Byrne Robotics: Roger Bochs

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Topic: Roger Bochs

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135907

Posted: 29 March 2026 at 1:34pm \| IP Logged \| 1	post reply

Another of my creations I should NOT have googled.

Oy……

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Rick Whiting
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Joined: 22 April 2004
Posts: 2287

Posted: 29 March 2026 at 2:11pm \| IP Logged \| 2	post reply

Yeah, they ruined Roger Bochs. It started shortly after you left the book with Bill Mantilo's run and then in a recent Alpha Flight mini series they gave him a grown son who is apparently evil an evil genius who create Box mutant hunting robots. Speaking of that recent Alpha Flight mini series, that mini series encompasses everything that has gone wrong with Marvel comics. You got characters who are married, have kids, and a MU that looks less like it is set outside your window with superheroes and supervillains and set in a near futuristic world that is a cross between the DC Universe and the My Hero Academia. Marvel needs to selectively retcon, ignore, and never ever mention again a lot of the stories (regardless of how popular and/or critically acclaimed those stories may have been) from the last 40 to 50 years that have damaged the characters and the MU as a whole and just keep what worked and moved on from there. They also need to make it a company policy that these characters will not age and that the stories will remain timeless and be both suitable for and appealing to a wide all ages audience. Any creators and editors who doesn't want to play by those rules can go kick rocks and find employment elsewhere or create their own creator owned comics.

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135907

Posted: 29 March 2026 at 2:22pm \| IP Logged \| 3	post reply

The fanboy mentality that started infecting Marvel decades ago makes it virtually impossible for anything to be simply forgotten or ignored.

Mort Weisinger wisely observed that “every issue is the first issue for somebody,” and my half century in the Biz has taught me that every story element, no matter how lame (or downright stupid) is somebody’s favorite.* Give that somebody creative power, and no effort to smooth out the bumps will ever be completely successful.

* I have mentioned the howls of outrage from some corners when my Superman reboot erased Beppo the Super Monkey! (Did I not understand how important he was to the mythos??)

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Rick Whiting
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Joined: 22 April 2004
Posts: 2287

Posted: 29 March 2026 at 2:48pm \| IP Logged \| 4	post reply

The fanboy mentality that started infecting Marvel decades ago makes it virtually impossible for anything to be simply forgotten or ignored.

_________________________

This is why I am a firm believer in telling those selfish pros and selfish long time adult fans the hard honest truth that these characters and there stories were not meant to appeal to an aging shrinking audience and that not every story works to the benefit of the characters in the long term.

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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8533

Posted: 29 March 2026 at 3:43pm \| IP Logged \| 5	post reply

For what it's worth, it was the issue where he got his legs back and went insane that was the last issue that I ever bought.

I did try to stay on for the characters even after you left. But they were slowly becoming different people, and corrupting who was the most uncorruptable character of the book was the last straw for me.

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