Amazing Spider-Man Writer Dan Slott has been compared to Michael Jordan in the recent Axel-In-Charge column over at CBR. The Axel in question is Alex Alonzo, the Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics. Here is the quote.
CBR:Next week is big for Marvel, with the official kick-off of the All-New, All-Different Marvel era. Let’s start with “Amazing Spider-Man” #1. With these new launches, readers are seeing a lot of familiar talent taking on characters for the first time, but of course Dan Slott has been writing Spider-Man since 2008, and has explored and evolved the character in a number of notable ways. We know a little about what he’s got planned for Peter Parker here, but what has you most excited about this latest phase of Slott’s Spidey run?
Alonso: Dan’s earned the job, over and over again. The ideas he’s bringing to Spider-Man are totally out the box and all of them hit nothing but net. I’m on record saying it took me a long time before I was sold on “Superior Spider-Man” — shows what I know! Keeping the sports analogy alive, he’s like Michael Jordan in the zone. This time around, there’s the obvious big departure that Peter Parker is now a globe-trotting captain of industry, but the thing that’s going to really hook headers is the endings of the first three issues — each of which kicks off a major story that’ll have everyone talking.
What do you think of Slott’s boss comparing him to M.J.? Is Slott one of the best writers to ever play the game of comics?
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@49–that’s what gets me: when Breevort or whomever implies that the character “got off track” under JMS, when his run simply felt far more like Spider-Man than what we’ve been getting. Especially now that Slott is cribbing from plot beats from 80’s era Michelinie Iron Man.
Sure JMS stuffed a lot of mystical shit in the stories that I didn’t fully care for, but when he was on, he was on. Also, the supporting cast JMS created, like Detective Lamont or the school kids Peter taught, weren’t all douchebags like 95% of Slott’s created cast.
Wow, huge slam on Michael Jordan by comparing him to Slott. What gives, Alonzo?
As for the whole “praising the guy currently writing the book” thing, keep the following in mind:
* The makers of “Amazing Spider-Man 2” insisted it would be great (and were subsequently embarrassed when those “Good Lord, I’m worried about this movie” emails came out).
* The creative team behind “Agents of SHIELD” insist the show is creative and an essential part of the Cinematic Universe (despite the simple fact that the writing is hackneyed, the non-Coulson characters are bland, and that you could watch the movies without missing a beat).
* Marvel consistently praised JMS when he was writing the book, but once he was off the book, there was a good bit of “the character’s somehow gotten off track over the last *cough* years” (like in that memo from Swing Shift).
To be blunt, let’s see what the Marvel staff have to say about Slott’s tenure when he’s off the book.
This comes across like the team owner whosays of his embattled coach,, “Rick has my full support!”
PeterParkerfan,
I deleted the image because the book hasn’t been released yet and I also didn’t want to be spoiled. But it’s now too late for that.
@46
Yeah, the image was (whitch got deleted for a spoiler-related reason but it dosen’t matter ’cause Justin and AndrewRoebuck will tell all the stuff in their reviews anyway) from ASM v4 #1. Stillanerd was right all along. We can expect Ock to come back and mess up Peter’s life around #5 or #6.
On the bright side, Peter knows about Sajani’s involvememt with Black Cat and The Ghost. He told her to knock it off.
Is that from ASM #1? Because if so, that means that Stillanerd’s theory was right. At least, I’m pretty sure that was him.
Slott is being compared to Michale Jordan??!? Ah…Hah…hah…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! Seems like Alonso went a bit too far with promoting the new ASM series.
@#2 You forgot J. M. DeMatties.
@#31 So…trying to defend Slott’s lame writting here as well, eh? No surprise there.
@42 To be fair, the existence of positive reviews does have some meaning, as one major reason cited for Slott not being deserving of praise seems to be that “no-one” likes his run and it’s “obvious” he should go because “all the fans” hate him. And the existence of positive reviews (not to mention posts on social media/forums/etc) does make the point that things aren’t that simple.
