Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Lardy's Roundtable (Gym'll's Ed.): Grant Morrison

Though I don't leave comics in the bathroom, I must admit I take them with me quite often when I know I'm gonna be...sitting in there for a while!

As for what to leave in there for others? Damn, I don't know! But if I were to choose, I'd put Adventure Comics #0 or some other reprints of classic comics. Those issues of Marvel Tales that reprinted classic Stan Lee Spidey would be prefect as would any Free Comic Book Day offerings. And didn't DC recently do some cheap reprints of good Vertigo/mature first issues to give prospectors who saw Watchmen some cool, inexpensive entry points? If so, those would be great, too!

If nothing else, all those'd pass the time really well while they had a righteous b.m.!

(Nice to know someone missed the Roundtable, btw!)

One of my favorite single-issue stories is Avengers # 264, by Roger Stern and John Buscema, showcasing the Wasp and introducing Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, a character with great potential that was sadly never realized. The Wasp's personality was often ill-defined, but here, she's the most likeable she ever was, and thanks to John Buscema, she never looked lovelier.

Swamp Thing #32 - "Pog" - Linguistic craziness, Walt Kelly meets Alan Moore, funny and sad, what's not to love?

The Sandman # 18 - "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" - Great story and the only time I've loved Jones' art (probably because he's not drawing humans).

JLA #42 - "Half A Mind To Save A World" - The JLA struggles to remove a microscopic civilisation that is growing on the brain tumour of a sick child. It was pretty standard until the end when you realise it's an analogue for Krypton and the emotional impact on Superman is really powerful.

Suicide Squad - Any of the "Personnel Files" issues. These happened once a year or so and were "Down time" between missions. Each one had just tremendous character examinations and set up the next years stories perfectly.

Swamp Thing #59 - "Reunion" - Abby gets to say goodbye to her Dad. That page where they embrace after all they've suffered is still beautiful.

G.I.Joe #21 - "Silent Interlude" - Perhaps the only use of the "Silent" comic gimmick I've loved, and I wasn't even a huge Joe fan. Hamma not only tells a great story, but his reveal at the end not only changes the course of the Joe Comic, but really transformed the entire franchise.

Detective Comics #500 - "To Kill A Legend" - The Phantom Stranger takes Bruce and Dick to an Earth where Bruce's parent are about to be killed. Dick wrestles with whether they can and should stop the events from happening and deny the world without heroes a Batman, and Bruce tries to get the closure he's sought his whole life. Great story with a great ending.

Issues of Jonah Hex or Dawyn Cooke's issues of the Spirit.

Amazing Spider-Man #22 (I know, you wouldn't want that one lying around your bathroom but seriously its such a fun, upbeat, action-filled, great single issue story).

Pretty much anything by Carl Barks: the Duck Man RULES!!

This should give this thread a shot in the arm:

Career-spanning interview with Peter David

The only David stuff I've read is the Tail end of the DC series of "Fallen Angel". It was for a reader exchange program on another board (I started picking this up and the other guy agreed to try Human Target, it didn't save either title).

It was OK, but not great.

I do have the complete run of Hulk DVD they released a few years back and look forward to the day I get up to his run on the book though. I've heard good things.

Hmmm PAD's work that I've read

AQUAMAN - wow Aquaman can be cool. His take seemed similar to Busiek's, that of Tarzan underwater. PAD mentions DC wanting him to be a king and a loner at the same time, and he made it work. Less super-hero and more adventure, he started a great run that Larsen and Jurgens kept going.

YOUNG JUSTICE - this was a FUN book. And it was that mythical all-ages book that wasn't overly childish or too melodramatic. PAD brought in some great new characters - Empress, Lil Lobo, Arrowette. This book made John's TT run possible.

X-FACTOR - the current run. I started reading for Siryn and Rictor, but PAD has me actually liking Monet and Maddrox. Some folks have lost their love for it, but PAD does his best to make this a reader's book.

