Posted by TheMojoPin at 1cust64.tnt3.manassas.va.da.uu.net on August 08, 2001 at 00:39:04:
In Reply to: Green Arrow minor rave & question posted by erran on August 08, 2001 at 00:01:57:
: When you (Kev) write these things, who determines guest appearances and minor crossovers? Do you as the writer have carte blanche to just stick in Superman or Batman at a whim?
Gah, this is going to make me sound like a helpless fanboy, but here goes...I always end up shying off superhero comics for a while because of the convoluted baggage of continuity that comes along....you get a guy like Superman and he's tugging 60+ years of storylines and alternate worlds, deaths, clones, shitty stories, super pets, whatever, and it'll tend to scare a reader off after a while. Well, that and the fact he's a grown man wearing red underwear over his tights. But hopefully you get my point...Marvel finally made a single semi-intelligent decision by starting that "Ultimate" line to give readers some breathing room...wait, wait, I'm going somewhere...
Alright, you have the tendency of the "hip" writers today to launch titles based on a character that was a bit player or some weird minor "retro" character from years, even decades ago, now nearly long-forgotten. Fuck, basically the entire line of Vertigo titles is based on that idea. Marvel's even making up characters (Sentry) to fill this format. So let's say Kevin has someone useless and pointless like The Creeper or Booster Gold or Aquaman guest star in the new Green Arrow series. Maybe just for one issue. He takes the character and COMPLETELY bends them from the norm, like, say, reveals Booster likes dressing up dogs like nuns and signing old showtunes to them. Naked. With oil. And Kevin writes this really, really funny and amusing and one-shotish and we all laugh and live and love. But THEN, somewhere down the line, some new "hip" writer 20 years from now, views this one-shot appearance of Booster Gold as being....*gasp* CHARACTER-DEFINING!!! And launches a whole new Booster Gold series based on that one appearance! That spins off into other series! Using other "retro" characters in a way that conflicts with their "pre-Smith" manhandling!!! Let me just say this:
Kevin Smith, if you end up being responsible for another Zero Hour, well, goddammit, I'll have to destroy you. In a nebish, pathetic fanboy fashion, naturally, but still, I would have vengeance.
-TMP <----Say, I wonder if Mr. McFarlane will sue me for using his company's initals as my own....