It’s a year-end issue of Wizard, #89, so of course I bought it! Did it have anything to do with that bomb-ass Jim Lee Batman on the cover? Very possibly …
There’s a full-page advertisement for The Faculty on page 11. I mean, it’s a fun movie and all, but how did every single young person in that movie have an impact on pop culture in some way except for Laura Harris, who played the alien queen? Poor Harris!
In the previous year’s year-end issue, Wizard solicited letters from comics pros, and they do it again here. Most are fun and goofy and a bit self-aggrandizing (nothing wrong with that — ya gotta hustle sometimes!), but Peter David’s is interesting. He takes the magazine to task for their article about the “25 most memorable moments in comics history,” none of which, he notes, took place before 1979. Wizard kind of brushes him off (politely, but still), but it’s not a bad criticism. Sure, Wizard is “forward-looking,” as they note in their answer, but that’s still a bit silly to think that nothing memorable happened in comics prior to 1979.
There’s an article on pages 24-25 about the success of Marvel Knights, which was fun for a while before, like everything Marvel and DC touch, it got a bit bloated. I still don’t love Marvel killing off Karen Page, but that’s balanced by Everett Ross selling his soul for a pair of pants. Busiek had had some health problems (that, despite what Wizard says here, have never really gone away, unfortunately), so Astro City was on the back burner, but he was ready to bring it on back. There’s a brief note about DC’s “Hypertime,” which they were going to reveal in January ’99. It never became a big thing, but there’s a note about it! And Wolverine #131 was recalled because it had an anti-Semitic slur in it (they wanted to use “killer,” so you can guess which one ended up in the issue). What a weird thing. Apparently, it was actually caught by editors but not corrected when it went over to Comicraft for lettering. Does anyone have the original, non-corrected one? Wizard notes that “ironically, retailers were capitalizing on the error, marking up the price of the comic with the slur and selling it for up to five times its cover price of #1.99.” Why is that ironic? Of course they would try to make money off of it!!!!
There’s an item about Dan Jurgens doing Superman and the Fantastic Four: The Infinite Destruction, which he did not end up drawing as he was supposed to. I have no memory of this — did anyone read it? A few pages later, in their “thumbs up/thumbs down” section, they give themselves “thumbs down” for wanting Aunt May dead (after giving “thumbs up” to Marvel for bringing her back to life). I mean, that’s pretty funny and self-deprecating of the magazine, but given that we’re not too far away from Peter destroying his marriage to keep an old lady alive, perhaps Wizard was onto something …
On pages 34-35, there’s an article … written by Ian Churchill about his first experience in the States. Wizard, for a long time, was Churchill’s biggest fan, even though he never became the superstar they thought he would be, and they let him write about coming to America for the Wizard World in Chicago and then SDCC. It’s a fun article — Churchill experiences some culture shock, and he visits the set of The Suburbans, which is a movie that actually came out! — but it’s odd to consider how hard Wizard stanned for Churchill for so long. Why? We may never know!!!!
There’s a two-page quasi-article about comics around the world, but it’s really about how well American comics do in other countries. That’s fine and interesting, but a bit misleading. Conan was ridiculously popular in Norway, Bone was “bonehead” in Finnish, “mature content” comics were often shipped back by Australian customs, and Ian Churchill’s Coven was a big hit in Mexico. Oh, that wacky Ian Churchill!
Pages 42-49 feature a nice long article about “No Man’s Land,” which was a pretty big gamble for DC at the time and turned out to work really well for them. I enjoyed it, for the most part, although I agree with Doug Moench, who’s quoted in the article (after he negotiated his way out of his contract so he wouldn’t have to write about the cut-off, thereby depriving the world of the identity of his “puppeteer” villain in his Batman run) saying that it’s a dumb idea. I mean, sure, it’s a dumb idea, but the Bat-gurus managed to make it work, for the most part. It’s still a dumb idea, but, I mean, it’s comics!
Tom Russo has an interview with Avi Arad, who was just then taking over Marvel after it had wound its way through bankruptcy. It’s a pretty interesting article, as Arad talks about his history in the toy business and how he came to, basically, take over Marvel. He talks a lot about animation, as Marvel was trying really hard to animate everything back then, and he also says this: “And even though most people have never heard of the character, I’m totally in love with Star-Lord,” and Wizard has an actual editor’s note: “Star-Lord is a mid-’70s swashbuckling sci-fi hero.” Dang, was poor Peter Quill that unknown back in 1998? It’s pretty funny reading that today, in our post-Chris Pratt world. Arad also mentions that Sam Hamm had written a Fantastic Four script everyone was excited about, but I guess not excited enough! He also thinks it was stupid of Marvel not to brand Blade more aggressively, because even if it wasn’t a hit, it’s still a Marvel property, and they should be proud of it! Arad produced a lot of the Marvel movies of the 21st century, and he’s still working at 77, so good for him!