FALLEN ANGEL - PAD's best work- his characters unleashed, his stories unfettered. Morality is gray and bloody, life is uncertain, and not always happy. It's a revolutionary look at super-heroes.

When Peter David is on, he's really on. He always seems to go that one extra step into thinking about how a characters powers would affect their personality (or how their personality would shape their attitude towards and expressions of their powers).

Like some of my other favorite authors, he's got a knack for dusting off abandoned 'third tier' characters and making them all shiny and new.

It's when he's working with pre-established characters with lots of baggage, like Spiderman, that I'm not so impressed. I don't know if that's him having to fight many other writers pre-conceptions, or my just often being less than interested in characters I've had 20 years or so to read my fill of.

I remember discovering PAD as he began writing Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man. He came out of nowhere to give that title a real shot in the arm! He only stayed for a year or two, but that was a solid run of stories. If he'd stayed longer I believe PAD could've become one of the definitive Spider-man writers. Who can argue with the quality of "The Death of Jean DeWolf"? But his run was just as defined by some great two-parters and especially some good done-in-ones.

It's a shame that when he finally returned on Friendly, that his hands were tied so badly by editorial dictates. I've heard he did the best with what he had, but it could've been SO much better without the handcuffs!

Then there's Hulk! Wow! The definitive run on the character, bar none. What was cool was how he kept reinventing the character to keep him fresh. I especially loved the period where Bruce went back to being gray Hulk and then to alternating between becoming green or grey. The era with smart Hulk and the Pantheon was really goo, too.

In fact it was consistently good until the Onslaught debacle tied his storytelling up. I actually dropped the book at that time because the stories were so dreadful. I came back for the final arc, though, and it was a poignant, heartbreaking way for PAD to close out his run.

At DC I loved his work on Aquaman and Supergirl. He breathed some much need life into Aquaman, a character who never seemed to find the right hook (natch) for him.

And Supergirl was a masterpiece for him, right up there with his Hulk, I think. It always felt so personal, and the religious themes were almost unheard of in mainstream comics. It had a few lulls, true, but it always found a way to bounce back. And that last arc was one of the best ever to close out a series. It's too bad Linda Danvers appears to have been wiped out of continuity for all intents and purposes--but I think we all know where the character went next at least spiritually in a new home where PAD didn't have to worry about editorial constraints.

Lots of honorable mentions, including some solid work on Star Trek, some brilliant moments on X-Factor and a book I have a soft spot for, Justice from Marvel's short-lived New Universe line.

As for Fallen Angel, it's definitely on my to-buy list at some point. I did buy the first DC trade back-when and enjoyed it a lot. One barrier for me has always been the lack of trades completing the entire DC series. I'd prefer to read all the DC stories before starting the IDW trades. I can hardly believe that IDW hasn't obtained the rights to reprint the DC series. Does anyone know why this is?!?! Other comapnies do this all the time!

Anyhow, I'd feel negligent if I didn't mention PAD's terrific work in novels. Howling Mad is one of the funniest books I've ever read! And his Star Trek: TNG novels are among the best licensed books I've ever read, right up there with Timothy Zahn's Star Wars work. If you love TNG and haven't read "Vendetta" and "Imzadi" I and II, you're really missing out!

I’ve always felt I have an interesting POV/history with PAD’s work throughout my comic book reading experience. When I first started reading comics religiously, it was around age 11-12, and as many of you know, my father had been collecting comics since 1960 and already had an enormous collection, so I had a very different roadmap. But also at that time of my first really getting into them, my father had been getting the CBG (Comics Buyers Guide) delivered weekly for several years. It was an awesome newspaper format back then, and so I started reading that each week too. I distinctly remember using CBG to catch myself up on decades of history, where Silver Age characters I loved were doing now, and really getting a better feel for comics as a whole. Of course, not everything in there was suitable for an 11 year old, but hey, I read the Sin City comics when I was like 14 or younger. Anyway, PAD has had a column in CBG for almost (or over?) two decades, in the back of the newspaper/magazine (as it is now), called “But I Digress…”