And in terms of personal opinion, I quite enjoy the tone of Slott’s stuff, I thought the first two thirds of Superior were great and it lost some momentum at the end. The post-Superior ASM volume was a bit uneven – Spider-Verse in particular had some fun fan-service moments but that level of dimension-hopping cosmic zappery isn’t really what I want from my Spider-Man stories. Enjoyed the first two thirds of the Parker Industries three-parter after that – the last one isn’t on Marvel Unlimited yet. Ditto RYV.
@31: Defending Slott by saying his books get good reviews is relying on outside and unspecified people you’re subscribing authority we have no reason to believe magically invalidates our criticisms of him. And yes, you ARE citing those other people to effectively say that their opinions are “more important” than our own. Don’t rely on other people to speak for you. What do YOU think about his stories? This isn’t about what some random CBR, IGN, or Newsarama said. What do you, personally, think about Slott’s run?
Can we just do a monthly feature on the front page where you guys fuse Slott’s head onto a celebrity’s body from now on, cause that Jordan-Slott pic is so wrong, I want more.
Slott is the comic book equivalent to Jordan, as in Jordan during his baseball days and Jordan’s acting prowess in Space Jam.
Alonso should stick to comic analogies, clearly he has no clue about sports…
Maybe prompted by fan discussions like this:
http://www.comicvine.com/forums/spider-man-167/jms-or-dan-slott-1618985/
Umm….just stop. That’s just wrong.
I think in order to keep to keep their jobs, the guys in charge of the actual comics division of Marvel Comics, have really just abandoned the concept of character integrity all-together in favor of just coming up with controversial “events” to sell a few books quickly to those who buy into that kind of crap. Meaning those who prefer style over substance, or hype over an actual good story that remains true to the character.
Alonso basically said as much with this statement.
“but the thing that’s going to really hook readers is the endings of the first three issues — each of which kicks off a major story that’ll have everyone talking.”
What he failed to say is that what everyone will be talking about is how terrible it is, and how bad Slott screwed up Spider-Man again.
#31
If Alonso is talking only about sales, then sure, ASM sells well. But the question still remains: would it sell even better if the title had an author who could actually write and tell emotionally compelling stories, instead of the comic book equivalent of an action figure battle? The Transformers analogy is incredibly apt. The movies perform well, but as a piece of storytelling craft, they’re worthless.
Superior might have been well-received at the onset, but as it dragged on, it dragged down the reviews. People hated Slott’s Silk, and the spin-off title is only surviving because Robbie Thompson is one of those aforementioned writers who can actually write and tell emotionally compelling stories. Spider-Verse received decidedly mixed reviews, more negative than positive that I saw, and while Renew Your Vows was almost universally appreciated, it, too, suffered from the patented Slott inability to stick his landings. The ending was rushed, depended on characters acting out of character (yeah, right, MJ – or any mother – is just going to throw an eight year daughter, with no training and no protection other than her powers, into a fight against deadly adults with high tech weapons. YEAH RIGHT) and depended on a previously unstoppable and invincible villain to just…give up. (Really? A bad joke disarms the Regent?! RLLY?!?!?)
So no doubt, Amazing Spider-Man sells well. It’s always sold well, except for the times when Marvel actively set out to destroy the marriage and in doing so destroyed reader good will (dragging out the Clone Saga, the Byrne reboot, just after OMD – I believe JMS’s numbers) etc. And I give Slott credit for being a marketing genius. His story hooks are marketing gold.
But Slott himself is in the Michael Jordan zone? Maybe the Michael Jordan strike zone. He is not, by any objective creative writing metrics, the best in his field. Far, far from it.
@#32
Brad, you could compare it to the entire Bayformers franchise.
this is ridiculous
Ha, more like the Michael BOLTON of comics, amiright?
I think one of the best comparisons is the Transformers:Age of Extinction movie. It was a hit, made a lot of money but was a horrible movie. Rotten tomatoes even agrees.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_age_of_extinction/
There is a difference between the title “Dan Slott is the Michael Jordan of comic books” and what Alonso said “he’s like Michael Jordan in the zone.” The former suggests that Slott is the best of his field. The latter has a bit less baggage, suggesting things are going well for Slott. That point is pretty easy to make. Superior Spider-Man was a well-reviewed hit. The first arc of the relaunched ASM title got great sales, and introduced a character who now has her own spinoff. Spider-Verse sold well and has multiple spinoffs. Renew Your Vows sold well.
