I skipped a month back in the day, but I picked up Wizard #107, which is the X-Men movie issue. Just when you thought you couldn’t get more news about the X-Men movie!!!!
The first letter is an interesting one. The writer notes how good Morrison’s final story on JLA was, and mentions one of the cool things was Barbara Gordon standing up out of her wheelchair thanks to the effect of the Amazons’ purple ray. “With a little show of editorial courage by DC,” the writer opines, it could be a permanent change, as it would “start a new era in DC history” and “serve as a symbolic closing of an old age: The Dark Age of Comics, a nightmarish age that gave birth to a gazillion grim ‘n’ gritty, meaningless anti-heroes whose only ability was to kill.” Tell us how you really feel, J. Russell Pelt! Chuck Dixon, then-writer of Birds of Prey, said it wasn’t going to happen, because he had three years of stories planned on the title. It only took another decade for Babs to magically have her spine healed — I hope somewhere, Mr. Pelt is happy.
A letter writer asks what’s up with Dale Keown’s Pitt, which hadn’t come out for about a year. I don’t care about that, but I did like the nugget that Wizard dropped on us: Keown “got sidetracked playing in a band.” I did not recall that. Good for him! Another writer wonders what happened to David Mazzuchelli, who hadn’t been doing much comics work. I wonder what that dude thought of Asterios Polyp. There were some interesting “quick hit” comments about Wizard #105, which I just re-read. One person whined that FF #48-50 wasn’t on the “best comics ever” list, which was a bit weird. A woman wondered why there were no women on the “greatest characters” list, which, fair. And someone was getting sick of the Garth Ennis-on-Punisher articles, and no, it wasn’t me!
On page 20, we get an item about the Ultimate Universe — I don’t know if they mentioned it in issue #106 or earlier, so I wonder if this is the first mention of it in the magazine. Bill Jemas, who was leading Marvel into a short Golden Age (before he got shit-canned), notes that they want to lure in “teens and new readers.” As Greg H. constantly noted, the way to do that is not necessarily by repackaging characters, it’s by changing the delivery system, but nobody in the higher-up positions at Marvel or DC ever want to hear that (and, a quarter of a century later, they have a big hit with Absolute books, so the strategy was totally sound all along!). They also have a brief resumé of Bendis, who was relatively unknown at the time. Remember the good old days when it was a big risk to pin all your superhero hopes on Bendis? (He still, after all these years, doesn’t write superheroes all that well, but back then, of course, he had an unexpected Midas touch.) I guess we need to get ready for Ultimate article after Ultimate article in Wizard coming up, because it was such a hit!
In the “Buzz Bin,” we learn that Morrison might be doing a “unique” take on the Fantastic Four … which turned out to be fine, I guess, if not exactly “unique.” DC and Marvel were at odds over the Captain America analogue in The Authority and the Lobo analogue in Deadpool. Oh, those crazy kids! They told us not to be surprised if Ultimate Ghost Rider was the next Ultimate title, as Marvel was planning a movie in 2001. O … k. Finally, the “rumor mill” suggests that very hot writer would be a guest star in Powers. This is the Warren Ellis issue, right? I mean, it has to be. Sexbot, which had (probably wisely) been renamed Aphrodite IX, was launching, after what seemed like a long time in development, and … man, it’s not a good comic. Finch couldn’t even finish 5 issues, and the story was garbage. I mean, you can’t expect it to be any good, but Finch being so slow was annoying, because his art was gorgeous and the people they brought in were not that good. I know this was kind of at the peak of Top Cow’s “We’re publishing tits ‘n’ ass, and you’re going to like it” era, but man, this is just … not good.