Jim McLauchlin spends the day with Stan Lee, who was 75 at the time. It’s an article meant to appeal to Lee’s ego, certainly, but it’s still pretty good. Lee was working hard even then, and the thought of retirement never occurred to him. I love these articles that think their older subjects should retire. Lee was doing things he absolutely loved, and people were letting him, so why should he have retired? He worked a lot at the time, it seems, as he was still writing the Spider-Man newspaper strip in addition to the columns he wrote and the people he met as Marvel’s executive producer (probably more accurately “ambassador and glad-hander”) of movie and television projects. He also gave this thoughts about some non-Marvel characters (apparently, he liked Lobo) and some of his most famous stories. It’s a good article.
On pages 66-71, we get Alex Ross talking about his process in painting the immense dust jacket for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover. It’s very neat, but I don’t think Wizard makes as big a deal out of the fact that George Pérez drew the motherfucker and included 562 characters on it. I mean, that’s amazing. Ross did a marvelous job, but they kind of gloss over Pérez’s contribution. Come on, Wizard!
Next, we get a kind of useless article in which Joe Madureira and Michael Turner answer the same questions about each other. It’s goofy and they don’t really answer the questions seriously, as you might expect, but they do kind of make fun of their inability to hit deadlines, which is kind of jerky of them, especially if you were a fan of either artist and were waiting for their damned books to come out. They do have them draw Wonder Woman and let the fans pick the better one (Madureira wins, 52%-48%), which is kind of neat, but it’s kind of a silly article.
Wizard checks out what’s coming up in 1999 on pages 78-83, which is fun. They lead with the relaunch of Wildcats by Lobdell and Charest, which they are excited about. Of course, they note that what could derail it is Charest’s speed, and that did indeed become a factor, as he barely drew the book before he left (as I noted in my write-up of the series, Charest drew 78 total pages of the series). They wonder about the future of Witchblade now that Michael Turner left but think it will be all right — it ran for 209 issues, so I guess they were right! They ask if McFarlane has “left” comics, which was a dumb question even back then. Sure, he wasn’t drawing anymore, but even then, it was clear he was still very much involved in comics. The next question is: “What does DC have against Hal Jordan?” which cracks me up. According to Wizard, DC doesn’t hate Jordan, they just have “too much pride to undo the past.” Sure. I mean, the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern was still selling well, which is why they weren’t bringing Jordan back. Once Geoff Johns got some power in the DC world, of course, the tables would be turned!!!! They ask if Kevin Smith will keep writing comics, which is a big “yes,” although his writing career has always been on the back burner to his movie career, which makes sense. He’s writing something right now, isn’t he? Another somewhat more interesting question: Does the Wildstorm acquisition by DC mean the end of Image? These days, we know that’s a silly question, but Wizard claims it will be!!!! They note that McFarlane, Top Cow, and Wildstorm made up 80% of Image’s output, and the lack of Wildstorm means a lot of titles are gone. They think that McFarlane Productions might become Image as a whole, as Savage Dragon and Top Cow could easily go their own way (Valentino’s comics were gone by this point, and Liefeld had been gone for a while). Image survived, of course, but it went through it for a while. (I would argue that Noble Causes, which came out in the summer of 2001, was a big reason Image survived, but that’s just my gut talking.) Then we get another silly question: what’s in Gambit’s vial? Moving on, they ask if Waid and Morrison run the DC Universe. Of course they don’t, but they did have a lot of say in 1998/1999. They couldn’t make Hypertime work, though! The next question is whether a relaunch can fix Spider-Man. Wizard notes that based on previous Marvel relaunches, it should be, but it … was not, at least for a bit. Oh well. Then they wonder if DC has replaced Marvel as the industry leader, and the numbers seem to indicate Yes, and with DC’s addition of WildStorm, it would surely push them over the top. I don’t know or care much about numbers, so I don’t know or care about who the “industry leader” is. Oh well. Finally, they wonder if Captain America will get his shield back. I mean, who cares? I know he got it back, but I don’t know if it was in ’99. Whatever.
