X-Men to be written by...

[Mole 0]

I got this from Buffy.nu:

 

By Alan David Doane

2003 - 12 - 29th

 

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You didn’t hear it from me, but Joss Whedon is the guy set to write New X-Men.

 

This is a story that Rich Johnston -- whose column I enjoy every week, just like you -- has claimed to know for some time now. Why would he not let people know that the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is going to step into the footsteps of the wildly popular Grant Morrison?

 

Well, he has to do a column the week after he reveals this news. He’ll need more rumours, and presumably for whatever reason, Marvel wants this kept under wraps for now. I can believe this, as I’ve been on the receiving end of their outraged wrath when I had the temerity to reveal information that one of their creators sent me in a press release without asking for Marvel’s permission first. So I know they’re sensitive about such information as:

 

Joss Whedon is the guy set to write New X-Men.

 

So when I receive such information -- and I’ll admit it, I loved Buffy, I want to still like Angel, and I thought Fray was one of the better actiony-type comic books of the past few years -- but when I receive such information, man, I am torn. Is it true? The person who told me this is a top-level writer highly sought after by American comics publishers. This person knows everybody, is liked by everybody, and for whatever reason has always been kind to me and likes my blog. And this person wanted to share a scoop with me:

 

Joss Whedon is the guy set to write New X-Men.

 

So I say to this person, this longtime pro who I have come to trust, "How sure are you?"

 

I heard its him and [John] Cassaday. Again, not from me. But it’s solid.

 

Solid. As in, already set. Locked in place. It is, in a way, as if it already happened. Or, is it?

 

I poked around some more. Sure, this is a rumour column, but even so this is fairly big news among people interested in this sort of thing, and it merits investigation. So I poked. I received confirmation from not one, not two, but three industry figures, all of whom I trust implicitly. Apparently, this is the worst kept secret in comics.

 

But as long as it’s only common knowledge within the comics industry, that’s apparently okay.

 

What I’ve learned is that neither Marvel nor Joss Whedon want this news to become public knowledge outside the industry. I’m told that Whedon’s existing TV contracts forbid him to sign the type of deal with Marvel that he’s apparently agreed to, and the fear within Marvel is that if Whedon’s deal goes public, his New X-Men run will be aborted before it begins.

 

I’ve further heard that Marvel is hoping the Whedon/Cassaday New X-Men will sell in the neighbourhood of 300,000 copies per month, which would obviously make both Marvel and superhero-oriented retailers happier than pigs in shit. While some that I’ve talked to dispute the figure, it does seem likely that the combination of Whedon’s name and the popularity of the franchise would do very well indeed, for however long he stayed on the book. And there’s no question Cassaday’s artwork would shine -- his two-issue X-Men/Alpha Flight mini-series was beautifully drawn even that early in his career, and perhaps a decent run on New X-Men would serve to erase memories of the sickeningly awful Captain America that John Ney Reiber wrote for Cassaday to draw.

 

My conclusion, after a week of investigating this, is that it’s true. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday are set to work together on the title that Grant Morrison reinvented, New X-Men.

 

Quick note from Markisan: Sorry to jump in here, Alan, but I couldn’t resist adding my two cents. In an upcoming interview with Ambidexterous columnist Brandon Thomas, Marvel EIC Joe Quesada says he had the new X-Men writer lined up two hours after Grant Morrison signed an exclusive with DC, and has held off on the announcement.

 

I’ve also heard Cassaday’s decision to illustrate New X-Men means Planetary will suffer long delays… again. According to my source, the official word from DC/Wildstorm will be that Cassaday can somehow fit Planetary Between X-pages. But everyone else in the real world knows John C. can only do one book a month. So look for the series to be put on standby for a second time.

 

Ironically, Joss Whedon has mentioned that Planetaryone of his favorite comic books. Thanks to Chap for the info.

 

This Has A "Yeah, But When, And For How Long?" Factor Of Seven Out Of Ten

[Tawren 0]

Isn't New X-Men a comic? :/

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Mole, you never cease to amaze me with just how retarded you are.

