Thursday, October 02, 2008

A little excessive

Hey, I'm still alive! And ridiculously busy. Between teaching and work and grading and writing assignments and lesson plans, and the infection I'm still recovering from, my ability to read comics has become mostly nonexistent. I'm months behind on Superman, I haven't yet cracked the JSA Annual, and the third issue of the new Ambush Bug series sits unread on my desk.

But that doesn't mean I'm not keeping up with news. Which is why I saw this:

Really? I like Stephen Colbert as much as the next guy, I watch the show when I can, I was more than a bit miffed when Joey Q decided to give Mark Gruenwald's shield to him for no apparent reason, but I thought it was kind of funny that he was still running for president in the Marvel U. But this? This really smacks of "Joe Quesada wants to get on the Report again." Look, we get it. Marvel likes Stephen Colbert. But he's not flipping Wolverine, he doesn't need to be popping up as a frigging guest star in a Spider-Man comic.

In ten, twenty years, this will look even more ridiculous and pandering than it does now. Joe Quesada, I have "The WØRD" for you: "Goody Rickels."

9 comments:

Richard said...

Correctly employing the Scandinavian slashed O in "The WØRD" makes your claim of being merely a casual viewer ring hollow.

But yes, it seems like Quesada just wants to get invited back...presumably so he can embarass us all some more. I think he's had his share. After all, Chris Claremont never appeared on SNL, and Roger Stern was never booked on Late Night with David Letterman...

Anthony Strand said...

In twenty years, I think it'll look like a goofy, fun time capsule.

You know, like Superman vs. Ali. Or that time The Vision went on Letterman and sat next to Pee Wee Herman. And yes, that's real. Avengers Spotlight #23.

Written by wacky-period John Byrne, of course.

Your Obedient Serpent said...

Guest star? Probably not. This thing has MARVEL VARIANT COVER plastered all over it; my guess is that it's no more relevant to the contents than the Zombie, Skrull and Ape Variant Covers they've been shipping out for the last few months.

That whole Gimmick Cover thing ALREADY looks ridiculous.

Your Obedient Serpent said...

Oh, and Anthony?

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali is the greatest comic book of all time.

Unknown said...

I'm pretty sure the cover exists because Colbert is actually appearing in whatever issue that is.

And I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Remember that Peter David-written issue of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man when Colbert popped up for no apparent reason and spouted off a bunch of his catch phrases?

I've never really been a fan of these sort of cameos - SNL, Ali, Letterman, Leno. Sure, I know that they exist in the Marvel U, but when they show up it always just feels like pandering.

-M

Unknown said...

Correction: Colbert DOES show up, but in a back-up story (the issue is extra-sized, aparently).

-M

LurkerWithout said...

But Goody Rickles is AWESOME. I even understand he's going to be a pivotal part of the capstone for Final Crisis...

Don said...

Honestly, though, can this really make Amazing Spider-Man any worse? Is that possible? As ridiculous as it is, it's at worst par for the course at the moment, and at best actually better, in a goofy ironic way, than the drivel they've been putting in that book for the last long while.

Unknown said...

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18697