Wizard then turns to 1998 and their superlatives. They named Robin their best ongoing, which is fine. Wizard always liked the series, and I never read it. They think Wildcats is going to be groovy in 1999. They were right, but as I noted above, Charest did not last long at all. Their best hero is Thor, which is fine, I guess. Daredevil is the hero to keep your eye on in the new year. Herr Starr is the best villain, and he is quite a good one. They think we should keep out eye on Magneto in 1999, which bums me out. I’ve said before that I think Claremont’s work to make him less of a villain was superb, and Marvel just shit all over it. Stupid Marvel! Their best writer is Ennis, which isn’t surprising. They think we should keep an eye on Larsen, who was writing several Marvel books in 1999. I don’t know if anyone thinks Larsen is that great a writer, but good for him! Pérez is the best artist, and they think Charest will be the one in 1999. Sadly, he was not, and he’s largely been absent from American comics in the 21st century. Their best slugfest is Wolverine versus … Marrow. I mean, anything involving Marrow can’t be the best of anything, and this fight is … fine, I guess. Things like this are kind of dumb. They think the fight between Cable and Apocalypse that’s coming in ’99 will be awesome. I would not know. The best moment was Hal Jordan versus Parallax, which, sure. I wasn’t reading Green Lantern. They think the moment of ’99 will be Wolverine getting his adamantium back. Wizard really wanted Marvel to give Wolverine his adamantium back!!!! The best “sleeper” book is Savage Dragon, which seems weird, as I don’t think that’s anyone’s definition of a “sleeper.” The Invisibles is their sleeper for 1999, another book that I’m not sure qualifies, but ok. Their best new character is Calibretto from Battle Chasers. Man, Wizard really liked Battle Chasers. Finally, their publisher of the year was Marvel, and they were the ones to watch in 1999, too. I mean, Image was a mess in 1998, so they were out, but Marvel over DC? Really? Marvel rebounded from some lean years in 1998, sure, but DC was still putting out better comics than they were, and the Spider-books (which Wizard said were in the top 10 in the first time in 5 years) and the X-books were just a mess. But Wizard will always default to Marvel with everything else being close, so that’s what we get!
Wizard‘s casting call is very odd, because they cast a hypothetical Battle Chasers movie, despite the fact that at that point, no more than 4 issues had come out (I don’t know when issue #4 came out as opposed to when this issue of Wizard shipped). Wizard crushed hard for Battle Chasers, as I noted above. Here we go! They cast Ken Wahl as Garrison. Wahl was 41 at the time, so he was probably a bit old for the part, but more importantly, he had retired from acting in 1996, mainly due to several injuries he had suffered over the years. Would he come out of retirement to do what sounds like a physically taxing role? Plus, Wahl was never a very good actor — he could brood with the best of them, sure, but he had one great role in his career, and it was nothing like this role. What a weird pull by Wizard. For Red Monika, they cast Jenna Jameson. I mean, if you’re going to cast a wooden statue as Garrison, you might as well cast someone solely for her boobs, which they basically admit they’re doing. Jameson was 24 at the time. As Knolan the sorcerer, they cast … Joel Grey? I mean, they use his role in Remo Williams as the template, and these days, that’s more than a little problematic (it wasn’t back in the freewheelin’ ’90s!), but Grey wasn’t anything special at this stage of his career, and Wizard could have thrown any slightly older actor (Grey was 66 at the time, and he’s 94 right now, so good for him!) into the role, couldn’t they? They cast Beverly Mitchell from 7th Heaven as Gully. Mitchell was 17 at the time, and I assume she’d be fine in the role — I never watched 7th Heaven and know nothing about her. Calibretto would, of course, be a special-effects creation, but they cast Kelsey Grammer because of his “gravelly” voice. Grammer’s voice is many things, but it sure as shit ain’t gravelly. Another weird choice by Wizard. They put 69-year-old Christopher Plummer in the role of King Vaneer, and while I know next to nothing about Battle Chasers (well, I know two things) and therefore nothing about Vaneer, Plummer makes everything better, so sure. I don’t know how much Maestro the Warrior has to talk, but if it’s more than two sentences, putting Shaquille O’Neal in that role isn’t going to work. He looks the part, but Shaq … well, let’s just say his acting skills are great when he has to pretend to like Kobe Bryant and fail at everything else (maybe he had to put so much effort into that?). Finally, they cast Ken Hudson (who was 36 at the time) as Bengus. I know nothing about Hudson because I never watched Herman’s Head, but he’s fine, I guess. I have to say, this movie would have been a clusterfuck of EPIC proportions, and I imagine it would be a cult classic because everyone needs to watch it to see how bad it truly is. I mean, really, Wizard. O’Neal had already appeared in Kazaam AND Steel, so you know he was crap, and as for the rest of the cast … just no.