It was “But I Digress…” that I really started to get to know PAD, and understand his point of view. I really feel like I grew up with PAD as a major influence on my comic book reading experience—more so with that than his actual comics. But one day I eventually put two and two together and realized Peter David wrote comics that my Dad was collecting, so I started to read his comics as they came out; I also hunted backwards and read all his old Marvel work. But it is because of this that I see his work in two ways: (A) I usually love it; and because I’ve loved it for so long, I’m usually pretty excited about his projects; (B) I feel very comfortable being very critical of his work that I think is flawed. And there is a portion of his work that I think hasn’t been the greatest stuff. He’s obviously a controversial writer on the internet, which means some people don’t like him outright without reading his stuff, but so many of his fans just plain like everything he writes, and its that latter group that I find extremely annoying.

Anyway, some thoughts:

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man – I actually read this before I knew PAD wrote these issues, and Lardy is dead-on; he gave the title a real shot in the arm, and stepped it up to being an A-quality Spider-Man title. His “Death of Jean DeWolf” story stands the test of time and is better and better every time I’ve reread it (which is probably like 20 times). His other issues, including his very first introducing Blaze, are also very good. During this era, when Spidey had a black costume, there was an added sense of angst across all three titles. You can almost pinpoint it to the moment when Sin-Eater fires at Spidey, he jumps out of the way and the crowd behind him is hit. Henceforth for a good year, it was angst the like that hasn’t been seen since ASM #17. Sometimes it got annoying (re: Web of Spider-Man); sometimes it was done perfectly. PAD’s was the latter.

Incredible Hulk – in my mind, the greatest Hulk run of all time, and one of the greatest comic book runs of all-time. It is what got me to love the Hulk. Either the summer of 1992 or 1993 I read the entire run of the Hulk (usually at the beach) and remember being completely blown away by PAD’s portion of the run. Most of it is brilliant, but my favorite era is the Pantheon, #400, Rick & Marlo’s wedding but also Rick’s Bachelor Party, and so much more. It was the first time I ever saw such perfectly done humor mix with some of the most poignant emotional moments.

Aquaman – And then PAD came to Aquaman and completely blew my mind. His is my definitive Aquaman as well, including every little tidbit he did. He made him badass, ill-tempered, finally reflective of the tragedies that befell him in the 70’s (dead son? Almost impossible to recover from.), and he roped in the various far-reaching charactres of DC’s underwater world and them all together. Dolphin! Hook hand! Beard! New Costume! Koryak! Garth becomes Tempest, gets a cool costume and at last becomes cool! Battles the JLA and cheats—awesome! Sea Devils, Tsunami, Neptune Perkins and then Deep Blue! PAD had everything. And the history with Atlan and the more in depth origins of Atlantis and Aquaman were perhaps the best part, which leads me too…

The Atlantis Chronicles – which I read sometime in the middle of PAD’s run, since it came to my attention that many of his themes were continuations of what he had done here. And wow, it really threw me for a loop. What a damn fine mini-series, one of the classic yet unsung greats of the 1980’s.

Supergirl – A completely unique and intriguing book at the time, which combined the Superman mythos with a mood reminiscent of Twin Peaks. This was incredible, and I remember being blown away the first few years.

With Supergirl, Aquaman and Hulk going at the same time, PAD was peaking in the 1990’s. And then IMO, they all took a nosedive in quality and seemed to wander seamlessly for a few years. And only through his CBG articles did I later learn why: he was in the midst of a divorce and having a hard time finding his motivations for each of the three. And looking back on it, its evident that PAD himself was likely similar to Aquaman wandering alone in the water, the Hulk reverting back to a mindless loner, etc. So I don’t really blame him, because like I said, I feel like I kind of know him.

Yet, he had several other great runs since then:

Young Justice – one of the great comics of the last 20 years, and it’s a damn shame it ended. One of the most fun comics ever.

