Jae Lee
John Byrne
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Mon premier fascicule VO : cette double page m’a scotché.
Jim
1 « J'aime »
Giorgio Comolo
Patrick Gleason
Aaron Lopresti
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Aaron Lopresti
John Armor
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#103: Across the Rubicon - by Tom Brevoort - Man With A Hat
A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date
« This issue of FANTASTIC FOUR came out on March 17, 2004 and it was, I think, a special issue for all involved. And in fact, when it was first conceived, it would have been the final issue in the well-regarded Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo run on the title. I’ve told that story previously, so I won’t repeat it here, but suffice it to say that, rather than heading over to DC to do LEGION OF SUPER HEROES , Mark and Mike wound up staying on FANTASTIC FOUR for another year beyond this, an unexpected and very welcome windfall for me on just about my favorite run that I’ve ever worked on. The previous storyline, “Authoritative Action” had ended with the Thing having been killed in a final battle with Doctor Doom, but Reed Richards determined to find a was to resurrect his friend. As Mark initially pitched it, this would involve the FF journeying into the afterlife and bringing Ben back from, well, Heaven. And I didn’t like it, I was unconvinced. I know that this is all just fiction and the characters are all made up, but I feel like death needs to maintain some gravitas, especially within the world of the story. How can you expect the readership to care if the characters don’t seem to take what’s happened seriously? I hated stories where heroes would recover one another from the great beyond as easily as taking a bus to the next neighborhood. So I was initially resistant to this whole idea. What convinced me was a pair of ideas, both of which came out of a conversation that Waid had with his longtime friend and creative sounding board Tom Peyer . I believe that it was Peyer who suggested to Waid that the way the FF get to the afterlife is by recreating the machine that a college-aged Doctor Doom had been using to try to free his mother’s damned spirit from the netherworld, which exploded, scarring his formerly-handsome face. Reed had seen Doom’s calculations and even pointed out where he’d made his error (though Doom was too proud to correct it, and pay the price.) This gave us a method for reaching the afterlife that came out of well-established FF lore, and so that made it a lot easier for me to buy into this. But really, it was Peyer’s other idea, one that I suspect he suggested in jest but that Waid and I took seriously, that put the whole thing over the edge: Peyer suggested that at the climax, the Fantastic Four meet God, and that God turn out to be a Jewish cartoonist living in an ordinary west coast-styled home. God was, of course, the spitting image of the late Jack Kirby , and so the whole end sequence was a loving tribute to Jack and his creativity—even though Kirby is never identified by name in the book. And it was wonderfully executed by Mark and Mike (and inker Karl Kesel and color artist Paul Mounts ) To avoid any partisanship in the eternal argument over apportioning credit for who came up with what, we had God take a call from “his collaborator” in which they swiftly discuss their latest ideas. (This sequence has one of my favorite Waid throwaway lines, from Johnny: “God has a phone? What’s the number? 1?” ) The whole thing was done with a great deal of care and affection, and while not every reader got the idea—it was possible to read the story and simply understand that there was a cartoonist who was God to the Fantastic Four, without being familiar with Kirby —enough of them did that it became a sentimental favorite. One group who unfortunately weren’t so keen on it were the members of Kirby’s family, who for very good reason didn’t like seeing Kirby’s likeness used in a Marvel comic without his awareness or consent. Had we known that they felt that way, we never would have done it, and I think we’ve all apologized to them for it over the years. »
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Le Watcher par Christophe Malgrain :
Jim
Christophe Malgrain :
Jim
Christophe Malgrain :
Jim
Le Silver Surfer par Christophe Malgrain :
Jim