The way of comic books is changing. ASM is not the only one affected. Comics now are about splashy events and shock value, introducing new PC characters, etc. They don’t care about little things like dialogue and proper characterization. And Slot is perfect for this kind of new paradigm. So he’s being kept. What I really don’ understand is why don’t they have a secondary Spider-man title written by someone else? Even people that love Dan are getting a bit fatigued of “his voice” in the books. A secondary title would alleviate that.
This sounds more like praise to counter mixed-to-pessimistic buzz about the new series direction.
Off topic… BD, your Photoshop pic is horrifying.
Jordan is a winner. Slott eh……not so much.
Maybe like the Washington Wizard’s era Michael Jordan or the Bobcats owner Michael Jordan.
I’m incredibly mixed about this. On the one hand, this is clearly just advertising for people to buy ASM. Alonso’s just saying he’s still good to try and persuade people who aren’t sure about picking up ASM.
On the other hand, I’m REALLY annoyed that Slott is being compared to Michael Jordan. Slott has had a few good stories, but there have been more than a lot of crap that he’s made as well. And Jordan had consistent quality; Slot consistently has inconsistent quality.
Okay, I can’t believe that Slott is ‘firing all cylinders’ when they claimed that when Spider-Verse came out. Look how bad that was, and that was when Slott was ‘at the top of his game’. We’ve all had a general agreement here that Slott has a problem with burning out, and that he only writes what he wants to write, not what is a major part of the character’s relatability. Here, I just think Slott’s Spider-run has completely burned out, and it he wants to write Iron Man… go write Iron Man, Danny! Nobody’s stopping you!… Except Brian Michael Bendis. Either way, I don’t think Dan Slott is the Michael Jordan of comics; it’s propaganda, and nobody’s buying it. So, I’m just gonna forget this happened, MAYBE pick up Iron Man to see MJ, and just wait until the second volume of Silk comes out.
@#21- Mets- You are absolutely right. It’s surely not a surprise that an editor would prop up a writer that he is legally obligated not to criticize in any way.
I mean, it’s also kind of weird that he would feel the NEED to insist that Slott has “earned the book time and time again” and NOT say that about anyone else who has been on titles for the same length of time, because no one has really been SAYING that about Slott, that he hasn’t “earned” the title, just that it’s weird that he is STILL on it.
Look, Amazing Spider-Man sells well. It’s consistently in the top ten, and is usually number one or two for Marvel depending on what other events are happening.
(Of course, whether ASM would sell even BETTER if it had a writer who could, y’know, actually WRITE, instead of Slott’s amateurish and painful text vomit, is up for speculation. After all, Silver Surfer is far from successful and I’m betting what sales and critical acclaim it receives are due to contributions that belong wholly to the Allreds. No wonder Marevl didn’t change the art team on Slott’s wholly transparent Doctor Who fan fiction).
So Alonso doesn’t have to apologize for Slott on Spider-Man.
What I find interesting is that he apparently feels the need to do so by saying Slott “earned it” and by making these grandiose claims. It comes as very defensive, IMO. Almost like he’s heard the criticism and is trying to hard it off…but if the criticism was unfounded, he’d have no need to respond to it.
I am astonished that the EIC of Marvel would say nice things about someone who has written some well-received comics, and gotten Marvel some great sales. This has surely never happened before.
Arr yoo bee bee eye ess aich!
uhhh.. if Slott wrote like he was the Michael Jordan of Marvel, more people would buy his books. Because they would be better than the **** he’s peddling now. They wouldn’t rely on shock value and fan outrage to drum up controversy and interest. And they wouldn’t be wasting money to keep Brian Michael Bendis around.
@#17- That’s true. But I think there is a difference between “I’m not buying because I have no interest” and “I’m not buying SPECIFICALLY to deny you business.”
