Sperg about comic books here

[Alexander Thaut]

Hickman is fantastic at building things up, and shit at paying them off.
I, too, think if he had put his foot down and forced the others to move the story along as planned, as he said he was capable and not afraid of doing, the result would have been better.
But it'd still probably have failed to live up to the promise.

I feel like Hickman, if paired with a way better writer, could be excellent in a team like DnA.

Daily reminder that Bill Sinkiewicz has a reputation of being a white trash drunk who desperately wants to be an "artiste", only got his gig on New Mutants (and going all out experimental-wise on the book as opposed to his more mainstream work on Moon Knight) because Claremont secretly was desperately trying to get New Mutants canceled, once got so drunk that he lost the cover for an issue of New Mutants he was supposed to mail in, and is long rumored to have pulled a Zoe Quinn in that most of the positive coverage for his New Mutants and Moon Knight runs was artificially manufactured due to him fucking Heidi McDonald, who he had an on-again, off-again affair with in the 80s.

And him bitching about AI artwork is hilarious given the rumor that he drank/pissed away all of the money he got off of the Legion TV show. Probably why he's screeching about AI artwork, since he failed at making it as a regular artist, he's never going to see a dime off of Moon Knight since he didn't invent the character (and the TV show is mostly based off of more recent MK books), and comics won't hire him except to do variant covers these days as far as him not even being able to get inker jobs like had to do in the 90s.

I fucking don't get why people even like this guy. I like his Covers. That's it. I don't wanna read new mutants because of his shit and liefeld's shit. Feels like they ruined a nice little concept that shoulda been/stayed in the hands of Louise Simonson.

I've tried to make AI comics before but it's near impossible to get something consistent. At least on my rig and with the programs I have. However I can see it making a big splash eventually.

Let's say there's a program that has pre-modelled assets. Characters, objects, settings, time and lighting conditions, and even color filters. And all you need to do is select which ones you want to use for your scene, then type into a command bar what you want the characters to do. After a few missteps, you finally get the scene exactly how you want it. You then swivel the camera to be in the position you want, take a screenshot, and now you have a panel of a comic book. Once you have all your panels, all you need to do is assemble your pages, write in some dialogue, and you have your comic.

Now let's be honest, this doesn't seem that far away, does it? In fact, someone is probably already working on it. Or it's already out and I just don't know about it. In which case, let me know so I can finally make a Lightbringer comic.

AI is here and it's here to stay. People can whine and moan all they want, but at the end of the day, if a consumer is willing to pay for it, then it doesn't matter what anyone else wants.

Honestly, I can see AI getting really good at classic artists' styles like Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko, then I can further see someone paying cash for that template of styles and then banging out new Not! Spidey stuff or Not! New Gods.

I accept the rise of AI. I apologize to the Basilisk for being some schmuck. Please let me watch you do not-so-funny things to the elites.

 

[GoPro]

I've tried to make AI comics before but it's near impossible to get something consistent. At least on my rig and with the programs I have. However I can see it making a big splash eventually.

Let's say there's a program that has pre-modelled assets. Characters, objects, settings, time and lighting conditions, and even color filters. And all you need to do is select which ones you want to use for your scene, then type into a command bar what you want the characters to do. After a few missteps, you finally get the scene exactly how you want it. You then swivel the camera to be in the position you want, take a screenshot, and now you have a panel of a comic book. Once you have all your panels, all you need to do is assemble your pages, write in some dialogue, and you have your comic.

Now let's be honest, this doesn't seem that far away, does it? In fact, someone is probably already working on it. Or it's already out and I just don't know about it. In which case, let me know so I can finally make a Lightbringer comic.

AI is here and it's here to stay. People can whine and moan all they want, but at the end of the day, if a consumer is willing to pay for it, then it doesn't matter what anyone else wants.

What you described already exists to some extent due to 3D software like poser. People have been making crappy poser comics for over two decades by now.
A lot of current comic artists use 3D models fed through sketchup or filters to generate outline or they trace over them. As do quite a few mangakas. They most often do that for backgrounds and vehicles. Results are kind of crappy though. At least the ones I am able to recognize as ones reliant on 3D models. Scot McClaud was even into it and considered that approach the future of comics. His attempt at making one using 3D and 2D did not look good but it was in late 90s.

AI will be able to bridge the gap within several years probably. Two breakthoughs needed are the better "memory" so it can string together a cohesive story, and then making it work for images and text at the same time. All of that while being cost efficient enough for consumer grade use.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

Honestly, I can see AI getting really good at classic artists' styles like Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko, then I can further see someone paying cash for that template of styles and then banging out new Not! Spidey stuff or Not! New Gods.