Moving on, there’s an item about the Nicolas Cage Superman movie, which is now planned for the summer of 2000. Good times! There’s a lot in this item that probably should have scared the hell out of Wizard back then and definitely looks terrible in hindsight. First, producer Jon Peters is the source, and they mention that his latest movie is Wild, Wild West. Oh dear. Tim Burton was no longer the director, which isn’t the best news, but it’s unclear if Burton could really have done a good Superman movie. Reports were that the budget had been cut from $140 million to $90-100 million, which isn’t great (although Peters said later in the article that they wouldn’t cut corners financially). Peters had scrapped Kevin Smith’s script and was working on one by Dan Gilroy, whom Wizard notes wrote … Freejack. Sweet Fancy Moses, that’s not a good sign. Peters finishes by claiming that the Batman franchise is dead and that they only way it will happen is if they put Superman and Batman together. Of course, we got a new Batman movie before we got a new Superman movie, so there’s that. Wizard does end the article with a “source” telling that Peters is, essentially, full of shit, but they remain optimistic. It seems they should have paid more attention to the source! In a sidebar article, they have everything they know about The Phantom Menace, including a brief note about a character called Jar Jar Binks. Sounds like the breakout character of 1999 to me!
Chris Carter was gearing up Harsh Realm, which was going to debut in the fall of 1999. I had completely forgotten that it was based on a comic by James Hudnall, but there it is. I never watched Harsh Realm and I know it did not last long. Did anyone check it out? There’s also a brief item about Roger Corman’s Black Scorpion television series, which he was making at the time and featured both Adam West and Frank Gorshin, as well as a few models who have no problem taking their clothes off. I can’t even imagine this thing — did anyone ever watch it? Meanwhile, Barry Sonnenfeld claimed there wouldn’t be a Men in Black sequel, to which I say, Can you smell the money, Barry? There were mentions of Mystery Men, which came out in 1999, and De Niro showing up in the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie (which I still can’t believe actually happened). Man, what a time to be alive.
Wizard does something neat with their “artists show us what’s what” section, as they have Scott McCloud show readers all about using a computer to create art (ok, not “all about” — it’s 6 pages long, but a nice primer). It’s very interesting and shows what a lot of artists are still sort of grappling with, even if most of them use computers to create their art. Well done, Wizard!
The fan art contest asks artists to draw the X-Men at different times in history, and while the winner, the X-Men in ancient Rome, is pretty cool, I’m totally on board with Pointillist X-Men:
On pages 126-127, they rank their top ten toys of 1998. I own none of these, but come on — they’re pretty cool:
I don’t know why, but the Marvel watches and pocket watches that we see on page 131 feel like the most 1999 thing ever. I would like to own ALL OF THESE!!!!
As you might recall, I really loathe Maggott, but the fan-made action figure that won Wizard‘s latest contest was pretty keen:
Wizard, as they always do, shows the books shipping in December (including Hitman #34, about which they seem skeptical but which future generations know as one of the best Superman stories ever written), and they occasionally highlight a seriously indie book. The one in this issue cracked me up: Chocolate Thunder #1 from Gettosake Comics. It appears that three issues (each a new #1, because even back then, comics companies knew what’s what) actually exist!
The reviews are in! Wizard gives Claremont’s Fantastic Four (issues #6-12) a B-, as they like it but don’t like that Claremont keeps using Excalibur villains. Claremont using his own villains? Shocking! They thought Humberto Ramos’s Crimson was mediocre, which I could have told you without even reading it! They love Preacher, of course, and they like Box Office Poison, even though they don’t love that there’s kind of no plot. Yep, Wizard reviewed Box Office Poison. They always had these in their issues — proof that they know there’s more to comics than Top Cow and Marvel, yet they constantly give us articles about whether Wolverine would beat Batman in a fight (yes, according to Wizard).
Oh, no, it’s the Top Ten Creators!!!! Let’s take a look … plus, a fun buried treasure:
There’s also the top ten independent comics. Wait, Wizard doesn’t count Image as “indie”? What the what?
Also, the chart toppers from five years earlier. Wait, Colorforms?!?!?
On the last page, Wizard flashes back to December 1977, which is when Cerebus #1 debuted (which I’m sure Travis already knew!). Like most of the stuff when Wizard decides to be a real magazine, it’s full of interesting information even though it’s only a one-page synopsis. Also in December 1977: Saturday Night Fever goes wide and Charlie Chaplin dies. Oh, the ecstasy and the agony!
Hey, it’s another issue of Wizard checked out and delved into! Good times all around! And, as usual, we need to check out some of the advertisements contained within!
Thanks for reading, everyone! Come back in a couple of weeks for the next installment!
