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Chris Stetz's avatar

I’ve been reading Mark Russell’s XFactor from the current era, but even that feels like Mark Russell on autopilot.

Doesn’t hit the highs of the Milligan and Allred predecessor that it appears to be influenced by.

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Tony Ez's avatar

Hard agree. I also agree on Hickman, Percy and most of Duggar’s Marvel writing works for me. But they all seem to have been sidelined for the moment. I’ve preordered the Hickman mini that’s coming in June tho.

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Chris Stetz's avatar

They’ve got Percy on some weird projects for a guy who has just signed an exclusive. A Red Hulk book that probably won’t get more than 10 issues (although I enjoyed the first couple issues well enough), some Predator crossover minis and Hellverine - which to be fair is fun.

My assumption was he’d be handed a big ongoing when extending his deal. Unless it’s his choice to do those books but 🤷🏻‍♂️

Hickman seems the same; I really like Ultimate Spider-Man but they now seem reluctant to give him books that impact continuity; Wolverine Revenge & Aliens v Avengers being the other two.

I’ll grab this Imperial thing as well though.

Either Hickman is too ambitious and creative for them or after they fucked up his plans for the Krakoan era (after he single handedly made the X-Men line buzzworthy again) he wants to work in a corner away from their interference.

Marvel need a drastic change and fast; they must see that DC are pulling away just now in terms of quality and positive word of mouth. But maybe their 80 books a month flooding the shelves is enough for them.

It’s clearly not comics/creative people making the decisions at the ‘house of ideas’ right now.

House of ideas, fuckin hell 😂

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Chris Stetz's avatar

Badger is a gap in my reading history, so I ended up not ordering this one.

I did pick up the Nexus 2 parter though.

I think it’s time for Brevoort to call it a day. I’ve given up reading his substack due his attitude towards people who are clearly paying customers expressing pretty moderate opinions about shit comics. He’s a fucking twat.

Sadly I’m part of the problem because I’m buying Xmen, Uncanny, Wolverine and Xforce for my 10 year old who picked a few of them up on a trip to FP in Glasgow last summer and I want to feed his habit.

But I’ve since undone some of the damage by introducing him to the Morrison New XMen run.

I’ve not read the current Xbooks myself yet because I’m still trying to wade through the Krakoan era stuff on Marvel Unlimited, although I’ve completely given up on some of those titles altogether as they are unreadable.

I’ve enjoyed the Ben Percy written stuff and the early Hickman issues, the rest of it has been hard work for the most part with the odd exception.

I’m not sure why I’m doing this to myself tbh (my subconscious punishing me?) but I’ve come this far so I feel the need to see it through, albeit skimming all the bullshit.

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Tony Ez's avatar

Hahahahaah I often wonder too dude. Yeah, that mailer of Brevoort’s comes over as pretty nasty a lot of the time. Would not want to be stuck in a lift with him!

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weaverwerx's avatar

I have to look to the past or hope for the future to find something to be proud about in my country these days...

Another fine T&B post! Cheers Tony!

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Tony Ez's avatar

Thanks my friend.

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Matt's avatar

Nothing substantial to add to the conversation, but as always, great stack, Tony.

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Darrell Thorpe's avatar

The art on that Badger cover looks awesome - Do the interiors look the same??

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Tony Ez's avatar

No, it’s Val Mayerik on interiors. McCrea is just guesting on a cover.

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Harrison's avatar

Fascinating read! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining industry line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking.

check us out:

https://thesecretingredient.substack.com

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