I think you could also train an AI to write like Lee did.

 

[MirrorNoir]

Jesus Christ, even the new artist on the X-Books just admitted that the Krakoa Era was selling like shit.

View attachment 5833253​

Breevort also confirmed that the New X-Men tease using the Age of Apocalypse logo from a while back was part of a cancelled planned event that the previous editor, Jordan White, was coordinating that was going to continue the Krakoa Status Quo.

Just in case anyone out there tries to tell you that the Krakoa Age ended "when it came to its natural conclusion", and not because of flagging sales and consumer interest that was in the toilet.

It's less that and more "X-Men '97 is finally coming out, a sequel to one of the most beloved Marvel media properties, one that helped usher in the last big golden age of comic book sales and we are already fighting an uphill fight with people being paranoid that it's going to be woke anti-life, especially since one of our PR agents went rogue and declared Morph was non-binary and the fact that if it flops, then we are fucked in that no one will trust us when we actually start doing live action X-Men; especially since Ryan Reynolds is a degenerate pervert who demanded our first trailer remind people that Deadpool likes to be fucked in the ass like a faggot. We can not fucking pander to the lunatic lefties, the feminazis, the mentally ill trannies, the self-hating faggots, the nigger bigots who secretly long for rise of a nigger Adolf Hitler to carry out the final solution to the white CIS gendered American question. Especially since the last time we had a major X-Men project come out, IE the first X-Men movie, Bob fucking Harras and all of his editorial cronies were wholesale fired and replaced with people who hated what Marvel was and forced the company to pander to normies who current Marvel DESPISES and who basically buck broke Brevoort so hard that he let Bendis wholesale rape the Avengers franchise and turned Brevoort into persona non grata within Marvel fandom".

If Brevoort fucks shit up and the relaunch fails/doesn't get high sales numbers/retain said high sales numbers and gets anything less than 100% positive reviews from the Comicsgate crowd, his career is pretty much dead and so are the careers of anyone who's part of his inner circle. So of course they are going to be groveling and saying "X-Men is for everyone, even conservatives" because the X-Men are the only card left for Disney to play at this point to salvage the MCU.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

It's less that and more "X-Men '97 is finally coming out, a sequel to one of the most beloved Marvel media properties, one that helped usher in the last big golden age of comic book sales and we are already fighting an uphill fight with people being paranoid that it's going to be woke anti-life, especially since one of our PR agents went rogue and declared Morph was non-binary

Morph, at the very least, is a non-issue as the fucker's a literal "who?" to most fans.

Now, if they try to make Iceman a troon, then that'd be a slap to the face.

and the fact that if it flops, then we are fucked in that no one will trust us when we actually start doing live action X-Men; especially since Ryan Reynolds is a degenerate pervert who demanded our first trailer remind people that Deadpool likes to be fucked in the ass like a faggot. We can not fucking pander to the lunatic lefties, the feminazis, the mentally ill trannies, the self-hating faggots, the nigger bigots who secretly long for rise of a nigger Adolf Hitler to carry out the final solution to the white CIS gendered American question. Especially since the last time we had a major X-Men project come out, IE the first X-Men movie, Bob fucking Harras and all of his editorial cronies were wholesale fired and replaced with people who hated what Marvel was and forced the company to pander to normies who current Marvel DESPISES and who basically buck broke Brevoort so hard that he let Bendis wholesale rape the Avengers franchise and turned Brevoort into persona non grata within Marvel fandom".

Honestly, given the state of things, maybe Bendis was the lesser evil.

If Brevoort fucks shit up and the relaunch fails/doesn't get high sales numbers/retain said high sales numbers and gets anything less than 100% positive reviews from the Comicsgate crowd, his career is pretty much dead and so are the careers of anyone who's part of his inner circle. So of course they are going to be groveling and saying "X-Men is for everyone, even conservatives" because the X-Men are the only card left for Disney to play at this point to salvage the MCU.

well yeah, they fucked up the last batch of movies/shows pretty badly. I saw Guardians 3, it was alright. Dr. Strange 2 seemed fine schlock. and the Thor movie was okay.

Everything else was just shite. I was hoping that the Ant-Man and SHang-Chi stuff would be schlock, but no. I was hoping that Namor wasn't gonna be a villain in a fucking Black Panther flick, but no.




The F4 isn't a big enough draw to save everything, but the X-Men might give it a decent shot if they don't let the brainrot infect all of it. I'd even say that it'd be a good idea to just hit the hard reboot button on the MCU at this point.

 

[MirrorNoir]

Honestly, given the state of things, maybe Bendis was the lesser evil.