Fallen Angel – truly his masterpiece, which continues to be a wonderful read that is full of so much that it will undoubtedly take future rereads to pick up on some pieces.

Dark Tower series – having PAD onboard has no doubt ensured the transition from gigantic novels to comic books has been a creatively successful one.

Spyboy – one of the coolest Dark Horse / PAD series that no one apparently bought but me.

X-Factor (current) – I think its one of his best efforts in this decade outside Fallen Angel. I know some people are down on it because of recent issues, but I don’t think the quality of the writing has been that horrible; the art definitely has but its not PAD’s fault. I’m definitely willing to wait a good amount longer to see what PAD has in mind.

But I’d be wrong to not include what I think have been some poor showings:

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man – despite some worthy tries to bring in some great moments (Betty Brant, Flash, etc.), for the most part, I found this to be one of PAD’s most unenjoyable runs on anything ever.

She-Hulk – another I really disliked, which I felt slow and boring. I just expect better from Peter David, and I have no great love of She-Hulk to keep me intrigued.

Of these last two, perhaps Lardy is right and the larger Marvel editorial hampered what he was trying to do. But knowing PAD like I think I do, I know he’s often complained about crossovers before but is always the first to try to use them to give his titles a sales bump. So the fault is most definitely his.

Random PAD material I’ve never read
(1) First X-Factor run – my father had no use for X-Factor the first time around and so we never owned it and I never read it.
(2) Star Trek stuff – just not my thing
(3) Spider-Man 2099 – at the time I was a young teenager and since it wasn’t “the real Spider-Man”, I refused to read it. Ever since, I’ve just had no desire to do anything than glance through some back-issues.

I'm fairly certain I have most of (1) and a large chunk of (3) if you ever wanna stop by and dig through a couple of longboxes. I enjoyed both but don't consider them part of "my collection".

I never understood why PAD didn't stay on Spidey longer. Do you remember anything from those "But I Digress..." columns? My best guess there is that he left because he was hired to write Spidey 2099 and didn't want to write 2 versions of the character. Total guess though.

PAD's penchant for balancing humor with drama was just so perfect for Spidey. What could've been...*sigh*

(2099, btw, had its moments but kinda ran out of gas after the second year, IMO.)

Y'know, other than the slump near the end that I mentioned it's definitely worthy of the praise, though I had one quibble with the Pantheon era that I've never been satisfied with: Marlo's resurrection. It just seemed a little too easy, and I kept expecting the other shoe to drop because of this. But it never did. I know we've seen many, many of these in comics, but this one never worked for me at all. For me it's a "jump the shark" moment. Anyone else have some thoughts there?

Fully agree! This had a grand, mythic quality to it, coupled with some absolutely gorgeous artwork!

I never picked this up for some reason. The first couple of issues just didn't do anything for me. I've heard good things, though.

Having just gotten halfway thru "Gunslinger Born" so far, I'd have to agree. It's a little slow but very rich storytelling. And, oh my GOD, Jae Lee's art and the total presentation are just breathtaking!

Bought this and enjoyed it at the beginning but shipping delays absolutely murdered this book for me.

Artistic inconsistency has hurt this one badly. They seem, though, to have a string of issues featuring a competent, consistent art team going now. I have the first three collections of the current series and recently picked it back up with the (in?)famous birth issue and plan to give it until issue 50 to hook me in for the long haul. I love what he does with Jamie Madrox above all else.

I haven't read any of it really, but I give him a free pass because of how the first few issues were tied up in that dreadful "The Other" storyline and most of the rest was bound by the curveball stunt of Spidey's unmasking to the public. Hard to really riff on Peter and Spidey properly under that constraint.

I'm much more of a follower of characters than creators, but there a few writers whose work I'll always at least try, even if I'm otherwise uninterested in whatever property/subject they're writing.

Peter David's one of them.

I came late to the HULK party, but loved the Pantheon issues. I'd like to see them show up again, but pretty much only if PAD's the writer.