There’s an item about Marvel’s “Maximum Security.” Hey, remember “Maximum Security”? Yeah, I wasn’t reading too much Marvel at the time, so I never really got the gist of it all, but it’s just another fun “big event” that no one remembers. There was also an item about a graphic novel starring an Old Man Logan years before Mark Millar did it, written by Joseph Harris (who was doing Bishop at the time) and … Enrique Breccia? Holy shit, that would have been cool. Alas, it never came to be, but you can check out some of Breccia’s art for it here! Jimmy Palmiotti was leaving Marvel Knights, Wizard notes. That was a hugely successful endeavor — I wonder how much bank he and Joey Q made off of it? Finally, they have a pretty hilarious guide to the depravity found in Preacher:
On page 30, Wizard has a nice article about Pedro and Me, Judd Winick’s story about Pedro Zamora, whom he met on The Real World in 1994. This is Winick’s Great Work, I guess — Zamora died of an AIDS-related illness the day after the final episode of the season aired, and Winick, who had become friends with him, wrote about their friendship. I still haven’t read this — I actually watched some of the show, so I knew who Zamora was, but I simply did not get this. Is it any good? This is a nice story about it, certainly.
We get an item about Shazam: Power of Hope by Dini and Ross, which I never got but I’m sure looks nifty. Then Wizard did one of their goofy comparison articles, as they noted that Rising Stars and Top 10 were two of the hottest titles out there, so why not compare them? In the preamble, they claim that the titles “flaunt the wares of the field’s most talented writers,” which, if I’m Alan Moore, I’m getting a little bit offended that Wizard is lumping me in with this neophyte (Moore, of course, only gets offended when DC fucks him in the ass, which is far too often!). So how do they decide which is better? Well, for “plot,” they pick Rising Stars, which … ok? They pick it because of its epic scope, which, sure, but, I mean, it’s kind of a standard “superpowered people killing each other” story, whereas Top 10 has Cat Galactus (which might not have shown up by this time, but would trump all if it had). For art, they obviously pick Top 10. I mean, of course. They give Rising Stars the nod for the cast, noting that even though Top 10 has a large and diverse cast, it might be too big. I certainly get that, but, I mean, come on, Wizard! Really? For “environment,” they pick Top 10, because Neopolis is just a neat city. A no-brainer there! They swing back to Rising Stars as the winner in “dialogue,” which, yeah, maybe. Moore writes good dialogue, but in Top 10, it’s very “police procedural” at times, and while it is often funny, it doesn’t always crackle as much as a lot of Moore’s dialogue. I’m not sure if Rising Stars‘ tough-guy dialogue is better, but I’m willing to throw it a bone! In the “special effects” category, they go with Top 10, mostly because of all the Easter eggs in the art, so of course I’m going to agree with them! They like what Straczynski is doing with the “powers and abilities” of his characters more than what Moore is doing, because Straczynski’s takes are “cooler.” Maybe. But that pushes Rising Stars to the win, 4-3, which is something up with which I will not put. Come on, Wizard!
On pages 42-46, Wizard has a very interesting interview with Miller, Gaiman, Busiek, and Waid. They were on a CBLDF cruise, with other creators and fans (see below!), and it’s one of those stories that you know Wizard can do yet they choose to fill the magazine with a lot of fluff, too. In the first paragraph, we get this nugget: “Neil Gaiman talks quietly in his thick British accent to goth-girl fans searching for autographs and sketches,” a clause that has not aged well, and they claim that Busiek and Waid are part of the “new wave of creators shaping today’s biggest properties,” despite both of them beginning their comics careers before Gaiman. But, whatever — it’s still a good interview. Busiek wants Marvel to figure out a good trade paperback program, which was definitely a thing back in the day, as they didn’t seem to know what they were doing (a problem that still plagues them a bit today, but certainly not as much as it once did). Gaiman really wants to write a Hal Jordan story, because he thought he “was a wonderful character with so much potential,” but he “never felt anyone followed it through.” Geoff Johns read this interview and thought, “I must make it my mission in life to bring Hal back!!!!” Gaiman and Waid think Moore is the best current writer in comics, but they all agree that Eisner is the best writer all-time, which is an interesting choice. Busiek adds Caniff just to mention Caniff, but it’s interesting that they all love Eisner so