The Letters Page
As we've mentioned before, there's way too much mail for us to answer in the shows, so we'll be answering some of it right here on the blog. As always, thanks for sending in your questions, and please keep shooting them over to tips@pulpsecret.com, call them in to 888-841-7549, or post a video response on YouTube!
Will writes:
I know it's very late in the game to say anything about Brand New Day, but i just wanted to get the feel of the first three issues. it's a great first arc, it's funny, it's fun it feels just as awsome as the Free Comic Book Day Swing Shift. However, comic readers are still refusing to give it a chance because One More Day was so terrible, (at least I heard; I haven't read it myself. I bet it's not as bad as everyone says it is), that they refuse to give it any chance or any benefit of a doubt. And it really irks me because Dan Slott and all the other writers working so hard on it do such a good job only to be criticized and hated for something that they had nothing to do with. Another thing I'm wondering is why didn't people get so upset when Geoff Johns did the same exact thing in the Flash, erasing everyone remembering who the flash was.Hey, you're preaching to the choir, buddy. I have a whole post going up tomorrow about this very issue, and why people aren't reading ASM. Also, people DID get upset about the Flash arc, very upset. However, I think in retrospect, as it was a limited, four issue run on that idea, that people couldn't get that upset. It was also about Wally's identity, which isn't as big of a deal as say, his marriage.
Anna sez:
In response to your question to viewers about who you would date in the Marvel Universe, I would say that I would like to go on a date with Gambit. I've had a crush on the guy since I was 12. And since he and Rogue are broken up right now, it's a safe bet. Messiah Complex was really awesome. I'm sad about the Romy break-up though. At least Gambit got a nice enough part in the story. Poor Rogue was unconscious, but she is slated to have a very significant part in the second story arc of X-Men: Legacy I've heard.Wow, the Rajun Cajun, huh? Good luck having him not explode you...
Steven writes:
I caught your review of the Spider-man: Brand New Day story about 22 minutes ago on youtube. I have to say that as a longtime comic fan and reader of Spider-man, I felt rather let down by the outcome of One More Day (which Brand New Day spins out of). J. Michael Straczynski is one of the best writers working today. I loved his run on Amazing and I was actually one of the people who liked the "cheating on Peter Parker" Gwen Stacy storyline (many readers put her on this pedestal as a "paragon of virtue", but, if you remember back to her original appearances, she was rather frigid toward Peter). I felt that story fleshed her out more as a realistic character with flaws and dimension. I'm also a fan of Joe Quesada's art and count him as one of my creative influences (I'm an up and coming comic book artist, seeking work from the "Big 2 Publishers" at Wizard World Chicago this year...Wish me luck!). But, as I stated above, I felt let down by the ending of "One More Day". To me, restarting the history and deleting what's gone on before, is kind of the comic book equivilent to the "Return of Bobby Ewing: His Death Was All Just Pam's Bad Dream" storyline on the primetime t.v. soap Dallas. I understand that they want to get Peter Parker back to the college kid dealing with juggling his life with his "Great Responsiblity" thing. But, it's still more than a little disheartening to see that they couldn't just move forward. This seems like a cop-out to me. Peter Parker, whether he's a college kid or a teacher at his old high school outted to the world as Spidey, is an interesting character and can still be without deleting even a smidgen of his history. Plus, how does this effect titles where Spidey played a vital role. Did the "big revelation" of the webheads secret i.d. not happen in Civil War #2? Did Spidey ever join the New Avengers? Was he even a part of the House of M storyline? I, personally, am hoping that Brand New Day does lead to the end of this "reboot" and leads to an even greater story. If not, then I have the strangest feeling that this will go down in Spider-man History as the biggest "crap-fest" since the dreadful Spider-Clone Saga of the 90'sYeah, we'll certainly see what happens. As I said above though, I think the current story-lines are fun, and worth checking out. Are they worth having had to read OMD? Totally up to the individual reader.
Robert writes:
I've been thinking about something ever since Captain America #25 came out. I'm still pretty new to comic books and I distinctly remember issues like this and the death of superman being on the news and interviews of people saying how they're shocked and at a loss for words. My question is what do you guys think is the one comic book that changed the world in recent history? Obviously, I'm going with Cap's death.This is a tough question, mainly because of the "changed the world" angle... I do think Cap's death got a lot of press, but did it change the world? Not really. In fact, I would say it would be nearly impossible for a mainstream super-hero comic to change the world right now, and that comes down, mainly, to sales. How can a comic change the world if, at most, 250,000 people read it? Not to be a negative nelly, but it's true. Back in the Death of Superman time, you had millions of copies being bought (though it's debatable whether that was millions of people, or five collectors). So I think in order to affect the entire world, sales would have to go way up. Or, they could kill of Spider-Man.
Gary posits:
I think you took that kid’s question about a story regarding underage drinking too lightly. I’m old enough to remember when comics did have a social consciousness theme running through them. Maybe it was over the top at times, but the point was to address issues existing in the world in which we were living. Good writers do that. Green Arrow/Green Lantern under Neal Adams and Denny O’Neill used their stories to tackle racism, drug addition, and suspicion of authority figures. In Amazing Spider-Man, they dealt with drug abuse when Harry Osborne became addicted to hallucinants. Moreover, other titles addressed rape and physical abuse. The main reason why social themes are not done more often now is because the writers spend their time contemplating their navels while they figure out how to get heroes to fight one another for no apparent reason. The main difference now is most comic book writers use current topics as a marketing ploy rather than the springboard to an interesting yarn.Thanks for the points, Gary. I think they're well made, and thought out. And I definitely agree with the last point... Do it for story reasons, do it so that it's important, don't just do it to sell copies, or be edgy.