I know what Lardlad means about Marlo's resurrection. I think from many other writers, the lack of a further twist would've gone unnoticed, but with PAD, it sort of *did* leave the reader unfulfilled. I know I, too, always expected some other shoe to drop.

I guess sometimes a resurrection is just a resurrection.

I enjoyed all the usual suspects-- SUPERGIRL, AQUAMAN, YOUNG JUSTICE (which did take a few issues to grow some heart beneath the chuckles), etc.

About the first X-FACTOR-- if nothing else, the issue where Doc Samson has sessions with each member is worth seeking out. It's a classic, in it's own way.

I agree that a wild variety of artists and worse, artistic styles, have hampered the second X-FACTOR. The stories have mostly been worth reading, particularly if, like me, you have some amount of fondness for the characters. I'm pretty tired of the current alternative future storyline, but it's balanced by a mysterious villain and the return of Shatterstar, both of which I'm enjoying.

I think Jamie Madrox joins Linda Danvers, the Pantheon and a select group of other characters that PAD has placed his stamp upon. Not a stamp of ownership, but of true characterization.

I had mixed feelings about his SHE-HULK run, too. Losing the vivid supporting cast was a misfire, I think. However, there was some gold-- namely the Lady Liberators issues. The story they were involved in wasn't all that earth-shaking (but it was provocative in a subtle sort of way), but the way PAD wrote the women, particulary Valkyrie, was incredibly entertaining. I think if he got the chance to pen a Val series, she could join that select group of characters I mentioned earlier.

Did anyone read the Marvel Pets Handbook that came out a couple of weeks ago? Apparently, someone at Marvel thinks that the Valkyrie in SHE-HULK was the Samantha Parrington one. I don't see how that could fit with the way PAD wrote her.

I haven't read the ST:TNG novels listed above, but I did read and can recommend the FINAL FRONTIER sub-series of Trek books. At least the early ones-- somehow I lost track of Trek for awhile there.

I like that it's sort of off to the side from the usual Star Trek universe-- and especially like that PAD brought back the characters of M'ress and Arex from the animated series that gets woefully overlooked.

I'm very happy to see all the mad PAD love in this thread. I can't add much more than a few random thoughts:

- I notice nobody's mentioned PAD's run on Dreadstar. I'm not really surprised, but I really hope that someday it'll gain more recognition, as, in my opinion, PAD actually improved on Jim Starlin's original Dreadstar the same way that Walt Simonson's Thor improved on Lee & Kirby's original Thor.

- PAD did not quit Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man. The Powers That Be forced then-Spidey-editor Jim Owsley (now known as Christopher Priest) to fire PAD because of a sh*tstorm between Marvel's editorial and marketing departments. As PAD was a marketing staffer at the time, he was aware of the situation and doesn't hold it against Priest.

- Young Justice and Supergirl came out while I was reading very few comics and wasn't following the industry or going to comics stores. I've had to severely cut down on back-issue purchases, but I like what I've read so far and hope to complete the runs in the future.

- X-Factor Mk. 2 was my favorite comic book for its first couple years, then I thought it went into a quality spiral, and I dropped it after # 35. The controversial childbirth issue was good enough to get me to Byrne-steal the book every month, but so far it hasn't recaptured enough of the magic for me to start buying it again.

- I can't wait for Fallen Angel Reborn. As with X-Factor, the first two years or so were pure gold, but I feel that the last few issues suffered from having to cram a long-term storyarc into a small amount of space; great ending, though, and I'm confident the relaunch will be back on form.

Thinking about PAD a little more, I've kind of been developing a term for "PAD characters": these are specific characters within a series that PAD writes so well, they memorably stand out in your mind when you think about the series in retrospect. Its kind of hard to put into words what I’m thinking, but what I mean is, PAD usually writes his solo/team titles with an excellent analysis of the main character(s) and the emotional experience they’re having; he also provides excellent tension with the character(s) romantic partner (and in fact, I would say goes ten steps further in these scenarios but that’s another stream of thought); but he *also* provides excellent supporting characters that really shine in the series. Now don’t get me wrong: (1) these characters do not take over the book (re: they do not pull a fonzy)…otherwise we would probably hate these characters in retrospect. And (2) these are not the main character or the romantic partner; these are in addition to those long-standing archetypes.