much as a writer. As an artist, I might be willing to give it to them, but as a writer? Wizard asks for their proudest individual moment in comics — Gaiman, weirdly, is proudest of DC stopping Sandman when he finished, which … sure? Busiek says Astro City ½, which he did for Wizard. Way to butter them up, Kurt! Miller says finishing 300, and Waid says Flash #0. For their worst moment, Gaiman says he missed a chance to meet Kirby a few months before he died because Gaiman was late for his plane and couldn’t stop. No one else answered! Wizard asks who survives if all of them are on a deserted island, and the other three all say Miller, which is kind of funny, because of those four, I’d say Miller, too. There’s some other stuff, too, but that’s the most interesting stuff. Wizard also provides a photo collage of the cruise, which is nifty:
Wizard asks and answers some questions about X-Men, the movie, which is the focus of this issue, naturally. They’re all questions we already know the answers to, as we’ve all seen the damned movie, right? One of them is: “Who bags Jena Grey — Wolverine or Cyclops?” because if Wizard is anything, it’s classy. They do note that Singer had not signed on to do a sequel yet, but he did direct it, so I guess they were just waiting to see how the first one would do at the box office. Singer had already been accused of … let’s say sexual impropieties in 1997, but it wasn’t until much later that the more serious lawsuits hit, so Fox was cool with him doing the sequel (and then uncool with him jumping ship for Superman). Man, men in Hollywood suck, don’t they?
There’s a neat article about how the special effects people created the stuff for the movie. It’s far too detailed to get into here (and you probably know most of it), but a few things about Ian McKellen interested me: he was knighted in 1989, which I thought was kind of early in his life (I mean, he turned 60 (!) in 1989, and his career started in 1965, but he wasn’t the huge star he would become), and he was in this Pet Shop Boys video in 1988:
Awesome.
On page 66, Wizard casts … the X-Men sequel! Because of course they do! Back in 1997, they cast an X-Men movie, and they put Tia Carrere as Psylocke. In mid-2000, they cast … Tia Carrere as Psylocke! Wizard sticks with what they like, I guess! In 1997, they cast Sam Neill as Henry McCoy, but they decided to skew younger this time, putting Jon Favreau in the role. Favreau was in his mid-30s and doing fairly well, so that’s not a bad choice. Wizard does claim he directed Swingers, which, of course, was directed by Doug Liman. Come on, Wizard! They cast David Chokachi as Warren Worthington, which is a step down from their 1997 choice, Cary Elwes (who was still young enough to do a good job in the role). Chokachi was on Baywatch and has done almost nothing else of note in his career. They cast Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, which … hey, good job, Wizard! I don’t know if this was already in the wind three years before the sequel, but Wizard nailed it. As Kitty Pryde, they cast Natalie Portman, which is a great choice. Portman was still only 19 at the time, but she’s a very good actor, even then, so that’s a good role. Dermot Mulroney is their choice for Gambit, which is fine — a bland actor for a bland character! They ditched Craig Kilborn-as-Iceman and came up with Scott Speedman in the role, which seems all right to me. Speedman was 25 or so at the time, and he has that charming douchiness that Bobby Drake has. They get some dude named Roland Kickinger to play Colossus. Kickinger is a friend of Schwarzeneggar’s, but he’s done almost nothing of note as an actor. I guess Taylor Mane wasn’t much of an actor when he played Sabretooth, but presumably Wizard would think Colossus would have a decent role, and there’s no way a nobody like Kickinger would play it. The complete CGI version in Deadpool is probably the best way to do Colossus, unfortunately. They cast Mel Gibson — Wizard always seemed to like Gibson — as Sebastian Shaw, which is kind of a great pick. But then they almost completely nullify that by picking Carrot Top as Arcade. Wizard, you do know wigs exist, right — you don’t have to cast someone just because their hair color is the same as the character’s! They pick classic Eighties/Nineties Douchebag Brian Thompson as Apocalypse, which kind of works. And they have Gabriel Bryne as Proteus, which also is a good choice. Byrne was 50, so perhaps a bit old for the role (I know Proteus is an adult, but I always think of him as Moira’s kid, and it seems like he’s young and immature), but Wizard notes that he possessed his own father, so that’s why they’re choosing Byrne. It’s certainly not a bad cast, but … Arcade, Shaw, Proteus, and Apocalypse? What kind of plot would that be?
