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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 05 April 2021 at 3:09pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I'm the weird loner who actually prefers Secret Wars II to the original.  But I liked them both.
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Rick Whiting
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Posted: 05 April 2021 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

That was the longest interview I've ever listened to. The interview was really good. I will say that one problem that I had with this interview is that one of the guys conducting the interview felt the need to tell Shooter that he doesn't like JB. I think that if you are interviewing people that you shouldn't be interjecting your personal feelings about said creator as a person.
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Jabari Lamar
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Posted: 06 April 2021 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I'm the weird loner who actually prefers Secret Wars II to the original.  But I liked them both.

Nope, not a loner. Like I said, so do I. Granted, I haven't reread it in decades, maybe it wouldn't hold up to me as a middle-aged man but pre-teen me loved it. The idea of this God-like being, traveling through the Marvel Universe in his big puffy clothes and Michael Jackson jerry curl was awesome. Getting each issue and then making sure I got all the tie-in issues each month was a fun experience for me that year. 


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John Wickett
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Posted: 06 April 2021 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I don't know if its really fair to judge Shooter on the basis of Secret Wars.  The series was unique in that it was developed to promote the toy line.  Its basically a 12 issue advertisement, and there were compromises that had to be made with the story and art in order to service the needs of Mattel.  For example, many of the villains who would traditionally be loners remained together as a team because Mattel needed to pit a team of good guys against a team of bad guys.  I'd hate to penalize the writer because that caused some of the characters to come across as out of character.    

As I've thought about other series that shared the main purpose of being a toy advertisement, many of them had some of the same weaknesses, and many were written worse than Secret Wars.  Even Kirby's art couldn't redeem Super Powers.  


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Steven Myers
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Posted: 06 April 2021 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Super Powers was a fun comic without the pretentions of Secret Wars. Easily ignorable if you wish, but I liked it for what it was. And I'd say there are many writers who can manage a big cast without writing half of them out of character.
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 10:52am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

So I springboarded from the Shooter interview to a couple with Mike
Zeck. My lord! I’d never heard his speaking voice before. If he ever tires
of making beautiful drawerings, he should have producers lined up
wanting him as an announcer or MC or something.
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Rodrigo castellanos
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

But making comic book series as toy advertisements was basically Shooter's thing, so I think it's valid to criticize it although that trend probably saved Marvel financially.

My biggest gripe is the New Universe though. There he had full power, it was his concept, his baby and it was obviously beyond terrible and incredibly wrong-headed.

This was the guy who supposedly understood better than anyone else what the Marvel universe was about and how it should be written and drawn? Hmmm, let me cast a shadow of doubt over that.




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Joe Zhang
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Shooter claims that the New Universe failed because his bosses yanked its development budget. If true, by his own editorial standards, he really shouldn't have proceeded with New Universe. 

Edited by Joe Zhang on 08 April 2021 at 9:28pm
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Dave Phelps
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 6:59am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

The New Universe wasn't all bad; I liked Psi-Force and DP7 throughout and the Year Two books to the end were decent enough. (Didn't like the War, but other than that.) And in principle, if you're going to expand your product line, I give him credit for attempting to develop a new line of books with new concepts rather than just doing a massive expansion of the X-books.

The biggest problem they had was being 100% on what The Rules were - it was supposed to be The World Outside Your Window aside from the White Event but the flagship book has an alien in it, another one had an inter-dimensional cop, etc. Then there was the question of how much the world should be changing because of this, which took a year or so to settle on. Given that New Universe was his baby, it's something Shooter really should have been clear on.   

The other major problem was half the books not being able to keep a creative team for more than an issue or two. The surviving titles did a much better job with that.
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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I showed my portfolio to Broadway Comics one year at Comic-Con.  (To underlings, but they confided to me some things that Shooter was looking for.)  From what I was told there--and looking at their line-up and Defiant, Valiant, New Universe, and whatever else Shooter has been in a hiring position for--Shooter seemed to favor (for lack of a better word) boring artwork.  (Or shall we say "subdued"?)  There are exceptions, of course, but as far as any sort of "house style" goes, he seemed to lean that way (especially when not countered by others).

Perhaps that's a valid way to go with more down-to-earth (detective? romance?) premises, but, with superhero-type concepts, I thnk most would agree that more exciting is better.
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Eric J. - that's a curious observation of Shooter desiring more placid artwork, considering that when he submitted layouts to Curt Swan and Mort Weisinger to get a job with Adventure Comics, that art was anything BUT placid! It was quite exciting actually!
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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Well, I know he was always a Marvel fan and I've read that he tried to write LEGION like a Marvel book, but I wonder if all his years at DC changed something.  I would say Broadway, Defiant, maybe Valiant and even New Universe all looked more like DC (subdued) than Marvel (exciting).

Was it just the time?  Late 80's, early 90's--comics were being shaped by the Independents, which were also by and large more subdued.  And then Image exploded on the scene and became a big hit!  (Whatever its failings, you've got to admit Image at least looked exciting!)

And to be clear, I much prefer a subdued Curt Swan to an exploding Liefeld clone!  But I think Shooter's numerous attempts to start new companies/universes might have failed due to a lack of visual excitement.  (And maybe story excitement too.)


Edited by Eric Jansen on 09 April 2021 at 5:18pm
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