Marvel.com interview with Tom! -- UPDATED with Part 2!

[James W]

Great job, D & T. I hope Marvel figure this thing out when the time comes.

[ian]

anybody reading x-men forever?

[DanFromBrooklyn]

anybody reading x-men forever?

I read the first couple and really enjoyed them.  They're very Claremont -- very dialogue heavy.  But it felt like X-Men from the 80s/early 90s and I liked that a lot.

I covered this Wolverine event at MoCCA where Claremont talked about it a little bit (here's a link for anyone interested):

http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.7991.Wolverine_at_MoCCA

[ian]

i haven't read anything claremont has written since he dropped out of x-men in 1992 or whenever, until x-men forever. so for me i didn't miss a beat. fanboys and wizard seem to like to diss him now (or at least i get that sense in conversation with nerdier comic nerds) but i wouldn't because it will look foolish as forever plays out and shows itself to be one of the most interesting things marvel has done in years.

i like his style of writing most for x-men and all these attempts to make shit grittier or more modern (reboots stink) in his absence just bored me. i like big crazy x-men plots with twisty left turns and lots of thought bubbles, romance, and broad strokes. there's been a backlash against exposition in superhero comics that i think is a little unfair, as it can be very charming.

lately i've also been into old silver surfer, infinity gauntlet, claremont's uncanny run (#200ish-280), x-men forever, and jim lee punisher war journals from late 80s/early 90s



haha oh yeah, you guys have to see this

it's a ten issue series from 1990-91 called punisher armory, and it's completely fucking insane. it's just pictures of guns and the punisher describing them in detail or throwing out odd anecdotes:

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is this not the creepiest thing in marvel history?

i mean, who was this aimed at? 13 year old kids?

[erechoveraker]

I LOVED that series. Eliot Brown was the editor on it I believe, and he nailed the tone of the Punisher in that thing so well I thought, given he was a creepy murdering superhero. I also had an unhealthy affection for firearms back then, yes around 14 or so years old, so mixing them with comics was right up my alley. I haven't flipped through one in probably a decade or more, but they were usefully informative and I recall quite a bit of stuff from them to this day, especially in regards to writing crime comics and the like.

[orangewhip]

I ate that shit up as a kid to, and well...kinda still do.  Garth Ennis did some really fun Punisher stuff.
If anyone hasn't seen Punisher: War Zone, you should.  It is the funnest "bad guys getting shot in the face" movie ever.

[Reeleyes]

I used to collect comic cards and remember getting the Punisher's Armory card.

[methanolcereal]

I have this vague memory of my father returning home from a business trip of sorts and bringing me a Punisher action figure in like, 1991. I don't really remember if I liked the Punisher at the time (probably more into the X-Men, Spider-Man and maybe Batman, if the Bruce Timm-styled cartoon was on at the time) since I was about four, but I do remember the toy had this weird trigger on the back that would make a clicking sound. I too vaguely remember thinking the Punisher was cool at some point in my youth, but I don't think I actually read any of the books he was in.

[dnk]

Great piece. I wonder what book Tom would write if he could pick any one. What book do you guys think he'd be the best fit on? I just started listening to TBS five months ago and have never watched MONK so I still don't an informed opinion on something like this.

On a side-note, I started listening because of Matt Fraction's constant hype.

[PatrickChew]

haha oh yeah, you guys have to see this

it's a ten issue series from 1990-91 called punisher armory, and it's completely fucking insane. it's just pictures of guns and the punisher describing them in detail or throwing out odd anecdotes:

is this not the creepiest thing in marvel history?

i mean, who was this aimed at? 13 year old kids?

I totally remember buying these when I was a kid. It's like a glimpse into an insane death cult's compound.

And yes, I think they were squarely aimed at 13 yr old boys. Especially ones who tried to draw their own crazy weapons (anything is better with a grenade launcher attached to it).

[kevin_]

I wonder what book Tom would write if he could pick any one.

Or what would you guys like to see Tom write? Just off the top of my head I'd wanna see something like Nextwave or Deadpool and Cable.

[dnk]

I wonder what book Tom would write if he could pick any one.

Or what would you guys like to see Tom write? Just off the top of my head I'd wanna see something like Nextwave or Deadpool and Cable.

That's the next question I posed in the post you quoted, but those are interesting choices. Especially since he talks about the character a lot, I think Tom might be a good fit on an Iron Fist book. There's definitely room for humor as Fraction and Bru's run showed (Swierczynski's run had a few kind of funny bits too), but it'd also be a really interesting thing to see Tom take on. Kung fu billionaire. Such a perfect comic book character.

[buffcoat]

Has Tom ever mentioned Negativland?

[DanFromBrooklyn]

Just from the interview and Tom's enthusiasm for them, I'd have to say a DEFENDERS reboot would be awesome.  Otherwise, I think SPIDER-MAN or DEADPOOL -- something where Tom's voice can shine through -- would be great.

[Wes]

Damage Control - the comic about the company that cleans up the mess when cities are routinely destroyed in the Marvel Universe - seems like it would be the perfect title for Tom.

That, or a Blade mini-series set in the 1970s, where the daywalker travels to England and has to protect the band Slade from a group of vampire soccer hooligan fans who are upset that Slade dropped their skinhead look.