 

NEW X-MEN is a comic book, schmuck.

[2GOLD 0]

NO!

GET HIM AWAY FROM THE PROJECT NOW!

 

I love Joss, but his god awful line in "X-men" and his need to make every characters life as miserable as humanly possible cause he got mashed potatoes shoved in his face in high school means I'd rather he go write a Buffy movie than touch this.

 

I love the Buffy series, I love the Angel series, but no chance in hell do I want Joss Whedon writing the X3 movie.

 

No, just no. He's like the Undertaker: When he touches a movie franchise, he buries it alive.

 

 

Now if it's a comic, I'm fine with that. But I keep that rant in place just in case.

[starvenger 0]

Yes, it is. But Joss Whedon is a TV/Movie guy, so I suppose it's one of those "crossover" deals. Maybe we should move it over to the Comics folder.

 

Having never read a comic by Whedon, I withhold my opinions on his coming on to New X-Men. The only thing I can think of is that it'll provide a decent contrast to Chris Claremont's two X-Books.

 

Still, I don't see Whedon lasting for more than a year. Unless he's dedicated like JMS, which is hard to believe since Whedon's been campaining for a Firefly movie, is overseeing Angel, and who knows what else.

[Mole 0]

Mole, you never cease to amaze me with just how retarded you are.

 

NEW X-MEN is a comic book, schmuck.

Hey hey hey, first mistake I've done in awhile.

 

My bad.

[BlackFlagg 0]

was about to post this...now that it's been worked out it should probably be moved to the proper forum...

 

but on another note I'm quite curious to see how he will do with this...

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

::points to user title::

 

I read this and had a blah feeling about it. I think it's a very bad idea. As much as Whedon can be a similar writer to Grant Morrison (and I bring it up cause I love Grant's work on this and Invisibles so much), I don't think he's right for the environment New X-Men has going right now. Nor the pace - we all saw what happened when Quitely couldn't draw on time (ugh Ivor Kordey ugh), and I see Joss as the type of guy to fall behind similarly on his writing deadlines. It took him ages to get Fray out, and the man nearly died when he had Buffy, Angel, and Firefly going at the same time on TV. To keep up with a demanding, high-quality monthly, I think he's going to have to step back from Angel again and put off the Firefly movie, and I'm not sure he would want to do either. Joss on three major projects at once = bad idea for all projects involved.

 

Also, the dispute over the lingering line in the X-Men movie ("The same thing that happens when anything else gets struck by lightning") really should fall on Berry, who read it in the same irritating, stoic, blase way she did every other Storm line. Whedon intended that one to be a goofy throwaway, not something so ridiculously earnest.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

JW: [Laughs.] Waterworld. I refer to myself as the world's highest-paid stenographer. This is a situation I've been in a bunch of times. By the way, I'm very bitter, is that okay? I mean, people ask me, "What's the worst job you ever had?" "I once was a writer in Hollywood..." Talk about taking the glow off of movies. I've had almost nothing but bad experiences. Waterworld was a good idea, and the script was the classic, "They have a good idea, then they write a generic script and don't really care about the idea." When I was brought in, there was no water in the last 40 pages of the script. It all took place on land, or on a ship, or whatever. I'm like, "Isn't the cool thing about this guy that he has gills?" And no one was listening. I was there basically taking notes from Costner, who was very nice, fine to work with, but he was not a writer. And he had written a bunch of stuff that they wouldn't let their staff touch. So I was supposed to be there for a week, and I was there for seven weeks, and I accomplished nothing. I wrote a few puns, and a few scenes that I can't even sit through because they came out so bad. It was the same situation with X-Men. They said, "Come in and punch up the big climax, the third act, and if you can, make it cheaper." That was the mandate on both movies, and my response to both movies was, "The problem with the third act is the first two acts." But, again, no one was paying attention. X-Men was very interesting in that, by that time, I actually had a reputation in television. I was actually somebody. People stopped thinking I was John Sweden on the phone. And then, in X-Men, not only did they throw out my script and never tell me about it; they actually invited me to the read-through, having thrown out my entire draft without telling me. I was like, "Oh, that's right! This is the movies! The writer is shit in the movies!" I'll never understand that. I have one line left in that movie. Actually, there are a couple of lines left in that are out of context and make no sense, or are delivered so badly, so terribly... There's one line that's left the way I wrote it.

