold as of issue #1,000,000.

Oh, the humanity!

On my anniversary day, yet!

Reaction on the Newsarama boards was swift:

"this makes me a sad panda"


Meanwhile, Warren Ellis is rumored to have said:

"That's what happens, man. That's what happens."
(that is a specious rumor and is most probably false.)

Well, reactions?

21 comments:

  1. Honestly, I'm fine with Geoff Johns leaving Booster Gold. I'm just sorry Jeff Katz is going too. I assumed DC was doing the same sort of "mentoring" system that worked with Jon Rogers and Keith Giffen on Blue Beetle: Start it out with a name, but keep his co-writer on to give the book some consistency.

    Brubaker & Fraction leaving is a real shock, though. Hate to see all the fans at Newsarama claiming they'll jump ship.

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  2. DAMMIT. Okay, well. That just means that I won't have to buy tons of Iron Fist trades, so it sort of works out in the end (for my wallet, not my brain).

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  3. Can't say I'm very shocked about Johns leaving Booster Gold -- I know it's one of his favorite books, but his schedule leading into and post-Final Crisis must be HUGE.

    I think Iron Fist could have developed into another Brubaker/Captain America "prestige" long-term run. I guess you have the 16 issues, which could be put out in an Absolute edition at some point.

    My fear is that one day I'll be reading that Dan Slott will be leaving the Initiative. That would make me frownie-faced. :-(

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  4. Ok... I don't get it.

    Ed was doing fine doing Iron Fist, Daredevil, Captain America, and Uncanny.

    Then Fraction cowrites IF with him.

    Then Fraction cowrites UXM with him.

    Now they leave IF.

    So EB can only do 2 solo and one cowriting?

    Geoff Johns writes more than that, AND is a universe "architect" much like Bendis is.

    I just get irritated when these creators set up these really awesome comics, then just take off after a year or so Astonishing X-men Joss Whedon, Warren Ellis (Thunderbolts), and they get dropped into the laps of subparness (Ellis's AXM looks awful).

    Why should I even invest in new comics by "hot writers" when they are going to end up cancelled a year or two later (or done crappily then canceled), anyways?

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  5. I'm pretty sorry to hear about both titles since I love 'em both. I think that Booster Gold is basically the best comic out there right now.

    No word on whether or not Dan Jurgans is going to remain doing the art chores... I hope he is becuase the art has been stunningly amazing. Maybe he gets a change to write/draw the book? After all he did create the character.

    I have to say, I'd LOVE to see that Gail Simone or Peter David picked up the reigns writing Booster. However I suspect it might be a little of a lesser know writer.

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  6. Anonymous4:10 PM

    Well that kinda sucked. I'm loving Booster Gold. Hope the book keeps the momentum post-Johns. :(

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  7. I know that the creative musical chairs in American superhero comics is a running theme here on OS. Was there a point where it became more pronounced, or is this just the way the business works?

    Herge did Tintin for what, 50 years? Carl Barks never felt the need to drop the Ducks to go pen crime comics. I know those are extreme examples, but even the most soulless, paint-by-numbers titles in Japan hold onto their major creative personnel for the length of their runs.

    No solutions, no complaints, just confusion.

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  8. "Was there a point where it became more pronounced, or is this just the way the business works?"

    I think that nowadays projects are thought of less in terms of long, sweeping runs lasting for years and more in discrete, finite packages. I mean, if you luck into something like Brubaker on Captain America, great. But, I think that's becoming less and less the norm.

    However, there is the phenomenon of the writer who pens a large amount of books a month, with the quality suffering on some as the result of just having too much to write. I would rather they leave some behind and focus on their core books.

    With Brubaker/Fraction, they are some of the hottest writers at Marvel and it seems a case of strategically placing them on the biggest-profile books.

    The problem for me regarding books like Iron Fist, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Incredible Herc, and others is that it is difficult for these "3rd Tier" characters to survive outside the care their original writers give them. And I think a publisher can "save" these titles when the original team moves on -- but they have to make a real decision to do so. They have to figure out exactly what direction the book is going to go into.

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  9. Brubaker's also doing Criminal, Sammy. But not everyone writes at the same rate.

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  10. rob-

    yeah but that's creator owned, was referring to Marvel titles.

    I guess it's just odd to me that Fraction takes on co-writing duties of UXM, then they both leave Iron Fist.

    Is there a new Brubaker title in the works, or what?

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  11. Sure, but being creator-owned, Criminal probably takes *more* of his time rather than less.

    I'd love to see another Bru book, tho. I wouldn't be surprised if they announce one soon. Probably something that has to stay under wraps until we're ready to see fallout from Secret Invasion.

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  12. Anonymous7:22 PM

    I love the current Booster Gold series, even though I'd never cared much about the character despite my love of the Giffen League. But I had just assumed it was a 12-issue mini (or is that a maxi?). I mean, it's certainly written like one.

    So it makes sense that Johns is leaving at that point, but the new creative team will be back to square one in terms of convincing me to keep reading.

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  13. Guess they have other houses to paint!

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  14. Comics creators are turning into professional baseball players. You don't root for a team, you root for a uniform...or a 31st century security droid.

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  15. Sayyy, you know who they could put on Booster Gold and make everybody happy? That nice John Byrne fella. He'd never, ever do any damage to DCU continuity.

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  16. Fraction & Brubaker would ROCK on Booster Gold, actually.

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  17. Fun little comic we had with Booster Gold. Now it will enter into a slow tailspin as no one has any idea what to do with the character again.

    He will then languish for 20 years until the next Crisis.

    Too bad ... it was one of the few books I was enjoying from DC. Another to strike from my buy list.

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  18. It wouldn't be so bad if the sales model changed to reflect that creators often do a run and move on but for the most part we still have monthly ongoing series running into the hundreds of issues. I wish they'd start packaging these runs as their own limited series, or better yet OGNs. But the current model exists and makes enough money that few in the position to change feel the need to do so.

    I was actually looking forward to Brubaker handing over Iron Fist to Fraction. As it is I can't imagine anyone doing it better- it was the only Marvel title I bought in trades and I will likely drop it now. The sales on Fist were less than spectacular so maybe part of the decision for the creators is to move on to something with bigger sales and a bigger paycheck.

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  19. Sad to see Johns leave Booster, but as you said when a writer has a billion projects coming up, I'd rather they pick and choose which to put focus on rather than let those flourish and the others die a slow, miserable death. I just hope they pick a good follow-up team on the book that keeps the established tone and continues to build up the characters. But, DC has a pretty good track record of doing that lately (McKeever after Simone on Birds of Prey, followed by Bedard? Brilliant!).

    Marvel, however, they tend to go with names and put the wrong people on the wrong projects (Claremont on Exiles for starters). Unfortunately, I've fallen a bit behind on most of my monthly reading, and Iron Fist is one of the casualties of that fact. Just not enough hours in the day and I buy too many comics!

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  20. Iron Fist is one of the last comics I still buy. I'm torn. I've loved the run, but it's a Philadelphia guy taking over. So I have to show some loyalty, right? His Moon Knight Annual was good.

    OK, he's totally, totally new. Who knows?

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  21. Sorry to see both the books lose their creative teams as I liked both books very much (though in different entertaining ways).

    But I almost think that Mark Waid would have been perfect for Booster Gold if he had more time nowadays.

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