Nigger please. Bendis was ground zero for a SHIT TON of the current anti-life perversions destroying Marvel. And remember, he fucking was the one who turned Iceman fag, Ironheart, and Miles fucking Morales.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Nigger please. Bendis was ground zero for a SHIT TON of the current anti-life perversions destroying Marvel. And remember, he fucking was the one who turned Iceman fag, Ironheart, and Miles fucking Morales.

I try to forget about Bendis being the one who brought the time-lost X-Men.

Ironheart was a cash-grab. Miles was. . . I got nothing.

Most of my bendis exposure was his 00s avengers stuff, which was milquetoast by comparison.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Nigger please. Bendis was ground zero for a SHIT TON of the current anti-life perversions destroying Marvel. And remember, he fucking was the one who turned Iceman fag, Ironheart, and Miles fucking Morales.

The funny thing is that Miles actually worked when he was introduced. People were on board and gave the stories a shot. Many even liked what they got. I think it's because Peter was still Spidey in the main universe, while Miles was tested out in Ultimate before being integrated.

What a lot of people don't talk about when talking about the diversity shit coming out now is that the Ultimate line was doing it twenty years ago. Black Nick Fury, I think Janet Van Dyne was Asian or maybe half, and some other characters were made gay or lesbian. But that was just a side thing, so no one cared. The main universe still had all of the originals. Also, those version were actual characters, and didn't just make their entire existence about how oppressed they were.

Unfortunately, Bendis had no idea why it worked, and so fucked it up.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

The funny thing is that Miles actually worked when he was introduced. People were on board and gave the stories a shot. Many even liked what they got. I think it's because Peter was still Spidey in the main universe, while Miles was tested out in Ultimate before being integrated.

What a lot of people don't talk about when talking about the diversity shit coming out now is that the Ultimate line was doing it twenty years ago. Black Nick Fury, I think Janet Van Dyne was Asian or maybe half, and some other characters were made gay or lesbian. But that was just a side thing, so no one cared. The main universe still had all of the originals. Also, those version were actual characters, and didn't just make their entire existence about how oppressed they were.

Unfortunately, Bendis had no idea why it worked, and so fucked it up.

it amazes me that Bendis got a fucking Golden Ticket to DC and royally fucked it all up.

He got to do the "Superman goes public with his identity" story and it seemed like he kept spending time dicking with other shit that never went anywhere. We had the Event Leviathan shit that. . . was a good setup but kinda never went anywhere. Naomi didn't go anywhere. Like, they made a single season for TV before they did anything else. He also had that fucking DC Imprint called Wonder Comics and I just don't remember hearing anything.

Event Leviathan's consequences coulda been cool but Bendis fucked it up and then they just resulted in all these rogue radicalized spies/etc deciding Leviathan (who turned out to be Mark Shaw, one of the many Manhunters) wasn't radical enough and took fucking Talia as their leader instead.

The idea's workable. All the big spy/shadow orgs get warped and go missing, save for a few people deemed too close to the heroes like Steve Trevor or Sam Lane. A big mystery occurs as people try to figure out everything.

Then we get to somehow not see this get used because Bendis is dicking around trying to turn Naomi into his Mary Sue newbie hero and I keep noticing that she's not an aquatic/"animalistic"/martial artist genre superhero, but her normal costume has her. . . barefoot.

Her entire deal is also cloudy. I don't know what Bendis was trying to cook at DC. I'm just glad he didn't decide to have Hector Hammond mindrape someone into being gay.

 

[MirrorNoir]

Not to defend Bendis and his evil shit at DC but he was largely working in concert with DiDio to scorch earth the Rebirth status quo for Superman that had revitalized the franchise to DiDio and Jim Lee's disgust and even then, the sheer scale and scope of how fast certain things got backpeddled on IMMEDIATELY (IE writing Lois back into the book along with Jon, though Jon got fucked over other ways to spite fans) due to fan backlash was shocking, especially given how at Marvel, editorial went out of their way to shit on fans whenever Bendis took root on a book and raped it and fans complained.

And the Legion shit was even more galling given how it fucked up Doomsday Clock (thought it appears Geoff is fixing it in his last two issues of JSA via invoking the Mordru paradox), though by this point DC didn't even TRY and white knight Bendis and wouldn't even give him big name artists for the book outside a jam issue (where Mike Grell thumbed his nose at Bendis) and forced him to do a mini-series after canceling his Legion book AND kicking him off JLA (which had a D-List roster of people that Bendis was forced to write and who he had no real say over being on the team). And hilarious at the same time, if you believe the 4chan anon insider gossip from the early 2010s, where one poster would make talk about watching Bendis hold court at local bars during convention season and tell sycophants about how he really wanted to write Legion if he ever went to DC purely to turn it into a Top Five selling book and how he "had notebooks of plans" for the title he wanted to do.