Moving on to other movie news, Wizard has a brief article about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie. Heath Ledger was apparently a strong candidate for Peter Parker, although Freddie Prinze Jr. really wanted the role (alas, he had to get a consolation prize in the form of marrying Sarah Michelle Gellar — so sad!). They also note that thanks to Blade, the buzz around X-Men, and the hype around Spider-Man, Marvel properties are getting looked at for movies more than they had been back in the bad old bankruptcy days. As they noted above, Ghost Rider was going to get a movie, which was nice for him. It didn’t happen for several years, but it was the same production company (Crystal Sky Entertainment), so I guess they just took their time to make sure it was really, really good. Artisan Films had come around to do movies with several different characters, none of which got made. Avi Arad claimed they wanted a Fantastic Four movie to come out on the Fourth of July, 2001, which did not happen. They claimed they had a director — Raja Gosnell — on board. Gosnell, at this point, had directed Home Alone 3, Never Been Kissed, and Big Momma’s House. Yeah, that’s someone you want directing a Fantastic Four movie! There were also “big announcement” coming about the Hulk movie. “Perhaps,” Wizard asks, “on the rumors that George Clooney is targeted for the role of Bruce Banner? Or Steve Buscemi?” I mean, that’s a wide range there, I think you’ll agree! Also, there’s an item about Patrick Warburton’s Tick coming to Fox, which was nice for him. It didn’t last that long, but I know it has a cult following, so there’s that.
Ed McGuinness, all of 26 years old, does Wizard‘s drawing board, showing us how to draw Superman. It’s fine, but what piqued my interest was that they published his critique of a budding artist’s work, which was pretty keen:
In the toy section, we find two very cool Sandman figures, both of which I wouldn’t mind having:
There’s also this Delirium plushie, which is adorbs:
As usual, whenever Wizard pulls their head out of Alex Ross’s or Kurt Busiek’s ass, they know some things about interesting comics, as we get a two-page (pages 112-113) primer on Usagi Yojimbo, which was celebrating its 100th issue around this time. As always, they do a really good job explaining why you should read it. And then, I guess, Alex Ross’s ass got lonely, because they had to shove their head back up there!
On page 116, Wizard has the news about DC shredding League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #5 due to the use of an advertisement — a genuine one from the 1890s — that used the word “marvel,” because everyone knows Stan Lee invented the word “marvel” in 1961. Fucking cowards at DC, Streisand-Effecting something that no one at Marvel would probably ever had seen, and if they did, who fucking cares? Meanwhile, the DC cowards drove Moore away for a second time — well done, Cowards! Jeebus, what a stupid shitstorm that was. I’m sure it was worth the $30,000 they spent to shred the entire print run!
Wizard takes a look at the chart-toppers from five years earlier. Man, 1995 was a time in comics, wasn’t it?
Of course, we have Top 10 Writers and Artists!
It was that time of year, so Wizard had a notice about San Diego in their “Shows & Cons” section. Guests included: Kyle Baker, Eisner, Loeb, McCloud, Sale, Straczynski, Talbot, Trondheim, Elder, Feldstein, Kamen, Marie Severin, Torres, and Williamson. Holy crap, that’s a nice line-up!
On the final page, Wizard interviews the new model for Lara Croft, Lucy Clarkson. Clarkson was all of 17 at the time, and Matt Senreich manages to not be completely creepy, which is a major win for Wizard! Well done!
We’ve reached the end of another issue, so thanks for reading. As always, we need to check out some of the advertising in the magazine. You all got your Wolverine Les Paul, I’m sure!
Thanks again! I’ll be back with another issue in two weeks! Which one will it be? Beats me — I haven’t gotten that far yet!