 

O: Which is?

 

JW: "'It's me.' 'Prove it.' 'You're a dick.'" Hey, it got a laugh.

 

O: It's funny that the only lines I really remember from that movie are that one and Storm's toad comment.

 

JW: Okay, which was also mine, and that's the interesting thing. Everybody remembers that as the worst line ever written, but the thing about that is, it was supposed to be delivered as completely offhand. [Adopts casual, bored tone.] "You know what happens when a toad gets hit by lightning?" Then, after he gets electrocuted, "Ahhh, pretty much the same thing that happens to anything else." But Halle Berry said it like she was Desdemona. [strident, ringing voice.] "The same thing that happens to everything eeelse!" That's the thing that makes you go crazy. At least "You're a dick" got delivered right. The worst thing about these things is that, when the actors say it wrong, it makes the writer look stupid. People assume that the line... I listened to half the dialogue in Alien 4, and I'm like, "That's idiotic," because of the way it was said. And nobody knows that. Nobody ever gets that. They say, "That was a stupid script," which is the worst pain in the world. I have a great long boring story about that, but I can tell you the very short version. In Alien 4, the director changed something so that it didn't make any sense. He wanted someone to go and get a gun and get killed by the alien, so I wrote that in and tried to make it work, but he directed it in a way that it made no sense whatsoever. And I was sitting there in the editing room, trying to come up with looplines to explain what's going on, to make the scene make sense, and I asked the director, "Can you just explain to me why he's doing this? Why is he going for this gun?" And the editor, who was French, turned to me and said, with a little leer on his face, [adopts gravelly, smarmy, French-accented voice] "Because eet's een the screept." And I actually went and dented the bathroom stall with my puddly little fist. I have never been angrier. But it's the classic, "When something goes wrong, you assume the writer's a dork." And that's painful.

 

I got that from http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3731/a...ature_3731.html btw.. an oldie (Sept 5, 2001), but a goodie.

 

Anyways, I like Morrison's work and Whedon's work, so I'm looking forward to seeing what Whedon will do on New X-Men. He is excellent at fun ensembles. Buffy really reminded me a LOT of the classic Claremont years of X-Men in the way it handled the multiple characters and the arcs and the interpersonal relationships, amongst very out-there-comic-booky premise (actually claremeont is a professed huge buffy fan as well).

Edited December 31, 2003 by metr0man

[Guest The Midnight Rocking Warrior]

Mr. Z. don't you think you were a tad harsh on the guy?

[Mole 0]

::points to user title::

 

I read this and had a blah feeling about it. I think it's a very bad idea. As much as Whedon can be a similar writer to Grant Morrison (and I bring it up cause I love Grant's work on this and Invisibles so much), I don't think he's right for the environment New X-Men has going right now. Nor the pace - we all saw what happened when Quitely couldn't draw on time (ugh Ivor Kordey ugh), and I see Joss as the type of guy to fall behind similarly on his writing deadlines. It took him ages to get Fray out, and the man nearly died when he had Buffy, Angel, and Firefly going at the same time on TV. To keep up with a demanding, high-quality monthly, I think he's going to have to step back from Angel again and put off the Firefly movie, and I'm not sure he would want to do either. Joss on three major projects at once = bad idea for all projects involved.

 

Also, the dispute over the lingering line in the X-Men movie ("The same thing that happens when anything else gets struck by lightning") really should fall on Berry, who read it in the same irritating, stoic, blase way she did every other Storm line. Whedon intended that one to be a goofy throwaway, not something so ridiculously earnest.

Well the Firefly movie might not happen.

 

Angel might end this year.

 

And if Joss is given this, he will know what he is doing. He does something that WWE needs to learn from: plan ahead. He had the idea about season 5's storyline 2 years before hand, whihch is pretty good storyline planning if you ask me.

