Joss Whedon

Evidently, my little quip about more feedback worked (http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/soapbox/108655900778819.htm), because my inbox has been flowing with reaction to my various columns. Unfortunately, those are private e-mails, and there’s only so many of them I can post here. But there has been some public message board activity recently, and thus I will examine that here. I always think when writing a column that it’s good to publicly examine some of the audience’s reaction. Here we go:

You, amigo, are the first reviewer I’ve agreed with when it came to "Astonishing X-Men." And I can tell you, I won’t be going back for more. However, I am excited about Claremont’s "Uncanny and Excalibur."

— -avanta@xxxxxxx.net

Thank you, Avanta. Nothing bothers me more when I hear that a group of reader’s opinions are not represented in online reviews. Uncanny X-Men looks pretty good, but I think we’ll have to wait a few issues before we can give a verdict on Excalibur.

Excellent review.

Joss Whedon is one of the most over hyped and under talented people in Hollywood. Comic book writers should feel insulted that he is getting all this praise for what amounts to in my mind, a third-rate issue.

Of course now you will have to fend off rabid Whedon-groupies.

Good work.

Tim

— -tim****.*******@comcast.net

Thanks you for writing, Tim. And surprisingly, I haven’t had that many Joss Whedon fans respond to my review.

I couldn’t agree more with Tim Hartnett’s article about the new X-title. I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan, and so I was excited and wary when I heard that he would be picking up where Grant Morrison left off. Excited because, well, Whedon is one of the best craftsmen in modern fiction. Wary because I knew that Whedon is a huge X-Men, and I was worried that his love of the X-Men would blind him to telling a good story. A lot of the time, I think that when a writer has a lot of reverence for a particular character or title, this can lead to bland storytelling...maybe writers don’t want to "mess up" their favorite characters. But, for whatever reason, I think that’s what’s happened here. Whedon’s work reads dully, with sterility. Nothing happens in this issue and what does feels tired. (Do we really need to see another fight between Wolverine and Cyclops over Jean? And was anyone surprised by the "hook at the end of the issue?) I can’t help but feel that Whedon’s X-Men might have been a lot more Astonishing about 10 years ago... Anyway, enough from me, just wanted to compliment Tim on a good article and put in my two cents.

— -Jankoraven, posted to SBC’s Message Boards

Thank you for writing, Janko. You’re not the only Whedon fan I’ve heard from that was disappointed by Astonishing #1. And you are correct, the Wolverine-Cyclops-Jean charade is long since its time, and the "hook" was nothing more than something I just saw in X-Statix. That’s not to say that the love triangle still can’t work; Grant Morrison did it well. I’m not sure what Whedon was thinking by portraying Wolverine like that.

My article, by the way, was no slight to Joss Whedon. I’ve never met the man, and I don’t know much about his work, only this comic. It’s very hard to tell if any "love" over these characters would prevent him from doing what he wanted. I think editorial edicts, if any, are more likely.

Over at the Image Message Boards, I had an entire thread devoted to how bloody pathetic my column is. Here’s the opener to the thread (and keep in mind this is in Brian Bendis’ forum of all places.)

yet another reason why silverbullet’s reviews are the worst on the internet.

The reviewer claims AXM #1 is "overhyped, underwritten, poorly paced, out-of-character collection of recycled ideas, and a horrible excuse for a replacement to Grant Morrison"

yet the Claremont/Byrne JLA is hailed as "Oooh, we got a nice one going here! Awesome artwork (come on, it’s John Byrne, what’d you expect?) and a pretty cool story"

— -allanpatbrowne, New Kid On the Block

This, my dear readers, is what I define as a pure, "troll." Because of one columnist’s opinion, the entire SBC review staff is "the worst?" Surely, that can’t be true if practically every other reviewer here had a favourable opinion of ADXM #1.

And by the way, what’s the point of that post? The poster makes no argument whatsoever. Silver Bullets’ reviews are the worst because one columnist said something bad about Joss Whedon and something good about John Byrne? Huh? What’s the difference? As one sensible poster said over there, "different strokes for different folks." And then they wonder why I’m like Maddox when it comes to comics...

Oh, here’s another classic from Mr. Browne:

yeah, another one of their gripes about AXM #1 was that Joss Whedon’s name wasnt’ big enough on the cover.... yep solid reviewing there...

Do I even need to respond to that?

Liking Austen & Modern Day Claremont = Crazy

Disliking Joss Whedon = Crazy

That guy is crazy koo-koo nutty, just my opinion of course...

— -Bachman, Senior Member

Wow! Koo-koo nutty! I’m adding that to my SBC message board signature! (Or maybe I won’t, because I really don’t like feeding trolls) And I’m "koo-koo nutty" because I like Chuck Austen’s work? Since when do I like Chuck Austen’s stuff? Evidently this guy never read any of my Uncanny X-Men reviews, and is going by my Action Comics column. Also notice how he seems to think that I like or dislike these people and not their work.