As for Event Leviathan, it only existed so Bendis could write Question/Vic Sage (who Bendis brought back to life as a hail mary to get people to buy his Superman run) and fuck with the Batman editorial, since the head of Leviathan was supposed to be Red Hood but he got told to fuck off when he tried to poach Red Hood for the book and even then, got a ton of shit for how he wrote Leviathan as a generic gun running wing of Ra's Al Ghul's criminal empire rather than a literal death worshipping cult that Talia formed to replace her dad's organization and torment Batman and which had nothing to do with running guns.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Not to defend Bendis and his evil shit at DC but he was largely working in concert with DiDio to scorch earth the Rebirth status quo for Superman that had revitalized the franchise to DiDio and Jim Lee's disgust and even then, the sheer scale and scope of how fast certain things got backpeddled on IMMEDIATELY (IE writing Lois back into the book along with Jon, though Jon got fucked over other ways to spite fans) due to fan backlash was shocking, especially given how at Marvel, editorial went out of their way to shit on fans whenever Bendis took root on a book and raped it and fans complained.

What was up with Dan DiDio. I've never been super tuned in but wasn't he the idiot that decided it'd be better to hard reboot in 2011-12.

And the Legion shit was even more galling given how it fucked up Doomsday Clock (thought it appears Geoff is fixing it in his last two issues of JSA via invoking the Mordru paradox), though by this point DC didn't even TRY and white knight Bendis and wouldn't even give him big name artists for the book outside a jam issue (where Mike Grell thumbed his nose at Bendis) and forced him to do a mini-series after canceling his Legion book AND kicking him off JLA (which had a D-List roster of people that Bendis was forced to write and who he had no real say over being on the team). And hilarious at the same time, if you believe the 4chan anon insider gossip from the early 2010s, where one poster would make talk about watching Bendis hold court at local bars during convention season and tell sycophants about how he really wanted to write Legion if he ever went to DC purely to turn it into a Top Five selling book and how he "had notebooks of plans" for the title he wanted to do.

I was intrigued by some of Bendis' setup like the shit with Rose/Thorn being immortal and the search for DCU artifacts in the future.

Doomsday Clock had editorial/backstage issues? I feel like it really just needed more focus on the setup and mysteries than just wanking Dr. Manhattan.

As for Event Leviathan, it only existed so Bendis could write Question/Vic Sage (who Bendis brought back to life as a hail mary to get people to buy his Superman run) and fuck with the Batman editorial, since the head of Leviathan was supposed to be Red Hood but he got told to fuck off when he tried to poach Red Hood for the book and even then, got a ton of shit for how he wrote Leviathan as a generic gun running wing of Ra's Al Ghul's criminal empire rather than a literal death worshipping cult that Talia formed to replace her dad's organization and torment Batman and which had nothing to do with running guns.

Red Hood would have been an interesting choice, but Mark Shaw didn't make a ton of sense since he wasn't built up and hasn't been seen much at all in fuckin' years.

Amanda Waller would have been a far better choice.


Bendis just seems like he got overhyped and crashed. I wonder if it was his ego.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

What was up with Dan DiDio. I've never been super tuned in but wasn't he the idiot that decided it'd be better to hard reboot in 2011-12.

He actually wanted to hard reboot in 2009. That's why Final Crisis was called that, it was supposed to be the event that ended the post-crisis continuity and ushered in a whole new continuity. I forget why he couldn't do it, but then he was able to with the New 52 in 2011. And that fucked up horrifically.

That wasn't even the first time. Back in 1999, he got control of the Beast Wars sequel series, Beast Machines. He fired all the original writers and brought in only people who had never seen the original and told them not to watch it. The show was a massive flop because original fans hated what was being done with their favorite characters, new fans hated it because there was a lore they couldn't understand, and Hasbro hated it because no one was buying the toys. It was so bad they went back to vehicles in 2D animation and a brand new continuity despite Beast Wars proving that a smaller cast of animals in CG could work.

He also made a bunch of dumb decisions while at DC. One was he wanted to kill off Dick Grayson in Infinite Crisis because he didn't really know who he was. Everyone pushed back against it and he relented, but apparently he was trying to get rid of Nightwing for years until he finally did and Dick became a spy named Grayson. Never read it, have no desire to.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

He actually wanted to hard reboot in 2009. That's why Final Crisis was called that, it was supposed to be the event that ended the post-crisis continuity and ushered in a whole new continuity. I forget why he couldn't do it, but then he was able to with the New 52 in 2011. And that fucked up horrifically.