For example (granted it’s a little harder to find in team books):

(1) Fallen Angel – this one is jam-packed full of them, but IMO Black Mariah has really emerged as a bonafide “PAD character” star. She’s my favorite character of the series, and almost every line of hers is either the funniest line in the issue, or perhaps the most emotionally poignant. And she doesn’t dominate the series at all, she’s purely a supporting character and will always remain that way.

(2) Incredible Hulk – Rick Jones might be the easy one to think of, but I would say that’s not true, since Rick is essentially a Marvel Heroes star anyway. Rather, I think Marlo is the type of character I’m getting at. She sticks out in my mind as the quintessential PAD character during his run: her very presence helped further develop all the characters and stories around her; she was awesomely funny at times; she was filled with tragedy and drama, and her scenes sometimes were whimsical and fun and yet at other times disturbing and poignant.

(3) Supergirl – I think ultimately Buzz developed as the type of character in Supergirl similar to the others. And honestly, I never really cared for Buzz myself, but I can see what PAD was trying to do…he certainly developed more than any other character in the whole run. I know some people (not on LW but on other boards) complained he was too much like Spike from Buffy but PAD has always said that was never intentional. It was only after fans made that comparison that PAD tried to play that up online to get Buffy fans to check out the sales-ailing Supergirl.

(4) Aquaman – Aquaman is chalk-full of these types of characters as well, but Dolphin is of course the one that sticks in my mind, even though the early issues flirted with the idea of a Dolphin/Aquaman romance (so yeah, I’m breaking my own rule ). But up until PAD took hold of her, Dolphin was basically a throw away DC character with one late 60’s Showcase appearance and then a few good bits of dialogue in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12. That’s right—she only appeared in basically two other issues prior (her most memorable thing was her cut-off shorts honestly until PAD took the character). He then used her perfectly: she went from being the reader’s POV person to someone questioning Aquaman’s actions to being his best ally and then when just maybe her presence in the book was getting repetitive, PAD used her to breath some fresh life into Garth much like he did with Orin.

I’m sure there are dozens of examples, including multiple in the various books, and that’s a tribute to how well PAD uses supporting characters. Its always done differently (he is an excellent writer after all and its obvious he doesn’t want to bore himself more than anything), but they are always the ones you least expect and they always change the scope of the series in subtle ways by affecting characters and story montages themselves.

On the side-topic of PAD's Star Trek books, he had a line of 'New Frontiers' book that I tended to call 'Sex Trek,' because there was a whole lot of booty-callin' going on.

It got particularly confusing when the hermaphroditic engineer got involved, as s/he was canoodling at different points with both the male helmsman and the female doctor.

Unlike classic Star Trek, which had a bunch of normal people and Spock, the New Frontiers crew was full of more unique characters, much like the Next Generation crew (android, klingon, blind dude with super-visor, empath), which gave many of the main cast a special 'hook' of some sort.

The first one had a hamfisted tribute to Gene Roddenberry in it, but the remaining books picked up steam a bit and started fleshing out secondary characters, as well as introducing a few 'bridge' characters from previous series, such as the Vulcan doctor Selar (first seen in Next Generation).

If you're a Trek fan, they are a fun read. I haven't read a whole lot of Star Trek books in the last decade or so, but I think that PAD is the only writer to so far be allowed to write a series of book not set in one of the mainstream series continuities (i.e. you'll find a hundred or more novels set about the Enterprise of Kirk and Spock, or the Enterprise of Picard and Data, or Deep Space Nine or Janeway's Voyager, but not nearly as many books set on 'some other dudes ship,' let alone series of books about author-created characters on their own ship!).