 

I don't read comics, but I hope Joss gets it.

[starvenger 0]

And if Joss is given this, he will know what he is doing. He does something that WWE needs to learn from: plan ahead. He had the idea about season 5's storyline 2 years before hand, whihch is pretty good storyline planning if you ask me.

 

I don't read comics, but I hope Joss gets it.

Personally, I think the WWE is making the same mistakes as the Trek franchise, but that's neither here nor there.

 

btw, Joss comes off a bit like a pretentious ass in that interview bit - it sounds like he's the first writer to find out that his stuff gets rewritten...

[Mole 0]

He probably sounds like an ass because is the man, and is allowed to.

[Vyce 0]

::points to user title::

 

I read this and had a blah feeling about it.  I think it's a very bad idea.  As much as Whedon can be a similar writer to Grant Morrison (and I bring it up cause I love Grant's work on this and Invisibles so much), I don't think he's right for the environment New X-Men has going right now.  Nor the pace - we all saw what happened when Quitely couldn't draw on time (ugh Ivor Kordey ugh), and I see Joss as the type of guy to fall behind similarly on his writing deadlines.  It took him ages to get Fray out, and the man nearly died when he had Buffy, Angel, and Firefly going at the same time on TV.  To keep up with a demanding, high-quality monthly, I think he's going to have to step back from Angel again and put off the Firefly movie, and I'm not sure he would want to do either.  Joss on three major projects at once = bad idea for all projects involved.

 

Also, the dispute over the lingering line in the X-Men movie ("The same thing that happens when anything else gets struck by lightning") really should fall on Berry, who read it in the same irritating, stoic, blase way she did every other Storm line.  Whedon intended that one to be a goofy throwaway, not something so ridiculously earnest.

Well the Firefly movie might not happen.

 

Angel might end this year.

 

And if Joss is given this, he will know what he is doing. He does something that WWE needs to learn from: plan ahead. He had the idea about season 5's storyline 2 years before hand, whihch is pretty good storyline planning if you ask me.

 

I don't read comics, but I hope Joss gets it.

Speaking as someone who does read comics (and the X-books at that), I say it's a bad idea.

 

I have absolutely ZERO confidence in Whedon to do this right and frankly, it pisses me off that Quesada and / or Jemas is giving him this simply because of who he is.

[Sass 0]

Marvel had better ensure that Whedon has an entire year's worth of stories penned because otherwise this could blow up in their faces big-time (ala Kevin Smith and his late work).

[MrRant 0]

Marvel had better ensure that Whedon has an entire year's worth of stories penned because otherwise this could blow up in their faces big-time (ala Kevin Smith and his late work).

Shouldn't they be doing that with all the writers they hire? I mean... at LEAST 6 months.

[starvenger 0]

Marvel had better ensure that Whedon has an entire year's worth of stories penned because otherwise this could blow up in their faces big-time (ala Kevin Smith and his late work).

Shouldn't they be doing that with all the writers they hire? I mean... at LEAST 6 months.

In the case of The Ultimates, maybe they should consider having the WHOLE FRICKING SERIES done first before releasing it...

[Sass 0]

Marvel had better ensure that Whedon has an entire year's worth of stories penned because otherwise this could blow up in their faces big-time (ala Kevin Smith and his late work).

Shouldn't they be doing that with all the writers they hire? I mean... at LEAST 6 months.

That's (unfortunately) not a company policy in the Big 2.

 

Kevin Smith on his run with Green Arrow is the more well known example where it was required in his contract to pen a certain length of the run before it would be allowed to see see print.

[HellSpawn 0]

And dont forget Jim Lee's run. ( months or so before the book is eeven solicited.

 

I have Faith (wink wink) in Joss - X-Men.

[thuganomics 0]

Joss can produce a good X-Men I think. And I think he's one of the few people who can take Grant Morrison's run and work it in to continuity. Grant did a lot for X-Men, but it strikes me that he's leaving it a much larger mess than when he came in.

 

And wasn't the revamp when he came in supposed to clean thing up?