Didio seems to constantly misunderstand why fans love a fictional universe. It's not the symbols or marketing.

That wasn't even the first time. Back in 1999, he got control of the Beast Wars sequel series, Beast Machines. He fired all the original writers and brought in only people who had never seen the original and told them not to watch it. The show was a massive flop because original fans hated what was being done with their favorite characters, new fans hated it because there was a lore they couldn't understand, and Hasbro hated it because no one was buying the toys. It was so bad they went back to vehicles in 2D animation and a brand new continuity despite Beast Wars proving that a smaller cast of animals in CG could work.

Didio's fuckups kinda led to the modern state of things where twitter writers and DEI people just mock fans for wanting some level of respect for the characters.

He also made a bunch of dumb decisions while at DC. One was he wanted to kill off Dick Grayson in Infinite Crisis because he didn't really know who he was. Everyone pushed back against it and he relented, but apparently he was trying to get rid of Nightwing for years until he finally did and Dick became a spy named Grayson. Never read it, have no desire to.

Grayson was an okay series, hampered by the constant reminder that it's Dick Grayson and all the baggage with it.

Honestly, in the hands of a proper writer, a Dick Grayson death could have really been interesting. Didio seems like an idiot though.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

Something that has always bothered me is how Dan Slott is still able to get work at Marvel dispite having no real ideas that aren't gimmicks.

 

[Humble Architect]

It’s worth noting that an initial version of All-star Superman was at one point supposed to be a canonical send off for Supes after Final Crisis. New 52 was supposed to be the “next generation” if I remember correctly, the old league would’ve become the “New Gods” and Hal would be the old man helping out the new league, that’s why Cyborg was on the team, that’s why Billy got aged up. Tim was supposed to be the new Batman, they later referenced this in Rebirth Superman.

I only remember this cause New 52 Supes was supposed to be Conner Kent, which makes a lot of sense in hindsight.

This thought process later evolved into 5G.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

It’s worth noting that an initial version of All-star Superman was at one point supposed to be a canonical send off for Supes after Final Crisis. New 52 was supposed to be the “next generation” if I remember correctly, the old league would’ve become the “New Gods” and Hal would be the old man helping out the new league, that’s why Cyborg was on the team, that’s why Billy got aged up. Tim was supposed to be the new Batman, they later referenced this in Rebirth Superman.

I only remember this cause New 52 Supes was supposed to be Conner Kent, which makes a lot of sense in hindsight.

This thought process later evolved into 5G.

That could have been interesting

 

[Humble Architect]

That could have been interesting

Looking at the early N52 arcs and ideas, it’s so obvious that they’re retooled. Like Superman hooking up with Wonder Woman, a clear holdover from Conner and Cassie, Lex’s redemption following up from All-star and everything with the “Justice Gods” arc.

It’s mainly in the core books, the slop cancel-fodder books like Captain Atom don’t have this original concept DNA

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Looking at the early N52 arcs and ideas, it’s so obvious that they’re retooled. Like Superman hooking up with Wonder Woman, a clear holdover from Conner and Cassie, Lex’s redemption following up from All-star and everything with the “Justice Gods” arc.

It’s mainly in the core books, the slop cancel-fodder books like Captain Atom don’t have this original concept DNA

I mean, I'd imagine that the new Green Lanterns would have had more to do. Simon really got fucking shafted lmao.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

I mean, I'd imagine that the new Green Lanterns would have had more to do. Simon really got fucking shafted lmao.

You know its weird, why is it that all the human Green Lanterns are all Americans? The core ones in the comics at least.

 

[Humble Architect]

You know its weird, why is it that all the human Green Lanterns are all Americans? The core ones in the comics at least.

That’s a generous application of the word “American”

I mean, I'd imagine that the new Green Lanterns would have had more to do. Simon really got fucking shafted lmao.

It’s not just the new lanterns, it’s all the “second generation” heroes mostly from the 90s, Steel, Conner, Tim, Kyle, Impulse…..

They all got pushed aside for their third generation replacements, most egregious is Steel, who during the 90s was Clark’s brotherman, they did the “Dillon you son of a bitch” gesture and became instant bros. Clark even trusted the rework of the Fortress to John.

What does Steel do now? He’s fucking Clark’s sloppy seconds, his niece took his mantle and there’s a token miniseries “written” by Michael Dorn that is undoubtedly slop.

Steel was a badass because he was literally just “Iron Man but not a yuppie”, smart but still humble and blue-collar, just a guy who wanted to live up to his hero and fix his mistakes. If it wasn’t for that fucking movie he could’ve been so much more.