Wow, I just looked them up on Wiki. I'd read the first three or four, but they're up to *seventeen!*

One series he worked on that hasn't really been mentioned is Captain Marvel. I thought that one was pretty much a misfire from the get-go. I gave up on it after about a year into the first series and came back and quickly left again when it was relaunched.

I thought the character of Genis-Vell had huge potential after reading Avengers Forever and was really excited about the new series launch and PAD being attached to it. It started out decent, but it seemed like it was trying to recapture the Hulk vibe a little too much with the style of humor and the presence of Rick and Marlo. What killed everything for me was when PAD dove into Genis going insane and basically turning evil. I'm not saying there's no room for that kind of story, but for it to have been effective, I think it would have been better to establish Genis in a heroic light for a pretty good length of time before exploring him losing it. I felt I'd barely even begun to know this character before he was being torn down.

What was worse was that the arc just went on too long. If you're going to take the book in this direction, you'd better make it absolutely captivating. It wasn't.

I know the book got a lot of acclaim during it's life, but I just don't see it. I think that it hasn't been mentioned along with PAD's career highlights here speaks volumes.

I was just thinking of "Captain Marvel" in relation to this thread. I also was really psyched about Genis after "Avengers Forever". Maybe Busiek would've been a better choice for the series, but aside from the artist making Cap too bulky and making that star on his chest too big, I enjoyed the series a lot! Yeah, it may have helped for Marlo and Rick to have stepped back a bit, but I thought it was a very entertaining series.

However, I also really disliked the turn the series took after Genis went mad in the second series. That wasn't fun or funny. It's too bad Genis met such a bad end - that horrible outfit in "Thunderbolts" then getting written off like that. He could've been a real heavy-hitter in the Marvel U.

Considering how much I didn't care for the original Captain Marvel, I've always been perplexed by how much I liked Genis and even 'Marvel Boy,' his spin-off characters.

Genis' 'death' is perhaps one of the few comic book deaths that logically sets itself up for a return. Much like Zemo's folding castle, Genis may be separated by vast gulfs of space and time, but he's not necessarily dismembered (as the rooms in the folding castle maintained some sort of permanant connection, even when separated by great distances), just trapped in many spaces at once.

I'd only heard of the character before Avengers Forever, but that story got me interested in him, so his appearance in Thunderbolts was a welcome thing.

I consider Captain Marvel, counting the two series as one, to be the weakest extended run that PAD has ever written. Perhaps because it started during a particularly low time in his personal life (as Cobie mentioned earlier, PAD's first marriage ended during the late 90s) it was tainted from the start. Then again, didn't Young Justice start in '97? In that case, it's a mystery to me why Captain Marvel was so bad.

Which only makes me recommend PAD's Dreadstar run even more strongly. It's an action-packed cosmic extravaganza with the best art of Angel Medina's career, plus a superlative guest-artist job from a very young Steve Epting.

Dreadstar and, to lesser extent, Star Trek (I've only read a few of PAD's Trek comics and none of his Trek prose), are what keep me believing that PAD would write one hell of a Fantastic Four. Can't you just picture PAD re-teaming with Todd Nauck for a long run on FF? Yum.

Damn straight, Stealth! Why the hell has PAD pretty much kept his hands off the FF when he has touched practically every other corner of the Marvel Universe?!?! The more I think of it, the more I wish he'd give the FF a shot. The FF, IMO, have pretty much stagnated ever since John Byrne left the series with two notable exceptions: Walt Simsonson and parts of the Waid/Weiringo run (honorable mention to Alan Davis's too-brief run).

I know PAD would just have to write the best Johnny and Ben ever and would probably have a terrific take on Reed and Sue as well. Hell, Franklin and Val would probably rock, too!

In addition I think PAD would build up the FF's supporting cast which has consisted pretty much exclusively of Alicia Masters for any length of time.

A PAD FF run (with Todd Nauck in tow) would definitely have my interest! I wonder if this hasn't happened before because PAD's completely disinterested or because of Marvel's continued insistence on pairing one of their flagship titles with creators who are either a terrible fit for it or just not top-flight talent?