The former is more passive. There’s no desire, and you can take it or leave it. It’s a lack of interest overall, but it’s not a deliberate attempt to affect change. The later is more aggressive. It’s done more for the SPECIFIC attempt to incite change. The problem with it is that such a tactic wouldn’t bring about the change the person particularly wants. Change is more likely to happen by making the appropriate parties aware of the aspects that they want changed or the elements that are detrimental to the series.
So trying to impart change or improve the series by not buying it is not a viable tactic as much as telling the creative parties what is wrong and what you’d like to see changed.
Right – but I wouldn’t really call my not buy a “boycott” pre se. I just literally no interest in reading anything Slott writes ever again. I don’t believe my not buying is going to influence anyone except I’m not spending money on something I don’t enjoy anymore. I know there will always be another parent buying their six year old a spider man comic, and if I’m being honest with myself, that exactly the target audience Slott is writing for. Six year olds who are getting their first spider man comic. And it will always sell because it’s spider man and there will always be kids buying Spider-Man comics. I just know that the comic can be more than just a nightmarish gaudy Saturday morning cartoon.
Another thing to keep in mind is something that was brought up by Jim Sterling over at the Jimquisition a few years back, in a video entitled “Why Boycotts Fail Where Whining Tantrums Win.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn-fxiCIX6w
Essentially, JIm points out that- in the video game industry- boycotts don’t work since the developers don’t really know what people are boycotting and will equate the wrong reason for a series failure, or will potentially hurt the wrong target. That since people aren’t giving a specific reason, it’s less likely that the developer will improve the product along the lines that requires improvement and will more likely take more drastic steps. He argues that actually whining and complaining do a lot more to influence change, because its a lot of potential profit on the line, and the developers want to keep their profits as high as possible. That success doesn’t mean that the parties involved listen LESS to the audience, the opposite instead happens- they listen more because they WANT to stay on top.
And it’s not hard to see why this would be equally applicable to comics, especially Spider-Man. Yes, Spider-Man has seen a lot of success under Slott’s tenure, with Superior being a sales success, ASM vol 3 selling lots of copies, and Renew Your Vows selling well. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Slott has MORE power, or LESS oversight. Quite the opposite, as Slott’s bosses will be MORE likely to oversee his tenure in order to ensure that sales STAY high. Which means likely LISTENING to those complaints a lot more, and not outright dismissing them.
Just look at Wacker’s tenure on the book. He completely ignored and belittled any and all critics of the title. And the book languished in sales and dropped in the rankings, only recovering due to unexpected success of Superior Spider-Man. So that shows not listening to the fans is not a viable option if you WANT a series to remain successful. So, this reaction to prop up Slott is likely less of a “Slott is an MVP at Marvel” and more of an attempt to address the criticisms- in a roundabaout way- and control the negative reactions.
Marvel WANTS people to stick around, ESPECIALLY all the people who showed up for Renew Your Vows. Which probably doesn’t mean LESS concessions to the disgruntled fans, but actually MORE than we might realize.
But we will probably get the answer to that in a few days.
What RDMacQ said makes a lot of sense. It does seem odd that Marvel wouldn’t take advantage of the relaunch to change up creative teams, especially if they seem to be doing that for most of their other runs (Bendis and maybe a few others excepted). Alonso is most likely trying to put a positive spin and justification on this choice up front.
On a side note, I’m surprised at how little impact the whole World’s End / Secret Wars thing seems to be having to the point where I’m wondering if it was even necessary. If Marvel wanted to move a few characters between dimensions, they could have done that without an overstated event, even if it does make an interesting what-if. Count on comics to make everything over-dramatic.
At any rate, if Slott’s the one on we have on the book, I wish him the best and hope he can put out some truly amazing stories. Whether I buy them or not will depend on their quality as well as the thickness of my wallet. The new direction really has some potential if it’s done well, and even if it isn’t, it can still at least give future writers and other media (like the cartoons, games, and movies) idea fodder that they can improve on themselves. It may be that Slott is more of an ideas man than an execution guy, but we’ll see what kind of support he has and what shakes out.