...I do a lot of reviews on my site (in my signature) and that is one thing I always take into consideration. This is someone’s WORK. This is their job and no matter what I say, I have to remember that I’m looking at someone’s baby.

At the same time as a reviewer, I should be able to dissect a given book and tell why it is or isn’t good. Taking personal opinion into account isn’t something that I’d recommend when doing a REVIEW, unless you say in the beginning that this is my personal review of a book.

— -JDSmith, Junior Member

I hope the Image boards keep talking about me for a long time. Note how JD is quick to promote a link in his post that’s already posted in his signature.

So JD brings up something I’d love to examine. He seems to imply that I should "go easy" on these people because its their "baby." You see, this is one attitude I’ve never liked, that comic book creators have a divine right not to hear it like it is. These are the same people who assert that there are "no bad comic books" and just because somebody’s writing comics, they’re special enough that I should buy it. And by the way JD, any time you point out why a book is good or bad, you’re giving a review based on personal opinion. Is it really that hard to figure out that my column is very "personalized?"

Look, I’d love to go further with this, but this is what Chuck Austen talks about in his interviews. These people are criticizing me for a negative review of a book they liked...so instead of moving on, they start a thread in Brian Bendis’ board, to attack me personally?

We have message boards at SBC, here. I would love to debate my points. Just come on in! There’s a link at the bottom of this screen.

There’s no obligation to read my column. I’ll admit, it’s an acquired taste. It’s quite a unique one though, that many people seem to be warming up to.

If you don’t like it, don’t read it. SBC has many different columns with many different backgrounds, and I’m sure you’ll find at least one that suits you. It’s not worth the effort making public rants. I’m not going anywhere.

Here, Mike Storniolo gets it, here’s his response on the Image boards.

Tim has a different opinion on a book than you do, so he’s WRONG and the site is awful.

No, not happening. I dont want to be a dick head but just because someone didn’t like something and has different tastes is no reason to start bashing their thoughts on something and for that matter the enitre site.

This is only HIS THOUGHTS on the book. Not a set in stone description of what it is, or the whole sites opinion about it. That’s what the internet is for. Voicing YOUR OPINION. Not shoving it one people or putting down someone elses.

Is it really that painful to read something and than say, "well I disagree with what he says. i thought that it was a good book"

— -Mike Storniolo, Veteran

And Mike liked Astonishing X-Men too. Why can’t comic book fans agree to disagree? It’s amazing how Mike, who hasn’t even entered high school yet, can realize that, yet the others can’t. Truly remarkable.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but is Emma Frost both PSR+ (per your column) and a Marvel Age book (per something I saw somewhere else)?

— -glennsim, posted to the SBC Message Boards

Good call, Glenn, thank you for writing. This was an error in my ratings column (part II). I had some undefined asterisks in there, which were basically intended to indicate books whose ratings have changed. I apologize for the error.

When are Logan’s emotions NOT in flux? He still flies into beserker rages, still reacts on instinct rather than logic, and is often more animal than human, right?

Why are superheroes ridiculous? Do all of them have to dress in black now to be taken seriously? I remember being quite upset at the travails of Captain Britain, Miracleman, Batman, Spider-woman, etc., etc.

— -Shawn Hill, posted to the SBC message boards

Thanks for writing, Shawn. What you say about Wolverine is true, but really, don’t you think someone like him would be tired of the whole Jean thing by now? I mean, if anything Logan goes into those berserker rages when he can still take action against something. Since Jean is dead, I would assume he’d move on. It just seems a bit out of character for him to attract that much attention to himself. He always struck me as a sort of quiet loner, who needs to be provoked.

And when I said, ridiculous, I meant that Whedon’s writing style sounds more like a TV show than a comic book, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to think that Cyclops would say something like that about costumes, and the team goes along with it. It just seems a bit suspect to me. It makes more sense with Whedon’s run to have them wear black leather than costumes. It’s just how he writes the X-Men. Same with Grant Morrison. Now with Chris Claremont, I would say, yeah, do costumes. It really has nothing to do with superheroes being ridiculous or not. Just finding suitable uniforms for the writing style.

Now that that’s out of the way, be sure to tune in later this week for Part II of my current feature, "Into the Dugout", in which we’ll revisit one way that kids can get interested in superheroes again.

And be sure to always, always, let me know what you think about my column. If you don’t want your letter printed, mark "UNFIT TO PRINT." I have many e-mails but I want to make sure I get that rule across before I post them. A few are a bit too personal to post here without permission. I’d want people to do the same for me. And also, if you send me an e-mail, make sure you have, "Silver Soapbox" in the headline, otherwise I may treat it as spam, and it may not get read.