It's bizarre, isn't it? Much as I dislike Mark Millar, I can see the logic of putting a writer with a wild reputation on FF*, but the results could charitably be called timid, as if Millar was overwhelmed by the legacy of Stan & Jack. And now they've given it to Jonathan Hickman, an indie writer chipping his way into the mainstream who had little or no previous familiarity with the FF.

PAD's old enough to have read Stan & Jack's FF as a kid, which I think is crucial to recapturing the SPIRIT of Stan & Jack's trailblazing run, while at the same time, he's too smart and too talented to go the retro route.


*If I were EiC of Marvel and I had decided to go the wild-writer route with FF, I would have hired Joe Kelly instead of Mark Millar. It would be either a trainwreck or the most exciting FF since Stan & Jack, and I think the risk is worth taking. But PAD's still my top choice for FF.

I've got to agree that PAD on FF would be the most exciting thing to happen to PAD or the FF right now (for me at least). It seems a natural fit. PAD's imagination is such that he could provide vastly epic and *new* stories for them, yet keep the dynamic grounded in family. And like Lardy says, hopefully introduce a supporting character or three with some real staying power. Plus, I think he'd know the boring, tired old "Reed and Sue are fighting routine" was played out in the 1970s.

As for Captain Marvel, I thought about adding that to my posts before but kept it out because it really didn't fit with what I was saying. His run there is definitely different from the others, likely because of the aforementioned personal problems he was having at the time.

I don't think it was terrible, but it wasn't his best effort. On the whole, I was super-excited about Captain Marvel following Avengers Forever too; plus Rick & Marlo had been written out of the Hulk for about a good two years by then so it was exciting for the to be included too--I'm also a big fan of the fact that Rick kind of bounces between several titles every few years for like 40 years now. And I think the first half of his run was really great! Lots of action, funny dialogue, a sense of fun and some interesting dynamics. Yet it started to drift a little because of two things: (1) Genis himself never seemed to be able to evolve; he almost felt handicapped in that way. And (2) I hated that Marlo started to have feelings for Moondragon instead of Rick. I can see what PAD was trying to do but I really felt betrayed too, and I had loved Marlo's character up until that point. Rick Jones is a character that will last in Marvel--anyone who says otherwise is kidding himself. Kill him and he'll be brought back. Do something bad to him and it will be undone. History has proven that. But Marlo is not that way; make the readers dislike her and consider her career over...it would only be a matter of time where she would (hopefully) end up in limbo, since the other more likely scenario is her death or worse.

When PAD restrated the series with Genis going mad, the series really took a nosedive for me. But in addition to what we've talked about with what the Hulk, Aquaman and Supergirl were all going through during this period of PAD's life, there's another major contributing factor some people may have forgotten: Bill Jemas & Joe Quesada. During this period, PAD was literally “called out” by the powers that be of his own freaking company. He basically was suckered into competing with them in that contest to see which title would garner the most sales. And the kicker? Jemas basically made his all about sex and Quesada was “so busy” (note sarcasm) that he didn’t even write his and set it in the uber-popular ultimate universe. So what PAD had to do to compete was make Genis completely over the top, as well as make his story fit for a TPB—something all Marvel comics were doing at this time that was hurting almost every title because it was so forced. Those things were not PAD’s fault; his was the only career that would suffer if he lost. BTW, he did win and I felt glad about helping him because I bought like five copies of Captain Marvel #1 (relaunch). But he’s admitted that despite winning that little contest, all it did at the time was make him even more annoyed at the Marvel PTB, so he eventually realized he simply didn’t want to write comics for them anymore at that time (once Jemas left, PAD was back; it was clear Jemas was the asshole there).

So Captain Marvel came at the worst time for PAD to be writing for Marvel, but still, some of it was pretty good. I did like the character a whole hell of a lot, and I hated—HATED—what Fabian did with him in Thunderbolts. It also made me dislike Phyla for some time before DnA finally got me to warm up to her in GotG.