After the whole thing about what Alonso said about Hercules’ sexual orientation and the way he responded to critics, and how he really doesn’t get Dr. Strange at all, I’ve kind stopped taking a lot of what Alonso says seriously, or even reading what he has to say at all. This gives me even more reason to do so.
Good points RDMacQ! I sure hope you’re right. I’d really like to be able to collect spider-man comics again someday. I’ve collected for almost 40 years (except the time I stopped during Byrne and mackies run).
… call the mental ward. They gone crazy over there. Either that or the FDA, because that’s some strong *** they takin’!
So, Dan’s boss- on the eve of a relaunch of a series- is heavily pushing and promoting him and trying to build him up?
Yeah, what a shock.
This is just business. Alonso is trying to sell people on Slott, because he’s been around for a while, and the book is radically different than what came before. So, it makes sense Alonso wants to build Slott up a bit, because there HAS been some talk that he’s been on the book for a while, and this direction is rather controversial.
This just seems like trying to get on top of the criticism, to try and steer the direction and reinforce the notion that “Yes, this is a good move.” Telling the audience that it’s OK that Slott is STILL on the title, that it’s OK that he’s taking the series in such a radical direction, in order to prevent the bad press from becoming too overwhelming.
Because, if we look at it, the new direction hasn’t really galvanized the audience, especially coming off of the positive response to Renew Your Vows. People aren’t talking about how EXCITED they are for Parker Industries. They are talking about how it’s unfair that they CAN’T get more Renew Your Vows, and instead are getting Peter Parker as a Tony Stark expy. It’s not really lighting a fire under people, and a common criticism has been that Slott is STILL on the title, and it is his fourth relaunch. And those criticisms are hard to ignore.
So, Alonso is going to prop Slott up. Say he’s “On the top of his game,” that he’s an MVP and he’s firing on all cylinders. He’s essentially trying to tell us that we shouldn’t be worried with this new direction, because Slott also did Superior and that worked out alright in the long run. And he’s most likely trying to argue WHY Slott STILL being on the title is a good thing where practically every other Marvel title is getting a brand new creative team, which makes the ASM series look like the odd man out.
And, in may ways, that IS a good sign. Because if they are trying to get on top of the criticism and reinforce that Slott being on Spider-Man is STILL a good idea, then it shows that there is a general fatigue with his tenure on the book and that replacing him at SOME point may be a viable option. Sure, they might not replace him NOW. But if they have to take this much effort to go out of their way and promote that Slott still remaining on Spider-Man is somehow good, then it shows that they are knowledgeable about the criticism and are trying to control it in their own way.
I’d say it’s more like Slott’s the Michael Jordan of web-bullying and cyber stalking.
Well there goes any hope I have that they’ll replace him with a new writer. I won’t buy any spider-man comics till he’s gone. And now, it looks like that won’t be until Alonso’s gone too… I doubt Alonso would ever replace Slott with rhetoric like that.
If you mean like Jordan in that he doesn’t know when to call it quits. Then yeah.
Dan Slott the Michael Jordan of Comics? Yes.
Wait, we’re talking about Jordan when he was playing baseball, right?
Jordan of comics? Oh no, not even close. I wouldn’t even put him close to Derrick Rose. Slott is more like John Paxston. Had a great run on several books before Amazing. Then got the title and has had a few solid stories but still not A game. Then does other books like Silver Surfer and is doing great. Not the best comparison.
I think Alonso’s Jordan comparison was more referring to Slott’s recent stuff as a run of success he didn’t want to break than alluding to Slott himself as an uber-writer.
Although they’ve now confirmed a relaunch of his Silver Surfer too, so clearly they’re pretty happy with him.
Stan the man would be the jordan of comics. Dan slott is more like the T-Mac of comics the potential was there but ultimately he only had a few great short run once in a while till he’d hurt himself
No, just no.
Let’s count the titan heads in writing comics and their impact on the industry:
Alan Moore, Peter David, Roger Stern, Denny O’Neil, Grant Morrison, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Steve Gerber, Warren Ellis, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, Mark Waid, Frank Miller (80s), Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Geoff Johns, and maybe Robert Kirkman.
Dan Slott is not close enough to reach them.
Oh God, no. Jesus Christ, no.